The Beauty of Yoga

This is Briohny Smyth. This Equinox (American based health centre) video has been going viral, but for those who haven't watched it, here you go.

I believe in the beauty of yoga. I've been practicing yoga for a while now. On most days when I'm feeling particularly stressed out or overstrained from a long day, I do some sun salutations in my room and immediately feel the 'chi' radiating out from my fingers. I've been very active ever since I was a little girl, but yoga really is a different workout altogether. I feel it really allows me to have such amazing alone time.

While we are so accustomed to form and structure and the discipline yoga brings us, the pure message yoga has is for us to incorporate self-awareness, self-improvement and self-love. When you are on your mat, you can feel the strong connection you have with yourself. What makes yoga truly approachable is that there are little techniques to learn but more of the willingness and the drive to open yourself up to learn.

Yoga has been known to carry the healing effects of medicine through their practice. What draws me to yoga is how you are essentially made to trust your body. The poses you perform teach you to flow WITH your body, instead of against it. You are not to overstrain yourself. You are not to over think the pose. Yoga is a flow of movements that fully engage your body mind and soul.

Namaste.

Ray Bradbury

When I was 17, I dropped Chemistry for my SPM to take up English Literature. I didn't fare too amazingly in it but it led me to discover such great appreciation for literature. One of the writers I discovered was Ray Bradbury.

Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American science fiction, fantasy and horror writer. Now, science fiction isn't exactly top on my list of genres to savor, but out of necessity (his novel, Fahrenheit 451, was the required reading). But I fell in love with this dystopian novel and how it was something so within us. With the prominence of technology and information, it was something you could almost see happening when you look at your niece and nephew working the iPad with ease.

The book basically entails on how society is made to believe that books are the bringer of sadness. The curiosity sparked by books was seen to be 'damaging' because they made people think. Firemen were in charge of burning these books instead of putting out fires. Ironic.

I've yet to read the rest of his books, but I have read a few of his other short works. I urge everyone to give his work a try, at the very least Fahrenheit 451. It's probably one of my top books I'd recommend to read before you die.

Though none of his works won a Pulitzer Prize, Mr. Bradbury received a Pulitzer citation in 2007 “for his distinguished, prolific and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy.” - The New York Times

Cool trivia:

1. Fahrenheit 451 actually got it's light of day by being featured in the adult magazine, Playboy
2. The book, Fahrenheit 451, got it's name from the ignition temperature of paper (the equivalence to 233 degrees Celsius). Ignition temperature is the temperature at which something catches fire and burns on its own.
3. The book was also made into a movie directed by Francois Truffaut who was so enticed by the book that it was the only English movie he directed. He mastered English specifically to be able to direct the movie.

Ray Bradbury passed away last year on the 5th of June at the ripe age of 91.

"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."

Fashion Film: "The Tale of A Fairy" directed by Karl Lagerfeld

Often enough is fashion perceived to something rather stiff. Like the collars of the starched shirts we wear. Bright and loud like the neon colors in trend for the season. But, people fail to realize that fashion is an art.

Most designers often have a penchant of a creative side project of some sort. Take Karl Lagerfeld 

. For the Chanel Cruise Collection 2011/2012, Lagerfeld directed and produced a short film entitled "The Tale of A Fairy." It leaves tones of material dissatisfaction and how it creates a sort of sickness around the people who are so engulfed in it. But there's a lot of passion rolled up in there and how sometimes you see things because you want to.

This fashion film does have contain some adult content.

Viewer discretion is advised.


Directed by Karl Lagerfeld

Director of Photography: Xavier Arias

Costume Designer: Leila Smara

Make-up: Peter Philips

Hair: Sam McKnight

Chief Editor: Nicolas Bancilhon

Cast: Amanda Harlech, Kristen McMenamy, Freja Beha, Bianca Balti, Anna Mouglalis, Baptiste Giabiconi, Brad Koening, Jake Davies, Mark Vanderloo, Oriol Elcacho, Sebastien Jondeau, Seth Kuhlmann

Beethoven and the Immortal Beloved letters

Ludwig Van Beethoven

While he may be known for his famous compositions and the fact that he was deaf when he composed them. German pianist, Beethoven was a predominant musical figure who still makes his mark up to this very time and age.

The Origin of the Letters

In the summer of 1812, advised by his physician, Beethoven goes to the Czech resort, Teplitz. Even though the summer spent here didn’t have any positive influences on his state of health, it was very fruitful in memorable and interesting encounters. One of those encounters was the one between Beethoven and German poet Johann von Goethe. But the summer of 1812 is also important because it was the time when Beethoven wrote a set of mysterious letters that created numerous commentaries and assumptions among Beethoven scholars. The letters are known as “The Immortal Beloved Letters”

 While Beethoven has never disclosed who his “Immortal Beloved” really was, there were a few women who have been known to be the object of Beethoven’s affection. (Giulieta Guicciardi, Thereza von Brunswick, Amalia Seebald and Antonie Brentano. ) However, recent research has led to the conclusion that the immortal beloved is almost certainly the last of the candidates presented above, Antonie Brentano.

The letters were found after his death.


Out of the three this one, to me, was the most beautiful of all:

" Good morning, on July 7

      Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us - I can live only wholly with you or not at all - Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits - Yes, unhappily it must be so - You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart - never - never - Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves. And yet my life in V is now a wretched life - Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men - At my age I need a steady, quiet life - can that be so in our connection? My angel, I have just been told that the mail coach goes every day - therefore I must close at once so that you may receive the letter at once - Be calm, only by a clam consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together - Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell. Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.

ever thine

ever mine

ever ours "