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Yoga

Yoga in Davao Sep 26, 2013

Yoga in Davao

Location: Davao City, Philippines

Davao Yoga Community
The one good thing about Davao is having a healthy yoga community. If and when I drift into Davao, there is Holiday Gym that can squeeze me in to teach my Karma Yoga, or there's People's Park where I can teach free yoga in an outdoor setting. Sometimes, free yoga is offered at Abreeza Mall, usually back to back with a Zumba class. It's all good even though yoga is largely viewed as a 'woman thing' in Davao, or the rest of the country for that matter.

Just Do It
It wasn't until after a month in Davao when I offered to teach free yoga at Holiday Gym. Even though I'd workout at People's Park, I didn't feel the calling to conduct a yoga class there...at least, not for the moment. I was too busy getting settled before that. I suspect that not being into the yoga flow for sometime now, I was just looking for an excuse to push it aside. With a set class at the gym with students participating, there was no choice but to do it. This regularizes my practice as well.

Conducting the Class
It was good to see familiar faces from my last visit in Dec 2012, and new faces to who were curious about the new yoga class. In doing a class, I'd visualize the day before what I'd like to do, verbally exercise my cueing, but on session day, I just let the flow take over. I don't really know what asana follows until I get there. It works out if I don't get too hung-up on student expectations, but simply let the flow take me where it takes me, being mindful of the students' skill levels. I always tell them to listen to their bodies - that it's not about the other guy. If they need to come out of a pose to do child's pose, that they should do it. I encourage them to exercise the range of motion available to them when doing a pose. Every body has a unique anatomy - so a book-prescribed '45 degree' turn of the foot may be best at a different angle for someone else.

Personal Brand of Yoga
I noticed that nearly every brand of yoga implicitly packages itself as the superior yoga (it's not yogic to actually say their yoga is the one true yoga. LOL.) I say every person should have a unique yoga program for himself/herself - based on life experience (evolved? impressionable?), anatomy (stiff? flexible? strong?) and goal (flexibility? relaxation? enlightenment?). Of course it's best to initially stay grounded on traditional yoga that have withstood the test of time - not the experimental nouveau mongrel types that just got trendy as flavor of the month. From that traditional grounding, you can stay tuned on what your body is saying...and follow that trail. It helps to constantly ask yourself the question, "What pose excites me now? Do I feel like doing this a certain way?". It takes practice to have that mind-body dialogue going.

Modification
After getting my Ashtanga grounding, I've modified my yoga according to what I feel like doing, integrating Burpee segments into a Vinyasa, exercising mindful focus on body sensation during Shavasanna, which is Vipassana-inpired, etc. I share this and it's up to them to continue doing it, if it calls out. The bottom line being, "What excites me now".

Ending Thoughts
As I was getting aclimatized into my teaching routine, the call to move on has once again loomed on my horizon. It was time again to pack up and take to the open road.

--- TheLoneRider

ps - If you want me to participate and write about your yoga studio or your yoga practice, email me. For my complete yoga profile, you can visit this page: YOGA by Gigit

Fritz's Yoga Class at Abreeza Mall
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Google Map Davao City, Philippines

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  • Apollo Van Rental Apollo Van Rental - Davao City tour, Samal Island tour, airport transfer
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Great Things Going for Davao City

  • one of the cleanest potable water in the country
  • smoking is banned from commercial establishments
  • pineapple samurais are endemic here and nowhere else in the country (pineapple vendors who cut-up whole pineapples into chunks with just a few strokes of their carving knives)
  • public utility drivers conspicuously display their IDs
  • durian Mecca of the Philippines (not to mention Marang, Mangosteen and Sweet Pomelo)
  • you want to add some more? please submit on the form below

Not So Great Things Going Against Davao City

  • the weighing scale of fruit vendors specially the durian push cart vendors are a blatant cheat - showing almost twice the actual weight

Davao Related Articles

Davao City Travel Information
Currency Converter

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Sep 26, 2013

»» next story: Custom-made Peanut Butter at Davao City's Bankerohan Market
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Davao Hotels

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Health and Fitness

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T 0917.660.9529
 

Food and Coffee

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Advocacy

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