the other day we got our new herbal teas to my studio, of course no black [or green] teas, only herbal ones.
..if not counting the exclusive white tea wich are handmade flowering teas that we also have he he

it feels really nice to only have our own blends & versions here in our small "buddha spa tea bar".

our herbal teas are:

buddha chai
- "ginger & cinnamon" [only spices]
- "fennel & pepper" [only spices, great also for detoxing]

buddha tea
- "saffron & chili" [with eco honeybush]
- "camomille, lemon & rose hip"

namasTe
- "lemongrass & ginger" [with a eco rooibos]

Yogi
- "apple & cinnamon" [only spices]

honeybush have many similarities to the more famous "rooibos" [red tea] both are not actually tea bt another form of plant/bush.
they have no "caffein" in them, so not a stimula, and also not draining your body of fluid, insead maintaining fluids & minerals. so good after physical exercise for example, and calming if going to sleep..
also theese to bushes only grow in southafrica, nowhere else.
the ones we have are eco/organic aswell.
the flavour is similar in both but honeybush have a natural honeylike sweetness wich is nice.

the saffron & chili etc that is mixed with the honeybush have been a succés, we did a small sample first and let some customers try it, and all loved it, for me personally [maybe it is pitta persons?] I cant stand it, just the smell of saffron make me nauseous ha ha, I wonder why?
for me it is a mistery, I cant drink it it feels like my tounge is going to swollen up.. but everyone else just wants more and have asked when it it will come.. and now it is here : )

myself I am more into the spicy teas, especially my yogi blend where I have put a touch of extra flavour of apple & cinnamon in it..
niiice with some cretan local honey.. yummie!

anyway, I am just very into this and happy about us getting them and having them here in the shop in my studio and also selling them in my yoga inspired web shop www.namaste.se

sipping tea it self if giving it your full attention can be a yogic experience..

AUM tat sat

my year, the the year of the tiger according to the chinese horoscope.
this is the year I was born in and it comes every 12th year back again..
anyway this last sunday that year started since then it was the CNY [chinese new years]. and my compagnion "A" had made a surprice for me, she had arranged some things in the yogastudio that we had discussed before like changing fabric and colours and got new orange blankets..
.. and also she had found some beautiful candle holders and best of all she found and decorated a very nice altar for me & my new small Ganesh statue [I bought it on my last trip]!
that made me really happy and it was a nice unselfish thing to do.

now I am gonna just give it my personal touch since it is importent that it gets my feeling also, with the correct gurus on the pictures and so on..

since then I have had 3 classes in the "new studio" and this combined with the more spiritual feeling I have within me from the short time in the ashram in India it feels really good in there, before also great now just personally better.

and on top of that today also I had a full class, great!

this weekend I'll try to make the final touches and maybe do a small peronal ritual of some kind that just feels right to me to get a deeper connection.

ha ha beside my Ganesh I always have a small bowl with some grains and so, but I heard today that some of the kids in the childrens yoga are eating some before class ha ha, it is fine with me, just so funny that they even want to eat that and it has been there for a while.. the grains are spiced up with some ayurvedic spices so maybe they like the taste?

including 2 pictures I took quickly today, just to share with you : )

happy new year to all my asian/chinese friend out there!
I hope you all had a great time celebrating!

just a tip from me.
many as me have for a long time enjoyed the lovely mantra signing by Deva Premal.
for many years I have used her music in my yogaclasses [the ones I do have music in]. also I think we have some of her tunes on our "in the backgroud music" at our studio "buddha spa".

 so now she is comming to Sweden and Stocholm again!
the 18th of may she & Miten will be here, and this time also with guest Manose.
the concert will be at Konserthuset, I think ticket cna be bought on "tic net".

I hope that you who end up going will enjoy the beautiful evening..

 AUM Shanti

yesterday I sat and listened to the aarti chanting that I like so much,
and I then looked up in my book to see what they actually said since I did the "mumbling version" I realized just what I thougt it sounded like when I "sang" the chant to myself when walking around ha ha
just the first row or so wich is the start and "sets the mood"...

when reading this I got curious what this word ment "vigna vinayaka" that I enjoyed the feeling of so clearly, since the first row is
"jaya jaya aarti vigna vinayaka, vigna vinayaka, sri ganesha"

I my search on the internet I then found out that my favourite hindu god "ganapati" [ganesha] has 108 names [all dietys have 108 names] & 32 forms, and one form is Vigna Vinayaka: the Gold-colored and eight-armed Ganapati..
vigna is from Avigna = One without obstacles
vinayaka = lord of all
so I guess the main name for ganesh in the sence of "the one/lord that removes all obstacles is Vigna-Vinayaka
interesting, allways learning something new.

and.. the importence in this [for e personally] is that Ganesha for me is the remover of all obstacles, that is what my main aim & trust in him focuses on..
I even have a tattoo of ganesha on my lowerback, someday I will make it more spiritual and more nice like another step in appreciation.
when I meditate and sometimes use my mantra it is also "AUM gam ganapate namaha"... 
..and in my yoga studio there is a smaller Ganesh wooden statue [but he deservess a more proper alter].. and above the door on the inside of the studio there is now an small ganesha metal wall-hanging that I bought on my last trip in asia..

when reading a bit more of course it is primary the remover of obstacles in your spiritual search, but what is really the difference, for me it is mostly all about a journey in mind that we do and there is the spirutuality a main thing we [or I] realizes when getting older.. so it is the remover of all obstacles that are not physical perhaps he he.

some bonus information about: 108...
maybe you have noticed 108 here & there before in the yogic & holy world.
108 it is a sacred number
example: sanskrit has 54 syllables and multiplied with 2 [shiva + shakti] is 108.
all real sacred malas [rosarys] should have 108 beads,
and many buddhist temples have 108 stairsteps.. buddhism has also kept this old symbolism as you can see in many forms of buddhism today. [Zen, tibetan etc].
the mystical powerful yantra pictures are suppose to have 54 lines wich each have male & female quality - 108.
there are 108 sins in tibetan buddhism... and so on.

so.. it all started with me being a bit curious about what this word in hte chant I lked was & then what i ment..
I like sudden impulses to find out a new small thing now & then..

AUM Gam Ganapate Namaha

remebering chatning hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare over & over again while entering the dining hall at the ashram, most participants I think was chanting along everyday, some didn't, also I think on depending on your energy level & mental status at the moment what you feel like doing.
one thing for me during this shorter stay at the ashram I had [8days] was that in the beginning the chanting was a bit to much, also since I am havent done that super much really, my teacher training had not much at all wich was the main difference between my and the Sivananda societys course, mine was a bit more focus on other things instead wich I today value a lot!
but I love listening to mantra signing and chanting just it was so much I felt the first two days or so.
 
started the day after meditation with 1hour or more in the morning satsang, then of course some before and after asana practice, and as i mentioned when entering the dining hall for lunch, then before & after next asana class, again in dining hall before evening meal and... a longer in the evening satsang again plus ending the evening with aarti of course..
puh...

but after a while I started to enjoy the chanting more & more, especially at the satsangs & the aarti, even if not religious sitting there chanting hindu gods names, and also here mohammed, buddha, jesus etc gives a certain feeling. mantra is more about the vibration also not just all about the gods. but... chanting is a part of the spiritual practice if doing yoga seriously, it is a part of Bhakti Yoga [Yoga of Devotion].
in the beginning I was mostly sitting and listening and started more & more enjoyed it [I never disliked it, just felt it was a bit TO much in the beginning] then in I started to sing along reading the folder of chanting that they hand out, and in the end of this trip I was singing along to most of the chants without the text-folder, it is more of repeating after the main singer says really...

anyway ha ha
this certain day after chanting when entering the dining hall we got served our meal on a banana leaf, I think this was christmas day probably. and also this day we got special treat with extra details in the food, but the also said not to eat to much of some parts since easy digestioned food is a big & importent part here.
I really like how something small like getting to eat on a banana leaf suddenly feels so special, I mean we are so spoiled in our ordinary materalistic life really..
also that day automaticly we didn't have to clean our plates ha ha, just folded the leaf in half and left it there and then the karma yogis who had dining hall duty picked them up and threw them away somewhere.
a man I met at the ashram who is also into some form of hypnosis, he took these pictures from that day.. so I hope mr K is fine with me borrowing them for my blog ha ha.

I sometimes wonder how people categorize me..
for example when I am gone on holiday or on a yoga journey or so, will the people I meet there have the same picture of me as the people at home?
when meeting people that you dont know, and you are alone and have no one around that knows you from before, do I act the same?
..or when no one have expectations from you to be in a certain way, do I unconsiously act different?

I do think that sometimes it is easy to fall in to our usual character when at home..
you are so used to be in a way that you just become that person when around people that have met you before, people that knows you.

 hm.. 
one thing about my behaviour that interests me : )
I have had a period, a quit long time actually where I have been kind of anti social, and I dont really have any explanation to it.
I just dont have the need to be among people really.
and I am not enjoying going out to party, it feels just strangely superstitious and un-"real"..
perhaps it is a reaction of working with people that makes me want to be more alone? even my friends I used to hang out with have got tired of calling ha ha

maybe it is like a butterfly thing,
I am about to develope a new Me and then need to go into my cocoon and get some distance from the people who knows me because they make me fall into the patterns wich are not really me anymore? hm..

it might also be the case that I somehow is just bored with "routine life" and everything going in circles with everyones everyday life and so..

ha ha I do like people, jsut wanted to say that, and I am fascinated by people, especially the ones that just are themselves, and are not pretending and acting,  
and, I am not rude or weird if around people ha ha, the people I meet when travelling probably say I am social, helpful and kind..
sometimes it feels like I dont want to many "must do's"

 so anyway..
It is interesting that we/our personality/our character is the way we behave, and we do behave from the way we think and the desicions we make in our mind.
..and our mind is really "us" and our mind is basicly our history and memory from what we have experienced thru life and things collected thru our sences, what we have seen, felt, heard etc.

this means also that we can change our character/the person we are just by consiously changing some decisions and thoughts.
if we one day suddenly say "why do I do like this in this situation" and then change the way we usually would behave in this situation and keep on doing this in in that new way.
then that change can make us see other things because we from a new thinking pattern and this can slowly slowly change us along the time, probably very subtle and people around you that might not meet you as often as you he he, they might see the difference more clearly.

so we can actually change our personality with time just by slightly changing our thinking patterns,  this makes us do new different choices that will then lead us another way in life, so we in some form also change our own destiny with our mind desicions..

or?

I am never in church "on sundays" but I know I love the feeling going into one, when I was in Singapore, in litte india and I went by a place out of wich there came chanting I looked in and a older man wellcomed me into what I think was a smaller ramakrishna temple.
they were doing an evening Aarti there wich was very powerfull and filled me with positive feelings,
and when I was [just 1,5days] in Rishikesh, tired, jetlagged, mentally a bit off & not really in the mood of travelling and also the cold weather in the low himalays..
that evening the Parmart Ashram did their mighty aarti wich for me then felt almost like a sekt ting, almost scary actually ha ha, but! very powerful and spiritual feeling and many people there attending.. cool in a interesting way the way I felt right then.

also during my stay in the ashram this winter in Kerala I really liked the Aarti they did there, very simple but still with a lovely, passionate spiritual feeling, probably many felt it was boring and for sure not to many where attending them in the late evening after the late satsang..
I bought a CD with the different chantings they mostly used at the ashram, and I have realized that mainly I've been listening to the aarti,
and each time I daydream away and get this feeling of getting neregized but at the same time calm.. he he well I like it and it might sound strange but hey..
  

so what is my deal, is it the spirituality?
I actually wish I was religous, probably a quit nice feeling to be that..
but for me it is to strange "to be true" with gods & miracles etc.
maybe I am to westernized in that way so that things that cant really be proven and also when many things are disputed etc so I cant belive it then?
I mean somewhere all religions have the same foundation, and it is for sure not the way we live right now around the world..

quit strange maybe how I have a hard time with religions, and still doing yoga and believe in prana flow etc. but then maybe if I would practice some religion and feel things perhaps I would be a beliver? he he
maybe I am a beliver of the force/ cosmos/ brahman / universla energies etc. but not really realizing it..

jaya jaya aarti vighnavinayaka

1 - ..getting the new teas to our tea bar at buddha spa,
we decided to finally let go of our espresso machine [we served eco coffe beans though], and going for more tea variations instead, and it feels totally right..
I mean we are still a small place and it is not a café or anything, it is more of a service towards the lovely people that have found our small place.
I think when it arrives we are gonna have about 6 sorts of herbal teas and of course the great white tea wich the flowering teas are made of[wich is actually from the same plant as black tea but more like green tea, but at least no black tea at our place] that are all exclusive to us, our own blends/variations of tea. plus the 3 forms of Cretan [Greece] herbal teas we have some of aswell : )
sure probably someone else have the same or very similar since the world is huge ha ha but still very nice to be able to offer something different.

2 - hopefully getting an answer about this curse I am interesting to take later on this spring. gonna send them an e-mail again now I think since they are not the best in getting back ha ha.

3 - the "yoga holiday" I am arranging for the 3rd year in a row. it is the week after midsummer as usual, and already 4 out of 9 rooms are booked and paid a pre fee for, so if any one interested reading this, dont wait to long, last year i had to say no to some people sadly..

4 - getting started with my personal practice, I have not done anything since I came home since I became sick right away and still are not strong, but next week I will start to slowly build up and do light practice to get started, niiice!
I have some thoughts about doing a small meditation "corner" in my bedroom in the space I dont use at the moment.. reading/relax & meditation space or something..

5 - to go to bed since today was the first morning class this term, I went up early bird at 05.50am this morning, so a loooong day!

AUM tat sat