Cheesy Rock Was My Drug

It was mile 20 of my first trail marathon. My legs were useless, my lungs on fire, my feet felt like they were made of lead. I was only about 6 miles from the finish line but it may as well have been 600. 

Just as I was seriously doubting whether or not I could complete this feat of endurance, adding insult to injury, almost directly at 20-mile marker, I found myself staring up into the teeth of brutal mile-long upward climb for a gain of significant altitude. This crushed my spirits. I was done. Wrecked. Spent. Game over.

Prior to the race, my twin brother had made a playlist for me to listen to as a way of supporting me on what was to be my most intense physical endurance to date. The night before, I'd loaded the songs onto my iPod and had made a point to not look at the content so that each song would be a surprise. On the run, right about mile 7, I laughed out loud to hear that one track on his mix was simply my brother’s voice shouting at me, "Run! Run! Run! . . . Keep running! . . . Don't stop running." 

So there I was at mile 20, ready to expire and quit the race. At that point, my plan was simple: crawl under a rock to die. Just as I'm looking around for suitable rocks to call my final resting place, into my earbuds bursts the powerful and iconic power chords of the heart-pumping adrenaline anthem, Eye of the Tiger by Survivor (fitting), the theme song used in at least one of the Rocky movies.

I know that you know the song, so don't pretend you don't. Sing along with me, "Dun. . . dun, dun, dun . . . dun, dun, duuuun. . . 'Risin' up, back on the street . . . Just a man and his will to survive ." 

I'm embarrassed to say it but as cheeseball as that song is, and as much as my inner-hipster would have loved to just roll eyes or chuckle and continue on with plan A (dying under a rock), hearing that song caused something to stir inside of me. With Eye of the Tiger thumping in my ears, my eyes suddely focused, my legs found some steel, and I forgot the burn in my lungs. Fueled by some hidden and mysterious power, I started to CRUSH up that slope with singular resolve.

"It's the eye of the tiger, It's the thrill of the fight, rising up to the challenge of our rival. And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night and he's watching us all with the eye . . . OF THE TIGER!"

Now, I can't even read those lyrics with a straight face, however at the time nothing could have been more serious. At the top of that hellacious hill, I found myself even doing victory leaps, pounding my fist in the air as enthusiastically as Rocky Balboa himself.

Having conquered the hill, I continued to finish the run, which, incidentally, was my very, very  improbable plan B. 

So one minute I felt as if I was ready to die from exhaustion with absolutely no energy whatsoever left in me and the next minute I had crushed a mile-long monster hill and still had enough energy to run another 5 miles to finish the race. No fuel. No sugar. No caffeine. A cheesy rock anthem was my drug. 

So what is that about?! I mean really. This slapped the face of what I thought my legit physical limits were and suggests that maybe they are more plastic than I thought. 

The topic of limiters, specifically the plasticity of one’s limits, has fascinated me, especially as I've explored my limits as it pertains to running but can relate to all kinds of other limits we and others place on our capacity. The notion of your limits being plastic is provocative. 

Since my first killer trail marathon, I've been using some powerful techniques that help me understand limits for what they are: "perceived" limitations. I try not to see limits as Truth but rather beliefs. Beliefs are plastic. We’ve all verified this, we've all accomplished the impossible against all odds at sometime or other, right? When have YOU accomplished the impossible against all odds. I’d love to hear about it. 

I propose that we have much more power over our perceived limits than we think we do.

You can train a dog not to leave the yard for fear of getting a shock for doing so, a response that has been conditioned into that dog’s brain even when there is no longer a mechanism that administers shocks. Likewise, we fail to see the truth about many of our own perceived limitations. 

What do you feel are your limitations in life? Do you have a boss you're tired of? Do you believe that you can never get ahead in your finances, or that you will never meet the love of your life? 

In Yoga his misapprehension about limits (or anything else, really) is called Avidya, or the antithesis of clear seeing. First, understanding that we might have a misapprehension about something we've previously thought as truth with a capital “T” is a huge step in the right direction. So, to call our limitations perceived limitations rather than iron-clad barriers is very powerful in itself.

One of my favorite learning modules in my online Yoga Nidra immersion and teacher training explores the science and psychology of Yoga Nidra and how we can use meditation to see past the perceived limitations that our mind imposes on us. 

In many ways, setting goals is simply an experiment in testing what you believe is possible. If you don’t believe a goal is even possible, that is a non-starter. Believing it’s possible is perhaps the first step to accomplishing it, or at very least gets you in the door. 

If you’re interested in exploring how Yoga Nidra can help you begin the process of accomplishing your goals and discovering the plasticity of what might be possible, whether that’s getting your finances under control, finding the love of your life, or crushing up an impossibly steep hill on a trail marathon, try my Yoga Nidra for Goals practice on the Resources Page. Also, you may be interested in my suite of Yoga Nidra recordings called Essential Yoga Nidra Vol. 1 which includes Yoga Nidra for Goals as well as several other specialized Yoga Nidra practices including, Yoga Nidra for Stress, Yoga Nidra for Grief, Yoga Nidra To Start Your Day, Yoga Nidra for Healing, and many others. 

Reply to this and leave a comment about those times that you’ve accomplished the impossible and what you think about your mind’s ability to redefine your limits. 

Namaste,

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What They Didn't Teach You in Your Teacher Training

I’m gearing up to teach my Yoga Nidra teacher training which kicks off this weekend. One of the things you’ll learn is something that other programs purposely don’t teach you. What I include in my curriculum is not only how to teach effectively and from the power of your own voice, but also how to make a great living as a teacher, because knowing what to teach and being a successful teacher are very different things. I’ll teach how to become a successful teacher. 

Let me share with you an unfortunate truth about the yoga industry. Most yoga and Yoga Nidra teacher training courses contain little or no information about how to be a successful teacher, often because the lead trainer is a “yoga rockstar” and does not teach in the community—they simply can’t relate to most of us who are out there every day teaching in our communities. What’s worse is that many teachers directing teacher trainings don’t want their teachers to know this stuff for fear of having to compete with their students for gigs. They don’t give their teachers in training the information to succeed as teachers which seems to imply that if you know how to lead sun salutations, ujjayi breath, and have the right intentions, good yoga gigs will magically manifest for you overnight. It just doesn’t work like that and sadly, the result is that waaaay too many new teachers never get the chance to start teaching because they were never taught how to acquire good gigs. As someone who has graduated hundreds of yoga and Yoga Nidra teachers, and who has been in the industry for 20 years, I see the stark—and frankly unfair— gap between new teachers and experienced teachers in their ability to generate well-paying teaching opportunities in communities, the workplace, and online. 

I have a wildly different approach. My many years teaching yoga and Yoga Nidra has shown me over and over again that there are far more good-paying teaching opportunities than there are teachers to teach them. My experience has taught me how to make an excellent living teaching yoga and Yoga Nidra (I earn 6 figures a year) and I want to show you how to do this, or better. 

I’ve designed this training to teach you the industry secrets to help you begin to earn money right away doing what you love. Allow me to debunk the myth that you have to be a “yoga rockstar'' to be a successful teacher. You don’t. 

In this course, you’ll learn exactly how to acquire and create great paying teaching opportunities, including:

• Public and online classes, workshops, and courses

• Private students and groups, including Yoga Nidra dyads

• Yoga and meditation retreats

• Teaching corporations and institutions

• Paid speaking events 

• Creating digital products to earn passive income

This training is an investment in your own body/mind/spirit wellness, one that will teach you to become an expert Yoga Nidra teacher, and one that will teach you how to make this training pay for itself and then continue to pay you for many years to come. 

I also offer mentor programs for existing teachers (or frankly anyone with a side hustle) to build for themselves what I call their Mechanism of Influence, how to make a global impact while also making a great living. 

Last year, a yoga teacher reached out to me during the worst part of the pandemic. She was a single mom and a yoga teacher who was suffering desperately from a lack of work during the pandemic. Teaching yoga is her primary mode of employment and the yoga studio she was working with closed down permanently because of COVID. She desperately wanted to learn how to make a good enough living to provide for herself and her daughter during the pandemic and beyond. We worked closely together for about 8 weeks and I taught her how to build a basic but functional mechanism that eventually allowed her teaching to make a massive impact while also paying her what she’s worth. Because of our work together, she has been making an extra 5k/mo, getting tons of new clients, and spends MORE time with her little girl.  She’s finally offering all those wonderful classes, workshops, courses, she’s always wanted to teach. She’s gaining tons of new clients who are discovering her from all over the world. She called me in tears the other day and told me that she’s now making enough money that she could finally move out of her crappy apartment in a sketchy part of town so she and her daughter can feel safe and comfortable in what she’s calling her dream apartment. She’s making a big impact while also making a great living. 

Of course she did all the work and I’m very proud of her for that. She simply needed to be pointed in the right direction, get the right information, and know the best way to apply her efforts. 

If you’re interested in learning how to create your own Mechanism of Influence and/or learning to teach Yoga Nidra like a boss, click on the link below to either enroll in my Yoga Nidra training happening this weekend and the next, or schedule a call to discuss a mentor program. 

Yoga Teacher Mentor Program

Make a massive impact on the world while making a great living doing what you love.

Brimming With Joy

Sometimes, I just want to punch in some coordinates into my phone just so I can hear the comfort of a familiar voice tell me where to go in life. Today, I want to tell you a story about how Yoga Nidra facilitated me feeling a breath-taking rapture that gave me some enormous clarity for my purpose in life at a time when I desperately needed it.

For me, Yoga Nidra has been perhaps the most illuminating practice I’ve experienced in my life. It’s taught me more about myself and the Universe than any other practice. If you don’t know, it’s a guided meditation where you lie down and get extremely relaxed, and drift into that fascinating, in-between state of consciousness, an experience that actually stimulates profound awareness. As you listen to a facilitator lead you through the practice, you gain a beautiful and broad perspective about life, problems, and the simple joy of being awake to the beauties of this world. I’ve been studying and practicing Yoga Nidra for more than 13 years and anymore when I do Yoga Nidra I am led through the very same process of keen awareness as I am facilitating for my students. 

But I wasn’t expecting this …

One day, when I was living and teaching in New York, I was on the subway, heading from Brooklyn to the Upper West Side to teach a Yoga Nidra class. The train rumbled and swayed as it crossed the Manhattan bridge and if I could see past the glare on the water, I’d be able to see the Statue Of Liberty out the window. But I wasn’t feeling free. I spent the entire trip uptown worrying about whether or not New York was the right place for us.

We had moved to New York for my wife’s job but I was also eager to try to “make it” as a yoga teacher in a city that has some of the finest yoga teachers in the world. My wife is brilliant at what she does, yet her job, placing her at the top of her field, was leaving her feeling very flat and unfulfilled. She worked long, hard hours and we hardly saw each other. Often, we’d meet on the sidewalk, her walking home from work, me walking to teach a class and pushing the stroller with our 2-year-old. We’d exchange a quick kiss, hand off the stroller, and she’d head home with our son while I went off to teach. Like no other time in our marriage, we were stressed and we were struggling. 

Seneca had started bringing up the idea of perhaps moving away from New York to try something new so we wouldn’t feel so stressed all the time. I felt conflicted because I wanted us to stay and try to make it work in New York. Every bump and sway on that crowded and hot subway bounced my brain with that bullshit phrase, “If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.” I didn’t know what we should do, whether to struggle longer and try to “make it work” in New York or to cut our losses and move somewhere else. I didn’t have a solution.

That night, I taught a Yoga Nidra class at Pure Yoga in Manhattan. My theme for class was to tap into the abundance of one’s heart energy. I’d been developing as a Yoga Nidra teacher for the past decade or so and as I was leading the class, I simply closed my eyes and sourced something that was both inside of me and outside of me. I no longer felt the worry and angst I’d experienced earlier. Instead, I felt as though I was channeling pure love. Though I couldn’t name it at that time, I had somehow taught myself to experience the same Nidra state of mind that my students were experiencing, while I was teaching. I had discovered teaching Yoga Nidra as its own pathway to waking up, it’s own spiritual practice, and teaching that class about sourcing the heart lit me up like fireworks. 

After class, I walked down Amsterdam Avenue on my way to catch the red line back home to Brooklyn and because of this Yoga Nidra practice that I’d just taught and simultaneously experienced, my entire being felt an absolute surge of well-being and love. I was absolutely brimming with joy. At that moment, it felt as if my eyes suddenly had a super-human focus, like I could see more than 79 blocks down Amsterdam Ave, all the way to the Hudson and that they could see every detail, from the birds landing on the light posts to the dirt in the gutter and all of it felt somehow like an expression of limitless love. I floated down the street with a smile on my face feeling like nothing could ever be so perfect. As I passed people on the street—everyone from the homeless guy to the stressed out business guy—it felt like I could feel into everyone’s heart and could feel everyone’s inherent goodness. Everything felt special, good, and magical, as if each object in the world were somehow a love note from the Divine just for me telling me, “Look at this. I made it for you.” 

As I walked to the subway, I still didn’t have any greater clarity about whether or not to stay in New York but nor did I have any worry. What was crystal clear was that I was doing the work that I was meant to do and that no matter if I lived in New York or New Zealand, Utah or Uganda, it didn’t really matter so long as I was doing what I love to do. I knew that as long as I was sharing this message of connection with the world, that the world would somehow help me “make it” wherever I was. 

This experience of walking down Amsterdam avenue, bursting with joy and love for the rats and birds and homeless folks on the street, reminds me of poet William Wordsworth (late 1700s, into the 1800s). There was a time when Wordsworth was feeling stressed, just like I was. His parents died when he was young and he and his sister were raised, quite begrudgingly, by some relatives who were counting the days for him to grow up and move out, preferably employed so he could take his sister with him. As Wordsworth was becoming a young adult, he was receiving enormous pressure from his guardians to take on a respectable and financially secure job as a clergyman. The problem was that he didn’t want to become a clergyman. He was passionate about poetry and dreamed of making a life as a poet. Announcing that you want to be a poet rather than a clergyman would be like telling mom and dad that you’ve decided not to go to law school so you could explore a career as a rockstar. 

Well, one morning Wordsworth was walking home in the early twilight through the hills and grasslands near his home by the Lake District in Northern England, his mind contemplating his future. In those magical blue-black hours of first light, he became spellbound and fiercely present to his beautiful landscape—those green hills, the ocean laughing at the distance, and the vapors rising off the dew like an intoxicating smoke raising his spirits. His senses were turned up to 11, giving him something better than an out-of-body experience, a completely in-bodied experience. His heart was a supernova of peace, love, and joy. And in that moment of intense rapture, Wordsworth received a massive download from the Powers That Be that poetry was what he is meant to do in life, and what’s more, that he would actually be doing the world a massive disservice if he didn’t pursue poetry. He received this message loud and clear. Though he didn’t have all the details yet, he nonetheless knew that the details were secondary to the simple clarity of knowing that he would become a poet. 

And from that moment forward, Wordsworth never doubted. He went on to be, well, William Wordsworth, essentially the Michael Jordan of the Romantic poets. William and his sister Dorothy were very close (she was a great poet in her own right) and together they devised a way that they could continue living and working together. Dorothy worked with him his entire career to help him become the poet that we are still talking about more than 220 years later. By becoming fiercely present that day walking through the hills, William Wordsworth was able to hear what plans the Universe had in store for him, something that worked out greater than his wildest dreams. 

The poem that speaks of his revelation to become a poet goes as follows and is from his magnum opus, The Prelude.

Magnificent 
The morning was, a memorable pomp,
More glorious than I ever had beheld.
The sea was laughing at a distance; all
The solid mountains were as bright as clouds,
Grain-tinctured, drenched in empyrean light;
And in the meadows and the lower grounds
Was all sweetness of a common dawn –
Dews, vapours, and the melody of birds,
And labourers going forth into the fields.
Ah, need I say, dear friend, that to the brim
My heart was full? I made no vows, but vows
Were then made for me: bond unknown to me
Was given, that I should be – else sinning greatly –
A dedicated spirit. On I walked
In blessedness, which even yet remains.

Yoga Nidra was the catalyst that facilitated a fierce presence for me in order to have my own Wordsworthian moment as I was walking down Amsterdam Ave, totally brimming with life’s fullness. Yoga Nidra is only one way of cultivating such presence, but one that I feel is unique, approachable, and very effective. Maybe Yoga Nidra can facilitate your Wordsworthian moment. 

What is your calling in this world? What is the Universe telling you that you must do for the world, “lest you be sinning greatly?” Are you a teacher, a therapist, a coach, or a parent? How might learning to facilitate Yoga Nidra, this beautiful practice of exquisite presence, help you to create clarity for your own life’s purpose as well as your clients, students, family members, or community? Teaching Yoga Nidra may or may not be your calling but it may be a wonderful tool to help you excel in whatever the Universe has in store for you. 

Please consider joining me for my live, online Yoga Nidra training. It’s going to be illuminating, relaxing, and empowering. Learn how to facilitate incredible clarity for your own life and for others.

I only do this a few times a year and I’d love to have you join me. 

2 weekends, 40 hours: July 31–Aug. 1st; Aug. 6–8, 2021, 9 am to 5 pm MDT. Zoom. Recorded for your own convenience in case you can’t make all the sessions and so you can resource the materials as long as you’d like.  

Plus, as soon as you register you’ll also get complimentary access to pre-recorded online curriculum as well as access to 2 weekly live Yoga Nidra classes for the duration of the training. This is for your own benefit as well as to learn how to host your own online Yoga Nidra classes. 

Please enjoy this free Yoga Nidra practice ($7 value) Waking from the Dream, Opening To Awareness (43 minutes) to facilitate your own clarity and heart power.

Healing with Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra is like a guided meditation that leads people through deepening layers of Awareness through a very relaxing process of listening. Different from many other forms of meditation or mindfulness, Yoga Nidra does not insist a person focus on any one thing at the exclusion of others. Rather, the direction in the practice is to relax and simply welcome into your Awareness whatever arises, to acknowledge that object for what it is and without assessment, then to merely be the witness of it. Such a practice helps you to dis-identify from the things you might be aware of and find yourself aligning as Awareness itself. You become Awareness itself trying all the things you may be aware of like a costume. The effect of this expansive Awareness practice is not only very illuminating, it’s also incredibly relaxing. What’s even more interesting is that Yoga Nidra can be extremely therapeutic and has been known to facilitate broad-spectrum healing of body, mind, and spirit. 

Practitioners regularly assert that Yoga Nidra has helped them heal from myriad issues and maladies including, insomnia, anxiety, high blood pressure, grief, and even trauma. How does this practice which acts like a relaxing guided meditation help practitioners to arrive at greater wholeness in body, mind, and spirit? 

To discover the ways in which this fabulous and relaxing form of mindfulness heals, it’s important to understand the essential purpose of the practice. The purpose of Yoga Nidra is to dis-identify with what we typically and erroneously feel is us—our body, emotions, thoughts, etc.—and learn to align yourself with your True Nature which is Awareness itself. Truly, you are Awareness in the form of all the things you can be aware of, such as body, emotions, thoughts, etc. You are the beautiful marriage of infinite consciousness married to the finite form of your body and suchness of your life. Yoga Nidra is an easy, practical, and enjoyable way to develop a tangible relationship with that marriage of consciousness and form. 

Yoga Nidra leans on ancient wisdom (Tantra) which suggests that everything in the Universe, including and especially ourselves, comes from Source. Source is whole, full, complete, and rests in a state of boundless equanimity, a quality that feels like an eternal love—one big, fat YES! from the Universe. This ancient wisdom also suggests that our True Nature is synonymous with Awareness. If you are Awareness, the more you lean into your essential being by practicing prolonged states of attention and by welcoming, acknowledging, and merely witnessing whatever presents itself to your Awareness, you gain a cosmic perspective about the current circumstances in which you find yourself. This alone has the almost magical power to lift you out of the cyclical hamster wheel of emotional turmoil. Furthermore, it gives you the wherewithal to respond rather than react to your circumstances, grounded from a place of practiced presence, one of deep and loving compassion. Once you know who you are, you start to align your life in the direction that befits such a noble and divine being. 

Another way that Yoga Nidra has the power to heal is that once you align with your True Nature, that of Awareness itself, you lean into that part of you that is already whole, complete, and healed. You know how you start to act like the folks you hang around with? Well the more you are in the presence of wholeness, it’s incredible how you simply stop entertaining all those parts of you that don’t serve your highest being. With a regular exposure, to wholeness you start to align to your own most natural way of being, your Source Nature, and feel yourself healing in body, mind, and spirit.

Here’s the thing: yoga, meditation, and Yoga Nidra don’t give you anything you don’t already have. They simply take off some of the conditioning, the layers, or forgetfulness we have around our already perfect self. 

Well, can Yoga Nidra cure acute, chronic, or even terminal diseases and conditions? I’ve heard my students tell me how Yoga Nidra has helped them cure everything including: sexual dysfunction, insomnia, heart disease, high blood pressure, depression and anxiety, substance abuse/dependency, stage fright, trauma, and serious emotional abuse. Moreover, what Yoga Nidra helps you to heal is the fundamental human malady which is feeling separate from Source. When you know that you are fundamentally whole, despite any finite condition you may have in body, mind, and spirit, you live your life richly and fully knowing that each thing that presents itself to you is an opportunity to lean into witnessing, into presence, into experiencing yourself as Awareness. So yes, Yoga Nidra can help you heal in the traditional way of healing and it can also help you experience a level of wholeness that extends beyond what any regular physician would deem as whole. 

And at the end of the day, one of the superpowers of Yoga Nidra is that it offers you concentrated rest. They say that 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra is the equivalent in rest as a solid 2-hour nap. The entire mode of Yoga Nidra is to use relaxation to enter into the “Nidra” state of mind, which is like a daydream state. This state acts as a special pocket of consciousness wherein you can gain incredible insight, rest, and healing. Rest is the first order of operations for any kind of healing in body, mind, and spirit. Just by the fact that Yoga Nidra is restful in nature, it helps facilitate healing. If you or someone you know is convalescing due to any circumstance, try doing some Yoga Nidra. At very least you will get a solid bout of conscious rest. I can assure you that you’ll feel better when you’re done. Doing this regularly will be like adding currency to your wellness bank account. 

Once, I was asked to give private yoga lessons to a man who was working with stage 4 colon cancer. On our first session together, I told him that while what we do may or may not help to cure his cancer, our goal was to become as healthy as possible given whatever circumstances and allow the process of healing to unfold as it does. We did very gentle poses, some breath work, and a LOT of Yoga Nidra. Together we had some transcendent experiences, some of the richest and most enlightening experiences of my life. I remember seeing my client-turned-life-long-friend emerge from some of these practices, wide-eyed, and crazy looking and almost shouting, “What was that! It was incredible!” My friend eventually succumbed to cancer but he soaked as much life and vitality as possible with the remaining years we had practicing yoga together. I believe that despite the fact that he eventually died, he experienced a level of wholeness that many people only dream about.

Experience this practice for yourself and enjoy the healing that comes through Yoga Nidra.

To Whom Are We Beautiful As We Go?

"I wish I knew the beauty of leaves falling.

To whom are we beautiful when we go?"

Excerpt from "Three In Transition" by David Ignatow

And to whom are we beautiful as we go? I love this poem. This poem seems to point to the fact that even in our failing, even in our demise, there is a part of creation and therefore a part of ourselves that can grant a magnificence to any loss. Such a beautiful concept. Such a bittersweet truth. And perhaps this is why Autumn is so colorful: it is the opulent funeral procession of the death of so much. It is the rush of fireworks before the quiet stillness of winter.

There has been so much that has changed this year, not only because of COVID, but also because life's only constant is that it's in change. Things are meant to pass away, including leaves, including people and including old ways of doing things. There's no business as usual in the roller coaster of life.

Yet this inevitable demise points to something much more beautiful. It may be difficult in the moment yet will unfailingly create the conditions for a new birth in your continual upleveling of consciousness.

Many of the Hindu statues tell stories. The Dancing Shiva is a story-telling icon depicting Shiva, the creator of the universe, and illustrates the five acts of Shiva.

The concept is the same whether you call the creator, Shiva, God, the Universe, or anything else. In this statue (seen in the background of the above pic), these 5 acts are depicted by his many arms, one of which is celebrating creation, another that is sustaining his creation, another is allowing death, and another that is not only inviting things back to life, but to live again with a higher consciousness than before.

This statue reminds us that our job is to allow Shiva to lead in this dance of life, to follow along as we are slowly refined into greater beings. It reminds us that death is a part of life and with a broader perspective, we can, to some degree, appreciate it as a necessary part of the cycle.

Mary Oliver writes about learning to accept death and loss in her poem, Maker of All Things, Even Healings. I love the title of the poem because it suggests that the healing, the bringing back to life for a fuller measure of life as in the Dancing Shiva, comes only after accepting death which she does so humbly.

Maker of All Things, Even Healings
by Mary Oliver

All night
under the pines
the fox
moves through the darkness
with a mouthful of teeth
and a reputation for death
which it deserves.
In the spicy
villages of the mice
he is famous,
his nose
in the grass
is like an earthquake,
his feet
on the path
is a message so absolute
that the mouse, hearing it,
makes himself
as small as he can
as he sits silent
or, trembling, goes on
hunting among the grasses
for the ripe seeds.
Maker of All Things,
including appetite,
including stealth,
including the fear that makes
all of us, sometime or other,
flee for the sake
of our small and precious lives,
let me abide in your shadow--
let me hold on
to the edge of your robe
as you determine
what you must let be lost
and what will be saved.

As we celebrate the coming of fall, may we, too, remember the beauty of leaves falling, the beauty and magnificence of this amazing dance in which we are all twirling, living, growing, dying, and being reborn into something greater.

May you see your journey through many cycles of death and rebirth as beautiful as the panoply of changing leaves.

If you are experiencing grief due to any sort of loss, may I suggest watching/listening to my free Yoga Nidra for Grief practice.

Yoga Nidra for Sleep

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I’m super happy to have an article published with Yogi Times about the benefits of Yoga Nidra for sleep.

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Click the photo to download this relaxing, 25-minute practice.

a zombie in class

One night a few years ago, a zombie showed up to my Yoga Nidra class. Haggard and vacant, she rolled out her mat on the back row and sat there trying to look like a normal, living person while other students were busy arranging their yoga mats, blankets, and eye pillows in preparation for our relaxing Yoga Nidra session.

As always, I asked the class if anybody needed anything in particular from this Yoga Nidra session. The zombie in the back row, trying her best to look normal, lifted a timid and tired hand, looked at me with dead, bloodshot eyes, and announced that her name was Suzie.

“Please,” she begged, “I haven’t slept—I mean really slept—for almost 6 months. I’m going crazy. Can Yoga Nidra help me?”

“Suzie, you’re in the right place,” I responded enthusiastically. I then explained to her and the rest of the class exactly how Yoga Nidra can help work its magic to promote excellent sleep. To prepare for Yoga Nidra, first I led the students in a few gentle asanas, then some relaxing pranayama, before instructing them to lie down, close their eyes, and relax.

Next, I led them through a 35-minute Yoga Nidra practice, and Awareness practice which acts like a guided meditation, where I focused on helping people achieve deep, peaceful, and nourishing sleep. I made an audio recording of the Yoga Nidra practice and sent it home with the students as homework. Suzie received the recording gratefully.

The next week, Suzie came back to class though I almost didn’t recognize her. The zombie that had come the week before had transformed into a vibrant human being with bright eyes, a warm face, and a wide smile.

Like normal, I asked if anyone in the class needed anything in particular from this Yoga Nidra practice. Suzie raised her hand again and excitedly reported to me and the entire class how the previous week’s Yoga Nidra practice helped her to relax more than she had been able to relax in a very long time. She also talked about how that night she went home and experienced an utterly fantastic night of deep sleep, and that she had been sleeping well ever since. 

(Drop the mic.)

Have you ever suffered from sleeplessness? Of course, you have. Everybody does. In the United States, 50–70 million adults of all ages and socio-economic classes suffer from regular sleep problems (Reference). Before you go get a prescription drug to help put you out, consider Yoga Nidra is an excellent, effective, and completely natural remedy for sleeplessness. Though it’s not addictive in the pharmaceutical kind of way, once you try it, you likely come back for more.

What? How?

I know what you’re thinking: what is Yoga Nidra and why is something like a guided meditation even called yoga? Also, how does lying down, closing your eyes, and listening to someone lead you through a guided meditation help you sleep better?

To understand what Yoga Nidra is, it’s best to start with the definition of yoga. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, (written between 500 BCE and 400 CE AD), says that the experience of yoga is to connect body, mind, and spirit to eliminate the disturbances of the mind and arrive at a state of Awareness called Samadhi, or Oneness. This state of Oneness is synonymous with wholeness. It’s rich. You might need a glass of milk to wash all of that down. And while Samadhi may sound quite lofty, ancient wisdom also says that it’s actually our most natural state because it’s our Source.

Be warned: the practice of yoga is different from the experience of yoga mostly in that the practice merely sets the conditions for the experience of yoga to occur. You can’t “make” Samadhi happen but regular practices of body, mind, and spirit connection can help us remember our Source and achieve regular glimpses of Samadhi. Then one day I guess you piece together all those glimpses to realize that you’re living Samadhi…

Satva: The Goldilocks of Everything

The Gunas

Classical yoga philosophy says that the universe can be described by using three main humors, called gunas. These gunas are Rajas, Tamas, Sattva. Everything in the Universe from hot to cold seasons to hot to cold personalities demonstrates some combination of these gunas. Understanding these principles of the gunas can help you find a yoga practice and live a life that feels perfectly balanced for you.

Fire

The first of the humors is called Rajas and is generally considered the quality of building, full of fire, energizing, active, prone to change, etc. Think of summer as the season with the most rajas—it’s hot, things are growing (building) and thus changing. A stage of life that demonstrates a lot of rajas is the years when you’re learning the most and growing the most or demonstrating a lot of ambition to make your way in the world, the early and mid-adult stage.

Ice

The perfect counterbalance of Rajas is Tamas which is generally known as grounding, calming, and inert. Tamas is demonstrated in seasons like winter when everything is still, cold, and frozen. The stages of life that demonstrates the most Tamas are early childhood (think cubby baby that sleeps a lot) and when we retire from work or start to slow down in our later years.

Rajas and Tamas are not only demonstrated in major periods of life, but also in your day-to-day energy, feeling, and attitude. Regardless of stage of life, you might generally be a very active person but due to a lot of busyness or a heavy workout, you might be feeling a little Tamasic and need to chill out on the couch with some ice cream and Netflix. Other days, you might be feeling gobs and gobs of energy and want to tackle a project. This is Rajas.

Balance

Now, the balance between Rajas and Tamas is called Satva. Satva is the perfect “Goldilocks” of the two extremes. Satva is what we are aiming for in all of our physical, mental, and spiritual practices. Sometimes we must skillfully negotiate our efforts or ease in these practices to find ourselves demonstrating Satva. Satva feels balanced—energized but not spastic, clear and open-minded without being lost in the clouds, energized without feeling out of control.

In the ancient text of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali the author suggests balancing all of our efforts between effort (Rajas) and ease (Tamas) to find the perfect middle way and to find success in our endeavors. Doing so promotes longevity, productivity, and joy in the practice.

Even after a vigorous asana practice, savasana is the essential balancing act at the end that helps you to walk away feeling Satvic for the rest of the day. Similarly, after a Restore yoga practice it might sometimes helps to go on a gentle walk. Just like Goldilocks, the middle way feels most comfortable, the most like home.

For those of us who love to bliss out on Rajas and train or play really hard, don't worry. Just remember that there is a time to sit and meditate too. Also, those of us who could indulge in Tamas and stay on our cozy meditation cushions all day long and then celebrate with a box of Hatch Family Chocolates, well, maybe you could try at least try going for a walk afterwords.

If you’d like to explore more Rajas in your life, try one of my live, online, and socially distanced vinyasa classes like Monday night at 5:30 pm at Mosaic Yoga, (live or FB livestream) or Tuesday/Thursday at noon MDT (online only), a class I share with Kim Dastrup.

If you could use more Tamas in your life, try one of my live, online Yoga Nidra classes, Wednesdays and Sundays.

All of my weekly offerings can be accessed by anywhere in the world.

Best of luck as you search for your own Goldilocks rhythm of life and practice.

Yoga Nidra Training: Ready to Go!

I love to teach Yoga Nidra trainings. I feel that the world needs more Yoga Nidra and needs more qualified Yoga Nidra teachers.

Something I hear all the time is teachers who don’t want to end up being a rote version of their teachers. Or, that in order to learn how to write their own scripts that they have to wait for and PAY for another training.

I believe that each teacher will be most impactful if they can teach from their own experience and voice and not from a rote script. But teaching Yoga Nidra does require understanding the basics principles of Yoga Nidra. I believe that when you understand the what and why of Yoga Nidra, you’ll know how to use your practice, teaching, and life experience to be not only an effective teacher but and EXTRAORDINARY teacher, able to connect with students in ways that ONLY you can.

It’s like an artist who seeks to find expression on a canvas or a jazz musician learning to improvise—you can’t go out there and just start throwing notes out your horn. By learning the rudiments and principles, the what and why of the underlying form, it actually FREES you to go out and make the music you want to make. The same goes for teaching Yoga Nidra—once you understand the basic principles, you’ll find the freedom to MAKE YOUR OWN YOGA NIDRA SCRIPTS, to be optimally effective for your students.

After you understand the what and why of Yoga Nidra, I’ll take you through a meticulous understanding of how all the elements fit together to teach a class based on your students’ particular needs to facilitate true transformation.

And while I will teach you how to write your own scripts, I’ve provided over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts that you can use, alter, and modify as you’re looking to find your own voice. These will serve you to be able to teach great, impactful Yoga Nidra classes from day one, but also give you a transcript for an effective class which you use to analyze what makes an effective Yoga Nidra script as you learn to write your own.

What’s In My Yoga Nidra Training

I currently have a great online Yoga Nidra training that is a digital recording of 20 hours of a live training, a 60+ page manual with discussion notes, links, mantras, etc., plus, a PDF booklet with over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts.

ALSO, I’m in the process of revamping the entire thing! I’m re-recording audio and video and adding several sections, including some key, breakthrough information about how to teach Yoga Nidra like an expert. Also, I’m including some sections about how to offer Yoga Nidra during times of COVID both for 1:1 students as well as live, online classes, etc. This should be done by the end of August.

I’ll be charging more for this new product because effectively, I’ll be doubling the content. However, I’ll be offering my new training to anyone who has purchased my current training for no additional cost.

If you’re interested in teaching Yoga Nidra, please give my Yoga Nidra training a look. I think you’ll love it.

Click the pic below

Yoga Nidra: Learning To See Self

How does yoga, Yoga Nidra, and meditation help us learn to see and understand ourselves?

Master teacher and author Donna Farhi wrote in her book, Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living

One of the most devastating consequences of skewed perception is the longing that grows in us for someone to see us as we really are. We long to have someone, somewhere, even for a moment, really see us. When someone sees the “us” that is our essence, we say that we feel loved. My teacher taught that the primary thing to learn is how to be this loving, accepting presence. . . . When this longing to be seen by another is great, we become susceptible to chronic manipulation of our image. We may continually rearrange and reinvent ourselves in the hope that this new rendition will please our audience. Instead of being present, we perform. (pp. 179–80)

In Clear Mind, Wild Heart Poet David Whyte says, “To be constantly explaining who you are is a gospel of despair.” He further invites us to simply be ourselves and in so doing give permission to all around us to do likewise.

In yoga, Yoga Nidra , and meditation we practice self-witnessing as we breathe, move through poses, and become mindful. Without this self-witness you can’t understand the real you. No amount of exposure or popularity, no amount of others seeing or perceiving you will compensate for the lack of knowing yourself. It’s the paradox of rock stars: so popular but often feeling so lonely. A friend once told me, “ It’s as if in our quest to experience and really discover/remember who we are, we feel like being seen by others is synonymous to being. There must be something there to see, right?”

But being witnessed isn’t witnessing. Yoga philosophy suggests that who we are fundamentally is the ability to truly witness ourselves.

Yoga Nidra is perhaps my favorite way of seeing the part of me that never changes, the part that just is. Yoga Nidra is one of my favorite ways of practicing just BEING. Yoga Nidra is a method of self-inquiry that helps you to practice simply witnessing all the things that you are aware of as the first step to learning to illuminate Awareness itself. In Yoga Nidra philosophy (tantra) you’re true being is Awareness.

“Thanks, Mr. Oblique Yoga Philosophy Guy. That’s some awesome yoga thought but give me some real-life ways to relate that to getting up in the morning and facing another day of work and family and the every-day.”

Well, the easiest way to apply this is to just pay attention to your life. What does it feel like to sit in a warm shower and let the water flow over your skin? What do the blossoms smell like when you walk down the sidewalk? What does your breakfast taste like? What does it feel like when your boss walks by? Yoga practice is simply a condensed and refined way of paying close attention.

Besides yoga makes us feel great, helps us have a healthy body, calm mind, and open heart. Here’s the deal: once we start practicing this self-witnessing business in yoga, we won’t stop at Namaste. We’ll be feeling our hamstrings in practice one night, and wake up extremely aware of the way the shower feels or maybe start to see the deep feelings in your heart. These are the most real ways of just being. The deeper we pay attention, the more we notice what’s behind the surface, what’s animating the outer form, what’s sensing, what’s seeing. Eventually, with practice, we become more and more familiar with this Inner Self. What’s amazing is how this knowledge of our inner-self gives us amazing confidence to just be. We stop trying to produce the image of ourselves, and we just be ourselves.

It reminds me of tales of Mark Twain. Often when he delivered lectures, like one would expect he would walk out on stage the crowd would applaud and then quiet down listening intently for what he would say. But what people didn’t expect is that often, Mark Twain wouldn’t start talking right away. He’d stand there in front of a packed auditorium and stare down the audience. Each second that passed wound the tension tighter and tighter. One man looking at thousands. He didn’t have to perform. He didn’t have to say anything. He was Mark-Freegin’-Twain! Finally, when the tension became almost unbearable, he would say but one word and have the entire audience in his hands. Now that’s presence!

Writers and poets, yogis and meditators all have one crucial thing in common: they’ve developed a keen attention to themselves and the world around them.

May you practice some of this self-witnessing in whatever form you love to be present.

Maybe this is what John Lennon meant when he sang ,“Let it be.”

Learning To Be Lost

Paris. Summertime. Rush hour.

I was crammed into an aisle-seat near the back of a hot and crowded bus, staring out the window, hypnotized by the waves of afternoon traffic, as the City of Love passed me by. It was a complex modern ballet of busses and bikes, cars and pedestrians.

A sharp bump on my shoulder ripped me from my daydream. I glanced up to see a man in his late 50s or early 60s wearing a crisp, starched shirt, a broad smile, and the unmistakable opaque sunglasses of someone who is blind.

“Excusez-moi!” the man said with an assured and happy tone, my annoyance instantly neutered by his obvious good nature. “Pas de problem,” I responded sincerely and watched as he proceeded to literally bump his way, inch by inch, body by body, toward the front of the tightly-packed bus.

It was a labored birth of bumping, squeezing, and "excuzez-moi-ing" to arrive at the front of the bus but I didn't sense any embarrassment or self-consciousness on part the of the blind man. I could only hear his good-natured, "Excusez-moi!" echoing regularly through the bus. The man’s happy heart was contagious and soon it had brightened the bus’s entire atmosphere.

At the front of the bus, the blind man leaned in and spoke a few essential words to the driver and a few minutes later the bus made an impromptu stop. “Merci,” the blind man offered to the driver as the hydraulic doors hissed, opening like some giant whale ready to spew Jona back out into the raging sea of afternoon traffic. The blind man groped the handrail as he shuffled toward the door. Standing on the lip of the bus, he probed the space beyond with a deft toe, trying to gauge the distance to the street below and not finding it, I watched his faith appear like wings as he released the handrail, falling in the darkness for a half-second before his foot found terra firma. He landed doing a few quick tap-dance steps to find his balance. I watched from the bus window as he walked in short steps searching for the sidewalk. His feet found the curb and he stumbled up onto the sidewalk entering the rapid of foot traffic.

I worried for this man. This was the kind of traffic that required all of your senses to be on high alert, and perhaps even a guardian angel, to manage safely. The blind man didn't even have a walking stick. In this dense current, it would not have helped.

Once planted firm on the sidewalk, he stopped and stood mid-current as busy passers-by swirled around him and continued down stream. He stood like a fly fisherman, legs firm against the flow, then lifted his bright face upward above the din of the crowd and made some sort of plea above the deluge, perhaps asking if someone might point him in the right direction.

As if cued by some cosmic Paris City stage manager, no sooner than making his ask did a beautiful woman materialize from the busy crowd, smartly-dressed wearing heels and a light floral skirt and blouse. A complete stranger. She met the blind man with a gentle touch on his arm then casually wrapped her other hand affectionately through his bent elbow. After no more than a few seconds, the new pair made a quick quarter-turn and started strolling arm-in-arm across the crowded Pont Neuf, chatting and laughing as naturally and casually as if they had known each other for years and were on their regular date to promenade the Latin Quarter for an opera matinée.

The smile on the blind man’s face never waivered once. It was as if he had expected his beautiful angel to escort him across the bridge. A reluctant voyeur, I nonetheless wished like hell that I could somehow hear their conversation as they walked down the street. As I watched them stroll away, walking together, I felt their combined light.

Though the man’s eyes were blind, clearly he had honed other essential senses, like those hinted at by the wise fox in The Little Prince who said, “One can only see well with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.” This blind man’s palpable heart light was evidence that he could see the world in ways that many others could not.

This was several years ago, though I replay that scene often in my memory. Sometimes, I feel like I'm blindly stumbling through life, walking around busy streets, tripping off the bus, bumping into the sidewalk, and graciously, not without some self-deprecating humor, asking humbly for some kind soul, some angel of light, to give me direction, to hold my arm and steer me to the other side of the river, over the bridge, toward something new.

And sometimes I pray to hidden angels: “Let me learn to be blind, if only for a while, so that I may feel rather than analyze my way through life. Let me learn to see a different, more essential kind of light. Let me learn to ask for help. Let me know of some deeper magic within. Let me learn to trust my deepest heart’s direction.”

Amid the current of life, sometimes I stumble onto my yoga mat or my meditation cushion and practice going inside. There I practice seeing what is essential. There, I discover a whisper of faith telling me that more important than mapping out each step of my life in meticulous detail, my true work lies in learning to know the light in my heart. By closing my eyes I find true sight.

Armed with inner-sight, I can feel my way toward where I need to go, knowing I’ll find my angels along the way. Then, all of the details and particulars of my life will naturally grow and evolve as they should.

My heart tells me to go ahead and make my plea to the Universe against the din of the world’s rushing current, to ask for what I want and where to go and what to do. Then to watch what emerges. My heart tells me that I must learn to be lost, to ask directions, and ask permission. I must risk a little. I must risk it all. I must learn to fall. I must keep my heart open. I must learn to say I’m sorry. I must have faith. I must learn to love despite it all.

Wherever you might be stumbling in life, I hope you stumble onto your mat or meditation cushion and practice finding your inner vision. Don’t be surprised when your smartly-dressed angel materializes from the current to greet you at the corner of hope and I don’t know what.

May we all link arms as we move blindly through this life together, illuminated by some deeper light, while crossing the bridge from old to new on our way in this opera of life through the City of Love.

Habits Make Or Break You

I love to trail run. Even when I'm slogging up a big hill it never feels like work. At the start of my run, I look at my watch and estimate how much time I GET to run. When I come back, I like to roll out my yoga mat and throw down some of my favorite poses. It feels utterly amazing!

Consequently, I'm getting healthy in body, mind, and spirit by doing something I love!

I've said it for years and we all know it's true: your habits will either make you or break you. Practice being healthy in body, mind, regularly. Drink enough water, eat your veggies, do something physical. Practice yoga. Meditate. Practice gratitude.

Set up a weekly routine of general eating habits, your regular yoga and meditation classes, and general way of being. You don't have to be perfect in this—it's is a lifestyle, not just a challenge. That means once in a while it will be your birthday your normal routine will be shot—all you'll consume will be booze and sugar. You'll probably be reminded that what you really wanted for your birthday was to do what makes you feel great. But then the next day you start back up and there's no judgment, no problem.

After weeks, months, and years of regularly doing what you love and what is healthy for you, you will realize that you've made some pretty big strides toward being the person that you knew you always were. it's your habits that form your health, character, and happiness.

This week in one of my live, online Yoga Nidra classes, one of my students who has joined my online sessions for many months commented with great happiness about the cumulative effect of doing Yoga Nidra regularly.

There are some lessons which can only be learned through a cumulative effect.

So choose those things that love which are also healthy for you in body, mind, and spirit and make them a habit.

What is true is that we are in the time of COVID and that we will be here for a little bit. If you've been resistant to online classes, give them a try. You might be surprised at some of the hidden advantages such as, many of my classes are recorded so you can do them when fits with your schedule, if you do join live how thy are still quite interactive, and the commute to class only a few steps to your living room. You can join me from anywhere in the world. All pets are allowed to attend virtual classes! They'll love that. That and you can choose to turn your camera off so you can practice in your underwear if you wish.

If you are looking to establish some healthy habits in your life to promote your own wellness in body, mind, spirit, I think you'll be quite pleased at some of my offerings. I'm even experimenting with some livestream/live-socially distanced classes. Check them out below. I hope you have a great week, everyone.

Yoga Nidra: Living Courageously

I write for a great online publication called Conscious Living News. I just published an article this week about using Yoga Nidra to learn to live your live courageously. Take a look!

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Often when we think of courage, we conjure ideas of running into a fiery building to save someone or jumping out of an airplane however, perhaps an even truer definition of courageous means to live your life connected to your heart. Through mindfulness practices like Yoga Nidra meditation you may learn to connect to your heart to listen to the message of your heart, and to have the courage to prioritize your life according to what matters most to you. In so doing, you share your heart's gift with the world. 

Living Full of Heart

Courage comes from the french word, Coeur, meaning heart. Therefore, courageous means being full of heart. Living courageously means loving the world and bravely prioritizing what you love. It means having the courage to share your heart’s gift with the world. Howard Thurman was an author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader who once said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Giving your heart’s gift to the world means offering your love and the fruits of that love as a gift. You give it because it’s a joy to do so, whether or not there’s any reciprocity. 

How do you give your gifts to the world? Do you prioritize sharing your gift? The world needs what only you can offer. Some people's gift to the world is very public and for others it's quite private. You might love the world through music, raising children, or practicing law—there are countless ways to love the world. The way you love the world might simply be the way you can observe and appreciate it. Regardless, every one has a gift to share the world and that gift is equal to the way in which you love the world.

Sourcing the Heart

In searching for our heart’s gift for the world and how to share it, sometimes, we need to gain wisdom about ourselves, wisdom that may lie deeper than our conscious, rational thinking mind. Yoga Nidra is an excellent (and relaxing) practice to plumb these depths and hear the secret message of our heart. It does this by placing you into a state between waking and dreaming, one of relaxed alertness, which acts as a secret doorway to visit the Source that is within you. It’s like a doorway to your heart. This is why I’ve dedicated several sessions in my live online Yoga Nidra class (on Wednesdays and Sundays) to explore sourcing your heart’s gift and set the conditions necessary to hear the wise Oracle inside you whispering what your gifts are for the world and how to share them with the world. 

The Oracle Inside of You

The Oracle Inside of you, whispering your gifts of your heart, may be closer and easier to hear thank you think. I'm passionate about Yoga Nidra, a relaxing form of meditation that uses layered Awareness and relaxation to tune into hear your heart's message to yourself. Please enjoy this free Yoga Nidra practice: Waking from the Dream, Opening to Awareness. I've made it just for you and hope that by listening to it you too will learn to hear what's inside of your heart and how to courageously share it with the world.

reLOVEution Starts Within

What To Do?

Tragically, George Floyd is now a household name. I’m sick to my stomach with grief, anger, and fear over what’s transpired in the last week. I fear what we are—as a nation and as a people. There’s no us vs. them. There’s only us—all of us. Together. And unless we can unite in wholeness, in peace, and in unity, we all suffocate from the weight of intolerance, ignorance, and hate. That and change starts from within. 

As much progress as we’ve made toward racism in this country, it’s nonetheless perilously woven itself deep into the fabric of our institution in both subtle and overt ways. But how do we start to make things right for people of color, black as well as brown, yellow, red, oh and let’s not forget women, LGBTQ+ folks—so basically anyone who’s not a white man, right? How do we as a nation even begin to reconcile with those who have been disenfranchised? 

First, I’m Sorry

Personally, I think a great big fat public apology is in order, an apology from everyone who’s benefitted from the racist hierarchy. Not that it would immediately make things right. But it wouldn't hurt and would be a step in the right direction. 

Here’s mine: I’m sorry. I’m sorry to George Floyd. I’m sorry to his family. I’m sorry to any person of color for the ways that this country and the people in it treat them differently. I’m sorry to our indigenous people on whose land we live. I’m sorry to our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters and those who are non-binary. I’m sorry to the women and children who all too often end up with the short end of the stick. I’m sorry because as a white, straight man, the system is set up to work in my favor and I benefit from it in ways that are both obvious and subtle.

Whether by my choice or not, I’ve benefited from this reality because as much as I love everyone on this earth, regardless of color or sexual orientation, I’m nonetheless a white man and that has undoubtedly given me privileges which have changed my reality more than I’m sure I can ever know. I’m not ashamed of being white no more than anyone should be ashamed for the way they came into this earth, naked, vulnerable, and hopefully wrapped in the loving and protective arms of their mother, which is the way we all deserve to live every day of our life, treated like the most valuable human being that has ever come into existence. Because you are. We all are.

Heart Revolution

Whatever the answer is for this complex and heart-breaking issue, one thing is for sure and it’s that violence is not the answer. I just came from living for a year in France where protest is a national sport. Since long before the French Revolution, the people in France have been telling “The Man” where to stick it. I think peaceful revolution is healthy for society, especially when that revolution is rooted in love and acts from a place of responsiveness rather than reactiveness. 

If yoga, Yoga Nidra, and meditation teach us anything, it’s that we must take the information we have, learn to invite it into our Awareness, acknowledge all the ways it affects us, and observe it. Then we must know how to respond to that information. As we do so from the place of observation, every step forward is from a place grounded in our innate goodness, from the portion of Source or God which resides within us which is inextricably connected to LOVE.

WWGD? 

Gandhi, perhaps the world’s greatest social revolutionary, understood very well the primary yogic principle of Ahimsa, or non-harming, and insisted on leading the world’s largest social revolution with non-violence at it’s foundation because he understood that no lasting change could happen using the same backward power that had oppressed them. Something that Gandhi understood very well, and which I think this is the kicker here, is that we can’t get there from here, meaning we can’t stop violence and stop hate with more violence and hate. Is it warranted? Of course it is. But to what end? To perpetuate more violence and hate?

But how do we do it? Enough is enough, already! How do we get a little justice around here?! When are we going to start seeing some real change in this world?! (insert your favorite, cathartic expletive here). 

For real change, the kind that we all desperately need and, sadly, few believe is even possible, we gotta come at this crucial world-problem from an entirely different mindset. Albert Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” To change this desperate world-problem, we gotta up-level our consciousness and that means starting with ourselves. It means doing your yoga and meditation to discover the goodness that is within you to share that with the world. 

I believe the first step to creating real change is to stop pointing the fingers at someone else and demanding that THEY change, that they are responsible. We all must choose to be responsible about the solution. Lemme get all yogi on you, here: lasting change in the world can only come from within YOU. Gandhi also said, "If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man (or person) changes his (their) own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him (them).... We need not wait to see what others do." (I added the PC language.) 

In a world that has had ENOUGH of hate, the thing that is going to change things around here is love and the place to start is with our own heart. 

Love Yourself

Click the photo for more information

Before we start throwing social distancing to the wind and hugging everything with a pulse, we gotta first do the challenging work to learn to love ourselves. We have to heal our wounds of self-loathing, guilt, and shame. We need to person-up and apologize to others and ourselves for wrongs done, forgive ourselves and others, and learn to really love ourselves first and foremost. This is the first and crucial step to be able to extend that love to others. 

Psychologist, author, and world-renown peacemaker Marshall Rosenberg, in his incredible work on non-violent communication, says that in order to love another person, you must first learn to love yourself through positive self-talk, self-image, and affirmation.

When we can learn to love ourselves, we can then extend that love toward everyone, especially those who have been disenfranchised. Then (steel yourself, here) we can even learn to love the oppressor. 

Now listen, I believe that black lives matter. I am sick and tired of seeing police brutality, especially toward people of color. I believe that those who use excessive violence should be corrected and denied the privilege to wear the sacred badge of a protector of our society. I believe you shouldn’t get another chance to “protect and serve” if you’ve proven yourself unable. Forgive, yes. Remain on the force, no.

I also believe that being a cop is a very difficult job and that the great majority of law enforcement in this country serve very honorably and put their lives at risk all the time. And I believe that they do this despite the fact that there is institutional racism woven into the system. So cops, hats off to you. 

Can we just all agree to stop the violence inward and outward and just love? It’s that simple. We are all people. We are all somehow One. Fighting another member of this great organism called humanity is like an auto-immune disease, one part fighting another in some doomed attempt at wholeness. It’s as trite as it is true: love is the only answer. Who cares if there have been a billion cheesy pop songs about it. It’s still true!

My prayer:

May we first learn to love ourselves. May we then extend that love to those around us. Then to those we don’t know, and possibly don’t trust, most likely because we don’t know. May we mindfully ground ourselves in love and with that firm foundation stand our ground against all oppression knowing that everyone, everywhere has that same love within them somewhere, even those who have forgotten where it is. May we source the most magical power in the Universe, one exponentially greater than violence, that of love, and may we wield this power to change the world. 

Start with yourself and start today.

Please take a moment and listen to this free Loving Kindness for compassion recording I’ve made, especially for these times. It will activate your heart and put every person involved in this issue, including yourself, on the sacred altar of your heart to heal us all from the illusion that we are separate beings. 

I love you. 

Thank you and namaste.

Sourcing Your Heart's Gift: You're a Rock Star

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Ever see someone do something really really well and think to yourself, “That dude was BORN to mow lawns!” or “that kid plays Rachmaninoff like it’s her JOB!” or that woman is the APOTHEOSIS of a math teacher”?

Something magical happens to us when we witness someone else do what they are meant to be doing in this world. Seeing them do their thing moves us because somehow it gives us permission and nudges us to find and/or do what we were meant to do.

Emily Dickinson’s gift to the world was poetry. Michael Jordan’s gift to the world is playing basketball. Oprah Winfrey’s gift for the world… is being Oprah Winfrey.

A heart’s gift for the world is what you were meant to do. It’s a gift because you give it to the world to make the world a better place and it’s a joy just to give it, regardless of reciprocity.

Everyone has a heart’s gift for the world. Some of us know it. Some don’t. Some people’s heart’s gifts are very public, others’ are private. Someone’s heart’s gift may or may not be how they make their living. Sometimes you get a job and then through that work, it reveals to you something you didn’t know about yourself, the gift that was hidden inside of you. That’s true for me and teaching yoga and meditation. Through many years of teaching it, I’ve discovered how much teaching yoga and meditation makes my heart sing. It’s taught me volumes about myself and I absolutely LOVE it. If I were stranded on a desert island I’d still practice yoga and meditation and probably teach the sea birds everything I know about the subjects.

To discover and express your heart’s gift to the world means you gotta be connected to Source, the portion of Source that’s inside of you. Source— you know, Creation, The Universe, God, the Great EVERYTHING, Krishna, Sarah The Magical Unicorn, whatever you want to call that thing that is at once inside of you while simultaneously inside of EVERYTHING else. After all, the Divine is waking up to know itself through and as YOU. The Divine is using your hands, your mouth, your talents to move this whole Universe along and to grow into discovering itself. So if Source is coming to know itself as you, don’t you think you ought to know a thing or two about Source so you can help yourself be what you were meant to be?

And think about it, if you were God and could express yourself in any way you chose, why wouldn’t you come to know yourself, at least in part, through playing the guitar like Joni Mitchell, or Eddie Van Halen, or Prince? Answer: there’s no way you WOULDN’T be Prince cuz Prince was badass and he made the world an incredible place with his music, God rest his soul.

Well according to Source, you’re just as much a rockstar as the artist formerly to this world as Prince was. Your gifts may not be as public as Prince’s but you gotta remember, to the gladiolas in that garden of the little white house on the corner— you know the one, it’s the one with nary a weed, the one where the most feral of cats wouldn’t even dare to trespass to do their business in there, the one where you make excuses to walk by it, socially distanced of course, just so you can be near its beauty— well, to the flowers in that garden, the little old lady that keeps that Eden is nothing short of a rockstar. The same Source exists within you as it did Prince and those stunning gladiolas.

Yes, you are a rockstar, though your venue for rocking might be raising kids, might be litigating corporate fat cats, or hosting peace rallies. Maybe your venue for rocking is simply the way you appreciate the world— it’s your style. Whatever it is, you are called on to rock and the world needs your heart’s song.

Philosopher and civil rights leader, Howard Thurman once said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Giving your heart’s gift to the world means offering your love and the fruits of that love as a gift. You give it because it’s a joy to do so, whether or not there’s any reciprocity.

What’s your heart’s gift for the world? How do you begin to find it? What does it look like to follow it?

What if you don’t know in which arena you are meant to rock? What if you feel that you haven't found your “Raspberry Beret?” How do you find your heart’s gift for the world? One secret to finding your heart’s gift to the world is to simply follow what you love—discover what gives you joy, pleasure, and what vibrates your heart strings.

In searching for our heart’s gift for the world and how to share it, sometimes, we need to gain wisdom about ourselves, wisdom that may lie deeper than our conscious, rational thinking mind. Yoga Nidra is an excellent (and relaxing) practice to plumb these depths and hear the secret message of our heart. It does this by placing you into a state between waking and dreaming, one of relaxed alertness, which acts as a secret doorway to visit the Source that is within you. It’s like a doorway to your heart. This is why I’ve dedicated several sessions in my live online Yoga Nidra class (on Wednesdays and Sundays) to explore sourcing your heart’s gift and set the conditions necessary to hear the wise Oracle inside you whispering what your gifts are for the world and how to share them with the world.

Please consider joining me on Wednesdays at 6 pm MDT and Sundays 9 am MDT for my live, online Yoga Nidra classes. Each person who registers will receive a recording of the discussion and Yoga Nidra practice to continue the process of heart-discovery after our class.

In the meantime, enjoy this free Yoga Nidra practice which leads you progressively through relaxing into deeper Awareness and through a beautiful visualization where you hear the Oracle within you speaking your heart’s purpose for the world. I’d love to hear from you about your experience.

Stay tuned for more about sourcing your heart’s gift by learning to follow your heart…

Yoga Nidra: How Opposites Reveal Oneness

I’ve been teaching Yoga Nidra since 2008. While I initially took Dr. Richard Millers iRest Yoga Nidra training and have the deepest respect for that method, I do not teach that method. Instead, I’ve learned volumes about the fascinating and spiritually illuminating subject of Yoga Nidra by simply doing the practice and studying many teachers. I have since developed my own Yoga Nidra training and Yoga Nidra scripts which I feel gives teachers the power of understanding Yoga Nidra’s “what” and “why” so that they can deliver the practice in their own voice based on certain essential principles derived from their own experience.

My teaching style is based on using the koshas to explore the ego as a tool to illuminate the other half of your being, your Awareness. I encourage students to welcome anything and everything that arises into their Awareness, to acknowledge it for what it is with as much objectivity as possible, and learn to merely observe it. Doing so opens practitioners to the magical opportunity of responding rather than reacting to stimuli, not only in the practice of Yoga Nidra but more usefully in the practice of life. After all, Krishnamurti said that “The highest form of intelligence is the ability to observe without evaluating.”

I teach that what we seek to accomplish in Yoga Nidra is to wake up to our True Nature, one that is not bound by the limits of the ego nor is that of pure consciousness, but rather what I call the Both And Nature which is the beautiful express of consciousness meets form.

One of the tools I use regularly to arrive at the beautiful experience is using opposites during a Yoga Nidra practice.

We use the practice of exploring a binary and then attempt to hold the opposites in our Awareness in order to pop out of ego consciousness, limited to experiencing the world as this or that, and instead experience ourselves as Awareness itself. Ego exists only in a realm of this or that. Awareness is the Singularity, the place where everything exists as part of the larger whole. There are no opposites in Awareness, it's non-binary. Holding opposites together in your Awareness is a simple and useful tool to help you experience yourself as Awareness itself. Eventually, this will then lead you to experiencing your life in your Both And Nature, the marriage of the ego and Awareness.

After establishing the feeling of being Awareness itself, perhaps arrived at by holding opposites like the sound of my voice and the feeling in your heart, you then reinforce and deepen this feeling throughout your Yoga Nidra practice as you go move further into your layered Awareness by exploring the koshas. Remember that whatever you are aware of reveals Awareness itself. You can use opposites to illuminate Awareness in the realms of body (anamayakosha), for example, by first bringing attention one's to right hand, then left, then holding right and left simultaneously in Awareness. You can do this in other koshas too by holding opposite emotions or thoughts or beliefs. 

I tend to start a Yoga Nidra practice with an opposites exercise because it's great to begin the practice with a felt sense of Awareness, even if it's mild or somewhat contrived, rather than arriving at it in the middle or end of practice. I believe it works best to do this because we experience deepening awareness in layers rather than in a linear fashion. In other words, start by inviting the practitioners to feel themselves as Awareness right off the bat, perhaps with an opposites exercise, then continue doing it here and there

throughout the practice and in each koshas. (Remember that you don't have to do it through every koshas. Each kosha is just one way to anchor your Awareness.) Each time you invite the practitioner to experience themselves as Awareness, perhaps by doing the opposites exercise, it deepens the practitioner's Awareness. They will therefore experience the practice from that point forward with increasingly deeper Awareness. Even if you were to repeat a body scan a few times in a row, each time you go through it, provided they were reminded of being Awareness iteslf, they would experience it differently because of the layered nature of Awareness. 

Again, you're not trying to divorce the ego and seek to experience yourself as only Awareness. Rather, you're using the ego to illuminate that which you would otherwise not know about yourself, the Awareness part of you, the part that always is and never changes. Ultimately as you come to know both ego and Awareness intimately, you give birth to a third thing, what I call the Both And Nature, the marriage of Awareness and form. 

To continue explaining it, the ego exists in a binary, a state that sees things as this or that, me or you, have or have not. We naturally tend to identify as the ego because we define our reality by what we can see, taste, feel, etc. What's more is that it's our natural psychology makes us differentiate ourselves from other objects from an early age. Why would we know anything other than the ego? Well, we come from the place that is beyond ego, Source, and no matter how much of a seeker you are or how "spiritually minded" you want to be, we are all constantly reach to come back to our Origin, Source, home, be that consciously or unconsciously. We search every discipline imaginable to tell us what it means to be. 

The Awareness part of us has no form, cannot be seen, felt, etc. This is tricky because typically we have heretofore defined everything we know as "real" based on the criteria of the ego, that which we can feel, see, taste, etc. So how can we possibly come to know ourselves as Awareness and not just the ego?

The ego is the perfect and balanced opposite of Awareness. The ego cannot exist in a vacuum any more than Awareness can. We don't transcend the ego to understand ourselves only as Awareness. In fact, the ego is our greatest tool that illuminates our Awareness and the experience of the marriage of the two gives us our True Nature, our Both And Nature. I like the analogy of a marriage, consciousness marries form and the love child between the two is YOU, a spiritual being born of Awareness and form. You are the Divine, up-leveling itself to wake up know itself more intimately. You are giving birth to yourself as you practice presence. 

But arriving at experiencing yourself as this holy marriage takes a practice. We must learn how to not identify only as ego but rather as this third thing. But since ego is what we are most familiar with, what we pay most of our attention to, it actually serves as perhaps the best way to illuminate that which lies beyond the ego. 

In Yoga Nidra we can practice experiencing our Both And Nature by first establishing a binary to bring opposites into our field of attention, opposites like inside/outside, me/you, body/sound. Doing so leans into the practiced attention to ego and refines your focus and attention on one thing and then the another. Then, as you try holding them together, simultaneously in your Awareness, your ego freaks out and experiences cognitive dissonance because it only knows a world of this or that and never the twain shall meet, at least according the the ego. While these two things seem like complete opposites, they share something so obviously in common that it's as easy to miss as the nose on your face. What these two apparent opposites have in common is that you are aware of them. What you're aware of reveals Awareness itself. When you hold opposites simultaneously in your Awareness, your consciousness is forced to leave the realm of the binary to experience that which exists in the grand Singularity, Awareness itself. 

Learning to regularly experience the Awareness part of your being through practices such as Yoga Nidra, forever alters your self-concept. You no longer feel yourself as only ego. Instead you begin to feel your Both And Nature, the beautiful marriage that joins finite and infinite, body and spirit, form and consciousness. Living life in your Both And Nature doesn't make you blind to the ego, the natural textures, emotions, and vicissitudes of life. Quite the opposite. Living life from your Both And Nature helps you to begin to see every molecule in the world as an opportunity to practice presence, Awareness. The entire world, with its flavors, textures emotions, and even challenges, exists as a testament to your own Beingness. Every sunrise, every rainy afternoon, every breakup is somehow a love letter from the Universe, form whispering to consciousness, "Wake up! Watch this! I've made it just for you!"

Truly anything that helps you to be present has the capacity to do this for you but Yoga Nidra is a great and easy way of doing it. Powerful and effective. Plus relaxing. The opposites exercise is just one mechanism to help practice.

This reminds me of the Sermon of the Flower, origin of Zen Budhism where the Buddha gathers his disciples and without a word holds up a single flower. Most are mute with confusion by this gesture but Mahakasyapa smiles with understanding. He understands that this flower has the same beingness as everything else in the Universe. Words cannot explain this knowing. Mahakasypa experiences the marriage of form and consciousness. He hears what every object in the universe is whispering, including this humble flower is whispering the truth, that every thing exists in the marriage of form and being. 

Yoga Nidra and Grief

In my Essential Yoga Nidra volume, over 7 hours of Yoga Nidra recordings, I dedicated a Yoga Nidra practice entirely for grief. As I was writing out my Yoga Nidra script, I learned so much about grief and the power that Yoga Nidra has to help us all work through grief.

Grief is a regular part of life. Whenever grief comes to visit you in your life, whether it is cyclically or in unique moments, it's always an invitation to practice deep Awareness. Yoga Nidra is a way of practicing sourcing your deepest strength by experiencing your True Nature, that of Awareness itself. From this place of deep Awareness, you will not replace grief with other emotions, but rather learn to welcome it, see it for what it is, and be the witness of it. Doing so, you will come to know your grief for its unique power to help you experience yourself as Awareness. Yoga Nidra can help you to discover the part of you that is powerful enough to survive any loss and powerful enough to sanctify any event that occurs in your life as you weave together the beautiful and textured tapestry of life.As you come to know yourself as Awareness, you will free yourself from being identified as and attached to emotions such as grief. Doing so also allows you to welcome grief, to hear its message in your heart, and ultimately release grief and allow it to cycle out of your orbit when its time is over.

If you are feeling grief in your life right now, I invite you to give yourself a moment and ground yourself to whatever your body is feeling in this moment. Give yourself a moment to open to your senses, as you relax and close your eyes. Maybe send a few breaths out your mouth with a sigh to release any tension you may have. Yoga Nidra is a relaxing yet powerful method to acknowledge your grief as a witness of your love, a testament of your strength, and a guide that leads you toward your highest being.

What’s Yoga Nidra?

Yoga Nidra feels like a guided meditation. Usually in a Yoga Nidra practice, you will lie down, get comfortable, and listen to a facilitator lead you through deepening layers of Awareness. The primary objective in Yoga Nidra is to begin to explore your True Nature, that of Awareness itself.

Yoga is the “yoking” of body, mind, and spirit. As explained in the second verse of the ancient Yoga Sutras, “Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.” The goal of yoga is to experience samadhi, the home of our Universal Oneness. Grief, like all emotions, exists as a ripple in the pool of consciousness and obfuscates your ability to yoke your body, mind, and spirit to experience your True Nature, that Oneness, of Awareness itself.

Emotions like grief are nothing to reject or be ashamed of. On the contrary, they are beautiful ways to practice waking up to Oneness. Through practices like Yoga Nidra you learn to even appreciate grief for what it is, a way of bringing you to greater Awareness because it is something you can practice being Aware of.

Yoga Nidra helps you leverage emotions like grief as a powerful way of practicing Awareness and even learning to identify as Awareness itself. When identified as Awareness, you experience that part of yourself that has emotions but which is larger than emotions, and is not driven by them. As such, you begin to see powerful emotions like grief with a level of loving objectivity. You learn to hear the true message behind the emotion and acknowledge your grief as a witness of your love, a testament of your strength, and a guide that leads you toward your highest being.

What’s Nidra?

There are thousands of pathways to Oneness. Nidra is perhaps my favorite. Nidra is like napping your way to enlightenment! Nidra is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning sleep but more accurately refers to that state between waking and dreaming consciousness. Yoga Nidra is a Tantric practice and is as old as Yoga.

Usually a facilitator will verbally lead practitioners through deepening Awareness by suggesting things to be aware of. Practitioners are to practice observing and not reacting to anything that arises. This process of guided Awareness usually causes practitioners to become very relaxed.

Yoga Nidra uses relaxation as an essential method of downshifting your nervous system to enter the Nidra state, so you can practice your most natural state of relaxed Alertness. This Nidra state helps you to achieve experiencing the world with increased objectivity about all the things you might be aware of, including body, thoughts, sounds, etc. In this Nidra state, you achieve an entrance into deeper Awareness. Not only do you come to experience greater Awareness, you begin to see yourself as Awareness itself, coming to know itself through all the things you might be aware of.

As I lead practitioners through Yoga Nidra practice, I encourage them to greet everything that comes into their field of Awareness, acknowledge it for what it is, and simply practice observing it. Once in a while you may choose to also respond to the information but this practice helps us to stay out of reactivity and into responsiveness, action based on our deep consciousness.

Yoga Nidra’s Power for Wholeness

How Yoga Nidra Makes You Whole

Like I said, Yoga Nidra’s main intention is to practice Awareness. As you begin to identify as Awareness itself, coming to know itself as all the things you can be aware of, you come to experience your True Self, that which is whole, true, pure, and healed. Grounded in this deeper reality of your True identity, you gain not only a greater perspective about your life and problems, but you also experience the truth that as Source, there’s nothing you can’t do, be, or heal from.

What’s more, the more you wake up to your True Being through practices like Yoga Nidra, you begin to see the entire world, including emotions, experiences, sensations, etc, as pointing to Awareness itself.

Soon you begin to see the entire world, and your own life in particular, as a love note from the Divine. You exist as the product of Universal form and energy (practriti) waking up Universal consciousness (purusha) through the experiences of your life. With this Awareness you live your life with greater consciousness. Through practices like Yoga Nidra, you may even come to even appreciate the vicissitudes of life as beautiful reminders that you are consciousness experiencing waking up unto itself through this textures experience of life

Please enjoy this free Yoga Nidra for Grief recording (below). I loved putting it together and have found it very useful in my own life.

If you are interested in facilitating Yoga Nidra yourself or want to learn more about this fascinating practice, you might consider downloading my Online Yoga Nidra Teacher Training. It’s 20 hours of classroom recordings, a 60+ page manual of teaching direction, plus over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts. It’s very affordable and I’m even offering payment plans during COVID

Thank you!

Do you know anyone who could benefit from Yoga Nidra for Grief? Mind passing it along?

Loving The 4-Train: Compassion, Being, and Loving Yourself

You Don’t Need to Change

You don't need to change. You don't need to improve anything. Just love the world and love yourself as a beautiful part of the world.

Mary Oliver opens her exquisite poem, Wild Geese, with these words:

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

(Read full poem)

Fundamentally, you are perfect just the way you are. That might sound trite. It might sound tired. Nonetheless, it’s truly the greatest message I could ever offer. That and I love you. It’s true. I may not even know you very well. We may have never met. But you’re a human being with dreams and emotions and hopes and dammit, we are all here working out our existence the best we can, struggling and loving and learning to wake up to the power of our own existence. There’s something very beautiful about that. That beauty exists within me and it exists within you.

Loving yourself is to love the Universe

Now with over 100 pages in Yoga Nidra scripts!

To learn to love the world you gotta first learn to love yourself. The world—the entire Universe— is a projection of YOU. What exists outside of you also exists inside of you therefore, the best way to learn to love everything is to love yourself. You know, “be the change” and all that? Well what that means is that everything in the Universe comes from Source including you so by effecting yourself you effect everything else. Loving yourself is to love the Universe.

There’s a great irony in loving things just as they are because as you allow yourself to simply be just as you are, devoid of the shoulds and the what-ifs, it actually gives you freedom to recognize exactly the ways in which you are programmed to grow.

It goes back to something I’ve often said which is:

In order to get there you have to be here and here is always changing.

Truly we exist as the love child of the Universe: that which is pure spirit, which just is, which needs nothing to exist and that which is finite, imbued with form, subject to change and death. There is only now. There is only HERE. But “here” is a treadmill at our feet.

The entire Universe is involved in some dance between presence and movement and I suppose we need to simply join the dance. Get dressed up and fu@#ing join the dance!

Holding Space

We practice deep compassion as we extend this same privilege to other people and things around us and allow them also to simply be, especially those things that would easily turn our hearts bitter.

As we practice yoga and meditation, we cultivate and practice understanding our own being. Doing so helps to reduce the suffering known in the ancient Sanskrit wisdom traditions as Dukkha, that suffering which holds us back from experiencing our highest self.

One enormous act of compassion is holding space by being with a person or thing and allowing them to be just as they or it is. I'm thinking of a friend who is sick or experiencing something mentally or spiritually challenging or (heaven forbid), holds a different political view or opinion about what’s going on with COVID. Simply being with that person (6-ft. apart of course) and holding space for them, without the need to fix or change anything, just being with them, allows a deep compassion to exist between the two of you. Perhaps one of the greatest acts of love is to truly see a person and allow them to simply be how they are. To love them as is.

Practice making room in your heart for that which would sooner canker your heart toward someone or something or make your mind fester with shoulds and what-ifs. Holding space for someone or something, doesn’t mean you have to invite them over for dinner or send them a card on their birthday. Rather you simply offer compassion toward them (or it) by not becoming sour. Sometimes that means practicing not having an opinion about it (read: Lionel Richie is my Guru). And by so doing, you ultimately offer your own heart and mind in the same compassion—the heart that flourishes when it feels abundance and love, not bitterness, and the mind that abounds when it is sheltered from should and what-ifs.

Here is a simple example of holding space:

World: The NYC 4 Train once stopped en route ultimately causing me to miss my flight home.

Me: Bought a NYC 4 Train T-Shirt as an act of holding space for the 4 Train.

World: Just as it is.

Me: Loving the world as it is.

This week, I invite you to practice holding space for things that you either don't understand or which bother you. May this be our daily practice. May love for yourself and the world be our eternal practice.

Please share this!

Yoga Nidra: Emotions, Thoughts, and Beliefs

Yoga Nidra: Waking From The Dream

Yoga Nidra is a fascinating process of coming to know Self through the relaxing and mindful process of layered Awareness. Essentially, Yoga Nidra acts much like a guided meditation where the practitioner lies down, closes their eyes, and listens to the facilitator lead them through layers of Awareness, such as being aware of sensation, thoughts, emotions, etc. This has the effect of learning to observe all the changeable aspects of what we typically identify as, your ego elements like body, thoughts, emotions, etc., as the illuminating tools to help you practice experiencing your True Nature, that of Awareness itself. When rooted in this ground of your being, you continue to live this human life, but with greater perspective. You still are very aware of body, emotions, thoughts, etc, but Yoga Nidra helps to give you the perspective of what they are. Truly these elements are mere tools to help illuminate what I call your Both And Nature, the part of you that is BOTH pure consciousness (perusha) and form (pracriti), that is both that which is infinite and finite. Coming into this Both And Nature is another way of expressing the end goal of yoga as stated in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, to arrive at the place of grand Singularity, that of complete Oneness.

So this yogic Oneness is the goal and Nidra is the method. Nidra refers to that in between state, somewhere between waking and dreaming. Nidra is achieved through relaxed awareness and is the secret door that opens you to experience your True Nature. It’s as simple as listening and relaxing. In truth, what seems like sleep is actually helping us wake up to our True Nature. It sometimes takes a relaxing of the rigid confines of our rational thinking, perhaps the most pervasive and strong element of our ego, to realize that we are more than our ego.

What you listen to in a Yoga Nidra practice is all the things that filter into your Awareness. Mostly these are the elements of the ego. Understanding them as tools to illuminate our Awareness. This helps us to see things such as thoughts, beliefs, and emotions for what they are—parts of us that cannot define who we are but which point to our Divine essence. Though we may have thoughts, beliefs, and emotions, we are not thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. They are mere tools, games to play in the beautiful mortal experience, as we wake up to our Divine essence through this textured and beautiful thing called being human.

Don't Think Everything You Believe: Moving Past the Rational Mind and Understanding Thoughts, Emotions, and Beliefs

Thoughts, emotions, and beliefs are powerful elements in our lives. For many, they seem to rule our lives. Yoga Nidra is a powerful tool to understand our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs for what they are and begin to see them with a proper perspective.

Yoga Nidra is a Tantric practice. Tantra refers to a school of thought that says everything is part of a non-dualist great whole. In Tantra, the idea is that anything that suggests we are separate from anything else, is an illusion. Yoga Nidra explores perhaps our 5 greatest layers of the ego called the maya (illusion) kosha (sheath or body) By understanding our maya koshas, we can learn to not identify with the changeable parts of our beings but rather to use them as a way of exposing our True Self, Awareness.

The Pranayamaya deals in part with energy and emotions, the Manomaya kosha with mind thoughts and how thought leads to emotion, and the Vijnanamaya kosha, beliefs, dreams, the collective unconscious and even our own deep wisdom. Just like everything else in the maya kosha realms, our thoughts, emotions, and even beliefs change. To think of them as reality is a misidentification away from your True Nature, Awareness.By understanding your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs for what they are, you dismantle their control over you. Instead you begin to identify with Awareness that experiences emotions, thought, or belief, for example, without confounding your identity as that emotion, thought, or belief.

Like everything, learning to use an emotion as a method of experiencing your True Self may seem like a tall order. Of course it may take practice to be aligned with Awareness enough to become objective about harsh thoughts or emotions but hey, that's what we are practicing by taking this course, right?

The Realm of the Mind: Manomaya Kosha

Things like anxiety, fear, or heartbreak, can't co-exist while you are relaxed. That's big! It is one reason why we emphasize relaxation so often as we begin the Yoga Nidra process. When relaxed, you may then observe any emotion arise and see it for what it is: an interesting part of you that changes and that ultimately may help you grow greater Awareness. Not Truth, not who you are.

Practicing switching between perceived opposite emotions is a skillful way of stimulating your brain and allowing you to witness and be with, rather than react to, certain emotional states. Remember that sometimes this takes practice but can be very effective even from the first practice of doing this.

In the late 1950's, Joseph Wolpe added to Pavlov's work by developing a treatment for anxiety using counter-conditioning. He stated that anxiety symptoms were lessened or eliminated when stressors were presented gradually and also systematically and paired with a relaxation response. Relax and then address your emotion to see it with the right perspective. Remember you are Awareness that experiences emotion, not emotion itself. Yoga Nidra can help some practitioners deal with some of the things that give them stress and even trauma because Yoga Nidra helps you to be relaxed enough to observe all kinds of benign objects, like the sensation of your hands for example, as a way of learning to also witness things like stress and emotions with the same kind of objectivity. When practiced regularly, it weakens your stress response and instead you can merely observe something that otherwise would stress you out.

Habituation is when you bring attention to something that is persistent and in so doing the stimulation eventually loses its power to cause a reaction. It's like sleeping through white noise. Once your mind has heard the noise, can acknowledge it, it can stop becoming agitated by it and simply move on. It can relax. The sound (or other stimulation, read pain or emotions) may still exist, but they don't have the same power over your mind.

The Only Way To Get There Is To Be Here: Emotions and Beliefs

Failure to acknowledge where you are in life ironically keeps you locked in that place like a prisoner. Don't deny the emotion, for example. Rather, Yoga Nidra helps us to face whatever comes up for you and practice witnessing it. Therefore emotions will often lose their power to control your life.

Some cool things about the layer of beliefs, symbol, and dreams, the Vignanamaya kosha:

It lies beneath our rational mind. P.S. "rational" isn't Reality (with a capital R)--it's just the best way our brains seem to create an order in an otherwise chaotic world the best it can.

A compounded thought turns into a belief. Think it long enough and you actually believe it. Like everything else in this Universe, beliefs are neither True or not true. They are just beliefs. They come and go.

Archetypes are a fascinating way of examining the Vijnanamaya Kosha. When I think of a wise person, I think of Gandalf, the wizard from Lord of the Rings. He is my archetype I hold for my inner-wisdom. If I were to summon that wise person inside of me, the one that knows the answers and can tell me where to go, I'd think of Gandalf and see what he says. I know that Gandalf is really just the deep wisdom part of me.

Remember that what comes up when we examine our dreams, symbols, and archetypes, lies beneath our rational mind and therefore doesn't always make sense, nor does it need to. Just have fun with it and see if it speaks to you. If not, think of it as an interesting way to practice paying attention and move on. It's like examining your dreams for symbols that might represent something happening in the conscious realm. Just have fun with it.

As always, our primary objective with Yoga Nidra is to cultivate and identify as Awareness. Allow everything that presents itself as you welcome, recognize, and witness it, as a tool to practice Awareness.

RIP 21st Yoga and What's Next

I hope you’re doing well during these weeeeird times!! I hope you’re still taking deep breaths. I know I am.

Last week I personally finished my 14-Day Gratitude Challenge. It’s such a simple yet powerful practice. You can start whenever you want. It’s free and will probably only change your life, but whatever…

Something particularly sad occurred for me and many in Salt Lake City last week. On Friday afternoon my beloved home studio, 21st Yoga in Salt Lake City, Utah, announced that they would be closing its doors...forever.

I’m heartbroken. The casualties from COVID are legion.

I really, really loved that studio. I’ve owned and closed two yoga studios. For me running a studio was only matched in difficulty by having to close the studio. I’m sad for me. I’m sad for Lucy and everyone who made that place run so well, and I’m sad for the many people who practiced within those hallowed walls.

I want to offer a huuuuuge public shout out of love and gratitude to Lucy, the owner of 21st Yoga, who really did an incredible job with that studio. She provided a beautiful, non-judgemental, and caring place for so many to teach and practice. She truly made a safe haven for the community. She worked really hard to make it a place of inclusion, especially for the LGBTQ+ crowd. Lucy, with the help of her inimitable staff, kept a beautiful, clean, and welcoming studio. Huge, huge thanks to the anchors of that place, people like John Cottrell, Kim Dastrup, Austin Morrell, Jenny Wigham, and others.

Hats off and big, big, big round of applause for an incredible job.

I was one of the original teachers at 21st Yoga. After only a couple of months working there, I announced that I’d be moving to NYC, then for a vagabonding trip around the US and Europe, ultimately living in the South of France for a year. Nonetheless, every time I came back to offer a training, retreat, or to visit family, there was always a place for me to teach at 21st Yoga. I have always felt welcomed, appreciated, and loved at that studio. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The teachers at 21st yoga are nothing short of family.

I’ll miss you dearly, 21st Yoga.

There was an indomitable energy at 21st Yoga. As you know, energy cannot be created or destroyed, only repurposed and redirected. So, what’s next for all that energy at that incredible studio? What’s next for the yoga community in Salt Lake City and for myself. Who knows but I’m sure something beautiful will arise from the incredible energy that had developed through 21st Yoga. Whatever happens going forward, I’ll always be grateful for 21st.

In the immediate, here’s the ways you can connect with me.

Yoga for Stiffer Bodies Instant Download

I’ve made a Yoga For Stiffer Bodies Instant Download that you can purchase on my website.

This is a 60-minute, full-spectrum yoga class which mobilizes joints, activates and stretches major muscle groups, and restores energy. This Is a moderately-paced yoga class with plenty of options for variations of poses. This Is yoga for however your body is today. In this class, you'll experience standing poses, gentle backbends, hip openers, twists, and forward folds. You'll leave this class feeling energized, alert, and calm.

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Online, Live Restore Yoga

Wednesday, May 6th at 10:00 am MDT

In this very gentle, Restore yoga practice, we’ll restore ourselves to wholeness using gentle mobilization and breath work (pranayama) to circulate energy. Then, we’ll change low-vibe energy in the form of muscular tension to high-vibe energy in the form of vitality by doing long, slow stretches. We’ll also set ourselves up on some support for some luxurious resting poses. I’ll be sharing some stories, chanting, and I’ll play my clarinet.

I’ll be recording the class so if you can’t make it, you can still receive a recording of the class and do it when it suits you. Enjoy this class from the comfort of your own home! You’ll want a yoga mat, a blanket, and a cushion (yoga bolster and blocks if you have them). Register on my website. You’ll receive a welcome email with the Zoom link to join our class. You’ll need a computer, laptop, smart phone, iPad, or tablet to attend this class. If you haven’t used Zoom before, it’s pretty simple.

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2 Online Yoga Nidra Classes, Wednesdays 6 pm MDT and Sundays 9 am MDT

This Wednesday May 6th 6–7:15 pm MDT. Duality vs Non-Duality

Our True Nature is a non-duelist awareness. Cool. What's non-duality? Well, duality deals with two things, this and that, as separate things. Non-duality melds the two opposites to understand that they equal a third, larger, and more expansive entity, larger than the sum of their parts. Like the combo of chocolate and peanut butter is exponentially much more than either chocolate or peanut butter alone. In this session we will use myths, stories, symbols, and the tool of opposites to explore the part of us that doesn't exist in duality. We will practice experiencing ourselves as the grand Singularity.

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Two Online Classes in Partnership with Kim Dastrup

Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12 pm MDT.

Kim and I share this dynamic asana class on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12 pm MST. I usually teach Tuesdays and Kim usually teaches Thursdays. Class is by donation, though suggested donation is $10/class or you can buy a pass for the entire months for $50. The button below at the time of class to join. A donation link will be provided at the time of class.

Classes vary each week: Flow, Core, Deep Power, Gentle Flow, Restore, and teacher’s choice.

Usually an active class but appropriate for all levels.

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Private Online Yoga Classes

I’d love to meet with you regularly for your private, online yoga session. This can also be a private yoga group session. Together, we can meet your yoga needs, be that for strength, rehabilitation, calm and stress relief. I have a pro-quality studio set up at my house so you will almost feel like you’re at the studio. Plus, I can arrange to send you audio and video recordings as well as lesson plans for yoga homework!

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In-Person Socially-Distanced Classes Coming Soon

It’s starting to become safer to offer some socially distanced classes, limited to a smallish group of people. I’ll let you know when I have something put together.

In the meantime, thanks for reading my newsletter and blog. Thanks for your incredible support. These are crazy times to be sure and we all gotta take it a day at a time and keep breathing. We gotta put ourselves in a good place through yoga, meditation, and gratitude.

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Thich Nhat Hanh: A Once-in-a-lifetime Moment

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Here’s a moment I will never forget… 

Thich Nhat Hanh was going to be at an anti-war rally in Seoul, Korea and there was no way I was going to miss it. 

It was 2003, mere days after the US had declared war on Iraq. My wife at the time and I were living in Korea working as English teachers and studying Kouk Son Do, a form of meditation based on Korean Buddhism which was introduced to us by our friend and assistant director of our school, Moon Jin-Soon. Despite the anti-American sentiment in Korea because of America’s decision for war, I nonetheless wanted to demonstrate my desire for peace. 

We took a train 2.5 hours to Seoul, and headed to the large square to join more than 10,000 people at the peace rally. We quickly spied a group of buddhist monks in their grey habits. We recognizable them thanks to the fact that we had visited many buddhist temples and monasteries as part of our meditation practice. 

One of the monks noticed us as well. We were holding signs on which we had scrawled, “Americans for Peace” in bold letters. He met us with an easy, broad smile and introduced himself in excellent English. “No war. No nuclear,” he said warmly. We reciprocated and quickly became acquainted, sharing warmth and appreciation for each other. Soon crowds began gathering around us like flies and reporters started snapping photos. Our new monk friend squeezed between us and the three of us hoisted our signs for peace in the air in solitary proclamation.

Suddenly, the enormous crowd of more than 10,000 people hushed to an alarming silence as a different group of a dozen monks wearing brown habits took the stage. It was Thich Nhat Hanh, the world-famous Vietnamese Thien Buddhist monk and peace activist with a small group of monks. He stood before the 10,000-person crowd and gave a beautiful speech on peace and offered prayers, sang, and rang bells. He instructed us all to meditate on peace and think, “brotherhood, brotherhood,” as we inhaled and “peace, peace,” as we exhaled. Then he and his monks began a slow peace walk through a cordoned off portion of the crowd. 

I had read several of Thich Nhat Hanh’s books and had admired his work for many years. As he slowly came closer and closer to where I stood in the crowd, each step a prayer for peace, I was quiet on the outside but screaming in excitement on the inside. I felt equal parts humbled and star-struck. He was an undeniable rockstar in the Buddhist world and I was thrilled to be experience this powerhouse peacemaker in person. 

As Thich Nhat Hanh slowly led his intimate procession through the silent crowd, our new monk friend leaned in close to us and whispered, “Stay close to me.” I looked at his face and he had a glint in his eyes, like he was planning some sort of surprise. 

We stood and watched in reverence as Thich Nhat Hanh passed with his monks. Suddenly, I felt someone gently pushing me from behind. Surprised, I turned my head and was met with a huge smile from our new monk friend. He gracefully and assertively lifted the barriers that kept the crowds back and gently ushered us to join the back of the slow processional, placing himself in the rear. Before I even realized what was happening, I had become a part of Thich Nhat Hanh’s peace posse. Holding my “Americans for Peace” sign at my heart, I walked silently through the crowd as 10,000 pairs of eyes looked directly and silently at me, our heart repeating silently in tandem, "brotherhood, brotherhood... peace, peace..."

Then, breaking the silence, I heard, “Scott!” I looked into the crowd in complete surprise to see my friend Moon Jin-Soon. Her presence at the rally was a complete surprise to me. As I passed, she reached out her hand. I grabbed it, tears streaming down both of our cheeks. 

Thich Nhat Hanh led the procession in a circle and eventually, after several minutes, back up on the stage in the center of the enormous crowd. I stood there on the stage on display before thousands of people knowing that this was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. 

Once Thich Nhat Hanh had finished his remarks, prayed again for peace on behalf of all of us, everyone uniformly bowed, remained held in a second of silence, then erupted in uproarious cheers. 

Surreal.  

The ceremony over, we were instantly flooded with hordes of people patting us on the back and taking more pictures. Onto the stage ran our friend, Moon Jin-Soon. We embraced each other and began crying again, feeling unified in our desire for peace and grateful for our friendship. 

The three of us trained home together happily sharing stories and basking in the love of the day. On the way home, Moon Jin-Soon told us that the monk who had befriended us and ushered us into the march was a pretty big deal in Korean Buddhism. It was providence that we happened to meet him.

I’m grateful for peace. I’m grateful for Thich Nhat Hanh. I’m grateful for my opportunity to participate in that peace rally. I’m grateful for friendship. I’m grateful for love that defies cultures, time, and generations. I’m grateful for providence. I’m grateful for Thich Nhat Hanh. I’ll always be grateful for and remember that experience until the day I die.

What are your once-in-a-lifetime moments that you're grateful for?