Calm down

I have several experiences about yoga. Couple of years ago I decided to try it and paid for a yoga course which lasted for half a year. I attended maybe 3 classes that spring, because I just hated it! It was too slow, the teacher was too strict and so I skipped that torture and went for a cafe instead.

Last autumn I gave yoga another chance. In summertime I practiced pilates and found it very good for the balance, strength and control of my body, although sometimes it felt just like doing normal muscle work (which is boring in my opinion). The first yoga class was surprisingly interesting and gave me truly needed alternative for every day aerobic. I also like the teacher, who isn't so uncompromising and doesn't force us to be vegetarians (I am, but not because someone forced me to be) or skip classes if we have periods (because then blood starts to circulate to the wrong direction...ummm....). Of course yoga purists don't think the yoga we do on these classes is "real" yoga, but I couldn't care less. It's good for me and that's enough.

I'm happy that my asian friends like to come to yoga as well. In Korea and Japan women shouldn't look muscular or strong, so almost all the aerobics are just dance lessons and they don't include any muscle work. I heard that if those girls need to do something with hand weights, they always choose 0,5 or 1 kg weights so they don't get too big legs or arms. In Finland it's quite the opposite, women want to look trained, so they take as big weights as they can lift. Yoga doesn't feel like exercising and musclebuilding, so my friends are not afraid of doing it ;)


Yesterday I read one book called Kallis köyhyys (expensive poverty) and I found it very sad and truthful. After reading that book I can really say that poor and rich people really live in different worlds and for most people it's impossible to understand that someone doesn't have enough money to buy food or pay rent. Nowadays it's easy to see that in public conversations poor people are called lazy losers who are poor because of their own fault (maybe I shouldn't read the Helsingin Sanomat internet pages and conversations...). I hope we had a president like Barack Obama who would freeze all the salaries of politicians and government officials and use that money on more important issues like health care.

My list of nice free things to do!
1) Go for a walk
2) Hang laundry
3) Listen to the music
4) Sleep
5) Go to a local pub quiz
6) Borrow books from the library
7) Meet friends
8) Find magazines from waste paper basket
9) Touch
10) Sing

I'm singing.