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I practise Yoga regularly. Yoga music adds a soothing and calming effect when you are doing your Yoga postures and I like it so much that I even play Yoga music when driving or when trying to sleep at night.

Yoga music is also suitable when you’re having a spa session or when you’re self-meditating. Here’s a sample of a Yoga music. Play it. Even if you’re not a Yoga enthusiast, I am sure you’ll agree that it adds a soothing effect on the mind and body.

In case you need a gentle reminder, take note that Mother’s Day will fall on 11th, Sunday 2008 this year.

If you work or live near a shopping mall, then it’s time to make a trip to pick up a gift for mother. Ideal Mother’s Day gift can include flowers, jewelery, cooking or baking ware, dresses, cosmetics, chocolates, bags, perfumes or even shopping vouchers.

For mothers who have had almost everything or if you decide to pamper Mother this year, why not get a spa or massage package for your mom? In fact, spa and massage packages has increasingly become a popular Mother’s day or Birthday gift for moms. For working moms, it’s the ultimate ideal gift for it gives mom a chance to pamper herself knowing she must have worked very hard; having to work and take care of the family at the same time.

If you know that your Mom will be free on Mother’s Day, you can easily call up your favourite spa and book a spa pacakge for her. Ideally, you should include a facial, scrub and massage if you can afford, so that Mom can really get the ultimate pampering experience! Be sure to book early as slots availability run fast on important days such as Mother’s Day for all spas, big or small.

If you can, pick up your Mom and send her to the spa yourself. Then, have a long lunch or dinner with her after her spa session and I’m sure Mom will remember this year’s Mother’s Day experience for a long, long time!

If you are unsure whether your Mom will be free on Mother’s Day, you can always give her a spa package gift voucher. Almost all spas will sell you a gift voucher so that you can pay for the spa package and give your mom the voucher which she can arrange a spa appointment directly with the spa at a later date. Be sure that the spa will honour the voucher for at least another 3 to 6 months when buying such a voucher from the spa.

If you know that your mom has never experienced a spa or massage previously, try to accompany her to the spa yourself. At the spa, let the massage therapist know that your mom has never visited a spa previously so that the therapist will make it a point to guide your mom and to let her feel at ease at all time.

If you have decided to pamper your mom to a spa session, then do hurry up! There’s less than a week to go before Mother’s Day!

Chinese New Year is celebrated on 7 and 8 February 2008 by Chinese all over the world. CNY is the most important festival in the Chinese calendar and Chinese families all over the world will celebrate by making efforts to sit down together for a Reunion Dinner on CNY eve as much as the Western world make an effort for a homecoming dinner on Christmas Day.

Most shops, restaurants and certainly spas will be closed on the first 3 days of CNY which can be celebrated for as long as 15 days amongst the most traditional of Chinese. We wish all our Chinese friends a Happy Chinese New Year or ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’ and may our Western friends join in the Chinese New Year festivities as much as the Chinese do.

For more information about the tradition and culture of Chinese New Year, please visit this Chinese culture website. In the meantime, enjoy this amazing Chinese Lion Dance show performed by one of the world’s Champion Lion Dance troupe held in a recent competition in Genting Highlands, Malaysia.

Once in a while, you come across things that simply take your breath away. It could be a scene from a movie, a piece of rousing music, a child’s painting, a nicely-setup food presentation or a funny busker on the road.

This fully illustrated book on how the different body muscles and skeletal work with various Yoga postures simply took my breath away! I have never seen anything so real, so lifelike and so representative of the art of Yoga.

It is simply one of those books that you must have on your coffee table even if you only flip through it once a month. Check it out and I’m sure you will be just as amazed too! And what better gift to give to anyone that is a Yoga enthusiast than this amazing book!

And for any Yoga teachers or masters out there, I will never understand if this book is not in your personal reference list all the time! Check out the amazing illustrations here…

This is the start of a new year - 2008. I wish everyone a happy and fulfilling year ahead.

To my regular readers, thanks for the words of encouragement and the show of support. To new readers, welcome, and I hope to share more quality articles with you in the months ahead.

Have a good 2008 ahead everyone!

This letter appeared in the Forums Page of a major newspaper, The Straits Time, in Singapore on 27 December 2007. If you are female, would you have reacted the same way the letter-writer did or would the incident be acceptable to you? Do give your comments and feedback so that we know how females in different countries and cultures would have reacted to the same incident.

“Are You Comfortable With A Male Masseur?”
HAVING heard that Spa Botanica was a three-time winner of the Best Spa Experience award by the Singapore Tourism Board and reviews that they had one of the best service-orientated staff, I booked a one-and-a-half-hour spa session worth $217 on my birthday with a friend.

Imagine the shock I received when a male masseur entered the room. I quickly asked for a change of masseur and after a 15-minute wait, the manager informed me that there was no available female masseur. I had to wait for about one-and-a-half hours if I insisted on a female therapist.

She admitted that it was the spa’s fault for not asking the gender preference of my masseur earlier on, and assured me that the male masseur assigned was very professional.

Frustrated, I was left with no choice as I planned to end my massage at the same time with my friend. Although the male masseur was indeed professional, I left the spa with a bitter-sweet feeling. It was a special occasion for me and, having paid so much, I did not expect anything to go wrong.

So what exactly differentiates a top-class spa from the average spa if not for its quality of service? Despite boasting a superior service standard we have in Singapore, it is these little details that all services should be more attentive to in order to live up to our reputation.

Choo Yirong (Ms) (The letter writer)

Credit: Mon, Dec 24, 2007, The Straits Times

It’s the time of the year where festive cheers are in the air permanently wherever you go in the streets with Christmas music, Christmas trees, artificial snow, decorations and fake Santas romping about.

May I wish all readers a very Merry Christmas!

For those of you who have never been to Asia before, well, let me assure you that the Christmas festive mood is true and well in Asia with many party revellers, shops, departmental stores , restaurants, pubs and TV and radio studios celebrating Christmas as if it has been a native Asian holiday for centuries!

Photo credit: http://blog.hofstaetter.ch 

Today is Deepavali or more popularly known as “Festival of Lights” to Hindus. Celebrated as Deepavali in Southern India and Divali in Northern India, this is one of the most significant festival for Hindus not just in India but across the world.

While Deepavali is popularly known as the “festival of lights”, the most significant esoteric meaning is “the awareness of the inner light”.

Central to Hindu philosophy, is the assertion that there is something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal, called the Atman. Just as we celebrate the birth of our physical being, Deepavali is the celebration of this Inner Light, in particular the knowing of which outshines all darkness (removes all obstacles and dispels all ignorance), awakening the individual to one’s true nature, not as the body, but as the unchanging, infinite, imminent and transcendent reality. With the realization of the Atman, comes universal compassion, love, and the awareness of the oneness of all things (higher knowledge). This brings Ananda (Inner Joy or Peace).

Deepavali celebrated with festive fireworks, lights, flowers, sharing sweets and worship. While the story behind Deepavali varies from region to region, the essence is the same - to rejoice in the Inner Light (Atman) or the underlying reality of all things.

We wish all our Hindu friends a Happy Deepavali Day!

(Part Text credit: http://en.wikipedia.org; Pix credit: http://www.malaysiasite.nl)