Justin, another sangha member sharing of his yoga journey

My first encounter with Iyengar yoga was in New York City back in 2006. I still recall attending classes with an elderly American teacher who had us spend what felt like hours in Tadasana. She taught us the foundational details: how the kneecaps need to be lifted, weight distributed evenly across the feet, the pelvis neutral, shoulders drawn away from the ears, and the spine reaching upward. I was immediately drawn to the rigor of alignment, the long holds, and the thoughtful use of props. Alas, my practice was inconsistent—only one class a week—and as a result, I didn’t experience the benefits I was seeking.

For the next decade, my relationship with yoga was 'episodic' at best. I drifted between different teachers and styles, collecting experiences across cities. In Nanjing in 2010, I tried Flow Yoga with a Chinese teacher who had been a trained dancer; her class of graceful 'aunties' put my stiffness to shame. I struggled to follow the sequences, but I started going every week. Later, back in Singapore, my journey took me from a class in an Indian temple on the East Coast to Yin yoga with a wellness practitioner. Occasionally, I would even drop into Mei’s class at Como – but didn’t feel like I would fit into the ‘tai-tai’ club.

It was in Manila in 2015 that I reconnected with Iyengar yoga at a studio I attended consistently. Here, we chanted the Invocation to Patanjali. Black-and-white photos of Guruji watched over us in a space filled with the smell of incense,bolsters, rope walls, and blankets, all catering to a well-heeled ‘tita’ clientele. I learned the precise art of folding blankets and tiering them for Sarvangasana, which we practiced every week as our final pose. I was hooked. Four years later in Taipei, I found another Iyengar studio—this one without invocations, but with an obsessive attention to detailto blanket folding and belt looping. You would get a sharp whack if your front knee wasn’t at a perfect 90 degrees in Virabhadrasana I! It was through this discipline that I truly began to understand alignment and felt my body slowly opening up.

Then in 2020, COVID changed everything. With studios closed, I signed up for the Como unlimited online yoga package. I started religiously attending Mei’s classes from my living room and discovered a new dimension to my practice. I learned that I needed to ‘be’ more and ‘do’ less, easing into poses rather than forcing them. I explored other teachers too: Jay’s dynamic movements and heavily propped restore classes, an Australian teacher’s focus on stacking the vertebrae, and a Singaporean teacher whose core and strength classes left me sore but stronger. At one point, I was practicing daily. Then one day, a small miracle: I folded forward in Uttanasana and found my fingertips could touch the floor. More than that, I felt calmer, more open, and started sleeping better at night.

I especially love Mei’s classes for their constant exploration. Every week is a new adventure, from sound yoga with crystal bowls and mind-blowing one-hour Savasanas, to psoas stretches on a chair to Madonna’s "Erotica" and Yamuna ball exercises to Sabrina Carpenter. Through this practice, I've started learning more about mindfulness and Vipassana meditation. Lately, my focus has shifted to ‘bodyfulness’—the simple act of being present in my body, rather than lost in my thoughts.

The journey continues, and I am deeply grateful to Mei and to this Sangha for your openness and shared practice.

Namaste