What is chanting Long Ek Ong Kars for 2.5 hours like?
September 12, 2019

This is the question I asked two weeks before I did 2.5 hours of Long Ek Ong Kars.

I asked because though I’ve been practicing Kundalini yoga several years, have done my training and am now teaching, doubt still creeps in. Doubt that I can’t do it, that my hips may give way as I birthed a baby this year, though five months on is completely different to five weeks in.

Long Ek Ong Kars are done all over the world in celebration of Yogi Bhajan’s birthday each year, I didn’t want to miss yet another year and meditating on that sound current for hours clears our subconscious mind and balances the chakras.

And you know what? It was completely fine and liberating all at the same time.

It was perfectly aligned, a bank holiday (day off for the husband, suitable childcare), I had money to use for the cab fare and change for a donation. At 4.30am I left the house for Joy Yoga in Dalston and sang out Long Ek Ong Kars!

I’m not sure if anything has cleared, it could be so subtle that my conscious mind hasn’t picked up on it. Though what I do know is that this meditation shows how much time is an illusion. As in those moments chanting, it felt like I had been there for about an hour. AN HOUR. When it was much more.

I don’t know what was more liberating, chanting or getting up early to participate in something so special and so simple at the same time.

There were a whole host of people there, all ages, a baby even joined at the end, cute.

If your thinking of doing it, next time it comes around, just do it, a leap of faith!

Long Ek Ong Kars can be practiced in morning Sadhana, starting at 3 minutes to 11, 31 and 2.5 hours. It’s fun to practice and as we chant each word we pull in the navel, our beginning, our powerhouse! Here’s an easy to follow guide.

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Golden milk two ways
September 6, 2019

Wahoo, it’s been a while! A dose of turmeric for the body (joints) and mind (ahhhh) is so beneficial and I go through a super quick way to make it here. 

There are two ways, first way:

You will need:

A saucepan

A jar with lid or pot

A tablespoon 

Ingredients:

Turmeric powder 

Milk 

Oil (hemp, almond, olive oil)

Method:

  1. Put 4-5 heaped tablespoons of turmeric into a pan, add water, stir, keep adding water. You are making a thin paste, so keep stirring to ensure it doesn’t stick. Keep stirring for 8-10 minutes. 
  2. Leave it aside to cool. 
  3. Take your jar and get paper or a label and write when you made it and to use within a month, stick it on the jar. 
  4. Add the turmeric paste into the jar. 

There you have enough to last you a month!

To make a serving simply take two teaspoons of turmeric paste, add it to a mug, pour on hot water, add milk, two drops of oil and stir. 

Have it as often as you feel! Enjoy! 

Second way: 

I do this when I have more time and I’m just making one portion:

I heat a tablespoon of turmeric as before, this time I add more water and milk straight away. I add crushed cardamom, a cinnamon stick, and cloves. I drizzle in some oil too and stir. I sieve the spices while pouring into a cup. This is a perfect cup for me time on a leisurely day.  

There’s a brilliant video that demonstrates this and it is flawless, wearing all white around bright orange powder – no problem! 

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We are keeping up + New classes!
September 3, 2019

One tired morning with our newborn girl I scrolled through Google researching anything of interest in this new area I found myself in, jolly East London. I couldn’t write (tired x a million) as I researched I found this space, literally called The Space East around 20 minutes away. 

I visited a bunch of times thinking – Where’s the Kundalini Yoga? What if? Then I went to Baby massage and Mum and Baby Yoga and looooved the space! So I’m trialing out classes Tuesday 10th September 6.30-7.30 am. I’m trying, I may stumble but what if it works?

I taught at home to a few friends and at a festival, though teaching in a space for a required length of time is a whole new thing for me. 

My weaknesses are new things – experiences, switches, gadgets, and things to remember. So I’m coming out of my comfort zone to experience something new that could potentially fail. 

I’m also launching classes a little closer to home, my stretch goal for that is 26th September. 

I was with a friend recently and he spoke of a time when Yogi Bhajan (the founder of Kundalini yoga) was starting out, he commented on when no one attended his classes to be ‘the best classes were the classes of one’. A yoga teacher said the same thing a while ago while gathering students there was no show to her classes, instead of sitting and feeling sorry for herself she taught exactly as she would if there was a room full of people. 

‘Good and bad, we are not sad – we are keeping up!’

Yogi Bhajan

In all honesty, I didn’t do that when there was no show to a workshop I hosted. I sat and drank green tea from a can in a giant room happy to be in the cool when it was so hot outside. 

I learned nothing from that. What Yogi Bhajan and my friend learned were self-discipline, to carry on anyway, to fine-tune, to keep up. 

Classes start at The Space East, Forest Gate Tuesday 10th September 2019. You can book via their website or on the Mind Body App. 

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3 Lessons I’ve learned from one day binge-watching TV
August 28, 2019

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Last week I had three days of interruption-free time, it was just S.Kaur and me in the what is usually a busy house. I hadn’t made any solid plans, it was three days before payday and we were set to go to a family wedding at the weekend, I wrote about budgeting that road trip. 

I’ve let a lot of hang-ups go about what my friend calls ‘communal living’ but here I had an opportunity to write in a free moment and watch TV on a big screen too, even in the evening if I wanted. No one was here! 

The first day I worked in the 20 minutes of silence I had while she slept, I drafted a poster I want to put onto A4 page while she was busy playing and I right next to her. 

Then an interesting thing happened, I started to binge-watch on the big screen and six episodes in, I saw my whole vibration change in a really bad way. 

When I was pregnant with S.Kaur, overdue by 10 days, I watched a lot of Netflix and films, nothing too heavy or it set off my unsteady emotions but Workin Moms and Steve Martin in Father of the Bride 1 and 2 were my saving graces. 

Here’s how it happened the other day, I saw Workin Moms had a new season, and another too – GREAT! I started watching it and an episode in I could tell it was going to lead to lots of other stories from people’s past to the now, it was interesting and fun. Then came a few more till I noticed it had gotten sexual and disturbing. I watched another just to get over that one and give it another chance which in turn was worse than the one before. The last episode I watched hit a nerve, it crossed a line and freaked me out, so I stopped. 

I did go onto watch Steve Martin and Martin Short – A night you will forget for the rest of your life, a stand up show that uplifted my fledging spirit and brought me full circle.

Though I realized something, I had been through this exact thing before, the only difference being before I was on the outside looking in. This time I was the one binge-watching.

Lesson 1: Don’t carry on watching a show if it sucks, if it’s so bad you just want to watch one more episode just to see, just to see if it is bad. It’s bad, get over it and go and do something else instead. 

Another trend I noticed happening was day time TV watching, just because I could. Not only is that a bad habit and takes my focus away from our baby rolling a ball with a bell in it across her face and onto a colorful mat repeatedly which is cute. It also completely changes my energy for the day. Think about it, when you watching stand up comedy with a host of topics from spiritual – sex (Simon Amstell – Set free is a good example) it’s as if you’ve programmed your mind to be on that wavelength all day. It also ruined my focus on getting stuff done on my task list whatever the task, it didn’t matter if it was a mundane task in the kitchen, everything fell apart. 

Lesson 2: Even if there’s no space to unwind in front of the television in the evening (we have yet to purchase our sofa) or before bed as I’m too tired, doesn’t mean you need to insert it in the day, what could be your most productive hours. Watching TV just isn’t a priority anymore for me, things will get better on the home front, with a little patience and savings goals achieved. 

I’m not for or against watching Television, it can be a great form of entertainment, laughter therapy releasing stress and you find relatable characters, clever storytelling, and useful content.

If you don’t feel any of the above, then you’re doing it wrong. 

Lesson three 3: Get into movement, move from a stagnant position and do something different. Whether it be a workout like fitness blender on Youtube to up your heart rate or do something different! Anything! Move around the house, switch up your task list to what you can do at the moment or go for a walk. 

Keeping it moving, flowing in movement is a key tool I go to time and time again! Develop your awareness and get intentional. 

I’m currently 5/40 days into Kirtan Kriya and it’s bringing interesting changes. I see why people go on about it bringing up past and exes as I’ve thought through situations from the past more than usual, terms like complacent control describe how life used to be. Yogigems writes about her 40 days here, she’s doing it again this time 1000 days!

I thought about cutting TV out for the 40 days, I’ve come to learn to practice no attachment to watching it at a certain time because 99 percent of the time I can’t (I also don’t pay anything for it wahoo) if I do and can’t, I just get upset by it. Instead, I am focusing on TV and videos as resources, resources to make me laugh, to inspire, to raise awareness and set of positive ripples of intention in action. 

Top things I’ve watched on purpose this week:

Film: Tommorow Man
Ted talk: Relationships are hard but why?
Stand up: Everything is complicated
Podcast: Do it scared Ep4 Obstacles are good

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Budgeting a road trip: An Indian wedding
August 19, 2019

As I’m writing this I’m a few days away for the big trip 100 miles away to a family wedding – Indian style! In case you don’t already know, I’m Sikh and my husband is Sikh Punjabi and aside from two small weddings (one of them our own) this is my first ‘proper Indian wedding’. 

I’m very hot on budgeting and tracking at the moment, I mention some of this in my podcast Episode 12 Let’s talk about money! 

If you haven’t been to a wedding of this style before there are a few things to consider: the build-up starts the week before, a week of meeting, greeting, food eating. For the rest of the family going up early, there are two celebratory days, for each of those days they require a suit and the wedding day they have a suit for the ceremony and another for the reception afterward. 

All together four suits and of course the hair, makeup, bling to go with it. I’m doing things simply, I wear a Dastar anyway, minimal makeup and thankfully my sister in law is a dressmaker and I got tons of suits from our wedding to use (another tradition marriage=suits, some you may never wear). I also have pretty dresses for our daughter given to us as gifts as she is less than a year old. That has made the whole process cheaper and easier, there’s also this unwritten law where I have to look nicer than my mother in law? 

While I don’t have to pay out or organize some things, here are the things that I am budgeting for:

£120 Hotel already paid for – Aparthotels was a great find!

Planned spend: 

£30 Supermarket snacks for journey/hotel 
£40 Make up 
£75 Petrol
£50 Service stations and extra money 
£36 Parking at the hotel 
£20 In fiver notes for Sagan (a gift to bride and groom)

Total: £251 

That’s quite a lot! Considering it’s a wedding, not a holiday, let’s see how well we did:

Actual spend: £167 

£12 Snacks for trip 
£4 nail varnish 
£30 petrol 
£7 drinks at services 
£15 hot food at services 
£25 parking
£50 petrol
£16 missing flip flops 
£20 flip flop replacement (me)

Total leftover: £84 
Money made: £20 

We were under budget and I got some too! Here’s a basic break down, I got our snacks for the pound shop before we left, I bought nail varnish because the Gell nails I got a few days earlier fell off. This hasn’t happened before and usually, I rave about them though it was a busy day in the salon and I feel they were rushed. Kindly we got a family discount on nails and my make up was paid for me too, that’s a blessing (and a saving of at least £40). My Sagaan money was also given to me by my MIL and the parking was cheaper than expected. 

I even finished my 40 Days of meditation for prosperity on the Wedding day!

Even though I tracked this trip, the numbers are still fuzzy, it’s incredible how free-flowing you feel on a trip away- anywhere. Even the £50 on petrol I’m questioning did it really go solely to transport?!

As we left the hotel and were ready to go in the carpark a little down the road, husband T forgot his flip flops and because we were finally in the car with baby SK, I refused to go back, who leaves there flip flops under a sofa anyway? I gave him the money towards a new pair and when we came home my Havanas had broken after 2 years of use. 

What did I do with the rest of the money? How did I make money too?

I saved it of course! 

I saved a some into a Christmas fund to use for leisure and gifts at the end of the year and £40 into savings for us to go on days out. 

I made money through being a part of an Indian wedding where I pretend to put eyeliner on the groom and best man. Yep really. 

I did all this through using the card and App Monzo (this is not sponsored, only sharing my experience), it has notifications of spending, you can photograph receipts and add tags too. It’s helped me see what I’ve spent and gone over what the money went on. 

I use it for food shopping mostly, that way money isn’t getting wasted or just mysteriously goes. There are saving pots on there and it’s easy to transfer to other accounts. I’m a month in and I’ll report back more findings soon! 

Do you have any helpful money hacks you’d like to share to readers? Write them in the comments below! 

Dressmaking by the fabulous R Design

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40 Days of meditation for prosperity 1
August 12, 2019

There are two different Meditation’s for prosperity, I’ve completed number 1, Har Haray Haree Waheguru (Aquarian Teacher Manual).

It’s done with elbows bent by your waist, palms facing up and thumbs touching the top of the index fingers. 

Har : Seed 
Ha-ray: Flow or sprout 
Ha-ree: Completion or bloom 
Whaa-hay gu-roo: The ecstatic Infinite one 

“This meditation provides guidance and the way through any block. The future is clear, without anxiety”. 

I started off doing 11 minutes each morning, this is the first meditation with mantra said aloud I’ve done with baby in her cot. After a couple of days in I felt I could extend it so I did bit by bit till Day 8 where I did 31 minutes and felt so much energy in my day I didn’t want to go back on it! I did 31 minutes mostly every day though if S.Kaur woke up 13 minutes in I saw to her. 

This meditation has given me an abundance of clarity, gratitude, and flexibility, you can read more in my notes below! 

KRIYAS EXPLORED

Strengthening the Aura
15 Minute morning set 
Nabi Kriya for prana apana 
Pituitary Gland Kriya 
Basic spinal energy series 

HIGHLIGHTS

Finished flyers for Yoga teaching, aiming to start in Sep 
I wrote a whole new set of affirmations that align and show me what I want including going swimming once a week to raise heart rate and going to a weekly Katha. 
I started and I’m still writing a Kundalini Yoga online course 
Baby massage finished and I’ve been going to mum and baby yoga instead 
Did some playing in my journal, though not as much as would like
Husband and I have done Venus Kriyas in evenings
I planned seven one hour beginner classes. 
Talking with friends and family on the phone lifted my spirits and it’s something I want to aim for each week 
S.Kaur is having baby rice for breakfast! 
I started writing gratitude notes in my happiness jar as I forget to in my bullet journal. 
Day 19 I felt annoyed with everything, so maybe something was clearing. 
I’ve dropped a lot of anxiety about needing new clothes in the warm weather, I’m ok and they’ll come.
S.Kaur had a cranial sacral massage a long nap after and is playing with her toys more now. 
Waking up early has been of huge importance as I’m giving time for myself each day. 

HAPPENINGS

My car got hit at the traffic lights and I’ve claimed for myself no win – no fee. 
I had many days where it hit me I was now a mum. I felt like I was getting nothing done, or the wrong thing is done first, I still am. 
We had many weeks where I felt like my body was drowning in humid sticky weather. 

BLOG POSTS:

Kundalini Yoga FAQs
10 Ways to better manage your money 
Mantra Lovin’ Sat Narayan 

INSPIRED AND ENJOYING:

Martha Beck on Facebook – How to move mountains 
Building a business with a baby article huff post
5 Minute Crafts – Clothes hacks for smart mums
Giver Taker concept
Prosperity Hymn by Simran and Guru Prem
13 times by Jai-Jagdesh
Grateful by Brotha James

READING:

  • Miracle morning for parents and families by Hal Elrod and Mike & Lindsay McCarthy it is incredible and had uplifted me greatly!! 
  • So good they can’t ignore you by Cal Newport
  • Kundalini Yoga Cookbook

SHOW ME THE MONEY:

I opened a savings account for baby and putting a bit in each month! 
Sorted out Universal Credit (UK) 
I washed and combed three sheepskins to new. 
Bought bright yellow, orange cushions and some embroidered ones from RosemarysHandMade on Etsy 
We bought two sets of Bana for all of us, worthwhile as hard to find the right size. 
I joined in Leonie Dawson’s Money manifesting online course. 
I set up a few specific small savings accounts.
I became an avid shopping list writer and meal planner. 
I gave three bags of old clothes and shoes to charity.
I started listening to podcast Bad with money and I AM HOOKED. 
My brother told me about budgeting bank app with card Monzo and it’s going well. 
Got a bra fitting for the first time! M&S are pros, worth it. 
In all honesty, I calculated my net worth to be -£152 at the moment
I’ve saved us £70 a year canceling Amazon Prime (that we didn’t know we had).

DAY 40

Was an Indian wedding, we got to our destination late at night, I had 4 hours sleep before an early make–up session and I just, just managed to meditate 11 minutes! The day after (Day 41) I meditated 31 mins and it all felt whole and complete.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS

Instead of focusing on having enough time, I’ve been putting systems in place to get tasks done and in flexible time blocks. 

Get in the car and just go – is my new motto as we drove to three programs, a Lido and the shops when undecided. 

Feeling some inner peace and acceptance towards the evenings of dire TV on in the background, it could be worse, I’d truly hate it if it were programs on serial killers each evening. Also, the room has been moved around, it feels a better balance and less distraction. 

I have let go and stepped into my power. Indian custom is to visit a new baby in the family, usually unannounced, this causes me to feel claustrophobic and not in control in the place I live in. People call now and I have around 5 hours – 5 days notice, it’s also useful I’ve noted to have something to go to afterward so as I’m not sitting around giving away all our time on a Friday night or weekend. When, like the other day, people give me no notice, then I carry on with some tasks and if I’m cooking dinner, then I’ll eat it too regardless. 

WHAT’S NEXT?

Well, I’m still up for doing 40 days or even longer, I almost always am! Though I want to focus on my Sikhi, I can now carve out the time I have for prayers for 4 – 6 am after a few warm-ups and frogs!

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