YOGA AND PILATES ART POSTER (A FASHION ILLUSTRATION OF SORTS)

Hello dear readers and fellow bloggers! It feels kind of odd putting together a blog post again. While I haven't completely stopped blogging in the last few months, my posts were less frequent than usual.  I can't wait to get back into saddle, though. I can't promise to be that present in the blogging world just yet as I've started a new job recently and moved countries again (and that's a lot of fun when you're chronically ill and on expensive therapy you might miss out on while trying to sort out medical insurance details). However, I might have weekends off on this new job (if I don't find a second job and I might have to do that....) but more about that some other time, let's return to this blog post.

Today I'll share a quick illustration I did for promotional purposes back in August. It was a quick drawing depicting a simple yoga pose. As you can see I used one of my own photographs as a reference (I took the photo with a self timer). I drew this illustration with markers on A4 printing paper and glued it to one of promotional posters for the animation team in the hotel we worked for. The illustration was eventually destroyed by a summer rain. I probably wouldn't have kept it anyway. .As an illustration, it's nothing special but I wanted to share it as a fun reminder of my last job.  

When I started my blogging journey a decade ago, my intention was to write about fashion. I didn't really start with a clear vision in my mind nor did I ever planned for blog to be a job.  With time, this blog grew to include different content: art, literature, DIY and travel.  However, fashion remains an essential part of this blog. Now, when I think of it- this illustration is also a fashion illustration of sorts. After all, I illustrated my uniform. 

I PRACTICALLY LIVED IN MY UNIFORM THIS SUMMER!

 One of the things I missed while on my last job was  my wardrobe. I lived from suitcase for 4 months and I practically lived in my uniform. The same uniform you can see here. As you might know if you have been following my blog, my sense of style isn't sporty (even if ironically I'm very much a sport person). I love to do sports but I don't really have a sporty style of dressing. 

I have to say it feels good being reunited with my closet. My summer uniform was alright (I really liked the 'join us and have fun' t-shirt), but I won't miss wearing the same thing every day.  Still, my 'sport animator' job was rewarding in many ways. Besides working as pilates/yoga/crossfit/spinning/ aerobic instructor, I also worked in animation for kids and did a lot of creative stuff we them. We also did dance and theatre performances. It was a very busy summer for me. I really worked hard and I think I learned a lot as well. 

THE BEST PART ABOUT WORKING AS A SPORT ANIMATOR WAS DOING YOGA EVERY DAY! Teaching yoga classes was definitely my favourite thing this summer. By yoga, I don't mean the spiritual disciple but what we incorrectly (but often) call yoga. Indeed, it is incorrect to call this 'physical' aspect of yoga- yoga. There are many schools of yoga in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. None of them are only concerned with exercises (the way we perceive yoga in the West), all of them are something entirely more complex. 

In its essence, yoga is a spiritual discipline whose purpose it is to achieve enlightenment.  It would be more culturally correct to explain this every time and clarify that what we call 'yoga' is just a small (and almost irrelevant in the broader context of things) part of yoga. It would be more correct to say 'modern version of Hatha yoga' or 'asana' based yoga when we say yoga.   However, once a wrong term settles in a language, it's hard to avoid it. So, if you ever hear me using this term again without the accompanying clarification, forgive me. Sometimes it's more simple to use a term already settled into language, even if it is incorrect as such. 

Anyhow, I first started with this 'physical' ,'hatha' or 'asana' aspect of yoga when I was about fifteen. My cousin was a yoga instructor so I joined her classes and really enjoyed it. Pilates is quite similar to asana (exercise) yoga, because it was largely based on it. Over the years, I also did some Pilates exercises. I generally do corrective exercises for scoliosis and many of them are similar or identical to exercises you can find in yoga. As for the spiritual aspect of yoga, I haven't really shared my spiritual views on this little place of mine and I think I'll keep it that way. However, as someone aware of it, I had to at least note that we generally don't use the term 'yoga' correctly. So

Thank you for visiting this little place of mine!