Image: Aravind Yoga

Yoga for some people is a form of exercise to relieve their stress but to me it’s an exercise so that I don’t get the nasty PMS every month (ah the woes of being a woman). It’s like my pink panadol and if I ever skip then I’m signing myself up for a very bad stomach muscle cramp, very often ending up with me rolling on the bed and breaking out in cold sweats.

When I first started practicing yoga, I didn’t know it would help with my problem. I was only doing it because my friend wanted to try it out but too shy to go for it alone. After a few classes my friend quit but I’m still hanging on to it.

Anyway, a lot of us practitioners are aware how often yoga centers blossom and fizzle out rather quickly. For the unfortunate, they will often end up paying lots of money then only to realize few months later the center has closed shop and they will have difficulties to get refund.

Fortunately for me, I found a very good yoga studio, Aravind Yoga. It is a small studio with simple setting and run by two very warm and friendly people, Christopher and Phillippe. One of the reasons I enjoy here is for their small number of students and the instructor is able to correct your pose quickly. There is also no mirror to make you feel conscious about your body so you have better focus on your stance.

They also engage very experienced instructors and are usually quite consistent with their timetable, example I usually go for Monday that is taught by Phillippe Kerrelle and Thursday by Jonathan Ong. If there are any changes in schedule, they will usually update us via FB page and even if the teacher is on leave there will be a replacement teacher, so you won't miss any class.

Every now and then they will conduct workshop for the more serious yogi that want to further improve on their skill. Sometimes they will even invite oversea guests to conduct the workshops and it’s very beneficial to practitioners that seek out to learn from different perspectives. The teachers will also get to update and absorb the new knowledge from oversea instructors and impart what they learnt to people like me who are only interested in attending regular class.

Of course being a small studio there are things that can’t be compare bigger studios in terms of facilities and benefits. Their changing room can be a bit crammy. You also don’t get a lot of space to hang out after class. As mentioned, this is a small yoga studio, so don’t expect for classes like hot yoga or pilates (no shit Einstein). But I can assure you the teachers here are definitely comparable in terms of their skill.

Their website and FB page is quite updated, so if you ever need any details or information, you can retrieve it from there. In the meantime, I will continue to reach out for my toes.

Aravind Yoga // Facebook