yoga – Page 5 – pause then press play

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.
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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…

My sleeping shirt is a Mickey Mouse shirt. The fiancé said, “He just wanted to meet his idol.” Haha, very funny.

Last November, I decided to quit my oil and gas job for a second time, jumped on a plane and become a certified yoga teacher. Now I teach yoga on the lovely island of Koh Chang, Thailand, and this is my office.

Contrary to popular belief, I wasn’t unhappy at my job, I was always lucky to be able to surround myself with inspiring people and I would wake up in the morning, excited to see them. I had lots of fun at my job, learned a lot and had a steady pay check every month. I have a pretty positive outlook and if had I stayed I would probably still see the positive in what I did till I was old and grey.

However, I still left and here are the 2 reasons :
The 1st Reason: The Industry. It just did not jive with me. Oh where do I begin?

It was an industry built around money and that’s all people talked about. When they talked about my career advancements, they told me how much I would make if I became this or did that. Office gossip included, “I heard he makes 120 an hour.” Which is about $240,000 a year. Come layoff season, again the industry revolved around money, so valuable employees were laid-off without a second thought. Instead of faces, they saw dollar signs ($).
It was an industry where having a extra flesh between your legs was everything. Male-dominated, preferably caucasian. You either had to grow a penis, or become a hard ass (b-word) and act like you had one anyway (which I did for 8 hours a day). Massive egos raged around the office, trampling on anything they thought threatened their stance as Alpha Male or Alpha Female.
I felt guilty for being part of an industry that contributed so much to environmental issues. I personally cycled to work during the summer and carpooled during the winters.

So there I was, soft-spoken little Asian girl who loved animals and an had an affinity for the arts, I didn’t stand a chance. Oil and gas being Alberta’s main industry, I went straight into it after university and kept going for 3 years till I decided it was not for me. Looking back, I have no regrets, I needed the money after university and without it, I couldn’t have taken this path anyway. And like I said, there were lots of amazing people I met there that I’ve grown to love and I still keep in touch with.

The 2nd Reason: I was not doing what I love. Maybe Steve Job’s commencement speech was ingrained in my brain after watching it a dozen times, but I knew that although I liked having a secure job and loved having financial security and money to buy anything my heart desired, I wasn’t doing a job that I loved.

Maybe a few years down the road, if and when I have kids, I may need to get back into the office life, but at least I’ll have this wonderful experience imprinted in my head. And when my hypothetical future office boss hands me an assignment, I’ll being seeing this in my mind’s eye.