By Johanna Lindroos

Whenever I travel, I always pack two things with me: yoga block and two tennis balls. Why? My body is not particularly good at sitting. I use the props to relieve the tension from prolonged sitting often involved with travelling. With business travel, schedules can be truly excruciating and a trigger for various body aches and pains.  

I travel light, so when packing only for myself and not for the whole family, I opt for only carry-on luggage. The yoga block goes into the suitcase and the tennis balls to a carry-all type hand bag. Both the yoga block and the tennis balls are easy to pack due to their light weight. 

So what do I do with my props when travelling? My all time favourite is to just lie down on top of a yoga block. Travel schedules can be crazy, so the practice needs to be simple enough to get it done. This particular one does not require much energy so it is doable even at the end of the most tiring days. And it works in the yummiest way to open the upper back and chest to counteract all the sitting, and slouching. The block can be positioned three different ways to provide different height and intensity. For a relaxing, gentle chest stretch try laying the block flat or on its long side, i.e. either one of the two lowest positions. For more intense stretch, stand the block on the short side. Place the block underneath the middle back/shoulder blades and experiment with different arm positions, extending the arms over the head or to the side, and just breath and let the body do its magic. Stay a few minutes and come back slowly and do a counter pose, eg. Balasana/Child Pose.

Another one is to place the block under the sacrum, the bony part of the back hip. Keep knees bent and feet on the mat or extend legs slowly, one by one. Make sure there is no excess pressure on the lower back; the lower the block position the gentler stretch. To get out of the pose, bend your knees, feet on the mat and slowly lift the hips up so that you can remove the block. Lie down on the back for a moment and then hug the knees and maybe roll from side to side a few rounds. Again, simple, low energy practice that can really make a difference on how you feel. The pose stretches the hip flexors and can also alleviate stomachache/bloating.
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The tennis balls are handy on the flight itself, providing relief to sore muscles even in the tiniest economy seat. I have my tennis balls typically within a sock - what a great way to reuse all those mysterious spare socks! Two balls in one sock and a knot so they do not fall out. One plain ball works equally well. Place the tennis ball(s) under the hamstrings, behind the back or under your foot, and create pressure and make some movement or just stay put. Voila! You will be surprised on how good a tennis ball massage feels, beware massage therapists! The tennis balls are equally, or even more, usable outside of the perimeter of an airplane. The logic is simple, place the tennis ball under the area you want to massage, create pressure and either stay put or move on top of the ball. There are loads of tutorials available in the Internet, go google and experiment. Remember that pressure is on the muscle, not on bones, blood vessels or nerves. My personal favourite is to roll my back, especially in between the shoulder blades, on top of two balls. The balls can be placed on the floor, or on a block for more intensity.

I hope you find the above tips useful! For me, this is not only something I do when travelling, it is my daily routine to keep my back and shoulders happy wherever I am.

By Teresa Richard

I’m often asked about my life as a wandering yoga teacher -- how it has impacted my life and, more importantly, my recovery from breast cancer.  It has certainly re-defined both my practice and my teaching, but even more my perception of life.  I have more clarity than ever on what’s important and necessary to me, and what's not.  This is an ongoing transformational process that I try to honour every day, on and off the mat. .

It was 2014 when my breast cancer diagnosis threatened to derail my life as a travelling yoga teacher. It was a difficult period for me, fraught with stress, confusion and uncertainty.  I wasn’t feeling physically sick, but was troubled by the judgement of my family and peers, as well as pressure from physicians to proceeded with surgery.  Thereafter, I made a decision for myself to refuse any further treatment post-surgery (no chemotherapy, radiotherapy or hormonal treatment) after carefully weighing my options. So far, it’s been over two years since my surgery and I feel fantastic; stronger than ever and hopefully wiser through all the lessons learnt.

Yoga has infinite shapes and ways. Every person’s perception is distinctive. Every moment in our lives, unique. My only target then was to take care of myself and endure the healing process in the best possible way. I turned to yoga to recover physically, emotionally and to find a peace of mind.

I had to stop my daily Ashtanga practice, which I had kept on until the day before my surgery. Instead, I extended and adjusted my yoga practice to the new challenging circumstances:

• Asana: I started to combine traditional gentle Hatha with Yin Yoga (which I had recently discovered). Easy, soft, caring movement and breath awareness supported quick tissue recovery and enhanced the ability of my body to eliminate any by-product coming out of that healing process. I was also building patience and acceptance by observing my resistances to find peace in stillness. Although I’m now happily back and progressing in the Ashtanga "Yang" style of yoga,  much of my practice and teaching continues to be heavily inspired by the "Yin" approach. 
• Pranayama: Breath is life. It is the voice of our souls. Our breath is the connection between body, mind and emotions. It is also immensely detoxifying. With or without postures, on the mat or on the street, breath awareness is a powerful tool to channel our energies towards healing. 
• Meditation:  Easy techniques, chanting mantras, counting the breath… whatever helped me to get through the day.  It helped me to carry on with patience, trust and perseverance, but without any specific expectations.
• Relaxation: Oh, rest. How do you rest when your monkey mind is angry and confused, and your inner child feels vulnerable and alone? Our body, our vessel, holds and processes all of it. True healing occurs when we allow ourselves rest.  The all-important savasana in yoga practice is both an effective and intuitive way to relax.
• Yoga Nidra: Talking about rest, Yoga Nidra takes it to another level. It is top-notch! A holistic restorative "nap" that you have to experience to comprehend its effects.

Of course, I was taking care of my diet and other things.  However, the bottom line for me was that the alchemic properties of yoga reside in the intentional and continuous attempt to build acceptance, patience and love, in order to heal and move forward with a better life.
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This combination of techniques worked for me as a recovery and a re-discovery process. They are easy and accessible to all.  I continue to practice and learn every day in my healing journey; and in my wanderings as a travelling yoga teacher, I seek to share my own experiences to help others find their own way to relax, restore and reconnect.

About Teresa Richard (Kshama Yoga) 
A certified teacher in Hatha and Yin, Ashtanga practitioner and curious by nature, Teresa travels the world bringing ancient traditions off the mat and making them accessible to all. 

Orginally from Spain, Teresa leads a nomadic lifestyle between Asia and Europe --  living and teaching "wherever she lays her mat" (when she has one).    From teaching advanced asanas in a Teacher Training programme in Kerala, to guiding people into awareness and meditation in a Silent Retreat in Bali, Teresa is passionate about sharing yoga and meditation techniques to help us restore the lost connection between our exhausted bodies, minds and hearts.

In her recent  200hr training in Yin Yoga with Jo Phee and Jo Barnett, Teresa expanded and deepened her love for a style she started practising and teaching about two years ago when she took a break from her Ashtanga practice after breast cancer surgery. Yoga Nidra, Pranayama, Yin  and Gentle Traditional Hatha were powerful tools of healing that she now decodes and breaks down with grace and a down-to-earth sense of humour in her classes and workshops.  She hopes to empower every student with the internal resources to cope with the challenges they face in their daily lives.

By Ooi Jian Yuan
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​I stumbled into outdoor yoga purely by chance, when I attended my first Outta Hatha event - a charity class held to raise funds for the Gyanada Foundation.  I found it beautiful to see the palpable mood and energy of a community focused on both their personal exploration of yoga and the possibility of harnessing this passion for a greater good.  So I started attending their outdoor yoga events regularly.  Every experience began to open my heart to embrace more and more possibilities.
 
Some people think of yoga as just a stretching practice that combines breath-work for stress relief. Others may see it as a bunch of people in funny poses - especially from seeing photos of "instayogis" doing strange contortions, funky arm balances and inversions - and conclude that yoga is simply not for them.  However, yoga is much more than the asana practice (the practice of physical poses).  Asana is one of the 8 limbs of yoga as set out in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (a compilation of 196 Indian sutras that define not just the purpose of yoga but also the means to achieve this purpose) and asana (postures) ranks after the yamas (self-restraints) and the niyamas (personal observances). 
 
My own yoga journey began with the asana practice.  Like many others, I had initially used the asana practice as a means to an end (to get healthier and to lose weight).  However, my practice deepened when I realised that the physical practice is secondary to the highly personal journey of self-discovery. 

Much as Outta Hatha’s outdoor events have broadened my horizons and opened me to new possibilities, I write this article to shine more light on yoga beyond the asana practice, with the hope that people will open their hearts to the realisation that yoga can be much more than just a physical practice. 

The journey inward
 
Much has been said about being present on and off the mat.  What does being present off the mat entail?  To me, such ‘presence’ goes beyond mere consciousness to encompass awareness and mindfulness, not only about the intra-physical body (body, breath and mind), but also about the continuous relationship between one’s thoughts and actions, and the extent to which they are consistent with the yamas and niyamas.
 
Much of the transformative power of yoga involves an oftentimes uncomfortable exploration into our kleshas.  (Kleshas is Sanskrit for ‘afflictions’ – a collection of undesirable mental states (such as anxiety, fear, jealousy, etc) that cloud the mind and manifest in undesirable actions.)  The journey inward is actually a misnomer in that it probably consists of a lifetime of innumerable, intensely personal journeys inward – journeys which no one can undertake on our behalf, and journeys which promises no immediate rewards.  One must be prepared, if not entirely determined, to abandon old and comfortable thought patterns, challenge fears, or even confront demons from the past, before there can be any closure.  And it is entirely possible that a ‘closure’ may be temporary in nature, and that there is still the rest of our lives to continue an active, inward investigation of our kleshas.
 
Nevertheless, I strongly believe we miss out on so much if, instead of using the spaces and silent times in our lives to investigate our kleshas, we focus on everything else external to ourselves all the time.  For example, we miss out on developing the 2 niyamas, tapas (Sanskrit for ‘self-discipline’ and ‘perseverance’) and svadhayaya (Sanskrit for ‘self-reflection’ and ‘introspection’), if we procrastinate on the things that we know we need to do in order to elevate our practice, be it the physical practice or beyond.  If we use our yoga practice solely as a means to an end and/or to achieve a superficial agenda (e.g. weight loss, more friends, more social media likes), we face the prospect of missing out on the experiential quality of pratyahara (Sanskrit for conscious ‘withdrawal of energy from the senses’, i.e. ‘sense withdrawal’), which is a valuable counterbalance to enable us to regain perspective and continue the inward inquiry.  
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Your true identity
 
It may be the case that in the course of your journey inward, more questions than answers may be thrown up about your real identity.  By ‘identity’, I don’t mean your name, ID number and passport photo look – I mean the observer left behind after all the layers of social conditioning and repression are peeled away.
 
Personally, I have 3 main identities - my professional identity, my practitioner identity and my very nascent teacher identity.  But on closer examination, these identities are just roles I play, at the workplace, at the yoga studio, etc.  They are just illusions.  If I confuse them with who I really am, and/or if I identify with them so much that I am unable to differentiate these identities from who I really am, I know I will have an ego issue to deal with! 
 
If we know that our ego is motivated by external validation, and if we know that our ego therefore needs to construct and maintain an identity on which it can rely and equate as "I", then we will know that a healthy detachment from our assumed identities is vital. 
 
When you peel away the identities, your ego disappears.  You become an inquiring observer of the physical sensations in the body that you inhabit (beginning with the quality of your breath), the thoughts that arise in your mind, and the emotions that you feel.  You will also slowly start to notice the real, inquiring, observing you – and not confuse yourself with the thoughts that run through your mind.  This may have a positive knock-on effect on the quality of your interaction and relationships with others.  Eventually you will know how you and I (and just about everyone else) are just sentient players in this cosmic phenomenon called life.  Why hang on to any preconceived notions of your identity or who you are, when the real you is seeking to be discovered under all those layers of conditioning and repression?
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Take your practice off the mat
 
At the end of the day, a yoga practice will always be a personal journey.  The journey differs for everyone, since we all have different backgrounds and are at different stages in our lives (and our yoga practice).  A yoga journey can definitely be more than just the asana practice.  Know that you're not alone, and that there are communities of shimmeringly radiant souls out there who have overcome their personal struggles and who harness their knowledge, effort and passion to be of service to (and inspire) others.  At the same time that we may pay tribute to their inspiring presence, it is my hope that we also inspire ourselves to practise yoga off the mat, embark on this journey inward (and do the necessary work), and in the process find who we really are.  And in the process, I hope we all live life consciously, and love life passionately! 

There’s no better time to begin than now, and it’s never too late.  Namaste!
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By Johanna Lindroos