Tag: yoga

Discover your Nature: Finding Balance at Tri

Ayurveda — the ancient practice of cultivating true wellness through balance — has a long history in Sri Lanka. Tri’s co-founder Lara grew up in India, and Ayurveda has been part of her life ever since — even informing the process of personal practice optimization through Quantum Yoga.

We have spoken to Lara to get the low-down on Ayurveda, and how we can incorporate Ayurvedic principles into our everyday lives…

“Ayurveda is based on the idea of inner balance; realizing that everyone has different needs, and therefore there is no one-size-fits-all approach to health. A person’s prakriti or nature is defined by the inner distribution of the three doshas, or body-mind constitutions. One’s prakriti informs every aspect of our being, from skin type to activity levels and response to times of stress. In order to be free from dis-ease, healthy and happy, one needs to live in harmony with one’s nature.

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Image credit: Recess City

Slim, with dry skin, variable appetite and thirst, creative tendencies, a love of activity, good short-term memory, fast speech, brittle nails and a speedy pulse? That would reflect vata dosha dominance. Athletic build, with a love of cooler climates and spicy food, fast metabolism, competitive nature, passionate with a need to exercise for emotional balance? Sounds like a high pitta dosha. Tendency to hold weight, oily skin, dislikes humidity, loves heavy food, easy-going attitude and great at retaining memories? Here kapha dosha is dominant.

As humans, we are drawn to the things that reinforce our nature, but this results in greater imbalance and disharmony. Therefore, Ayurveda teaches us to moderate these desires and strive towards balance. I have a pitta-dominant nature, meaning I am fiery, active, athletic, forceful and at times hot-headed, and typically I enjoy coffee, spicy foods, passionate artistic expression and challenging workouts. However, I understand that I would find greater harmony through cooling, soothing and balancing my pitta nature.

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Image credit: Recess City

This knowledge inspired the creation of Quantum Yoga: an awareness that our yoga practice can either exacerbate or balance our prakriti. We use Ayurveda to assess each practitioner’s prakriti (personal dosha distribution) before offering sequences tailored not only to their ability level, but also their inner nature. Vata-regulation emphasises grounding, strengthening and stabilizing; pitta-regulation hones a more soothing, cooling and balancing approach; kapha-regulation energises, invigorates and stimulates.

We have also carried this over to inform many aspects of life at Tri, from our delicious Ayurvedic juices and smoothies at breakfast, to recommended activities and excursions, and choice of spa treatments and massage oil blends.

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Image credit: Recess City

We help our guests to find true inner balance — whether that means yoga and healing therapies, or boat rides and beetroot martinis at sunset — so they can return home feeling healthy, happy and inspired.”

Five ways to live a more sustainable lifestyle

As the world grows ever-smaller and more interconnected, we’re all becoming increasingly aware of our impact upon it. The butterfly effect states that every flap of a butterfly’s wings can create a hurricane across the ocean; so every decision we make can ripple out to affect the planet we call home. Here at Tri we’re strong believers in looking after our little patch of blue and green; safeguarding the natural world for future generations. This doesn’t have to mean hardship and deprivation — here are five simple ways to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

1. EAT LOCALLY
Everyone knows that nothing tastes better than coconut water gulped from a coconut cut directly from the tree; or bananas, ripe and spotted, picked from the palm. Eating locally means enjoying food which is fresh, in season and packed with nutrients, and supporting your local farmers, whilst avoiding food miles and endless packaging. Win-win! The food concept at Tri is entirely designed around eating locally and enjoying the bounteous produce available in our lush corner of the Earth. When you’re back at home, why not try to eat with the seasons? There are few things tastier than a late-summer blackberry straight from the bush…

Credit: @xkflyaway

2. REDUCE SINGLE USE PLASTIC
Taking hundreds — even thousands — of years to break down, single-use plastics are clogging up waterways across the globe, causing environmental degradation, swirling ocean gyres and harm to wildlife the world over. The solution is simple: opt out. Here at Tri, we use our own filtered water in reusable glass bottles, and eschew plastic straws in favour of sustainable home-grown bamboo. Why not take your bamboo straw home with you? Opt out of plastic straws and enjoy a taste of tropical paradise with every sip!

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3. CUT DOWN ON YOUR MEAT INTAKE
Eating mindfully does not stop with the vegetable drawer. Tri’s menus focus primarily on locally-sourced plants, fish and seafood, to create delicious dishes with a true Sri Lankan flavour, avoiding more resource-intensive meats such as beef and lamb. It’s easy to maintain this sustainable living focus when you arrive back at home: just switch that steak for a fresh fillet of fish, or try to stick to plant based dishes for a few days each week. Simple!

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4. DITCH THE CAR
Turn off that engine: here at Tri we love getting out into nature. Co-founder Rob often starts his day with a cycle into work, or an early-morning hike through the lush greenery surrounding Koggala Lake. Ditching a gas-guzzling car for pedalling or hiking up and down hills will improve your cardiovascular fitness, strengthen your legs and help to save the environment to boot.

Credit: Chris deLorenzo

5. SWITCH OFF
Reducing our electricity use is one of the simplest steps to living more sustainably. One of the things our guests love most about Tri is the ability to completely disconnect from the outside world. Switching off will not only reduce your electricity use, but give you a mental break from our fast-paced, never-stopping world. Use the time to enjoy a yoga class or get out into nature. Take a break, and just breathe.

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Image credits: @xkflyaway, Chris deLorenzo, Coke Bartrina

The Origin of Tri’s Name

What’s in a name? Lara Drummond, demonstrates she has a Masters in Religious Studies from SOAS University – the School of Oriental and African Studies – when she explains the etymology of Tri here, and how the hotel’s name came to her…

Much as we all love long, exotic, mysterious hotel names, when it came to christening our contemporary design hotel, we were looking for something short that had meaning. It needed to span East and West, have spiritual and scientific significance, and be pertinent to modern architecture and of our eco-ethic.

‘Tri’ came to mind during my yoga practice as I stood in trikonasana – the triangle pose. Ancient Sanskrit is an Indo-European language, and so the root word ‘tri’ means three to both Eastern and Western ears. The number three is considered auspicious – even sacred – in most mystical traditions. Buddhism centres on the triratna, its three jewels are Buddha, dharma [his teachings], and sangha [monastic community]; Hinduism venerates Shiva whose main attribute is the trishula or trident; Christianity is a trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost as alluded to by the crossing hand gesture – these are only a few examples.

Triangles were venerated in ancient times as a sacred shape and in Plato’s Theory of Everything he posited the triangle as the primary plane surface. In architecture, the use of the triangle is common because of its inherent strength – and you feel a strength in your body in yoga when the distance between the feet is the same as the distance between pelvis and leg, so the dragging of the feet apart is equal to the pull of gravity, and the result of this is stability.

Intended to be pronounced phonetically, ‘Tri’ is meant to be a play on the English word ‘tree’. Hugging the gentle hill that constitutes our promontory on Koggala Lake, Sri Lanka’s largest natural lake, the structures that make up Tri are built in a nautilus-shell spiral pattern, in keeping with the golden ratio. Our Koggala Lake hotel centres around the huge banyan tree that towers on the hill’s crown. The banyan tree is the little sister of the Bodhi fig tree, under which Buddha reached enlightenment, which is considered sacred to Buddhists (Sri Lanka’s main religion, and most prominent here in the Southern Province).

The tree features hugely in any spiritual context, representing the connection between Heaven and Earth, the giver of life and vitality. Mystical and philosophical traditions the world over use tree imagery, namely the Tree of Life, a many-branched tree which illustrates the idea that all life on earth is related. So when we checked and the domain for www.trilanka.com was still available, the decision was final. And Tri was born.

Quantum Yoga

Quantum Yoga – created by Lara Baumann Drummond – is a dynamic flowing exercise suited to your individual needs and designed based on an effective and safe grouping and sequencing system. It’s a yoga path that resonates with your personal requirements at all times and balances your inner nature, with the aim of bringing you into a state of greater harmony with the environment. Also it’s a spiritual system that adopts the holistic approach to health from the ancient Indian healing science of Ayurveda, while embracing the modern insights of Quantum Physics to maximise one’s power of conscious manifestation.

Lara Baumann teaches the Quantum Method of Yoga to all levels of students both publicly and privately worldwide. Her powerful relationship with yoga and a strong interest in Eastern philosophy is the result of an upbringing in India and Japan, which led her to complete an MA in Religious Studies at SOAS, University of London. As an apprentice, she has studied with Sri K Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, as well as BKS Iyengar in Pune. In May 2005, Lara took the Jivamukti 200-hour Yoga Alliance teacher training, and in July 2009 she completed the 500-hour certificate with Tripsichore. Her main teachers are Edward Clark, Danny Paradise and Clive Sheridan.

Lara’s objective is to guide people in developing an optimal, powerful, healing and sacred practice that leads to health, happiness and enlightenment. In January 2009 Mandala Publishing released Lara’s book a DVD and “Quantum Yoga, Creating Your Ideal Practice from an Ocean of Possibilities”. Mandala has now published the new expanded edition of this successful book with the new subtitle “Quantum Yoga, The Holistic Approach to Creating Your Ideal Practice”. Lara has published three Quantum Yoga double audio-CDs of the basic sequences that regulate each Ayurvedic dosha (body-mind constitution).