Ninie Ahmad: Off her yoga mat.

So it was just a usual Friday.

• Hanging out at ASTRO Awani talking about Yoga & Anger Management

• getting hair styled & make-up done by genius team from A’Cut Above using Rimmel,

• only to stand on my chin and my hands,

• then to play lift-and-catch & hide-and-seek with Jojo Struys,

• checking out photogenic Niki Cheong, kawaii Cheesie, fierce Azwan Ali and supertall (?) Shaolin Tiger,

• visited adidas and brought home pleasant surprise!

Until Monday when you see me LIVE at ntv7 (Astro CH107)’s The Breakfast Show 9 – 10am, have a productive weekend!

What’s a better way to start a new year when

• you are given the honour to be the maid-of-honour for your bestfriend’s wedding on the first day of 2010?

• and when you see yourself with your other bestfriend (whom you were her maid-of-honour) gracing January issue of Harper’s Bazaar

For full interview, get your copy of January 2010 HARPER’S BAZAAR (M’sia)

My dearest Fara Dila,

Congratulations for bringing your relationship to another milestone. Having known (and having shared embarassing secrets with) you since we were 13, I am honoured to be a small part of your big day today!

My lovely Juliana,

Never have I met anyone who is only 43kg at her most pregnant and still looks smaller than me at six-months pregnant (yes, she was four-months along as time of shooting the article above)! My prayers go to for your second baby and I can’t wait to plan your baby shower again when you come back from Holland in February.

Nevertheless I have been a maid-of-honour for the SEVENTH time and that it’s not funny attending weddings and baby showers when I am single yet again, I am excited to witness more friendships rekindled, love celebrated and beautiful babies born in 2010.

Love and a blessed year.

Last Sunday evening, I was at Alexis Bangsar catching up with my girl Nellie and killing time to catch Avatar 3D when Nellie caught this beautiful girl at a table across – sketching me!

I was over the top excited and happy, I never had anyone sketched or drawn me like a true likeness before!

And the result,

.. what do you think (with minimal inquiry on the other person, s’il vous plaît)?

What happens when you put together

• a bunch of yoga freaks
• dress them in designer gowns
• make them wear RM36,000 to RM200,000 timepieces on their arms (and ankles)?

These pages of Malaysia TATLER December 2009, I’m afraid.

[ Photos are property of The Gardens Mall & TATLER Malaysia. Any reproduction of any kind (online, print, mention) must credit The Gardens & TATLER Malaysia ]

Dresses from M Women, watches from The Hour Glass (exclusively at The Gardens Mall)

Dresses by BCBG Max Azria, watches from Calibre (exclusively at The Gardens Mall)

LEFT – Dresses by Karl Ng (on Atilia) & Alvin Tay (on Ninie) , watches from The Hour Glass, RIGHT- Dress from Tang + Co, watches from Zurich Timepieces (exclusively at The Gardens Mall)

LEFT- Dresses from Guess by Marciano, watches from Zurich Timepieces, RIGHT – Dresses by Karen Millen, watches from Calibre (exclusively at The Gardens Mall)

Art direction by Joseph Teoh, make-up by Geraldine Wong, photography by Aaron Lee. All  yoga personalities, arms, thighs and abs are from BE Yoga, Damansara Perdana.

Have a colourful, blessed and healthy New Year(s) ahead!

I had an interesting long talk with a member of BE Yoga during a quiet class earlier this week. Her name is Sue Ng, her cheeks glow with pink happiness, her words are honest, her presence and speech are as eloquent as a beauty queen and we can’t stop chatting on our business similarities and hardships as she just opened her restaurant about the same time BE Yoga opened.

We were exchanging stories about yoga retreats in India  from what I read in Eat, Love, Pray spiced with secondhand experience from my fellow yoga teachers and her firsthand experience of having been to India earlier this year following this ‘dream’ she had one night.

She was sharing her share of ‘wanting to change‘ and ‘seeing the light‘ upon being there, as I shared my fear of, ‘what happens IF I don’t want to drive a car, wear fancy adidas yogawear and get married anymore?‘ upon returning back from India if I can collect enough guts to actually go to India (Mysore hopefully) in the nearest future.

We had a good laugh yet painful reality check as we traded and agreed on this irony,

• Sue opened her restaurant and shortly after, developed gastric problem she never had before AND
• I, opened a yoga centre and immediately after, my stress level shot so high that my body (immune system) is attacking almost everything I eat!

Given a choice now, I will be happier to stick to simply teaching yoga as when money is involved, it gets ugly.

Having announced that though, I would NOT trade this experience of having sold my car to keep BE Yoga alive, having sacrificed my dignity and sanity to ensure my team loves and looks yoga, having met wonderful people and angels in human form as I crawl my way up and struggle for another breath when I’m on the brink of drowning – for anything else in the world and I am very excited to face what else is lined up for me, BRING IT ON!

This tunnel I am still driving through still seems endless and so far, I am not sure if I have enough fuel to reach its end but I am sure I will still have my spine and my breaths to keep me alive.

This bumpy road (and expensive highway tunnel) will definitely make me a stronger yogi, a more humble yoga teacher and a better person when I do see the light and rainbow (in form of WETHER investment returned, being a personal yoga instructor to British rockstars ;D, getting to volunteer at a remote orphanage as long as I could OR even settling down as a mother with two beautiful daughters, I don’t know and get ever so curious) at the end, I’m sure.

I breathe this wisdom by one of the greatest yoga teacher in this lifetime (I hope I will be lucky enough to meet), Guruji Iyengar – everytime I feel so drained, tired and low

“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.”

and I move by the love and kindness around me anytime I feel I have nothing else to smile for.

Love, hope and optimism (for RM400,000 to fall from my sky this weekend).

Guess which footballer still rocks and scores at an impressive 36 years old?

Baddha Konasana?

Guess what is his secret to stretching the life of his career?

Yoga-ta check this out to believe me.

The hottest, fittest and most inspiring Brits that are rocking the field and stage have found their path to yoga – I hope ours will too.

Love and Malaysian (Footballers & Rockers) Boleh!

I might be the last person in the world to have only started reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling and much talked-about memoir Eat Pray Love last week (I got it for my birthday from the fabulous Joseph Teoh), but really – how did you guys manage to read it without wanting to pick up / start / do YOGA immediately as you flip the pages?

I laughed so hard at the ninth page as I read this,

I am alone, I am all alone, I am completely alone.

Grasping this reality, I let go of my bag, drop to my knees and press my forehead against the floor. There, I offer up to the universe a fervent prayer of  thanks.

First in English.

Then in Italian.

And then – just to get the point across – in Sanskrit.

..until I teared up and had to stop reading for a good couple of minutes for my stomach hurts from laughing so hard.

For a yoga teacher who has been trying to grasp as much Sanskrit (albeit, mostly of yoga poses) as I can, how can anything else be funnier than that?

And this book got me, when I got to page 27 (can you imagine my excitement, PAGE 27 on the book I got and read on MY 27th BIRTHDAY?) and I don’t think I breathed blinked at all as I read this,

..the old man asked me in person what I really wanted, I found other, truer words.

“I want to have a lasting experience of God,” I told him. “Sometimes I feel like I understand the divinity of this world, but then I lose it because I get distracted by my petty desires and fears. I want to be with God all the time. But I don’t want to be a monk or totally give up worldly pleasures. I guess what I want to learn is how to live in this world and enjoy its delights but also devote myself to God.“

Ketut said he could answer my question with a picture. He showed me a sketch he’d drawn once during meditation. It was an androgynous human figure, standing up, hands clasped in prayer. But this figure had four legs, and no head. Where the head should have been, there was only a wild foliage of ferns and flowers. There was a small, smiling face drawn over the heart.

“To find the balance you want,” Ketut spoke through his translator, “this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it’s like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart instead. That way, you will know God.”

Within those lines in this Book, what I have been feeling all my life – is worded almost perfectly.

With this gift of Yoga, what I have been wanting in my life – is achieved closer everyday.

I eat generously, I pray wholeheartedly, I love honestly, I yoga purely to prolong my life and extend the happiness I get to experience and give others – for as long as I live.

Love and prayers.

For those who have not visited my little yoga centre at Damansara Perdana yet, I have updated our Gallery in BE Yoga website so you can feel like you are with us – beholding the beautiful poses, believing in yourself and becoming exactly what you visualize to be with BE Yoga.

Among my favourites are:

(Photos by Huey Yoong, all photos are property of BE Yoga)

with a biased personal favourite of myself in Pincha Mayurasana (Feather Peacock pose) with the ‘BEHOLD’ background. That was my dream pose turned BE Yoga’s signature logo and captured in my favourite studio in BE Yoga, how more awesome can that be?

Huey Yoong, the photographer is a member of BE Yoga as well and I was moved to tears reading her post about her yoga experience especially with BE Yoga. My indebted thank you and gratitude to Huey Yoong, her constant positive energy and endless good words about BE Yoga.

We have also made our Fees & Membership Prices available on the website (click Our Classes & Fees) so that you will realize how effing a-f-f-o-r-d-a-b-l-e a yoga experience with Malaysia’s best yoga teachers can be!

Keep checking out our Events & Promotions as well to stay updated with our latest promotion (as we speak, we are having two August-all-out promos right now).

Pretzel you at BE real soon!

Lotsa love and beautiful blue skies.

I was tempted not to share personal matters (family, friends, housemates, relationship) here anymore. Looking back at TYI Diaries, it is not glamourous to have shared five relationships over a 4-year-old online diary that had been clicked by more than 600,000 visitors.

Yet, I can’t contain my excitement when there is another milestone worth celebrating – my current relationship turns exactly 20 months, today!

Whoever said we split up again?

(Photo: Anna-Rina)

Ahhh, it must have been Facebook twitting.

Offer honest love to ALL and universe will ensure we will be loved in return somehow.

I only found three things to love about Beijing.

1. They have the biggest adidas store in the world. Period.
2. They have UNIQLO. Ok lah, Singapore has one too. I heard people are still queuing to pay there.
3. They have H&M too. Singapore notchet.

I loved every bit of Shanghai but I didn’t feel the same about Beijing.

(Tennis dress: adidas by Stella McCartney)

For a city almost as modern and for a country as gigantic

• Less people seem to understand simple English in this part of China (and they hosted Olympics last year?)
• The weather was not cooooool. Literally! 38°C at 5 in the evening is not funny!
• They ban Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Wordpress. Hebat tak hebat.

No matter how idiotic the political scene seems, how slow internet connection we bear HERE, the bad weather (if you think KL is hazy, try China!) and the lack of highstreet shops I can definitely still live without – KL is still MY city to live.

(Baseball tee: adidas Originals Limited Edition)

Notice how I titled this entry as such instead of ‘I hate KL less’?

Constantly hating and complaining on things we are unhappy less happy about ARE tiring, don’t you think so?

If you are not happy in KL, move!

Can’t afford to move, help change!

Don’t know how to change, start by changing your attitude!

When we can be grateful of the things we already have, we’d be happier.

Easier.