Gifted

My good friend John Louviere just wrote a book. It’s a wonderful compilation of his writings, stories, poems, and lyrics. One of the things that I love the most about John Louviere is that he’s a gifted singer/songwriter. As a musician who has worked for many years to find my own voice through the end of my saxophone and clarinet, I really love and relate to this story. I’m offering it here below with his permission.

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One afternoon, while sitting at the piano and tripping through the notes of “When The Saints Go Marching In,” I found myself singing along with my erratic melody. It was at this moment, as my foster mother was walking past me towards the kitchen, that a question involuntarily flew out of my mouth like a clay pigeon, "Do you think I have a good voice?" Being an expert marksman, she didn’t miss a beat. Looking at me with a mixture of shock and perplexity, she loaded a cartridge and quickly pulled the trigger. “No,” she said emphatically, “I do not think you have a good voice.” Her blunt response hit my solar plexus, and I sat back, dumbstruck. Smoke lingered in the air as she left the room, having no idea the impact of her words.

But more long-lasting were the effects of what I did immediately afterward. I lifted myself from the piano bench, walked into my bedroom, closed the door, and knelt down next to my bed. I then placed my elbows on my mattress, pressed my palms together, and out of my mouth came the following prayer: “God, if you give me a good voice, I promise to sing to you for the rest of my life.”

As a fourteen-year-old born-again Christian, my God was a God of miracles and wonders. And in this moment, I was as certain as Elijah on the mountain that I would be returning to the piano with a new and God-touched voice. We’re talking edge-of-my-seat, “I can’t wait to try out my new voice” certain. When I finished praying, I got off of my knees, walked out of my bedroom, and sat back down at the piano. I carefully placed my fingers on the keys and began pushing them through the melody. And then . . . I opened my mouth and began to sing.

Isn’t innocence a beautiful thing? And ignorance—what bliss.

Being able to pinpoint the moment you lose them both—this is not a day for the faint of heart. It is, for everyone, a day of tragedy and a rite of passage. When I opened my mouth to sing, indeed, a miracle happened. I heard something I had never heard before: No matter which keys my fingers played, I could hear only one note coming out of my mouth. I was aghast. Nothing made me happier than singing to God. And yet, I had just discovered that this child of his had the voice of a happy elephant. My sorrow did not last long because spring arrived. And along with it, baseball season. I ran happily back into the familiar, comfortable world I had known since I was a child: recreational sports.

When I was a freshman in college, I decided to sign up for a talent night with a couple of friends I had just made at a campus ministry group. A fellow named Mike and I decided that he should write a few progressions on his guitar and I should try to write some lyrics and sing them. Though I had continued singing like a happy elephant since the day of my prayer, my insecurity and nervousness were profound (after all, the last time I sang in front of anyone, the crowd was pretty rough). But when it was time, our names were announced, and up we went. I held the lyrics in a quivering hand and the microphone in the other, Mike’s rhythm drove us forward, and we finished our short set relatively unscathed. But after the glad-patting and jovial banter, everyone started stacking chairs, making plans for the rest of the evening, and slowly exiting the room. It was then that my friend Janice walked up to me. She had been waiting to talk to me. She said, “I don’t want this to sound weird but . . . I think I just saw what you’re supposed to be doing with your life.”

Two years later, during my junior year, I was walking the mile or so down the road to the same campus ministry group. I had just discovered Bobby McFerrin and could not stop playing rhythms on my chest and body, singing improvisational songs to God. All of a sudden, I stopped in the middle of the road and said another prayer, “God, would you please give me some way to express this rhythm?” I was thinking, in particular, about the drums. But mostly I was just so overwhelmed with my love for rhythmic expression.

Later that week, Melissa, the leader of the music group, got up and declared that she was offering free guitar lessons. Guitar? Hmm, I once had a roommate who played guitar. And I had seen the large group of guitar players that Melissa led each week as we sang devotional songs. But it had never occured to me to pick one up. As she gave her announcement, I remembered Bobby McFerrin and my moment of prayer. I found the sign-up sheet and wrote my name down.

I borrowed a friend’s guitar and arrived at my first lesson to find about fifteen other students awkwardly holding their cumbersome instruments. Melissa showed us three chords and one rhythmic pattern. We were told to come back the following week, show our progress, and we’d be given three more chords and a new rhythm. I spent most of every waking hour that week with my arms around that guitar. As I played chords, I rested my head against the wood and listened to each sound reverberate into my ear. It was love at first strum.

I arrived the next week to find that I was one of the only students to have practiced. Before I left that day, Melissa gave me the master list of all the chords, a chart for creating my own rhythms, and I never went back. In the quiet of my room, I began to write song after song after song. I took the chords Melissa gave me, broke the patterns apart, and made up my own chords. I played rhythms on my body and then transferred them to my guitar.

The only thing that interested me was making sounds that were pleasing and writing words that came naturally. And to my great surprise, what came out of me were rivers and rivers of sorrow. Sorrow as I had never known. Emotions I had no idea were inside me.

I have been writing songs for almost thirty years now and am living proof of the power of music. If you want a good voice, you may just get what you’re asking for. As a child, my idea of a good voice was one that was pleasing to listen to. As a man, my idea of a good voice is one that tells the truth. Music is tricky because it’s a bit of both. It’s a rhythm that requires pressure and time, weight and levity, push and pull, doing it over and over thousands and thousands of times until it is a language you speak fluently.

The great hope (besides love) is that in moments when you’re remembering clay pigeons struck by quick words that left your heartstrings feeling off-key, you will understand more fully—in tones that have been both beautifully and truthfully embedded in your body—that it was all a part of bringing you here, exactly where you were meant to be.

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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.

What's Alive In Me

Photo by Alex Adams

How are you? I hope you are well and grounded and connected to your heart. I wanted to let you know about my incredible live, online Yoga Nidra training I have planned for this weekend but I'd be remiss if I didn't share what's truly alive in me first…

What's alive in me today is some recent news about serious health issues concerning a member of my family. Without going into details to protect privacy, I'm optimistic for a good outcome while also being realistic about the hard work ahead. We have a family motto: "We are a family who can do hard things!"

What's also really alive in me today is our desperate need for social revolution in this country for our BIPOC (black, indigenous people of color) and LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters. Specifically, I know that the work starts with me and that I need to listen and learn. For me, this social crisis marks a new practice of drawing inward to a journey of greater self-discovery, one that will help me to do my part to heal what's broken in myself, to recognize inequality that is embedded unconsciously within me so I can learn to love it, respond to heal it, and act to do my part to heal our country and world.

Like I mentioned in my email/blog post last week, The reLoveution Starts Within, hating on or discriminating someone else, even unconsciously, is some backward way of finding wholeness. It's the autoimmunity of humanity. There's no way to get to where we are going unless we heal the fundamental illusion of separateness.

I get totally overwhelmed facing the teeth of such a big and snarling issue. It's easy to go all deer-in-the-headlights and simply freeze. I know that if it weren't an important issue, I wouldn't be afraid of it. I suppose it's the difficult but necessary growth that I must take which I fear. But this is me making that first step, resolving not to quit until we all get there.

Nonetheless, I'm hopeful. I believe that time is an illusion, that we've all already made it to perfection, that we are all already enlightened and this human experience is like rewinding the tape to see how it all happened. What is happening now is some big and necessary growing pains but that we are doing it! This doesn't spare us from the really hard work ahead of us, just that we are assured success for the inevitable difficulty. We are on this journey together so let's hold hands, brush ourselves off when we fall, and keep moving forward!

We are waking up!

To my BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) as well as queer brothers and sisters, I'm listening. I want to understand. I want to do the right thing, even if I'm kinda clueless. I may not say the right things or fully know exactly how clueless I am, but I'm willing to learn. My heart is open. I'm humbled by the importance of this issue and I'm willing to do what I need to do to heal my own issues. I'm reading, meditating, writing, and acting toward the healing of this issue.

I invite you to do likewise.

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Yoga Nidra Training

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.

Yoga Nidra: Follow Your Heart

To lead up to my live, online Yoga Nidra training I’ll be hosting June 12–14th I’ve been on a kick lately, writing about the fact that we have a heart’s gift for the world. For some of us, our heart’s gift to the world is rockin’ out like Prince, others of us choose the arena of raising kids in which to rock. We all have special talents in this world and the way we love the world is the way we give back to it. But what do you do if you’re not quite sure about what your heart’s gift for the world is or if you do know, how to share it with the world? One sure way to discover the answer to either of those questions is to follow your heart.

Follow Your Heart

Photo of Acoustic Music SLC

A while ago I wrote something called Unique Tunings for Guitars. It’s about how a guitar string is tuned to ring at a certain frequency when plucked. But if I’m playing, say, an A on my sax, all the way on the other side of the room from the guitar hanging on the wall, the A string which is tuned to ring at the same frequency, will hear its song sung by my sax and spontaneously begin to sing along, even though nobody touched the guitar. Often, I’ll pull my sax outta my mouth and hear the guitar humming happily in the corner all by itself, like there’s a ghost in the room who just couldn’t help herself from playing along to my sultry sax playin’. I know, crazy.

Well, I believe our hearts strings are tuned in a similar way—tuned so that they sing when they hear their song. Perhaps the best way to approximate what Source is—Source is what I’m calling that thing we all come from, where we go when we die, and exists within everything in the Universe—the best way to approximate what that thing is would be to call it love. So, when you love something or someone and you feel your heart strings a hummin’, well, that’s Source hearing it’s song. To find out what Source has in mind for you in this life, what your heart’s gift for the world is, just notice what you love.

What resonates with you, what do you love? Even if you don’t know what your heart’s gift for the world is—your purpose for life— loving the world IS your purpose.

Period.

Focus on what you love and prioritize your attention on those things. Do you love ceramics? Do you love to ski? Do you love to teach? If it feels like the only thing in the world you love is your cat, then maybe your heart’s gift for the world is to love that cat for all you’re worth. Lucky cat. Give up the notion that you gotta be Gandhi or Lady Gaga to bless the world. Someone’s already been assigned that job. You’ve got your own job and it has something to do with what makes your heart sing. That’s it. It can be that simple.

Can Your Heart’s Gift To The World Change?

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Keep in mind, though, that everything in this Universe is in some sort of orbit and subject to change, even your heart’s gift for the world, so don’t get too attached. Be connected enough to Source, to the love that is within you, to know when you might be called to love in a different direction.

Whether you know your heart’s gift for the world or not, it often takes gobs of quiet, heaps of introspection, and about a metric shit-ton of courage to learn to know it and/or organize your life in order to share it with the world.

Maybe discovering what your heart’s gift for the world is takes being a little more familiar with Source. If you and Source aren't really on a first-name basis, you might want to try some meditation. But sitting down, lighting some incense, and closing your eyes, while trying to focus despite the scratchy licks from the textured tongue of your beloved cat, may not instantly open up that deep wisdom you seek from your heart. Sometimes, to hear those secrets from your heart, you gotta set the conditions right to “listen.” Sometimes this means starting with some movement, some breath work, some gratitude, and then do your meditation. Even still, the message might not come right away but as you regularly draw inward, slowly, you’ll learn to hear the quiet but sure voice of your heart. As you do, it will undoubtedly tell you what your heart’s gift for the world is and how to share it. I promise.

Please enjoy this optimization practice and Yoga Nidra practice I lead during one of my live online Yoga Nidra classes. It consists of a pranayama (breath work) practice, a mindfulness exercise (with gratitude), a few gentle poses, and a nice long and expansive Yoga Nidra practice. Enjoy!

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?

Learning to Fail

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Some of the greatest lessons in my life have been due to my failures. You? What are some of your BEST failures, I’m talking business, school, relationships, the whole gamut? I guarantee they have also been some of your best teachers, even if we can’t see that . . . yet.

Photo by Alex Adams

Freaked to Fail

In high school I remember being so incredibly afraid to one day open my own business because…. what if I FAILED! Of course I had an extremely limited idea of what success looked like and what it took to find success.

Well, fast forward a few decades and I’ve opened and failed businesses. I've learned not to be afraid of failure. Sure, it's hard and nobody want's to fail but I’ve picked myself up from some very hard places and moved on. It's was because of some of these failures in many aspects of life that I’ve learned what I need to do in order to enjoy some great success in so many avenues of life, including making a living doing what I absolutely LOVE which is teaching yoga and meditation. Making a living doing what I love= one big, fat success.

I think about all kinds of things I've failed at from relationships to jobs to ideas. Each one has taught me an invaluable lessons. I’ve since learned not to be afraid of failures. They are powerful lessons that have shaped me into who I am today.

One of My Favorite Failures

When I was 19 I needed to earn some money for college so I was determined to do whatever it took, no matter how unpleasant the job was. Well, I got a temp job working on a construction site. I was utterly horrible at construction but was too damn proud to quit. Eventually the foreman fired me for my ineptitude. At the time I was incensed but I later realized how much of a favor he did for me. I wasn't serving ANYONE at that job, least of all myself. He freed me to go and look for my next job, one that I did so well that in a matter of months, the owner of the small company actually asked me if I wanted to become partners.

My Yoga Nidra Teacher Teaching Taught Me to Fail

I used to own a few yoga studios. They both failed. One of the highlights of owning these studios was when I was able to proudly host one of my greatest Yoga Nidra teachers, Dr. Richard Miller, for a weekend of workshops. Ironically, despite the great success of the workshops, he was the last big event we hosted before we had to announce that we were closing our doors. Concluding the weekend of workshops was an intimate dinner with a few teachers and Richard Miller. I came a few minutes late because I had to have a meeting with my entire staff letting them know that we were going to be closing our doors. When I told this unfortunate truth to Richard Miller, he leaned in close to me and without hesitation said, “congratulations!”

At the time I was taken aback, but with reflection the lessons I’ve learned from that experience are like gold in my hand. Not being weighed down by trying to make a brick-and-mortar business stay afloat has freed me up to concentrate on projects like my Online Yoga Nidra Teacher Training, Yoga Teacher Mentor Program, and projects like my Yoga Nidra Scripts booklet.

When I look back at owning the studios, I met my wife at that yoga studio and I often tell her that if I went through all that stress, heartache, and trouble only to have met here then it would have been worthing it. That’s true but the incredible gifts I’ve learned extend beyond just finding the love of my life. Ironically, I’ve learned so much about owning and running a business by all the ways that my previous business didn’t work. Both studios I opened are STILL running, but with different owners. I suppose I should be proud to have helped created such beautiful places to practice yoga. When I roll by those studios, I think, “Good on ya! I hope you’re doing well,” and “MAN! I’m happy not to own those anymore.”

Failures are perhaps some of our biggest teachers so maybe we don’t have to be so afraid of them. Maybe we can even have fun with them and dare I say, even be grateful for them. Inevitably, they help us evolve into into our highest being.

What are the failures you’re grateful for?

Yoga Nidra Scripts and Yoga Nidra Trainings

Why Yoga Nidra Scripts?

I’ve been creating Yoga Nidra scripts and Yoga Nidra Trainings for years and would love to share a little about what Yoga Nidra is, how it can heal, the value of a script, and how to move beyond the script to truly meet the needs of yourself and your students.

Yoga Nidra is the transformational so-called “yoga of sleep,” a very approachable yet effective way of experiencing the Oneness of your being through the process of a relaxing journey through deepening layers of Awareness. The fact that Yoga Nidra is so easy to practice and often leaves practitioners feeling rested, illuminated, and calm, makes it a popular, simple, and effective way of exploring one’s higher Self. Yoga Nidra is like napping your way to enlightenment!

Yoga Nidra may be easy and relaxing to practice but teaching it effectively can be difficult. I’ve spent many years, and countless hours learning how to teach Yoga Nidra effectively. I’ve logged many thousands of hours teaching Yoga Nidra and have learned through trial-and-error what best to do and NOT to do in order to hopefully facilitate an effective Yoga Nidra experience for myself and for students. In the spirit of helping others learn to teach Yoga Nidra quicker than it took me, I recently took 20 Yoga Nidra practices that I thought could be helpful on a broad variety of subjects and compiled 20 scripts is designed to put the words of effective, and what I hope are skillful, Yoga Nidra practices in your hands so that you and your students can also benefit from these practices.

The Healing Power of Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra is but one practice that leads people to experience their highest Selves and to come to the ultimate state of Oneness with all things. The explicit purpose for Yoga Nidra is to layer your attention through the illusions of the ego (the mayakoshas) in order to dis-identify as the ego and instead identify as Awareness itself. Doing so heals what I feel is the fundamental human problem which is feeling separate from Source.

I believe that wellness is the byproduct of Awareness and as such, the Awareness a practitioner may experience through Yoga Nidra can catalyze myriad other kinds of transformations in many practical and useful ways such as help with stress, grief, setting goals, starting your day, getting great sleep, achieving a state of relaxed alertness, and even creating abundance in your life. These are just a few of the many topics you’ll find in this volume of Yoga Nidra scripts.

These Yoga Nidra scripts are valuable because a Yoga Nidra facilitator works hard to create the right conditions for relaxation and the layered Awareness to occur. Plus, once that state is successfully achieved, a facilitator can then use their knowledge of the mayakoshas (layers of the ego) to effectively work on whatever needs attention, be that something physical, energetic, mental, or even spiritual or unconscious. I’ve organized these scripts in a way that hopefully makes that process automatic and easy.

Yoga Nidra Training

Perhaps you’d like to learn how to create your own scripts or learn to improvise a Yoga Nidra class to meet particular needs and learn how to lead yourself through a Yoga Nidra practice without using a script. Reading a script might be perfect for you as you learn to find your own voice teaching Yoga Nidra. I truly believe that each teacher has a unique quality about them and a special ability to benefit the lives of the students they come in contact with. There’s really nobody else who can teach like you do. While a Yoga Nidra facilitator can be skillful or not skillful about leading the practice, there’s no “right” way to teach. There are certain important principles about what Yoga Nidra is and what the practice is pointing to. Once you understand that, you’ll find your own way to arrive there and will be able to lead your students there effectively using your own voice. This is why I’ve developed in-person and online Yoga Nidra trainings.

I love to teach live Yoga Nidra teacher trainings because I love to see how people are using this practice. I see so many different kinds of people in my trainings including, yoga and meditation teachers, reiki and other energy workers, geriatric health professionals, high-performance coaches, high school teachers and counselors, mental health therapists, parents, and even family and divorce lawyers, because each person understands how this transformative practice can help the part of the world that they are blessed to work with. I’m also really happy to offer my online Yoga Nidra teacher training so that people all over the world can learn the principles of effectively leading a Yoga Nidra class along a timeline and location that works best for them.

My trainings explore the principles and fundamentals of Yoga Nidra to first outline the “what and why” of Yoga Nidra in order to then understand the “how” of Yoga Nidra. I find that organizing the trainings in this way enables teachers to facilitate this transformational practice with the power of doing so in their own voice to match their own specific needs as well as those of their students. Also, I strongly believe that once you know what you are aiming for, you will likely find your own pathway to get there, one that feels perfect for you. Eventually, you’ll be able to create your own scripts and improvise a practice that is powerful and necessary to yourself and your students. The aim for my trainings is to help those who are passionate (or even curious) about facilitating Yoga Nidra and learning to move beyond these scripts and create their own scripts as well as conduct 1:1 Yoga Nidra Dyads, a completely improvised experience based on the real-time awareness of their students.

In my latest edition of my online Yoga Nidra training, I’ve included a PDF of over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts to the training to help teachers begin to lead effective Yoga Nidra classes right away while they are learning to find their own voice.

Online Yoga Nidra Training: Now's The Time

Online Yoga Nidra Training

I hope you are safe and not bored to insanity given this global pandemic.

Perhaps now is the time to finally learn how to become an incredible Yoga Nidra teacher. Yoga Nidra is the process of understanding the beautiful innate wholeness that is inside of you that IS you in a way that also promotes deep relaxation, calm, and nourishing rest. It’s truly like napping your way to enlightenment!

Plus, the world needs Yoga Nidra now more than ever to help us all be at our best during these crazy unstable times.

I’ve developed an online Yoga Nidra training that prepares you to understand not only how to lead effective and powerful Yoga Nidra experiences for yourself and others, but also teaches you the fundamental principles of the practice so that you can learn to customize the experience to meet the needs of whomever you’re teaching.

While you’re learning to develop your own voice, I’ve included a PDF booklet of over 100 pages of great Yoga Nidra scripts.

My training is the audio and audio/video recordings of a live training so you will have the benefit of hearing many of the same questions and comments from other participants. You are always welcome to send me questions and comments along the way.

This training is an instant download and you can accomplish it on your own timeline. You can start teaching Yoga Nidra right away with the scripts as you’re learning how to develop your own scripts.

With This Training You Can Offer Online Yoga Nidra Classes

This training will pay for itself in no time! Personally, while I’m quarantined at home I’m earning more than $400 USD a week offering Yoga Nidra classes virtually via Zoom. Plus, I’m going to be offering a “how to” workshop about offering virtual classes very soon.

Training Costs Only $345

I know that the Wellness Industry has been hit hard with this pandemic. My sincere desire is that you learn how to lead this practice effectively so you can begin to work with your own clients and students and share this incredible practice in a way that also supports you spiritually, emotionally, and even financially during these crazy times. I am also offering to split the payments into three monthly payments if that would help you to make this investment. That and I stand by my work so if you don’t love it, I also offer a no-questions money-back guarantee.

“I just wanted to mail to say that I completed the training at the end of last week - wow, just wow, I really enjoyed each element of the training (especially the talk between everyone about their own experiences). The training was a very timely purchase and study time during this weird time we find ourselves in....it’s definitely helped me in staying aligned and in the vibration I need right now.”

— Bev R.

“I just completed your on-line Yoga Nidra TT. It was truly a wonderful, enlightening experience. Very grateful to have had the opportunity.”

— Chrissy W.

This 20-hour Yoga Nidra intensive is designed to deepen your knowledge of Self through Yoga Nidra as you learn to guide yourself and others through effective and varied Yoga Nidra practices. It is perfect both for teachers interested in teaching Yoga Nidra as well as students who simply want to deepen their practice of Yoga Nidra.

This intensive will be available through audio/video recordings and through a manual in the form of a PDF.

What’s in this course:

• A library of Yoga Nidra training that you can access whenever you’d like

• A deeper understanding of Self through Yoga Nidra

• A course of profound relaxation

• A full audio/video recording of the training for practice and continued learning

• Over a hundred pages of Yoga Nidra scripts to use

• Yoga Immersion PDF workbook (60+ pages)

• A certificate of completion

• Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Credit (if needed). This counts as 20 hours of non-contact hours.

Some of the topics we will cover:

• Philosophy of Yoga Nidra

• Myths and Chants

• Yoga Nidra for Healing/Trauma/Stress

• Yoga Nidra for Performance

• The Power of Visualizations

• Subtle Body Study and Practice

• The Koshas: Our Greatest Tools for Awareness

• Supportive Pranayama and Mindfulness Techniques (which you can print and give to your students)

• Incorporating Yoga Nidra into Yoga

• Effective Teaching Methods

• Role as Teacher

• Self Practice

• Group Teaching

• One-on-one Teaching

By the end of this immersion you will be ready to teach Yoga Nidra!

The scripts included with the purchase of this training are as follows:

• Yoga Nidra for Grief

• Yoga Nidra for Goals

• Yoga Nidra for Healing

• Yoga Nidra for Sleep

• Yoga Nidra for Grounding

• Yoga Nidra for Sankalpa (Intentions)

• Basic Yoga Nidra Practice: Body

• Yoga Nidra for Energy and Chakras

• Yoga Nidra for Anxiety Management

• Full Yoga Nidra Practice (all Koshas)

• Yoga Nidra for Heart Energy

• Yoga Nidra for Stress

• Yoga Nidra for Relaxed Alertness

• Yoga Nidra for your Trinity Nature

• Yoga Nidra for Compassion

• Yoga Nidra for Abundance

• Yoga Nidra to Start Your Day

• Yoga Nidra for Bliss (Anandamaya Kosha)

• Yoga Nidra for Happiness

• Yoga Nidra for Inner Wisdom

only $345!

Quraran-Town, Unique Opportunities, and The Strangest Cocktail Ever

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Here we are at yet another week of living in Quaran-town (I wish I came up with that, thanks Tara T. for that one).

I hope that you’re able to keep your spirits high. Let me remind you that we gotta dig deep in these crazy times. Our attitude about this is going to shape the outcome dramatically, both for ourselves and the world.

This morning I’m extremely grateful for:

• Morning coffee date with Seneca, my wife, co-parent, and partner-in-crime

• Another beautiful spring morning

• YOU, for opening and reading. I really appreciate your presence with me on this journey of life

More about item 3

This weird time in our history has certainly created some “unusual opportunities,” as my friend Chris S. has said. People are out of work, plans and progress are on hold, and there’s a lot of enduring fear around simply staying safe. Oh, and there’s boredom. It’s like the weirdest cocktail ever. Here’s how the recipe would read:

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The Corona Cocktail

Ingredients:

• 1 oz fear

• 2 oz liquid courage

• 2 oz whole-lotta-love

• 1 oz “Cancelled Plans” bitters

• 1 Tbsp lonely lemon juice

• Lemon wedge

• 3 oz Boredom Tonic, served flat, of course

• ½ tsp Isopropyl Alcohol

• 1 oz aloe vera

• Pinch of spring blossoms

• Margarita salt

• 2 surgical gloves

• N-95 surgical mask

• 6 ft. straw

• Thermometer

• Square of toilet paper

Instructions:

• While wearing the surgical gloves and mask, prepare a margarita glass by first rubbing it with the Isopropyl alcohol.

• Allow glass to dry completely then wet the rim with some of the aloe vera before dipping the rim of the class in the margarita salt giving the drink its “corona.”

• Place the liquid ingredients including the rest of the aloe vera (but NOT the Isopropyl alcohol) into a martini shaker and shake vigorously, either by hand or with the help of an EARTHQUAKE (Salt Lake City had an earthquake 3 weeks ago), for an indeterminate amount of time until the CDC says it’s ok to stop.

• Pour into glass.

• Using the thermometer, ensure that the liquid is below 98.6 degrees before continuing contact with the drink.

• Practice social distancing from your glass by using a 6-ft straw inserted into a small hole made in the front of your mask.

• Garnish with the pinch of spring blossoms, lemon wedge and serve on a square of toilet paper.

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But rather than digressing into day-drinking, let me offer this…

As you know, I make my living by writing, teaching yoga, hosting in-person and online yoga and meditation trainings and retreats. I feel very fortunate to have made a living doing what I love to do for almost 20 years. Yet, these times have presented me with an “unusual opportunity” to give back and offer more resources for free, by donation, or at a reduced price because we all need these valuable resources that help us practice being our best selves during these uncertain times. That and I think yoga, meditation, and some thought-provoking writing present a helluva better solution to our situation than day-drinking.

That’s why I am offering things like my free Tranquility Tool Kit that includes: 2 downloadable yoga videos, 2 Yoga Nidra practices, links to heart-lifting music from myself and friends, as well as some excerpts of my writing to help remind us of our own humanity. I’m also inviting many of my online classes to be by donation so that if you need a yoga class but times are tough financially, you can simply offer good vibes or pay it forward to someone else in some other fashion.

One of my most important missions in life is to offer ways for people to practice being their best selves through yoga and meditation. I am so fortunate to get to make my living doing this, but now I want to give back to YOU who have given me so much through attending classes, downloading my courses online, buying my book, attending my retreats, and simply opening and reading my emails. It means so much, I can’t even tell you.

Here’s the beautiful irony, as much as I try to give back, I am gifted with an increase of generosity comin’ back my way. What an incredible gift! I can’t tell you how immensely grateful I am, thank you, thank you, thank you! It is not only humbling, but reminds me that this bitter cocktail is softening our hearts and helping us to love each other. What humbles me is how despite social distancing, this Coronavirus is helping us to reach out and love each other in creative ways with support, encouragement, creativity, laughs, and resources.

I LOVE YOU! I feel your love back to me.

Thank you.

“Love you more.”

“No, I love YOU more.”

“No, I love YOU, even more”

“Impossible. Can’t love anyone as much as I love you.”

In the spirit of offering yet more love…

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Gratitude

One of the best practices we can do right now during these crazy times is to practice regular gratitude. Gratitude is an easy antidote to so many limiting states of mind including, selfishness, fear, and discontent. Gratitude is a wonderful practice that brings us into the present moment and I believe that the secrets of the Universe (including how to beat Coronavirus) can be accessed through simple and regular presence.

Around Thanksgiving time, I offered for the first time a free 14-day gratitude challenge and I’d like to offer it again.

To do the Gratitude Challenge all you do is every day, wake up and write down three things you’re grateful for. Then, choose one of those things and turn it into a small paragraph. You can also share one or all of the things you are grateful for with someone else. Simple. In fact, at the beginning of this email, I followed the exact format for the Gratitude Challenge.

The last time I did this, there were so many people who completed the challenge and wrote to tell me what a magical practice it was for them and how much they enjoyed it. In fact, about two weeks ago, I got an email from a student and friend of mine in NYC who took the gratitude challenge and loved it so much she never stopped. She emailed me to say that she was on day 124

So, I’m offering another gratitude challenge. It starts whenever you register. How about now?

The challenge is simple but will leave you feeling great during these uncertain times. Continued exposure to gratitude will begin to change your character. Plus, gratitude is even more contagious than Coronavirus. There’s really no cure for it but more gratitude.

Registration is free and will give you access to receive supportive emails from me every day of the challenge.

Register today and pass this challenge along to your nearest and dearest. Share the love and make gratitude contagious.

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Yoga Nidra: Let Go and Be

Yoga Nidra is often called the “yoga of sleep,” however Yoga Nidra is more about waking up, wakening up to your ultimate Being. In my online Yoga Nidra classes and my online Yoga Nidra trainings, I discuss how the ancient yoga principles found in the Yoga Sutras help us find a practice of waking up.

According to the Yoga Sutras, the natural challenges in life provide us with refinement or Tapas, translated as the heat necessary for our transformation into our highest beings. Tapas is the process of waking up to our True Nature.

This heat inevitably leads us toward Swadhyaya, or self-knowledge. Self knowledge is both knowing how to best handle the Tapas, as well as what the Tapas reveals, which is the infinite Being waking up to know itself in this physical form and in this life. With greater self-knowledge you qualify for deeper tapas, then deeper self-knowledge, etc.

Beyond this cycle of growth and self-knowledge is the the ultimate step called Ishvarapranidhana, which means to lay it down at the feet of God. The ultimate step is to transcend this cycle of refinement and self-knowledge by enabling our ultimate act of free will which is to completely let go of control and submit to things just as they are. To merely be. Doing so up-levels our consciousness and then allows us to move back into the cycle of refinement and self-knowledge with greater understanding about what that process is doing. It’s like rebooting your life where everything is the same and yet your relationship to it is completely different.

Yoga Nidra is a method of relaxing inquiry into Self where through deepening relaxation and layered Awareness, you practice releasing all which doesn't’ serve you to see it for exactly what it is. With this perspective, you no longer identify AS that thing and can allow it to be. Because everything in this Universe has an orbit, you’ll find that as you stop clinging or resisting certain things in your life and allow them to just BE, they find their own expression and move along their orbit.

You have a magnificent capacity to simply BE!

I made up a myth that I want to share with you that will hopefully make these teachings come alive.

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Yoga Nidra Training

Yoga Nidra is the relaxing and mystical journey deep into the inner-realms of consciousness where through a guided meditation, you get to experience your True Nature, something that feels one with all things, infinite, and whole.

Such wholeness leads naturally to profound healing, boundless equanimity, and and understanding of your life, unparalleled by every-day thinking. Stress, trauma, and scarcity seem insignificant after you've experienced the part of you that is infinitely larger than any of these smaller experiences. Truly, through Yoga Nidra you see into the vastness of the Universe that is within you.

Learn this transformative practice for your own soul evolution as well as learning how to lead others through this life-changing practice. This could be the most important work you do in a great long time.

This essential training is designed for those who wish experience the unparalleled magnificence of their True Self through Yoga Nidra, to deepen their knowledge of the practice Yoga Nidra by learning its philosophy, and learn to teach it. It’s a fascinating journey into self that gives you the tools to help others also make this deep, personal journey. This is an engaging, fun, and in-depth look at all things Yoga Nidra.

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Weekly Live Online Yoga Nidra Classes

Now 2 classes weekly: Wednesday 6 pm and Sunday 9 am MST!

All classes are recorded so you can join live or watch later. Each participant receives the recordings to build your Yoga Nidra library.

Buy a pass, 4 classes for $40 or pay a drop-in for $12. If you buy a pass, you will be automatically signed up for both Wednesday and Sunday classes unless you indicate to me that you’d prefer either one or the other.

There is immense power in practicing together. These classes allow you to join from anywhere in the world. And because they are recorded and each of the classes are emailed to you after the class, this allows you to register and watch the session later as well as build your own digital Yoga Nidra library.