Mantra Mag Q&A

A BIG thank you to Hugger Mugger and David Newkirk Photography

Incase it's hard to read, here's the text version of the feature:

Q:  What's something that you've struggled with and what helped you overcome it? 

Perhaps my largest struggle in my life has been feeling hamstrung by self-limiting beliefs. The single most effective remedy for me to conquer self-limiting beliefs has been to regularly practice Yoga Nidra. If you’ve never done it, it’s like a very specialized guided meditation. I’ve used Yoga Nidra as an immensely powerful tool to help me recognize my True Nature, in part by seeing beliefs as changeable and therefore reprograming self-limiting beliefs into self-empowering beliefs. Through Yoga Nidra I’ve been able to embed different beliefs that are more in line with my True Nature.

 

Q: What's something that is essential to your healthy routine? Anything you swear by?? 

Something I find essential to my healthy routine is the no-stress approach to physical movement. I love to practice yoga and to do triathlons. Whether it’s advanced asana or cresting the hill on a long trail run, I’ve found that by maintaining a keen awareness of my body and not pushing it past a comfortable intensity, I have few or no injuries, I have developed power and speed (speed for swimming/biking/running), and when I finish my practice or workout, I have more energy than when I started. I feel like the “no pain, no gain” mantra is a product of an age that celebrated mind over matter. Yoga has helped me to embrace our Information Age where through practice understanding the body/mind/spirit I gain more by practicing mindfulness with matter. I listen to the information that my body gives me and work with my body instead of against it. The no-stress approach to movement has been essential to my growth.  

 

Q: How did pick yourself up in one of your lowest moments?  

A few years ago, after a long and arduous struggle, I was forced to close TWO yoga studios. It had taken me years to build and develop these businesses and by the time I closed my doors, my blood pressure was through the roof, I was emotionally and financially devastated, and I felt ashamed to have let all of my students and staff down. During this incredibly challenging time, I began a landscaping project at my house and found myself saved by the unlikely healing power of pulling weeds. There was something about connecting with the earth, being left to my own thoughts, and seeing the satisfying results of a hard day of hard work in the form of a beautifully clear patch of soil. I began to work through the problems of closing the studios like I did pulling weeds: I didn’t worry about the entire project all at once but simply focused on accomplishing the finite task of what lay immediately at my fingertips. This landscaping project pulled the weeds of worry, stress, and heartache from my soul. And in time, this provided the fertile soil for me to plant something new in the form of new projects including my website: scottmooreyoga.com.