Join me in Panglao, Bohol at Jing's Yoga & Wellness Studio for some Yoga classes. Book Online!

April 24 Wednesday: (Energizing Yoga) 10-11 am / (Slow Flow Yoga) 5:30-6:30 pm
April 25 Thursday: (Energizing Yoga) 10-11 am
April 26 Friday: (Energizing Yoga) 10-11 am
April 27 Saturday: (Energizing Yoga) 10-11 am / (Slow Flow Yoga) 5:30-6:30 pm
April 28 Sunday: (Energizing Yoga) 10-11 am

Guru? In this day and age of 'consciousness glut', anyone who learned an Upward Dog on Youtube passes himself off as 'guru' or 'swami'. So allow me to dispel that doubt by showing you that what I am about to share with you is my private practice and that I am the perfect embodiment of that practice - with all its flaws and merits.

Lolasana / L-sit / 2 knuckle handstand

Benefits: I'm older than your Dad. But I'm strong, sometimes crazy strong. I don't get sick anymore. It's been almost 20 years since I got sick. No diet restriction except chili. No supplements - not even vitamin C. No maintenance pills. I have the bounce of a hormonal 18-year old and I am harmonized with my benevolent universe. That is yoga as I practice it. And this session is to share with you some of my insights and protocols.

Becoming the Teacher: If I am going to inspire you with what yoga can do to enhance your life, let me tell you more about myself. What's my credibility to be giving such a talk? I'd been practicing yoga for 22 years now. In the first 10 years, I thought yoga was just Upward Dog / Downward Dog. The whole time, I was telling myself, "Sure, yoga gives me benefits, but is that all there is to it?". I had to stumble upon a yoga book to realize that yoga is unfathomable. It ignited my thirst for knowledge. I wanted to take yoga as far as I can take it. Walking on water? Sure, if that's at all possible, I'd like to know how! But where do you find such a teacher? I found one here in Cebu - a gifted Indian guy. But it was short-lived as he had to leave for India. I haven't found another teacher after him. Not in Ubud Bali, not in Chiang Mai and not in India. Ultimately, I found them. Not just one. Most of them are dead. But they left their legacies - books, sacred texts, and more books written by their students. To cut the long story short, I had to become the teacher I was looking for.

Corporate World: I used to be in the corporate world, subscribing to what we all considered the template - work 9-5, get the paycheck, loan to buy a car and house and work the rest of your life paying off that loan. Money was ok, but I wasn't happy...like most people in the corporate world.

I left the corporate world, I left home and traveled with no money, no steady job, no property and nothing to my name. Everything I owned fit into my backpack. I was homeless, poor and nomadic. But in a nurturing twist of fate, I always end up in amazing hotels and resorts, I meet magnificent lives, I eat good food and I feel looked after.

Burningman: A few cathartic events happened that helped shape my thinking. I attended Burningman where you can run around naked in the middle of the desert, giving free hugs. And that transforms you fundamentally and forever. I wasn't the same person after Burningman.

Divorce: I also got divorced. This shattered me into a million bits. I realized that the future never existed. I just bought into it for my psychological well-being and emotional solace. With that realization, I threw the past and the future to the wind and lived in the present - as this talk is happening. The present is the only thing we can work with. The past cannot be undone and the future does not exist.

Red Pill: When you take the red pill to remain authentic, and your heart is in the right place, the planets align to protect you, to nurture you and to look after your well-being. But for that to happen, you have to acknowledge that it exists and that its reason for being is to actually look after you.

In the execution of any yoga pose, 3 elements must come into play. Imagine these 3 elements as legs of a tripod. If any of the legs aren't there, the tripod fails. Same thing with yoga. If any of these 3 elements are not there, perhaps it's not yoga anymore but just stretching.

1. Movement - this is the physical part. It can be an actual yoga pose or even a gym workout or even walking inside the mall. Whenever appropriate, the physical part should be taken to your safety edge with proper form.
2. Breath - this is more important than the physical component. The physical part is simply to get established in the breath - slow, deep and steady breathing
3. Awareness - this is the mental component. This is much more important than breath. The breath is simply to get established in mental stillness

Forward Bend Exercise:
a) Movement: on Mountain Pose, without being mindful of the breath (just normal breathing), lift your arms up and bend forward with a straight back. Hold for 2 seconds and breathe normally. Come back up to Mountain Pose.

b) Breath + Pose: this time, empty your lungs and on the next full inhale, lift your arms up. Exhale fully as you bend forward, ensuring that your lungs are empty when you're fully stretched. Hold for 2 deep breaths, on the next inhale, with a flat back, lift your arms up and exhale coming back into Mountain Pose

c) Awareness + Breath + Pose: shut the doors to the outside world and bring your attention within you. At this point, the outside world no longer exists. With empty lungs, inhale fully as you imagine ingesting the full power that created the Big Bang, as you raise your arms up. On the exhale, come down into a forward bend while visualizing the body releasing all the toxins and all the negativities as you come down. Hold the pose while continuing the breath - long deep and steady breathing. Bring your awareness to where you feel the stretch. Where do you feel the stretch most intense? Behind the knee? On your hamstring? Or on your butt cheeks? Observe that stretching sensation with no judgment. Make 3 full breaths. On empty lungs, inhale fully again ingesting all the power that permeates within this universe as you come up with your arms up. Exhale fully as you take your arms down, reverting back into Mountain Pose, letting go as you exhale.

Homework: when you go to the gym, or climb the stairs or stroll inside the mall, be aware to incorporate breathing and awareness

Do we have free will? When we go into auto-pilot, there is no free will. The only time we can exercise free will is When we are aware, Only then are we mindful of other exercisable options we can make. But how do we develop awareness? Here's the hack as practiced at the Plum Village Center.

Life Hack: Set the timer for 15 mins. When the alarm sounds, stop everything you are doing, mindfully do a slow, steady and deep inhale. Hold for 2 seconds. Slowly and mindfully exhale. When the lungs are empty, resume normal breathing and resume whatever activity you were doing. This will develop awareness, reminding you to stay in the here-and-now.

Homework: set your timer every hour and try to stay aware after you resume your activities. Notice if you're sense of awareness extends from the previous.

We are 70% water. By hydrating with more water than we need first thing in the morning, we flush our system. Toxins are washed away. Doctors say that if people drank enough water, 50% of the world's illness will be gone.

Life Hack: take out your 1 liter water and calamansi and let's make it alkaline.

Homework: first thing in the morning, put calamansi + pinch of salt to your 1 liter of water. Drink up and do the stomach churning

Stomach cleansing (nauli) is so powerful that in Hatha Yoga Pradipika (one of the bibles of yoga), it is one of the 6 purification processes. The stomach lining is cleansed, allowing for a greater surface area to absorb nutrients. Food debris is flushed away. Intestinal muscles are activated. Digestive metabolism increases. Nearly all diseases stem from the gut. If you gut is clean and optimally functional, you are far from any illness.

Life Hack: Phase 1, with a belly full of water, empty your lungs, hold breath, bend knees, hands on knees, suction the belly and hold until cannot, 3 rounds. Phase 2, same, but while holding breath, suction and release belly until breath runs out. 3 rounds. Phase 3, same but while suctioning belly, protrude the abdomus rectus (abs) until breath runs out, then 3 rounds. Phase 4, same as phase 3, but wave the abs sideways.

Homework: after your water therapy, do one round each. Increase no. of rounds as comfort level increases, max of 3 rounds.

In yogic tradition, austerity (tapas) falls under the 2nd limb of yoga - niyama. This is best done outside the mat. Between doing things the easy and the hard way, choose to do it the hard way, with no complaints but with a whole-hearted embrace to do it hard. No reaction. When this is mastered, you laugh in t he battlefield of life while others succumb to self-pity or misery.

Life Hack: on the mat????

Homework: for the next 7 days, no hot or warm showers. No use of escalator or elevator.

We subject the body to increasing discomfort while observing the mind if it's reacting or not - this is a mental exercise as much as a physical exercise. We choose to observe without reacting. Observing discomfort without choosing to suffer. Pain and suffering are 2 very different things.

Life Hack: sit down with no chair, leaning your back on a wall. This becomes increasingly difficult. How long can you stay here and not react? And how long can you hold this pose before the mind gives up? It's the mind that gives up first...not the body.

Homework: when in traffic, instead of being pissed, observe the mind if it can just observe your feeling without reacting.

This is an alternating nostril breathing, designed to unblock the nadi passages. When the nadis are unblocked, prana passes freely, invigorating the entire system. When prana is moving, it's hard to be sick.

Spine straight, sit-bones centered and squared. Deep breathing, slow and steady, while restricting the airflow along the throat. You can make a slightly audible sound to keep your awareness into the breath. 5 mins.

Do abdominal contractions to push the air out of the lungs. The inhalation happens naturally. It's the exhalation that you have to force out. One minute, then empty the lungs and hold. Inhale and hold. Resume normal breathing. 3 rounds.

This is an alternating nostril breathing, designed to unblock the nadi passages. When the nadis are unblocked, prana passes freely, invigorating the entire system. When prana is moving, it's hard to be sick.

From empty lungs, breathe-in fully, exhale fully, breathe-in fully...no pause for 1 minute. Timer will alarm. Empty your lungs, hold the breath, straighten back and completely relax. Hold for 30 seconds. Inhale fully and hold again.

For newbies, just squeeze your butt cheeks and straighten your back. Hold as long as you can and gently exhale.

For advanced yogis, engage mula bandha, uddiyana bandha, straight spine, jalandara bandha on gyana mudra. Keep holding while visualizing the manipuraka consumed by blazing fire. Feel the heat. Feel the heat intensify.

Natural breathing only. No more pranayama. Observing your natural breathing pattern.

Do heavy intense breathing for one minute. Now relax the breathing...normal breathing. Don't regulate the breath. Bring your awareness on the top of the head. Just observe without creating anything. You are just a passive observer. Observing without judgment. Observing with a calm and equanimous mind. Observing sensation, pleasant or unpleasant with no judgment. Now move your awareness to your.....

• Cebu City is the 2nd biggest city in the Philippine (next to Manila) - and it continues to build and expand. Traffic is getting bad. Decentralization is being developed with the SM Super Mall in the SRP south and the suburban towns in the north.
• Boat from the airport to the city center - even without traffic, it takes about 4 rides to reach the city. But with Cebu's increasing traffic congestion, it has become a nightmare. Instead of taking the land route, take the water route - no traffic, fresher air and cheaper. From the airport, take the yellow multi-cab straight to the river port and take the ferry (there's only one destination) to the city. Take the 02B jeep and get off at UC near Jones - you're now on the city's main artery.
• given its size and increasing congestion, Cebu really needs a mass railway system - something that is conspicuously lacking, but no one seems to complain about
• Cebu is bursting at the seams on the yoga scene. There are about 20 yoga centers in the city - from yoga studios to gyms offering yoga and hotels jumping on the bandwagon
• a trendy and safe place in Cebu where you can chillout for coffee and enjoy good eats would be at the Ayala Mall
• there are other pocket-areas for trendy hangouts - Banila Town Center, Crossroads, Escario Plaza, La Vie, etc.
• the tourist area where most of the budget hotels and restaurants are, are located within the Mango area, although it has a seedy belly feel. Kids may swarm on you pretending to be begging, but they could be picking your pocket or your backpack pockets - be careful
• many pick-pockets in the Colon area - be careful

The best and fastest way is by Ceres Bus at the North Bus Terminal, adjacent to SM City. The bus takes 4.5 hours going north until it reaches Hagnaya Port. From there, you pay the ferry company separately. The bus boards the ferry until it reaches Sante Fe Port (1.5 hours) in Bantayan Island. From Santa Fe, the bus goes to Bantayan Poblacion and then to Madridejos.

Ceres Bus - PHP 260 (to Santa Fe), 4.5 hours to Hagnaya Port + 1.5 hours by ferry.

Schedule: according to the dispatcher, trips begin at 6 pm (this arrives Hagnaya around 10:30 pm but the first ferry leaves at 1 am...that's a 2.5-hour wait at the port), leaving every hour until 1 pm the following day (I speculate that 1 pm is the last trip to avoid rush hour traffic along Consolacion). This doesn't match the ferry schedule so the bus simply waits until a ferry departs. e.g. the 6 pm trip arrives 10:30 pm and waits for the 1 am ferry. The last trip, 1 pm, arrives 5:30 pm, in time for the ferry's last trip.

Bus arrives at terminal 30 mins before departure. Luggages are P150/pc if no passenger.

Alternatively, you can get off the bus at Hagnaya Port and take the ferry independently. There are 2 ferry companies:

Super Shuttle Ferry
PHP 359 + 25 Terminal fee, 1.5 hours

Island Shipping
PHP 350 + 25 Terminal fee, 1.5 hours

Cebu City to Dumaguete by Boat

1. George and Peter Lines - Mon/Thur/Sat/Sun 10pm, (035)225.4337, 0922.557.1023
2. Oceanjet - via Tagbilaran, daily 6am, dumticketing@oceanjet.net, 0918.898.2188
3. Cokaliong - Mon/Tue/Wed/Thur/Fri/Sat 7pm, Sun 12pm, 6 hours, (035)225.3599

Cebu City to Dumaguete via Liloan (bus, boat, jeep, tricycle)

1. Cebu City South Terminal - take the southbound Ceres bus to Liloan, P200, 5 hours
2. Liloan - the bus drops you off at the Liloan Port where you board the Fastcraft to Sibulan, Negros Oriental, P62, 30 mins
3. Sibulan - at the Sibulan Port, the jeeps wait for Fastcraft passengers to take them to the public market in Dumaguete, P12, 30 mins.
4. Public Market - at the market, you can take any tricycle to your hotel, P8 for short trips

Cebu City to Tagbilaran, Bohol

1. Weesam Express - Pier 4, departs 9:00 AM, 2:00 PM, 6:30 PM, 2 hours
   one way: Economy (aircon) P500.00, Economy (non-aircon) P400.00, First Class P600.00
   round trip promo (at least 2 days advance booking): Economy (aircon) P600, Economy(non-aircon) P500, First Class P1200
   round trip promo (1 day or on the day booking): Economy (aircon) P800, Economy (non-aircon) P700, First Class P1200
2. Ocean Jet - Pier 1, departs 6-7-8-9:20-10:40-11:40AM, 1-2-4:20-6:35PM, 2 hours
   Open Air / Tourist Class P800, Business Class P1000
   +63 932 8734 885 / +63 922 8572 300
3. SuperCat (2GO) - Pier 1, departs 08:15-13:30-15:10-18:00-19:40
   P 500.00
   +63 32 233 7000
4. Lite Ferries - Pier 1, departs daily 12:30pm, 10:00pm and 1:00pm (Mon, Wed, Sat)
   Standard (Lying) Php 150, Tourist (Lying Aircon) Php 340
   +63 977.822.5483 / +63 998.999.5483 / +63 925.347.5483 / (032)255-1721 to 26 / (032)414-9001 to 03
   info@liteferries.com.ph / www.liteferry.com

Cebu City to Siquijor, via Tagbilaran

1. Lite Ferries - Pier 1, departs M/W/SAT at 1:00pm, 10 hours, economy Php 649 (through barkota.com), layover in Tagbilaran 5:45pm-8:00pm, arrives Larena Port, Siquijor at 11:00pm
   +63 977.822.5483 / +63 998.999.5483 / +63 925.347.5483 / (032)255-1721 to 26 / (032)414-9001 to 03
   info@liteferries.com / www.liteferry.com
2. Ocean Jet - Pier 1, departs daily at 1pm, 5 hours
   Open Air P1600
   +63 932 8734 885 / +63 922 8572 300

Sugbo Urban
There is only one bus plying this route - Sugbo Urban. Tourist class coach, a/c, comfortable, Sun-Fri (these dates keep changing). P420 for bus, P275 for ferry to Liloan. Leaves Cebu City (South Bus Terminal) at 8 pm (Sundays 1 am), heads south to Liloan (Santander), takes the ferry to Larena Port, Siquijor, docks around 5 am, makes a clockwise roundtrip around Siquijor Island - Larena, Enrique Villanueva, Maria, Lazi (stops at Lazi market for breakfast and leaves 6:50 am), San Juan, Siquijor (arrives 8am, P50 from Lazi to Siquijor Poblacion) and catches the 1pm ferry at Larena Port for Liloan, Cebu and resumes its land route. Arrives Cebu City 10 pm.

Sugbo Urban is the cheapest and most convenient way because when it reaches Larena Port (Siquijor), it continues its trip around the island (clockwise) along the circumferential road, passing through - Enrique Villanueva, Maria, Lazi, San Juan, Siquijor...and back to Larena. It spares you the cost of hiring a tricycle or habal-habal which charges exhorbitant fares. Besides, it's a long trip to the other side of the island to be taking by tricycle.

This is also the slowest. The bus arrives Liloan Port around 12:30 am but the ferry leaves 2:30 am (2 hours of waiting time). The ferry trip is a slow 4 hours (this should only take 1.5 hours with Montenegro or Alesson), arriving Larena around 6:30 am. This 4 hour voyage offers no comfortable sleeping - you stay upright on your seat or sleep on the floor on a cardboard. The boat waiting/voyage takes 6 hours. Altogether, the entire trip takes 11.5 hours until the bus reaches Lazi.

Cebu City to Camotes Islands

1. via Poro - from Pier One in Cebu City, take the Ocean Jet for Poro, 2 hours, daily trip - 6am and 3pm (0936.823.8762 |0956.270.6610 | 0999.889.9999).
2. via Consuelo - from Cebu City, take the northbound bus passing through Danao and get off at the Danao Port. At the Port, take a Jomalia Shipping boat for Consuelo (San Francisco, Camotes), P220/pax, a/c, 2 hours, daily trip - 5:30am, 7:00am (special trip), 8:30am, 12:00 noon (express), 2:30pm, 5:30pm and 9:00pm (express, Fri/Sat/Sun only).

Camotes Islands to Cebu City

1. Poro - Cebu City (fastest and most direct) - go to Poro and take the 8am or 5pm Ocean Jet to Pier One in Cebu City, P380/pax/aircon, 2 hours
2. Consuelo - Danao - Cebu City - go to Consuelo (San Francisco) and take the Jomalia Shipping boat to Danao, P220/pax, a/c, 2 hours, daily trip - 5:30am, 7:00am (special trip), 8:30am, 12:00 noon (express), 2:30pm, 5:30pm and 9:00pm (express, Fri/Sat/Sun only). From Danao, take the Ceres Bus to Cebu City

1. Camotes Islands - caves, beaches
2. Cebu City - rich in culture and history, 2nd largest city in the Philippines
3. Moalboal - amazing coral reef system, sardine bowl, deep drop-off for freediving
4. Oslob - Butanding (whale shark) watching
5. Bantayan Island - long stretch of fine white sand beach, Virgin Island for snorkeling
6. Malapascua Island - divers' paradise for seeing the rare Thresher Shark
7. Cantabaco Cave - Toledo
8. Barile Waterfalls - Barile
9. Whale Shark Tour - Oslob
10. Carcar - chicharon and lechon in public market