Yoga-Gaga!

I may have mentioned it before, but I recently started practising yoga. Bikram and Power yoga that is - and I've fallen completely in love! Don't get me wrong, I've never thought myself to be the type of girl who does yoga: I'm certainly not a hippie, I'm completely carnivorous and Zen-like tranquility has never held any appeal to me.

Ok, so it's a discovery that has most fortuitously coincided with my stopping smoking and a couple of other little life shifts (Saturn's Return anyone?) but I really can't emphasise what a life-changing experience this new practice has been to me. So much so that I have decided to spend some time in India next winter (that's the South African winter which runs from May to August) and stay at a yoga ashram. I'm going to have to do some serious saving for the first time in my life, but I think I can manage it. I'm on a serious mission to make it materialise!

In all my Googling research I've stumbled across some great articles, beautiful pictures and a few very inspirational blogs. Thanks to this very amusing article on the Nat Geo Traveller website, I've got my heart set on the Sivananda Ashram in Kerala.

Meditation on the banks of the Neyyar Dam. The wildlife sanctuary opposite means that the sounds of lions waking greets you with the sunrise.

I have to wonder if my own sense of beauty and taste may change after a month in India...

I also stumbled across this beautiful blog, Gipsy Girl's Guide, and the blogger reflects on her time spent at the same ashram.

Now I fear that you'll all be left with the impression of me as a yoga mat-toting, incense-burning, barefoot, health fanatic... And although I'd like to be able to tell you that you couldn't be further from the truth, I can't. Whereas I certainly don't fit perfectly into that description, I guess I can describe myself as a down-to-earth princess. My boyfriend would completely disagree. With the down-to-earth part. But hey...

Anyhow, seeing as I have now digressed completely from my point, let me tell you about a spa in Thailand that a producer that I work with highly recommends. Now when I say spa, one immediately sees $$$ (or in our case here in S.A - RRR) but this little gem is unbelievably inexpensive! I'm hoping that if I budget correctly, save enough money and stop shopping for stuff I really don't need then perhaps I can manage a stopover seeing as I will be in South-East Asia anyway...

Wow, my little heart is pumping custard just at the thought!! Have a look and a read about the detoxification process, spa treatments and other offerings here - Samui Spa Resorts.

Ok, well, that's it from me today... Will be dreaming and planning and plotting and not shopping!!! See you tomorrow...

Xxxx
The Girl Belle