Evelyn Loh

So I’ve settled into somewhat of a schedule here after being here for over a month. I stick to it about 50% of the time.

It looks something like this:

6.30 a.m. – Get out of bed, brush my teeth, floss, get-ready for my day.

7 a.m. – Head to the reception to grab my guest list which will give me an idea of how many students will attend.

7:15 a.m. – Prepare the yoga studio/shala. Have my coffee/tea and a snack whilst doing so. If I have extra time, I send cute emoticons to the fiancé and tell him I miss him – important stuff. At this time, he’s just leaving his office in Canada.

7:50 a.m. – Students arrive.

8 – 10 a.m. – Start meditation and yoga.

10:30 a.m. – Finish tidying up the studio yoga and I usually spend this time talking to the fiancé or Skyping him. It’s 9:30 his time so I get to talk to him about his day before he goes to bed, which I love. It’s feels just like our little bedtime talks before when we’re physically together. The best is when I see him and Koya on video, makes my day seeing both of them cuddling up together.

11:30 a.m./12 p.m. – Get an early lunch.

12 – 3:30 p.m. – Leisure time which I spend watching tv shows, replying emails and wedding related stuff. Laundry and clean.

3:30 – Eat my last meal for the day before 4 p.m.

4 p.m. – Some sort of physical activity. Either cycling, swimming or more yoga.

6 p.m. – If I don’t have any plans with my friends, I’m back in my room and spend the rest of the evening reading, studying Thai, speaking to my fiancé, family and friends before bedtime.

10 p.m. – Bedtime

The other 50% of the time I’m not following this schedule I’m spending time with my new friends (both guests and the girls that work here) visiting beaches, fishing villages, waterfalls, mangrove, markets, 7-Elevens, riding scooters and being teased by the locals for my pronunciation of Thai words. Here’s a glimpse of daily life here on the island.

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how to, travel, yoga

Getting over your fear of self-promotion!

June 15, 2015June 15, 2015 Evelyn Loh

Woot woot! I’ve finally finished my yoga posters.

I spent hours drafting up many posters then trashing them. At first, I thought I just couldn’t find the right design. But I realized it was not that.

It was the fact that I hated self-promotion. I guess it stems from my asian roots, we were always told never to show off and always be humble. And somehow making posters about myself seemed a little like bragging from my perspective. And who am I, little imperfect me, to brag? Even uploading picture of myself doing yoga postures on Instagram and Facebook was a struggle for me. Forget about selfies! That’s cray cray talk.

And in the last month I did all the above. I uploaded pictures on Instagram and Facebook…and a selfie!

What changed?

I realized that if I’m ever to make a stable living out of this and not return to a desk job, I’ve gotta get myself out there. I’ve got to stop that craziness and be honest with myself. I am proud of the work I’ve done to get where I am, and showing the work I’ve accomplished is not showing off. It’s saying I love who I am.

Trying to suppress who you really are so that you don’t offend anyone else isn’t any kind of way to live. You hear about it over and over and over again. Be who you are. As long as you’re not going around shooting anyone, free yourself from those chains and just be you.

Here are the posters that inspired this post.

Another struggle I have besides self-promotion is perfectionism. When I worked with these posters, I saw pixelated photos, the angle and lighting were not quite right, maybe more graphics…

So to tie this entire post together, I’d like to say that you can pick apart a million things, and then you are left with nothing but a million parts. As Aristotle said, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

What matters is you are unique and you are beautiful. And if you see that in yourself, others do too.

Adventures in Thailand, yoga

Part 2: My Secret Admirer

June 10, 2015June 14, 2015 Evelyn Loh

When I arrived at my resort, I was in awe. It was just like the photographs. Serene and peaceful set amidst a mangrove swamp. Jungle everywhere, it was raw nature.
spa2

The previous yoga teacher was leaving the island the next day, so I was keen on meeting her beforehand, but she wasn’t there when I got there. I was shown to my room, which they referred to as “The Manager’s Room.” It was a corner unit and slightly larger, with an extra set of windows. I felt lucky to get “The Manager’s Room.”

Still, it was nothing fancy. The room was very old and very basic. A bed, a desk and chair, a dresser and a closet. Nothing glamorous, which is what I expected for staff accomodation. Most of the staff accommodation had 1 bed and 2 closets, with no desk and no dresser.

The room smelled funny, a lot like pee. So as much as I wanted to just go to bed, I started cleaning and kept cleaning. I swept out the cobwebs, wiped the floor and walls with peppermint oil and swept away what appeared to be gecko feces from the floors. Geckos are unavoidable in this part of the world and very normal. Growing up in Malaysia, I knew this for a fact. Though they make me squeamish sometimes, they eat bugs and cockroaches, so I let them be. I also scrubbed the bathroom floor with was very grimy and wiped everything down. Then unpacked everything.

After cleaning for a couple of hours, I was exhausted, so I went to bed, too tired to even eat. I slept for about 3 hours and woke up to someone knocking at my door. It was Lala, the yoga teacher, outside my door. She introduced herself and must not have known I was sleeping as I forgot to turn the lights off. I drowsily heard her tell me to meet her tomorrow for a little bit of a walkthrough and I said OK. Then I excused myself due to extreme fatigue and tried to go back to sleep. The rest of the night I drifted in and out of sleep due. That is the night #2 in Thailand without proper sleep.

Night #3, was alright. I said goodbye to Lala, bless her soul, what a lovely girl. And right after dinner, headed to my room to attempt to sleep. Around midnight, I woke up. I heard some sound ruffling behind my head and I flung out of bed as fast as possible, turned on the lights and was completely terrified. There was nothing. I thought I was going crazy, and then out of the corner of my eye. I saw it. This.

A mouse on the floor. He stared at me, and I stared at him. When he started to move, I screamed. He jumped up on the desk and ran up and away into the air-conditioning unit.

I spend the next day wiping down the floor and walls with peppermint oil which is supposed to deter mice. That smell of pee I realized was mouse pee. Ya, it didn’t work. Night #4 & #5 he came back to visit. Same story, his scattering would wake me up, I’d turn the lights on, watch him stare at me and run away. I broke a picture frame trying to scare him away, which ensued cleaning broken glass the next day.

By the 6th night, I realized he’d fallen in so deeply love with me. I guess I don’t blame him. How could he not? I was dreamy. This time, he got into bed with me and cuddled right in my palm, right by my face. Perhaps, if he went in for a kiss, he would have turned into a prince. But instead, I screamed and flung him as far as I could. Heartbroken, he went back to his air-conditioning unit. As you figured, I couldn’t sleep after that.

I had to tell someone, so I Skyped the fiancé and told him all about how a mouse scampered around in my palm and it was planning to eat me. He let me finish, then laughed out loud because of this…