how the love affair began

ok, i admit it - i started yoga out of my sheer desire to lose weight. that was about it. to say that there was a higher reason for it (like meditation, health and peace of mind) would be pushing it. hence my flirtation with yoga started that way. nothing born out of a greater purpose but a purpose nonetheless. i started going to the newly opened bikram yoga in makati more than 4 years ago (i think). i loved it! it was hot, it was intense and i felt like a lost 5 pounds in just a week! so, naturally i loved it! never mind the fact that 90% of that was most probably water-weight. the pounds went and i was happy! so i kept going for a month or so until i suddenly realized that my schedule got too busy and that the studio fees were really expensive - lousy excuses actually. in hindsight, i might have just been too lazy or had other priorities in mind (like happy hour drinking).
so i stopped going. and yet like an irresistible and persistent affair, my desire for yoga kept on coming back. i never acted on it though. it was just there - persistent and yet still ignored.
that was until i relocated to bangkok for work when i seriously started to reconsider yoga. well, for one, there was nothing to do really. none of my friends had the habit of drinking after work until the wee hours of the morning on a weekday - so my week nights were mostly spent either working late or trying to find something worthwhile to do. and so, like an epiphany i knew what i could do! i signed up for absolute yoga in bangkok, which was conveniently just a 5-minute walk from the apartment. since the only kind of yoga i knew then was only hot yoga, i naturally went for that.
and i went 2 times a week
and then 3 times a week
and then almost every day
for a month
for 3 months
for 6 months
for a year.
i was officially hooked.
i was in love.
and i swear i could have gone every single day! for a whole day!
and i seriously considered teaching yoga as my sole profession!
yes, like a newly found love, i was deeply passionate about it and addicted to it.
and that's how it was. and that's how it still is.
2 years into it and i still love it. maybe even more so now.
and as i have moved towards different types of yoga: ashtanga (my personal favorite), vinyasa and hatha, i am continuously falling more and more in love with it. still discovering so many things about it. each experience different. it has gone way beyond the simple desire to lose weight. i don't know when and how that happened - but i'm glad it did.
but i am far from being a true yogini. i am sure i do not act like one, nor do i think like one. i am far from being a controlled and balance being (despite the fact that control and balance is at the core of yoga). yes, i still have this urge to wack noisy people in class. and during the 5 minute meditation, i cannot seem to stop thinking about that irritating person at work - very "un-yoga-like". but hey, i'm learning!
and so despite the seemingly "evil thoughts" and "negative vibes", i still practice and remain faithful to the practice. it takes time after all.
and so i like to call myself a "yogini in training". and this is my journal.