My very own passion in life

My passion for exercise has lasted for a very long time. I remember way back in 1975 when my sister in law, now Datin Rudiah Hj Arshad, and got for ourselves a big thick cover book on Yoga. On our own we practised the yoga poses. What we learned and began to practise are yoga' physical poses and never delved into the spiritual aspects. I cannot say anything for Datin Rudiah whether she still does the Yoga. As for me Yoga stays with all these years and if I have no time to do the full regime, I just spend just 10 minutes of breathing and stretching exercises just before my evening bath or before sleep. Believe me yoga could lift up your spirit and leaves behind a body feeling calm. It has become second nature to me whenever and where ever I feel stressed with short breathes, I just take deep breathes, in to the count of 10, hold breathe for another 10 and breathe out for another 10. Just do it for as number of times as needed until calmness sets in. The longer the breath counting and the more times one does it the better the effect will be. I would start doing the poses once I am calm otherwise I could hurt my body and causes unnecessary physical aches and pains. I found it very helpful especially after a strong breakdown or crying.

My husband used to call me an exercise freak. I am rightly so I presume. Whatever it is, when he rennovated our house in 1987, he built a gym and sauna room. Even though he never said so, the gym and the sauna must be for me. I would like to presume so. Even today my gym is a very special place for me. When I was younger I had to go the Lake Club to be trained by a young trainer, Hayat. From him I learned a lot of tips on how to do the cardio exercise,  the weghts for muscle building and stretching warming up and cooling down exercises. Now at home, I do the treadmill and stationary bicycle cardio exercise. Every time I exercise, I begin with simple stretches, then on to the treadmill, finishing with the weights and cooling down stretches. To break and prevent boredom from setting in when doing the same routines each time, I put in variety in the approaches. Once I get bored with doing 5 minutes of slow with 1 minute of fast I would then have longer fast runs. It is very important to avoid boredom. Boredom could be an antithesis to what I would have wished to achieve from the exercises. I personally discovered that I need to love exercising, without that feeling of love, I would not have benefitted, I would fail to get that feeling of high and instead I would feel aches and pains. During my routines which take three days in a week, I would listen to my tapes of my Quranic Language lessons or tazkirah by ustaz Kariman, or I would spend time to memorise the Quranic verses or just listen to the radio. During my heavy grieving period at the very beginning of my husband's passing, my gym became my sanctuary and my exercise became a friend. I love this friend which has always been there for me and has helped me to sustain my health and well being. Without this friend, I  might have been overcome by neurosis. 

During my younger days I was crazier in my physical activities. I went for Tai chis, did aerobics once a week at the Lake Club and loved to swim. During my crazy days I used to swim during lunch breaks as my office at Damansara Govenrment complex was quite close to the Lake Club and if I had to attend dinner functions. But actually the best time to swim would be in the evenings. Nowadays I no longer swim that much. I feel there is a lot of hastle to do it. No more aerobics as the knees are no longer that strong. I found Tai Chi boring. I still have a lot of literature of these exercises. I still keep the tapes and videos.