Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Recipes for Autumn

Many of you know that Hang teaches Qi Gong based on TCM applied from her acupressure private practice. Autumn is considered to be a “dry” season, which means we need to nourish our vital yin energy. This dryness may reflect as dry/itchy skin, dry cough, sore throats, sinus congestion, headaches, and constipation.

Here's three wonderful autumn recipes that our family loves. Try them and let us know what you think.

1) BEGINNING OF A COLD REMEDY
For when you think you’re coming down with a cold, this is a remedy that Hang's mom used to make for the family. The spring onions is a new addition from www.chrysalistcm.com

Ingredients:

• 3 spring onions, white parts only, chopped roughly

• 2 slices ginger (approx. 20c piece size)

• 2 sprigs of mint

• 2 cups of water

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Continue boiling until the liquid has halved (approx. 10-15 minutes). Discard the herbs, keeping the liquid. Drink as soon as its cool enough, get into bed or rug up on the couch to enhance sweating and help the body sweat the cold out. If you feel damp after sweating, get changed and dry and rest for the remainder of the day.

2) PORRIDGE
Our family loves porridge! Add something new to your porridge to nourish your yin aspects with this delish breakfast recipe. Oats are a warming Qi tonic for the earth centre of our bodies: the Spleen and Stomach. This is especially great for constipation. Adding in tahini, apples, and pears will help nourish and strengthen the yin.  
 
Ingredients:

• 1 cup oats 

• 2 ½ cups water 

• Tahini 

• Apple

• Pear

Method:
Oats can be cooked on a stovetop, or you can try soaking the oats overnight before cooking.  While cooking, add a bit of tahini (depending on how much you desire), add in small chopped pieces of apple and/or pear. Voila! A simple yin nourishing breakfast 

3) SESAME TREATS
What is life without a little sweet treat, eh? 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sesame seeds 

• 2 tablespoons melted butter

• ¼ cup of honey 

• 1 tablespoon sesame oil 

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

• ½ teaspoon cinnamon 

Method:
Dry roast the sesame seeds until you can smell them, but be careful not to burn them! Grind them as finely as possible, then stir in the other ingredients and press them together. Let the mixture cool and harden. Wet your hands and shape the mixture into little balls, the size of marbles, and they are ready to serve!
 
Source: https://www.yinovacenter.com/blog/autumn-recipes-to-nourish-your-yin/

12 Yoga Teacher Training Frequently Asked Questions

Embarking on a deeper yoga journey can feel like a big leap. Below is a list of questions we’ve gathered over the years from graduates before they enrolled in the 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training. We thought it may help you to know that you’re not alone and feel at ease before you make your leap with us. Please email us if any of your questions aren’t answered here. We look forward to walking on this path of well-being with you.

Read to the end and see the most commonly asked question and find out if you're ready to embark on this transformational journey. 

1. What will this training allow me to do afterwards?

You'll be able to teach Hatha-based yoga class which could be gentle yoga or vinyasa flow classes. There are other joyful things you can do afterwards too, like experiencing the joy of your first sip of coffee/tea of the day but we'll get into that on the course.

2. Am I able to teach prenatal, restorative or yin yoga after this course?

These are specialty styles of yoga and require additional education for a deeper understanding to teach them. We suggest that you enroll in these specialty courses after taking your 200-Hour YTT. Most studios require that you have your foundational 200-Hour YTT and extra training completed before offering these specialty classes. 

3. Do I need to attend all of the training?

Yes, we strongly suggest that you do as these 22-day immersions are quite packed with goodies. But if you miss a day or two due to family emergencies or unforeseen circumstances, we understand. Please let us know in advance or as soon as possible so we can catch you up. 

4. Is there a lot of homework in the course?

We understand that everyone lives busy lives. The last thing you need is to add more to your plate.  The homework we'll be assigning isn't separated from your home life. It's more ‘how do I integrate the teachings into my daily activities’ and ‘how to do I develop a nourishing home-practice’ Some of our graduates in the past loved their ‘homework’ so much that it is now a part of their life!

5. Are there exams?

The training includes several sessions of practice teaching to help you get comfortable with teaching and using your voice. There are no exams.

6. I’m going through a challenging time in my life at the moment. Should I take this course? I don’t want to overspill my pain onto others.

Everyone goes through challenges and you're not alone. We think ‘finding the right moment’ to do things that help us are just notions and illusions that may never give us that right moment. If you're going through a rough patch in life or living a very busy life, like a hamster on a hamster wheel, the collective energy on the course can help us to slow down and can be a source of healing and support. Come and allow the community energy to be there for you. 

7. Where in my yoga practice should I be if I want to join? 

We suggest that you have a yoga practice before embarking on a yoga teacher training program. For a quantifiable suggestion, perhaps know the primary standing poses (warrior poses and sun salutations), seated and lying poses. 

8. I feel a bit old to start teaching yoga. Can I still join?

Absolutely! Yoga is for every body and we believe that age is just a number. If you don't agree with that statement then we'd like to add that age also comes with wisdom. But then again, we also have had friends who were young in age but wise in spirit. In short, we welcome folks from all walks of life and at all ages to the program. Did you know that Hang is actually 110 years old and is still kicking around ;)

9. I have limiting physical abilities or I have had injuries or surgery(ies). Can I join?

We believe in the saying, "The practice meets you where you're at." Yoga is about being inclusive and accommodating. We're here to help you understand the dos and don'ts of yoga shapes that are right for your body. If you're not sure if you should sign up for this training, please do email us and we'll be happy to chat with you. 

10. I love yoga and want to learn more about the history and philosophy of yoga but don't want to teach it. Can I still enrol in the course? 

Absolutely. We have had many participants who signed up to help kickstart their spiritual journey.

11. Do you offer payment plans?

Yes, we do. Please reach out to us and together we'll figure something out. We don't want money to be a show-stopper for this pivotal point of your life.

12. MOST COMMONLY ASKED: How do I know if I'm ready to embark on this journey?

We suggest that you sit still in a quiet place for few minutes, hold your hands to your heart while joyfully focusing on your breath to help calm down the mind and body. Then ask your heart. "Is this course for me?" The heart will give you a clear answer. The mind, on the other hand, loves to give reasons, conditions and other ideas on why and why not.

Ready to sign up for our YTT in Mui Ne, Vietnam in November 2024 ? Or have more questions?

Email us at hello@saigonom.com to register and and we’ll be happy to make a time to chat and answer any questions over the phone.

Yoga Teacher Training Graduate Feature: Marc

Meet Marc, our 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training graduate from our 2018 training in Kingston, Ontario. Marc currently teaches at Studio 330 and Immerse Wellness Centre in Kingston, Ontario. Marc shares his yoga teaching journey and what he has learned along the way.

Why did you do your 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training?

I decided to do my YTT as a way to deepen my practice. I thought it would be great to learn more about yoga from early to present day. I was practicing yoga regularly and really had a hunger to learn more.

Which practices from the training have supported you most in life?

Yoga has helped me so much in my daily life by allowing me to be more in the present in the moment. It has also given me a better understanding of my own body. Self-awareness was never something I found time for until I landed on my mat. Keeping my body moving has also been really beneficial. Working a job that requires me to be on my feet all day using my arms can be exhausting and yoga has really helped with dexterity and pain relief.

What are some of the things you've discovered as a practitioner and a teacher?

As a yoga practitioner I have had the opportunity to discover myself and my capabilities as a person. I’ve met so many people who have been integral on the path of getting to know myself, challenging me, and teaching me along the way.

As a teacher I’ve really enjoyed practicing and sharing gratitude with others. Becoming a teacher was never part of the plan for me. It was something that just fell into place. I am actually still shocked when I teach a class that I'm actually teaching a class. I was never one that liked getting up and speaking in front of groups of people, but somehow this has been such a freeing experience that I would not change for anything. The relationships I have cultivated with people have been some of the best in my life.

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned on the mat that are supporting you to meet the challenges of life?

The most important lesson I have learned on my mat is to breathe. When life gets crazy, and it does, one breath at a time will get me through. Focusing on my breath is the most grounding thing I can do.

What do you love about yoga?

I just love yoga. All aspects. The way it strengthens the body and the mind is amazing. It is kind of like a two for one deal. You get stronger but also soften at the same time. You gain a better understanding of yourself inside and out. I also love that even though I’ve been practicing for years now I still feel like I'm always finding new ways to get out of my comfort zone.

I would definitely suggest YTT it is such a life changing experience that can open doors to new beginnings.

Interested in taking your YTT?

Join us in beautiful Mui Ne, a peaceful and quiet fishing village on the southeast coast of Vietnam. Our unique yoga teacher training is a 22-day immersive journey of yoga, mindfulness, and self-discovery by the ocean in Vietnam. The training runs from November 24 to December 15, 2024. Learn more.

Yoga Teacher Training Graduate Feature: Fiona

Meet Fiona, our 200-Hour Teacher Training graduate from our 2021 training in Queenscliff, Australia. Fiona currently teaches at Upstate Studios in Geelong and Makai Yoga Collective in Ocean Grove.

Fiona shares her yoga teaching journey and what she has learned along the way.

Why did you do your 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training?

I had become disillusioned with my corporate retail life and started to feel my passion waning and was questioning my existence. I was so connected to my ego and felt every painful moment of it. So I sold my house, quit my job and intended on taking a few months off before thinking about what was next. The our tough teacher Covid19 arrived and I was suddenly faced with no job prospects (retail sector wasn’t hiring) and lockdown life (social butterfly was trapped). A little depressed and distressed, I turned to the one practice that had supported me through the previous few years - yoga. I utilised my practice into lockdown and then started to think - maybe I could be a yoga teacher? I brushed it off as a dream because I’d only started doing yoga at 40 years of age and I was 43 when Covid hit. Fast forward a little bit and I saw saigon om advertising their YTT in Australia for the first time (Hang and Sarah were also contained in Australia until the borders opened!). It was my sign, my once in a blue moon opportunity to do my Yoga Teacher Training with two people who live their practice and who are just divine humans. And the rest as they say ‘is history’. I started yoga at 40, graduated YTT at 44 and have been teaching for over a year now. I guess its never too late to go after your dreams.

Which practices from the training have supported you most in life?

• Breathwork, Pranayama, and enjoying my every breath.

• Qi Gong - the simplicity of movement to breath and listening to my body.

• Yoga -  the embodiment process through yoga was the ultimate healing tool for me to over come my negative feelings/emotions.

• Mindfulness - becoming mindful has positively changed my interactions with people daily, improved my relationships with others (and myself) and made my life much more peaceful.

What are some of the things you've discovered as a practitioner and a teacher?

• Nothing lasts forever. Everyone makes mistakes, even yoga teachers!

• Laugh at yourself. No one likes an uptight yoga teacher.  

• Non-attachment (still a work in progress for me).

• The practice truly does meet you where you're at.

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned on the mat that are supporting you to meet the challenges of life?

• It’s ok to fall out of balance. It’s the same as life, its ok to come in and out of balance, so you find even better balance each time.

• You are stronger than you think. Using the breath to hold in poses, balancing etc teaches me that I can do hard things. ‘One more breath here in Crow Pose anyone?’

• Non-waiting. This has translated into me being super zen at the supermarket, in traffic, when the kids are going crazy. This one is my favourite I think.

• Noble silence. I am a talker, over talker, over thinker, over everything. Noble silence offers me the time and space to just be.

What do you love about teaching yoga?

The students, the people I’ve met through teaching yoga, and sharing my ‘Hang-isms’ and ‘Sarah-isms’ (Hang and Sarah jokes/snippets of wisdom weaved into class).

How has your yoga teaching journey unfolded?

I jumped right into teaching unintentionally. I got asked to step into a yoga teaching gig at a friends gym Lucefit Australia as they needed someone straight away. I didn’t want to do it because I was so scared to actually teach, but I was even more scared to say no to this friend. It ended up being the best thing I ever did. If I waited for the perfect studio, perfect class, perfect time - I wouldn’t be teaching today. I was then so connected to teaching that I did my Qi Gong, Restorative and Yin teacher training. Once I was qualified, I applied to Upstate Studios, where I had practiced most of my yoga life and was accepted as a yin yoga teacher! Dream come true. And I was then also then lucky enough to join the collective at Makai Yoga Collective and teach Qi Gong and yoga. I also taught at a few workshops and retreats which were by far and away my favourite.

I feel so grateful and blessed to have each of these opportunities to learn and find out which classes/times/studios/styles suited me best. It’s not always the right fit and that’s ok.

Top tip: maybe just take on 1-2 studios in the first six months of teaching. I did get a bit overwhelmed with the admin side of each studio. They all had different check in systems, different passcodes/keys, different music systems, different class lengths and styles. And it’s nice to remember the students names - remembering the students names from three different studios is almost impossible.

Interested in taking your YTT this year?

Join us in beautiful Mui Ne, a peaceful and quiet fishing village on the southeast coast of Vietnam. Our unique yoga teacher training is a 22-day immersive journey of yoga, mindfulness, and self-discovery by the ocean in Vietnam. The training runs from November 24 to December 15, 2024. Learn more.

4 Easy Ways To Bring Happiness Into Your Day Every Morning

Would you like to receive a bouquet of flowers every morning upon waking up? I do. Although I don’t necessarily buy or grow flowers myself but how I start my day often gives me the same feeling as receiving a bouquet of fresh flowers.  

1. Smile & Breathe

I smile and breathe in bed when I wake up. I smile to practice gratitude for my aliveness. I breathe deeply to remind myself that I’m truly alive. I usually place one hand on my belly and the other on my heart and take 3 deep joyous breaths as I lie in bed. Sometimes I enjoy my breath a few more times longer when my beating heart says hello, the sun radiates on my face, the pitter patter of the raindrops melodically sing on my window, or the birds chant from high above. This sense of aliveness and gratitude helps cultivate peace and joy throughout my day.

2. Hang time

I make an effort to wake up before everyone so I can have some Hang time. It is time to practice Noble Silence where I don’t plan or think of my to-do list for the day. I simply carry on the mindful breathing from my bed to the washroom to setting up my coffee-making ritual. The fragrance from the coffee brings so much joy to me. I then sit down and enjoy a big tall glass of water before I take my first delicious sip of coffee that I have carefully crafted.  

After coffee is usually the reading of our favourite Zen teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh’s book. I’m currently reading “How to Love” and his latest release, “The Art of Living.” There is so much insight and wisdom in his writing. Sometimes one sentence has such profound effect on me that I have to put the book down so I can contemplate how to put it to practice in my daily life. I love that about Thay’s writing. He makes it practical and real for me.

3. Mindful movement

After my coffee and reading spiritual text I like to take care of my body and mind with some sort of physical practice. Every day is different and organic in my practice. After checking in with myself I then plan out the practice for my morning. I vary my practices from fitness workouts to yoga to Qi Gong to pranayama (breathing exercises) and most recently long morning walks on the ocean shore in Ocean Grove, Australia. It all depends where I am and what I feel like in the morning.

4. Plan out my day.

After a delicious and nourishing morning, I then consciously plan out my day, which usually starts with turning on the internet to take care of my inbox, check social media, and simply be ready to receive and connect with other people in my daily interactions. If my capacity is low for whatever reason I tend to spend more alone time and be mindful of my speech to others. The important thing to me is that I listen to myself and know what’s going on inside and around me without making too much of a fuss.

My Qi Gong teacher in China once told me “How you start your Qi Gong practice is how the rest of your practice is going to be.”  For example, if I start Qi Gong with focus, grounding and calming intentions, then I continue to cultivate that concentration, strong grounding and peaceful energy throughout the practice. I took his wisdom a step further and applied it to my morning upon waking up. If I start it in a nourishing, joyful and peaceful way than it becomes a reflection of how my day is going to be.  

As a teacher, I often find myself talking and sharing in front of groups of people. I love starting out my morning in a way that nourishes my soul, heart, body and mind. I'm then able to offer my freshness to the people I encounter throughout the day. Our mindfulness teacher often refers to it as “watering the other person’s flowers.”

How do you start out your day? How can you bring peace and calmness into your morning and day? And, how can you offer this to your community as well?

Peacefully dwelling in my almond latte,
Hang

8 Pieces of Brocade - Ba Duan Jin

Hang’s very first Qi Gong encounter was going in the deep end with the Yang Tai Chi sequence. She loved it so much that she journeyed to China to learn more. Her first Qi Gong encountered was with a young humble teacher that mostly practiced Kung Fu in a system called Lohan. Shaolin monks still practice this system. Initially, he didn’t want to take Hang on as a student. Through perseverance and mostly begging, she was finally accepted as his private disciple. Can you guess the first Qi Gong sequence she learned?

You guessed it, The 8 Pieces of Brocade, or Ba Duan Jin in Chinese. Hang still practices it regularly.

The 8 Pieces of Brocade are eight individual mindful movements (exercises) that are practiced in a silken and smooth way. Over time the breath will be deep and slow to coordinate the slow movement to sync in with the breath.

The 8 Brocades’ history and origin are still unclear but we have an idea that it was mentioned in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) text. It has also been traced as far back as 300 B.C. in Yellow Emperor’s traditional Chinese medical text. Some Qi Gong scholars and historians believe it was developed in the fifth century, some in the tenth century as well as the twelfth century to increase soldier vitality. What is clear is that the practice has helped many practitioners improve their overall well-being, balance, strength, focus and concentration. Today, there are many 8 Brocade traditions and forms but its essence remains the same. The version I’m sharing was taught to me while living in southern China.

The Ba Duan Jin as a whole is broken down into eight separate exercises, each focusing on cleansing and stimulating a different physical area and various qi meridians.  The 8 Brocades are also wonderful for anyone with lower back issues.  You do not need to practice all 8 Brocades if you don’t have a lot of time. You may want to pick one or two that are most relevant to you in the moment and practice each portion 5-10 times. But I do suggest to always start with #1 Bring Earth to Heaven and to always end with #8 Heaven Falling. And, did you know that you can practice Ba Duan Jin sitting or standing up?

Curious to Learn The 8 Brocades?

Join Hang online for the On Demand 8 Brocades Series with 11 x 30-minute videos or start with the first free sample video: 1st Brocade - Bring Earth to Heaven.

Enjoy your practice. May your practice flourish in happiness and joy,
Hang

5 Simple Ways I Incorporate Mindfulness Into My Daily Life

Mindfulness is the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment. This awareness helps us recognise what is happening inside of us and around us in every moment. 

When I first discovered mindfulness ten years ago, I only practiced it on my yoga mat or meditation cushion. I felt very peaceful while I meditated or practiced yoga, then as soon as I stepped out into the world, I would feel anger and anxiety at the traffic and busy streets in Ho Chi Minh City. I didn't know that there was another way to be in the world.

Sometime later during a day of mindfulness in Melbourne, I practiced mindful tea drinking for the first time. As a group we sat peacefully and enjoyed our tea in silence. As I sipped my tea, I had a big 'aha' moment. Tears streamed down my face as I realised that mindfulness is not just for the yoga mat or cushion, it is a way of life. My perception to my way of life forever changed that day. I experienced a breakthrough and cried tears of relief, relief that there is another way to live, a more peaceful and joyful way than I had been living all my adult life. 

Over the last ten years, as I've nourished my mindfulness energy, my practice has brought more peace and joy into all areas of my life. I know how to take better care of my anger and anxiety, my family relationships have improved, I find peace in my daily activities, and I have a deeper appreciation of nature and the people I love. I also now enjoy sharing this peaceful way of life with others. 

In my mindfulness practice, I enjoy having a daily organic formal practice, which changes day to day and includes sitting meditation, mindful walking, yoga, Qi Gong and Tai Chi. I also enjoy practicing mindfulness informally by bringing it into my everyday activities. I find that my formal and informal practices nourish and support each other.

Here I share five simple ways that I incorporate mindfulness into my daily life.

1. Waking Up

The first thing I do when I wake up is breathe and smile. I feel grateful to wake up with a new day ahead. I often recite a gatha (poem/verse) from my mindfulness teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh:

Waking up this morning, I smile.
Twenty-four brand-new hours are before me.
I vow to live fully each moment
and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.

Reciting this gatha while I breathe and smile helps me let go of any anxiety I may feel about the day ahead. It brings me peace and calmness and I carry this peace with me as I sit up, place my feet on the floor, and take my first steps of the day.

2. Showering

As I step into the shower I practice smiling. My smile nourishes my gratitude for having fresh clean running water. My smile also helps me be present so I can enjoy the feeling of the warm or cool water on my skin. I step out of the shower feeling flower-fresh in body and mind.

3. Driving

My mindfulness teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, asks “Why rush? Our final destination will only be the graveyard.” This reminds me to go slowly in life and especially when I drive. I try to stay at the speed limit and give myself lots of space between my car and the car in front of me. When I stop at the red light, I smile at my old habit energy of irritation and use the red light as my ‘bell of mindfulness’ to bring my mind home to my body with my breath. Speed humps used to annoy me but I recently added a new driving practice to enjoy them! I slow down the car to peacefully drive over them while at the same time slowing down my mind with deep and calm breaths.

4. Preparing and Eating Meals

I really enjoy preparing my meals at home with fresh, organic and wholesome ingredients. In the past I would rush through cooking and be irritated at how long it takes. Now with mindfulness, I enjoy each task. Smiling also helps. Sometimes I catch myself with my grumpy face, and then I smile with gratitude to have delicious fresh produce. I smile at the vegetables and reflect on the journey they have taken and the elements (rain, sun, earth, clouds, farmers etc.) that have nurtured them. Then when I sit down to eat, I take away any distractions (TV, phone, books, newspapers) and eat just to eat. Between each mouthful I place my fork down and focus only on the food in my mouth, chewing slowly and enjoying the waves of tastes and textures. Eating without any distractions makes the food become real and I appreciate and enjoy my meals immensely. I've noticed that I eat less when I eat mindfully, too.

5. Queuing

While I am waiting in a queue at the supermarket or the post office, I try to practice “non-waiting”. I become aware of my habit of reaching for my phone to distract myself and leave my phone in my bag. Instead of checking my phone, I stand peacefully and enjoy my breath, being aware of what’s happening inside me and around me. Then when it’s my turn to be served, I am ready to offer my smile, peace and freshness to the cashier.

I would love to hear about your informal mindfulness practices. How do you bring mindfulness into your everyday life?

A lotus to you, Buddha to be,
Sarah

How to Start or Grow Your Qi Gong Practice with saigon om

Recently a friend shared that their acupuncturist suggested they start practicing Qi Gong and they asked us how to get started. We thought we’d share with you, too, the steps to start or grow your current Qi Gong practice with us, saigon om.

In-Person Qi Gong Classes

For those in Kingston, Ontario, join Hang for her twice weekly Qi Gong classes at Studio 330 and Kopifit. Find the class details here.

For those in Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula (Victoria) in Australia, two of our Qi Gong Teacher Training graduates teach at local studios:

• Fiona at Makai Yoga Collective in Ocean Grove

• Molly at Samana Yoga in Queenscliff

saigon om Virtual Studio

If in-person or live isn’t available where you are, try our on-demand classes to meet you where you are in your practice. Our Virtual Studio includes unlimited access to our entire library of 200+ videos including over 80 Qi Gong videos and the four Qi Gong Series. Some of our in-person students still have our online membership in case they travel or can’t make it to the studio. Membership starts at $23/month. Start today with a 7-day free trial.

We also have a range of free online classes below.

• Qi Gong Warrior Series: Part One Oneness (30-minutes)

• Qi Gong for Happiness (8-minutes)

• Qi Gong for Finding Balance (10-minutes)

• Qi Flow for Hips (8-minutes)

Online Qi Gong Series

You can always deepen your Qi Gong practice on your own time from the comfort of your own home with our Online Qi Gong Series. We have four specially designed series to take you on a beautiful Qi Gong journey including Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Five Treasures, The 8 Brocades, and Sound Healing with Qi Gong. Learn more.

Qi Gong Immersions & Teacher Training

Another way to deepen your Qi Gong practice is to join Hang for her weekend immersions where we dive deeper with theories and philosophy of Tao. Many of our students who have done the immersions find it empowering to know the theory behind Hang’s weekly classes. More importantly, they feel empowered to know what they need to find balance in their personal practice.

If you feel ready to immerse yourself in Qi Gong, join us for our in-person Qi Gong Immersions 1-4 in Kingston, Ontario. The four Immersions also make up our Qi Gong Teacher Training certification. More details here.

Or join us online this July and August for our Online Qi Gong Teacher Training. More details here.

Please let us know if you have any questions as you start or nourish your current practice. Email us at hello@saigonom.com.

6 Things to Look For in a Yoga Teacher

I love that yoga is accessible everywhere, including online. You’d think it’s easy to find a teacher that’s right for you. But it isn’t necessarily the case. Naturally, you want a trusted teacher that can help you grow, be it in a physical, emotional or spiritual way. Here are some basic tips I often share with folks that ask “How do you find a good yoga teacher?” The answer is it all depends on where you are in your journey. Here are some general guidelines that I use for my own teacher-seeking journey.

1) Friendliness

According to Yoga Journal, the number one thing students look for in a yoga teacher is friendliness. Is your teacher available, approachable and welcoming before, during and after class? Watch out for teachers that talk way too much about themselves and carry a one-sided conversation.

2) Walks the Talk

A good teacher shares from their heart and practice rather than from their mind or ego. When they speak, you can feel the loving teachings from their heart. You find their class joyful and empowering. You may even naturally gravitate towards their presence of peace and calmness.

3) Works the Room

We emphasize this point in the Art of Teaching module of our 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training program. The teacher needs to know their yoga stuff, which means they have a solid idea of their teachings from sequencing and assisting (if they’re comfortable with touch), to class flow, breath cues, safety while observing, maintaining a sacred and comfortable environment for everyone. More specifically, a good teacher is always observing their class in order to give options and permission to accommodate all bodies in the class at all times. In short, the teacher needs to accommodate and know their anatomical alignment, breath and mindful cues.

4) Knows How to Hold Space

A good teacher is strong in their practice and is capable of holding space for you with their presence to be, breathe, let go, reflect, and cultivate love, peace and joy. Their voice is caring, loving, and dynamic. On a side note, their playlist should also reflect this. Remember that yoga is a sacred place of practice. Not a rock concert.

5)  Makes Class Enjoyable

It can get boring and a bit painful if you feel “stuck” in a room full of strangers for 60-75 minutes; meaning you are not enjoying class. When the teacher is fully present, they know how to hold space in an inclusive way so you feel a sense of belonging in class, and they make the class fun and light-hearted.

6) Is Always Growing

A good teacher is someone that you would likely be learning from for the most part of your yogic journey. “But wouldn’t you get bored of hearing the same stuff from the same teacher?” You ask.  Not if your teacher is also on a learning and growing journey and joyfully brings you along to help deepen your journey too. My belief is, a good teacher is always growing with their students. 

Happy teacher-seeking,
Hang

Louisa’s Yoga Teaching Training Journey

If I had told myself one year ago that I would be a qualified yoga teacher and teaching three classes a week I would never have believed myself.

But here’s the amazing thing - that is all now true. After moving overseas with my husband and two small children in 2017 my focus for the first year was on getting us settled. However, I soon realised that once I had taken care of everyone else my own wellbeing was suffering. I had a left behind a corporate career and a friendship group that filled much of my time and life. 

As I began practicing more yoga I was able to build my inner peace and happiness, but the opportunities to get to a class were limited with the commitments of a young family. 

After a chance conversation with a former saigon om alumni, I found out more about saigon om and Sarah and Hang. After jumping on their website and saw they were holding an upcoming yoga teacher training in Ho Chi Minh City I felt this was not a coincidence, so I took the plunge and decided to sign up. Initially, my main goal for joining the program was to gain enough knowledge in yoga to confidently have my own self practice to fit in around my family’s schedule.  Little did I know I would gain far more than that!

Walking into the beautiful Mandala Wellness grounds on my first day of YTT I knew I had made the right decision. Over the course of the next 6 weeks I made incredible friends, learnt an awful lot about yoga and anatomy but perhaps most importantly I learnt even more about myself. Sarah and Hang’s incredibly knowledgeable, warm and inclusive teaching style and carefully structured course gave me the life long gift of mindfulness. I can safely say that mindfulness has changed my life, it has made me a better person, friend, daughter, partner and mother. I am happier, calmer and more peaceful. 

I also realised about two weeks into the course that I wanted to teach yoga. The final section of the program is tailored to support each of us in guiding a class and upon graduation I felt extremely well equipped to head out and share my practice with others.

Looking at my life now a year on I am a different person - happier, healthier and mindful - and a lot of that is entirely down to crossing paths with Sarah and Hang and having the gift of joining their Yoga Teacher Training program.

​3 Myths About Becoming a Yoga Teacher

As we prepare to hold our twelfth 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training, we reflect on the reasons that students have shared with us why they feel afraid or intimidated to take a yoga teacher training or become a yoga teacher. The sharings are reasonable and understandable. Let us help you feel at ease and explain.

Here are the three main misconceptions about becoming a yoga teacher that we’ve come across:

1. You need to be able to do all of the "advanced" poses

With the yoga world venturing away from a holistic approach and focusing on a more commercial and physical-based practice, we can get caught up in what yoga poses should look like and forget that the practice is to cultivate self-awareness and self-understanding, both on and off the yoga mat.

At saigon om, we believe that yoga is for all bodies, ages, abilities, and levels. Our yoga teacher training is designed to meet you where you are at with your yoga practice. Advanced poses can be fun and playful, and very useful if you're featuring on the front of yoga magazine. We’ve found that a strong and steady yoga practice that suits our body is where we really get to know ourselves and create space for transformation and insight.

But don't worry, as part of the teaching component at our yoga teacher training, we share ways to teach advanced poses when you aren't able to do them yourself or demonstrate them when you are teaching.

There are many other ways to strengthen and challenge our yoga practice which are part of our yoga teacher training program, including pranayama (breathing meditation), Qi Gong, mindfulness, Sanskrit, yoga anatomy, meditation, understanding the Ayurvedic doshas, mantra chanting, and of course the most advanced pose of all “Smile-asana”.

2. You need to have a "yoga body"

I remember thinking this way before I became a yoga teacher. What is the right yoga body anyway? I thought that I needed to look like a yoga model from a yoga magazine. When I became a yoga teacher and realised that how I feel is much more important then how I look, I let go of the stigma around the "yoga body." I felt empowered to share my yoga and mindfulness practice. Now, I enjoy being an example to other students who are thinking about teaching that you don’t need to look a certain way to teach yoga. Yoga is for EVERY body!

This is the same for being flexible. You don't need to be super bendy to teach yoga. In fact, if you are not very flexible then you will have more understanding of your students and know the tips and tricks to take care of less-flexible students on the mat.

3. You need to be a yoga expert

I had a conversation recently about feeling the need to be a yoga expert with a student who was signing up for our yoga teacher training. When I asked about her yoga experience, she humbly replied that she practices 3-4 times a week but feels she is not an expert. I really like her view on her practice.

A common misperception is that we need to know all the yoga poses, know all the Sanskrit names, and have a "perfect" daily practice to become a yoga teacher. We all know that in life, there is no perfect. And in fact, what we discover when we start teaching yoga is that the more that we learn, the more we see we have to learn. We discover that we are forever a student of yoga. After I taught my first yoga class almost ten years ago, I instantly became a better student. I wanted to take in as much information as I could, to learn and take more yoga trainings, as a way to deepen my practice and share more with my students.

In summary

Yoga teacher training will meet you where you are at in your yoga practice. You will gain a deep understanding of asana, yoga anatomy, philosophy, mindfulness, meditation, pranayama, and holistic wellness. It is a transformational time to deepen your yoga and mindfulness practice, establish a solid foundation from the ground up, and prepare you to be a yoga teacher.

Are you thinking of joining us for our 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Vietnam in 2024? You’ll find all the details here.

With joy on and off the yoga mat,
Sarah

7 Simple Ways to Kickstart 2023

There’s a Taoist saying, “Change is inevitable, unless it’s change.” For you Star Trek fans, the Borgs would say, “Resistance is futile.” Without change, we’d still be babies and can’t read this awesome blog and the food we eat would still remain as seedlings. I think you get the point to the inevitability of change and perhaps welcome change. In my experience when I resist to change I suffer. Here are some questions I've been reflecting on to help me understand and welcome change:

How did I adapt to change?
When I resist to change, how does that make me feel?
What one practice that I resort to keep my peace when change is happening that is out of my control? Case in point: COVID restrictions.
What would I do differently or the same to maintain my peace?

Despite all the unknown changes that our world is experiencing, I feel very grateful to have the path of well-being to keep my mental strength and resilience as I welcome 2023. Let’s begin anew together and welcome change as I share 7 very simple ways to cultivate mental strength and peace. The best part is they’re all free!

Did you know that about 92% of the people who make New Year's resolutions fail every year? It's probably the resolutions are daunting or too far-fetched after a day or two, like a drastic diet change or strict fitness regime. 

I invite you to start with small achievable simple things that you can do every day to create good habits and thus, voila, cultivate well-being. For example, I challenge you to wake up 15 minutes early starting January and practice 15 minutes of Qi Gong, sun salutations, meditate, or all. Start small and commit for three short weeks and see what happens. If you start to feel good or better, continue on or email me for more suggestions. Start small and it will have a rippling effect on the rest of good habits.

Here are seven small and simple habits to kickstart your new year (I still practice these everyday!)

1. Smile with Gratitude and Breathe Upon Waking in the Morning

Upon waking up early each morning, remain in bed, smile and feel your breath coming in and out for about 5 breaths. This practice helps me to remind myself that I am still alive and it’s a gift to be alive. I feel very grateful for waking up every morning. Not everyone gets to wake. Naturally, do more if it’s too enjoyable. Then get up. Do not “BBQ” in bed – it’s a Vietnamese expression that means when you wake up, you get up. Avoid rolling, tossing or turning like a veggie kabob on the grill.

2. Stay Hydrated

After waking up, the first thing I consume is a tall glass of water to hydrate myself from the night’s sleep. Your body loses water (and carbon dioxide) through your exhales each night. If you’re on the go, carry a water bottle with you and drink the equivalent of another 4 to 5 more tall glasses of water throughout the day. Sometimes we confuse thirst with hunger and end up eating instead of drinking. If you've been to our fascia release workshop, you may recall that fascia needs water to prevent tension and tightness in the body.

3. Move Your Body

A simple and inexpensive form of exercise is walking outdoors. 10 minutes is a good start to get the blood or Qi (energy) circulating. If it is too enjoyable do more or continue later on in the day. When walking, enjoy Mother Nature’s views and sounds, say hello or smile to the people that cross your path. Coordinate your steps with your deep breaths. Feel a sense of ease and joy in your steps. Avoid listening to music or getting lost in thoughts. Walk to just walk. Or, jog to just jog.

After your walk, take 5-10 minutes to stretch out your muscles and mind. I prefer to practice yoga or Qi Gong where breath is coordinated with movement to help keep my mind from wandering. This helps me stay focused on what I’m doing and also keeps my body loose and gliding, speaking in fascia terms (-:

4. Smile During Daily Activities

I named this pose “smilasana” in yoga. Smile at everything that you do, like driving, cutting up the vegetables, taking out the garbage, strolling in the supermarket, standing in queue, walking from A to B, and in activities or chores that you don’t care for. One day you’ll find joy in it. Smiling helps me find ease and peace in myself and in what I’m doing. It is also contagious. Strangers will soon smile back.

The way I see it is I always have a choice; to suffer while doing the work or to find joy in doing the work. Why suffer when you have a choice, right?

Use every moment to smile and enjoy your breath. This simple practice reminds me that I’m still alive and often helps me to realize that whatever it is that I’m struggling with is smaller than I perceive it to be.

How wonderful it is to smile to my aliveness every day. If not, it likely means that I’m dead or walking around like a zombie.  

Fun facts about smiling. It only takes 17 muscles to smile but 43 muscles to frown. Smiling produces “feel good” chemicals. Our mindfulness teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, says, “Smile to offer yourself and others your freshness.”  To me smiling is like offering myself a fresh bouquet of flowers without having to spend money on flowers.

5. Stay Positive

Water your garden and stay positive. When I complain, swear, or have negative thoughts, I water the weeds in my garden and I’m the first receiver of this suffering, and then the people around me are the second and third receivers of my negativity. Nobody likes to be around a complainer or a negative person. It is exhausting. We also lower our self-worth and lose the ability to heal.

Take a moment to come back to your breath before reacting. Your breath is real. Sister Dang Nghiem at Plum Village monastery says, “The strong emotions experienced are just states of mind. Come back to your breath.” Physically remove yourself from the negative situation if you need to. Look for the good or accept the situation without negativity. This requires conscious practice and deep looking to help you understand your behaviour and perception. Buddha says, “Where there’s perception, there’s deception.” Understand yourself and understand the other person. Remember that 90% of our suffering is self-inflicted. Be open and curious. Our experience often deceives us into believing what is right or wrong. This can be dangerous.

6. Rest

Take time each day to rest your body from the doing and the mind from the overdrive thinking. It can be as simple as sitting or lying down for 5 to 10 minutes and just be with your breath. Be with your breath and allow your mind to come home to your body. You can do this anytime of the day. This is why I love savasana, the resting pose, at the end of every yoga practice. On a side note, have you tried yoga? There are all kinds of styles to suit your needs.

7. Quality Time

Spend quality time with your loved ones. When you’re with your loved ones, really be there with them. This means avoid getting distracted with your phone, laptop, TV and other devices. My phone on always on silent or out of sight when I’m with my family. I’ve also turned off all the pop-up notifications from social media. I allocate some time every day to take care of important messages and emails. 

Sarah and I have made a pact that whenever one of us is on our device and the other person starts talking, we stop using our device and give our full attention to the person who is talking to us. We both feel strongly that  the presence of another person is more important than laptops or smart phones. If it's an urgent email that we need to give our full attention to, we ask the other person to give us silence for x minutes. 

Our mindfulness teacher likes to remind us when we fight, disagree or suffer, “Where will we all be 300 years from now?” Treasure your moments with family and friends.

May your 2023 be nourished with loving kindness, peace and joy.

Smiling to the new year ahead,
Hang & Sarah

​What is the Difference between Yin Yoga & Restorative Yoga?

​This is a question we are asked often. Aren't yin & restorative yoga the same? The simple answer: no. 

Yin yoga and restorative yoga are two very powerful and yet different physical practices. Sometimes they are confused because both practices are slow and methodical, with long-held poses that allow time for stillness and release tension in the body.

Here are the differences:

Yin Yoga 

• Targets the connective tissues (fascia), bones, and joints.

• Focuses on opening the meridians or energy pathways of the body.

• Uses minimal props.

• Can be a stimulating and intense practice.

• Can be mentally and physically challenging and empowering due to physical sensations and stillness/time spent in poses.

Restorative Yoga 

• Allows the body and mind to rest and restores energy.

• Focuses on muscle relaxation.

• Uses lots of props to fully support the body.

• A calming and gentle practice.

• Can be mentally challenging due to stillness in poses and learning how to relax.

Both yin yoga and restorative yoga are beautiful practices and much needed in our busy lives. We encourage you to find yin and restorative yoga classes at your local studio. If you’re interested in deepening your practice or would like to learn how to teach yin yoga or restorative yoga, join us at our in-person trainings in 2023:

50-hour Yin Yoga Teacher Training
January 27-29 and February 4-5, 2023
Kingston, Ontario
Learn more >

50-hour Restorative Yoga Teacher Training
February 24-26 and March 4-5, 2023
Kingston, Ontario
Learn more >

Calming and nourishing breaths to you,
Sarah & Hang

Five Ways That Menstrual Cycle Awareness Nourishes Well-Being

After practicing mindfulness for many years, learning about Menstrual Cycle Awareness added another layer of awareness to my mindfulness practice, one that's fine-tuned to my cyclical nature as a woman. Menstrual cycle awareness feels like an embodied spiritual practice where I don’t need to do anything except listen deeply to myself and let my cycle guide me. 

Being in tune with my menstrual cycle helps me harmoniously interact with myself and the world. I have learned how to honour my feelings, needs, and energy levels, and practice self-care throughout my cycle.

When we track our cycle, we can began to see a pattern that is like the seasons of the year with menstruation as inner-winter, pre‐ovulation as inner-spring, ovulation as inner-summer, and the pre-menstruum as inner-autumn.

These are five ways that Menstrual Cycle Awareness nourishes my well-being:

1. Energy Levels

I sync my cycle with my schedule which helps me manage my energy in an efficient and sustainable way. I try to take at least a day or two off when I am bleeding, schedule more social activities and work meetings in my inner-spring and inner-summer, and find alone time in my inner-autumn. I listen to my body and respond to what it needs in terms of exercise, rest, and nutrition.

2. Self-care 

By understanding my needs throughout the cycle, I know how to practice self-care in each season. I find time to rest, make sure not to overschedule myself, and schedule alone/quiet time. Practices such as Yoga Nidra (deep relaxation), walking in nature, going to bed early, staying hydrated, and focused time with loved ones are other ways that nurture me throughout my cycle. 

3. Emotional Well-Being

Knowing where I am in my cycle grounds me and helps me to stay in tune with what I need each day. When I moved overseas earlier this year, I skipped tracking my cycle and my emotions ran wild. I felt exhausted and my mind was scattered and agitated. As soon as I started tracking again, I felt refreshed, grounded, and back in tune with myself. By tracking my emotions throughout the cycle, I can see a regular pattern - where anger, sadness/grief, or joy and excitement are usually felt. This helps me practice loving kindness and compassion towards myself and see the impermanence of my emotions, to know that there are always brighter days coming.  

4. Creativity and Work

I really enjoy the creative process and follow my cycle's lead: in inner-winter I let myself rest and dream, in inner-spring I am playful and experiment with new ideas, in inner-summer I get down to work and create as much as I can, then in inner-autumn my inner-critic wraps it all up with a fine eye for editing. Working with my cycle, allows me to be productive and work efficiently.

5. Relationships

Menstrual cycle awareness opened up a new channel of communication and understanding for myself and my partner, Hang. We are able to share which season we are in and what we need each day. I also try to schedule catch ups with family and friends in my more social seasons of inner-spring and inner-summer.

Menstrual Cycle Awareness is simple to practice. I write a few notes at the end of each day, recording how I feel physically, emotionally and energetically. I also take note of my needs for food, hydration, sleep, company and conversations, space and quiet, and activity.

If you don't have a menstrual cycle because of pregnancy, breastfeeding, contraception, menopause, or other reasons, you can follow the phases of the moon cycle in the same way.

Menstrual Cycle Awareness has been a life-changing mindfulness practice, one that I feel all women and menstruators deserve to know about and experience. It's hard to remember how I lived life before knowing this practice.

Are you interested in learning more about menstrual cycle awareness?
I would be delighted for you to join me on November 26, 2022 for a 3-Hour Menstrual Cycle Awareness + Womb Yoga Workshop, where we will explore the physical, emotional and energetic shifts that occur throughout our cycle and learn practical ways to live in harmony with our inner rhythm. The workshop will consist of insightful discussions, group sharing, and a feminine flow practice including breathwork, mantra, asana, mudra, and relaxation/yoga nidra to ground into your body and establish a heart-womb connection and flow of energy.

Smiling to your cyclical nature,
Sarah 

3 Reasons to Take a Yoga Teacher Training

As we prepare to hold our twelfth 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Kingston, Ontario, we've been reflecting on some of the biggest reasons why a yoga teacher training is life-changing, regardless of whether you want to teach or not afterwards.

Let us take you through three great reasons to take this life-changing journey.

1. Deepen Your Self-Understanding

Yoga teacher training is like a doorway to start seeing our true selves. With lots of time spent in yoga and meditation practice, and learning how to bring mindfulness into our daily lives, we can have awakening insights about ourselves and how we relate to the world.

We may start to see our tendencies on the yoga mat or how we live our daily lives (anger, rushing, mind wandering, etc). Practicing self-awareness can help us let go of the ways we think or behave that make us suffer and learn how to live in a way that nourishes our joy and peace.

2. Deepen Your Yoga Practice

During the training, you will be immersed in all things yoga. Yoga poses, yoga anatomy, yoga philosophy, Sanskrit, chanting, meditation, breathwork, and mindfulness. You will learn how to create your own yoga sequences for self-practice and work towards any goals that you have - poses that you want to work on, meditation or breathwork techniques you want to learn, cultivating peace on your yoga mat, etc. With loving guidance from your teachers, you can step on the mat with confidence in your practice.

You do not need to have an advanced practice to take a yoga teacher training, it is a place to meet you where you are at and work from there. As students for life, there is always something to work on or work towards.

3. Learn How to Share Your Yoga Practice

One of the best ways to stay on the path of yoga and wellness is by sharing our practice (teaching yoga) with others. And one of the best ways to really know something, is to teach it. Many of our students come to teacher training not wanting to teach. Then a few weeks into the training, they feel lightness and joy in their practice and feel inspired to share their practice and their insights.

At the training, you will learn step-by-step how to share your practice and give you all the tools to become a confident yoga teacher. You will learn tools to hold compassionate space and support your students on their yoga journey; sequencing and teaching skills to craft and teach intelligent, and insightful yoga classes; and how to find your authentic voice, teach from the heart, and understand what makes you unique as a teacher.

Feeling ready to take the leap and sign up for teacher training? Still undecided? If your heart is beating a little faster then usual, it might be a “Yes, I’m ready, my heart is ready!”.

We’d be delighted for you to join us at our upcoming 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Mui Ne, Vietnam in November 2024.

Please always feel free to reach out to us with any questions. We’d love to hear from you!

With a joyful smile,
Sarah & Hang

7 Simple Ways to Kickstart the New Year

There’s a Taoist saying, “Change is inevitable, unless it’s change.” For you Star Trek fans, the Borgs would say, “Resistance is futile.” Without change, we’d still be babies and can’t read this awesome blog and the food we eat would still remain as seedlings. I think you get the point to the inevitability of change and perhaps welcome change. In my experience when I resist to change I suffer. Here are some questions I've been reflecting on to help me understand and welcome change:

How did I adapt to change?
When I resist to change, how does that make me feel?
What one practice that I resort to keep my peace when change is happening that is out of my control? Case in point: COVID restrictions.
What would I do differently or the same to maintain my peace?

Despite all the unknown changes that our world is experiencing, I feel very grateful to have the path of well-being to keep my mental strength and resilience as I welcome 2022. Let’s begin anew together and welcome change as I share 7 very simple ways to cultivate mental strength and peace. The best part is they’re all free!

Did you know that about 92% of the people who make New Year's resolutions fail every year? It's probably the resolutions are daunting or too far-fetched after a day or two, like a drastic diet change or strict fitness regime. 

I invite you to start with small achievable simple things that you can do every day to create good habits and thus, voila, cultivate well-being. For example, I challenge you to wake up 15 minutes early starting January and practice 15 minutes of Qi Gong, sun salutations, meditate, or all. Start small and commit for three short weeks and see what happens. If you start to feel good or better, continue on or email me for more suggestions. Start small and it will have a rippling effect on the rest of good habits.

Here are seven small and simple habits to kickstart your new year (I still practice these everyday!)

1. Smile with Gratitude and Breathe Upon Waking in the Morning

Upon waking up early each morning, remain in bed, smile and feel your breath coming in and out for about 5 breaths. This practice helps me to remind myself that I am still alive and it’s a gift to be alive. I feel very grateful for waking up every morning. Not everyone gets to wake. Naturally, do more if it’s too enjoyable. Then get up. Do not “BBQ” in bed – it’s a Vietnamese expression that means when you wake up, you get up. Avoid rolling, tossing or turning like a veggie kabob on the grill.

2. Stay Hydrated

After waking up, the first thing I consume is a tall glass of water to hydrate myself from the night’s sleep. Your body loses water (and carbon dioxide) through your exhales each night. If you’re on the go, carry a water bottle with you and drink the equivalent of another 4 to 5 more tall glasses of water throughout the day. Sometimes we confuse thirst with hunger and end up eating instead of drinking. If you've been to our fascia release workshop, you may recall that fascia needs water to prevent tension and tightness in the body.

3. Move Your Body

A simple and inexpensive form of exercise is walking outdoors. 10 minutes is a good start to get the blood or Qi (energy) circulating. If it is too enjoyable do more or continue later on in the day. When walking, enjoy Mother Nature’s views and sounds, say hello or smile to the people that cross your path. Coordinate your steps with your deep breaths. Feel a sense of ease and joy in your steps. Avoid listening to music or getting lost in thoughts. Walk to just walk. Or, jog to just jog.

After your walk, take 5-10 minutes to stretch out your muscles and mind. I prefer to practice yoga or Qi Gong where breath is coordinated with movement to help keep my mind from wandering. This helps me stay focused on what I’m doing and also keeps my body loose and gliding, speaking in fascia terms (-:

4. Smile during Daily Activities

I named this pose “smilasana” in yoga. Smile at everything that you do, like driving, cutting up the vegetables, taking out the garbage, strolling in the supermarket, standing in queue, walking from A to B, and in activities or chores that you don’t care for. One day you’ll find joy in it. Smiling helps me find ease and peace in myself and in what I’m doing. It is also contagious. Strangers will soon smile back.

The way I see it is I always have a choice; to suffer while doing the work or to find joy in doing the work. Why suffer when you have a choice, right?

Use every moment to smile and enjoy your breath. This simple practice reminds me that I’m still alive and often helps me to realize that whatever it is that I’m struggling with is smaller than I perceive it to be.

How wonderful it is to smile to my aliveness every day. If not, it likely means that I’m dead or walking around like a zombie.  

Fun facts about smiling. It only takes 17 muscles to smile but 43 muscles to frown. Smiling produces “feel good” chemicals. Our mindfulness teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, says, “Smile to offer yourself and others your freshness.”  To me smiling is like offering myself a fresh bouquet of flowers without having to spend money on flowers.

5. Stay Positive

Water your garden and stay positive. When I complain, swear, or have negative thoughts, I water the weeds in my garden and I’m the first receiver of this suffering, and then the people around me are the second and third receivers of my negativity. Nobody likes to be around a complainer or a negative person. It is exhausting. We also lower our self-worth and lose the ability to heal.

Take a moment to come back to your breath before reacting. Your breath is real. Sister Dang Nghiem at Plum Village monastery says, “The strong emotions experienced are just states of mind. Come back to your breath.” Physically remove yourself from the negative situation if you need to. Look for the good or accept the situation without negativity. This requires conscious practice and deep looking to help you understand your behaviour and perception. Buddha says, “Where there’s perception, there’s deception.” Understand yourself and understand the other person. Remember that 90% of our suffering is self-inflicted. Be open and curious. Our experience often deceives us into believing what is right or wrong. This can be dangerous.

6. Rest

Take time each day to rest your body from the doing and the mind from the overdrive thinking. It can be as simple as sitting or lying down for 5 to 10 minutes and just be with your breath. Be with your breath and allow your mind to come home to your body. You can do this anytime of the day. This is why I love savasana, the resting pose, at the end of every yoga practice. On a side note, have you tried yoga? There are all kinds of styles to suit your needs.

7. Quality Time

Spend quality time with your loved ones. When you’re with your loved ones, really be there with them. This means avoid getting distracted with your phone, laptop, TV and other devices. My phone on always on silent or out of sight when I’m with my family. I’ve also turned off all the pop-up notifications from social media. I allocate some time every day to take care of important messages and emails. 

Sarah and I have made a pact that whenever one of us is on our device and the other person starts talking, we stop using our device and give our full attention to the person who is talking to us. We both feel strongly that  the presence of another person is more important than laptops or smart phones. If it's an urgent email that we need to give our full attention to, we ask the other person to give us silence for x minutes. 

Our mindfulness teacher likes to remind us when we fight, disagree or suffer, “Where will we all be 300 years from now?” Treasure your moments with family and friends.

May your 2022 be nourished with loving kindness, peace and joy.

Smiling to the new year ahead,
Hang & Sarah

8 Benefits of Prenatal Yoga

Prenatal yoga is a wonderful way to take care of ourselves and our changing body, mind, and energy levels during pregnancy. Our prenatal yoga practice can help us listen to, cope with, find support, and connect positively with these changes.

Prenatal yoga teacher and mumma, Sarah Martin, shares eight benefits of prenatal yoga to inspire you to step onto your yoga mat.

1. Physical Fitness and Strength

During pregnancy, more energy and strength is needed to be able to carry the extra weight as your baby grows. Prenatal yoga is a gentle way to strengthen your muscles to support your body during pregnancy, prepare for birth, and assist in recovery postnatally.

2. Support your Changing Body

During pregnancy, changes in your body can happen quickly. Prenatal yoga can help you listen to your body, trust your body, and work within your body’s limitations. Prenatal yoga offers healthy, safe ways to stretch and strengthen muscles to support the growing belly, and improve circulation and flexibility.

3. Eases Common Pregnancy Complaints

Many of the aches and pains that come with pregnancy are caused by the stretching muscles and ligaments that are moving to make space for your growing baby. This may include headaches, back and joint pain, shortness of breath and insomnia. Yoga helps you to strengthen and stretch these areas to lessen discomfort as they shift in your body.

4. Increases Balance

Your balance is challenged physically as your belly grows and the centre of gravity shifts forward, and also emotionally as you prepare for your baby’s arrival. Holding yoga poses and breathing through them encourages us to find balance, both physically and emotionally, on and off the yoga mat.

5. Labour & Birth Preparation

Prenatal yoga teaches you to practice simple breathing techniques to release and let go of tension in the body and mind. Breathing techniques and yoga poses practiced during prenatal yoga can be carried through to birth. When in labour, focusing upon your breath cycle and moving your body in a way that feels good allows for a smoother and more positive birth experience.

6. Connection with others: building community and support

One of the wonderful benefits of prenatal yoga is joining a community with other pregnant people. In our saigon om in-person classes, we start each class with a welcome circle to check in with how each of us are feeling that day. Sharing your pregnancy journey in a loving, supportive energy creates community and connects you socially with a support network that continues after your baby is born.

7. Connect with Baby: Build a Bond and Prepare to Meet your Little One

Regularly practicing yoga during pregnancy is a gentle reminder to let go of the stresses of daily life and focus inward to bond with your growing baby. Sitting in meditation, we can place our hands on our belly and breathe with baby and send them our loving energy. From this beautiful connection, we learn how to be present for both ourselves and our baby during pregnancy, and learn how to move with awareness on and off the yoga mat. As our belly grows, prenatal yoga also helps us appreciate the amazing work our body is doing: growing and nurturing our baby.

8. Time to Pause & Bring Awareness to the Mind

Prenatal yoga gives us time to sit, breathe and bring awareness to how we are feeling in our body, mind and emotions. This allows us to connect with both our hopes and our fears. We can smile with our hopes and dreams about birth and our journey together as parent and child. We can breathe with our fears to calm and understand them.

Are you ready to step onto your yoga mat?

Join Sarah for her specially designed on demand prenatal yoga series for the 2nd and 3rd trimesters. Practice in the comfort and convenience of your own home as you are guided through yoga practices to help your body feel strong and healthy during your pregnancy and prepare your body and mind to be ready for birth.

4 Ways to the Art of Letting Go

As a mindfulness, yoga, Qi Gong, and 'being a good person' student for life, the one super power I’m still cultivating is the Art of Letting Go. My first Qi Gong teacher in southern China would put me in a form/pose and make me hold it for 45 minutes for the first few months of my training. Armed with various mixed martial arts (MMA) black belts, trophies, and knowledge I was ready for the next level of training - to learn how to fly, walk on water, and fight like my first husband, Bruce Lee. To my disappointment, none of that ever happened. Instead, I was tethered to frustration along with many unwholesome thoughts about the teacher and the training.

But…….. I kept going because I was curious.  

I later learned many valuable lessons from those first few months, more so than the Qi Gong forms, philosophy and knowledge I have been accumulating over the years. One of which is to cultivate patience and focus on the practice, rather than comparing it to what I was familiar with or what I was expecting the outcome of each class to be. This was the doorway to my life’s practice of letting go. Back then, I had to let go of my previous MMA knowledge and ego. Since then I have applied that experience to the art letting go in life as well. It’s an art form that requires regular practice.

Here are four things I continue to practice daily to support me in letting go:

1. Focus on the journey and not the outcome.

When I focus on the journey, whether the experience is pleasant or unpleasant, I have better control of how I want my next steps to be. And, I get to live life and not miss out on the moments that I can never get back.

2. Embrace change.

Have you heard of COVID? :-) That’s a change that we need to flow with. “COVID is a fierce teacher” as one of my favourite mindfulness teachers, Thay Phap Hai, says. Fighting change has made me suffer a lot. Instead, I become water and go with the flow.

3. Move away from money, power, fame, sensual pleasure, and external beauty.

Our mindfulness teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, often reminds us that these are all unwholesome volitions. I have experienced them myself when I was in the corporate world. Chasing after these things have made me suffer a great deal. Sarah and I often remind ourselves to stop comparing ourselves to others, not run after fame as we keep our ego in check, and accept that the money we make is enough to live simply and joyfully in the present moment.

4. When we let go, we also let come.

When we no longer hold on to unnecessary weight, we make space for more beautiful things in life, like time with our beloved baby Emma, the ocean, good friends, yoga, mindful cleaning, etc. I’ve learned to let go of many people, situations, events, and things from my life that no longer serve me. Of course, this is easier said then done. And thus, the need to keep on practicing mindfulness in order to nourish our seeds of understanding, strength, and capacity to let go.

What is it that you need to let go of today?

Feeling a bit lighter every day from letting go,
Hang

Absent-Minded and Busy Brain

Do you or do you know someone who experiences any of these regularly?

• Your keys always seem to have walked off and you can’t find them.

• You’re late for almost everything.

• Can’t seem to get a good solid night sleep on most nights.

• When spoken to, words just seem to go in one ear and out the other.

• The mind can’t stop thinking.

These are just some examples of being absent-minded or having a busy brain. Just like the depiction of the above picture, most of us live in the world like the human and very few have our minds like the little girl. I used to live like the person on the left. My mind was full of planning, worries and thinking. Sometimes, I live in my mind for hours. There is a time and place to do that but to put the brain in overdrive like that causes “burn out”. There's a Toaist saying: "If you want to go nuts, live in your head." Oh wait, maybe I made that one up!

After discovering mindfulness, yoga and Qi Gong, I cultivated a superpower called "awareness" to re-evaluate my life and take charge of how I think and live. It had to be slow but the baby steps helped me tremendously. This is what I did.

1) Start the Day Right

My Qi Gong teacher once told me how I start my practice is how my practice is going to be. I decided to apply that concept to the start of each day. Every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is “smile” to remind myself that I have another brand new day ahead. I then take deep mindful breaths. The conscious breathing has given my mind a rest from over thinking and worrying.

Next, I slowly get out of bed and do everything slowly with full awareness. This slow and meditative type of moving about, like brushing my teeth, showering, making coffee, without distractions like TV, radio, social media, helps me strengthen my focus and concentration; concentration helps me remember where I left my keys. (-: I now have a specific spot for my keys. No more losing my keys.

2) Practice Yoga or Qi Gong

Mindful movement practices like yoga and Qi Gong have been around for thousands of years and practiced by many great Zen teachers. The slow movement allows my mind to stay focused and not wander off to many thoughts.

3) One Thing At a Time

Science is telling us that multi-taking is not possible. We think that our mind is focusing on many things at one time when in fact our mind is actually jumping from one activity to the next and taking away our ability to focus and worse, makes us forget about the other activity. Have you tried heating up oil in a pan while cutting up vegetables with the TV on in the background? The focus isn't there and we're not able to see what's going on with the TV, the pan overheats and worse yet, we may accidentally cut ourselves at the cutting board.

4) Walk Everywhere Slower

When I have extra time, I make the effort of walking slowly while smiling at the placement of my feet. Of course, I don't always have extra time to walk slowly, especially with a one-year old to care for, in which case I know that I'm in a hurry and I still try my best to walk quickly with awareness.

I'm sure the list above is not exhaustive but wanted to share the four common things I do everyday to help me stay focused or concentrated to help keep my mind calm and I know what I'm doing with awareness, instead of mindlessly and quickly do things and forget what I've done, like not remembering where I place my car keys.

Do you have an activity that you do that helps keep your mind calm?

Good luck and may you not lose your marbles. (-:

With joy and ease,
Hang

​3 Myths About Becoming a Yoga Teacher

As we prepare to hold our tenth 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training, and our first in Australia, we reflect on the reasons that students have shared with us why they feel afraid or intimidated to take a yoga teacher training or become a yoga teacher. The sharings are reasonable and understandable. Let us help you feel at ease and explain.

Here are the three main misconceptions about becoming a yoga teacher that we’ve come across:

1. You need to be able to do all of the "advanced" poses

With the yoga world venturing away from a holistic approach and focusing on a more commercial and physical-based practice, we understand why it’s easy to feel like this. We can get caught up in what yoga poses should look like and forget that the practice is to cultivate self-awareness and self-understanding, both on and off the yoga mat.

At saigon om, we believe that yoga is for all bodies, ages, abilities, and levels. Our yoga teacher training is designed to meet you where you are at with your yoga practice. Advanced poses can be fun and playful, and very useful if you're featuring on the front of yoga magazine! But we’ve found that a strong and steady yoga practice that suits our body is where we really get to know ourselves and create space for transformation and insight.

But don't worry, as part of the teaching component at our yoga teacher training, we share ways to teach advanced poses when you aren't able to do them yourself or demonstrate them when you are teaching.

There are many other ways to strengthen and challenge our yoga practice which are part of our yoga teacher training program, including pranayama (breathing meditation), Qi Gong, mindfulness, Sanskrit, yoga anatomy, meditation, understanding the Ayurvedic doshas, mantra chanting, and of course the most advanced pose of all “Smile-asana”.

2. You need to have a "yoga body"

I remember thinking this way before I became a yoga teacher. What is the right yoga body anyway? I thought that I needed to look like a yoga model from a yoga magazine. When I became a yoga teacher and realised that how I feel is much more important then how I look, I let go of the stigma around the "yoga body." I felt empowered to share my yoga and mindfulness practice. Now, I enjoy being an example to other students who are thinking about teaching that you don’t need to look a certain way to teach yoga. Yoga is for EVERY body!

This is the same for being flexible. You don't need to be super bendy to teach yoga. In fact, if you are not very flexible then you will have a deep understanding of your students and know the tips and tricks to take care of less-flexible students on the mat.

3. You need to be a yoga expert

I had this conversation recently with a student who was signing up for our yoga teacher training. When I asked about her yoga experience, she humbly replied that she practices 3-4 times a week but feels she is not an expert. I really like her view on her practice.

A common misperception is that we need to know all the yoga poses, know all the Sanskrit names, and have a "perfect" daily practice to become a yoga teacher. We all know that in life, there is no perfect. And in fact, what we discover when we start teaching yoga is that the more that we learn, the more we see we have to learn. We discover that we are forever a student of yoga. After I taught my first yoga class almost ten years ago, I instantly became a better student. I wanted to take in as much information as I could, to learn and take more yoga trainings, as a way to deepen my practice and share more with my students.

In summary

Becoming a yoga teacher and sharing our practice is such a joy and a gift. Hang and I feel so blessed to guide students in their yoga journey and guide teachers-to-be on their teaching journey. 

And for those still feeling nervous about taking a yoga teacher training or becoming a yoga teacher, it’s natural to feel nervous! Your heart might be beating a little faster, no matter what “level” of yogi you feel you’re at. Starting anything new can create nervousness in us and it's okay to feel nervous. We find that the nervousness usually dissipates after our first morning together at our yoga teacher training. In addition, the mindfulness practice incorporated into the training creates a supportive environment to practice and teach yoga. 

We wish you a beautiful journey ahead both on and off the yoga mat.

With joy in your lifelong practice of yoga,
Sarah