Cheesy Rock Was My Drug

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Namaste,

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Yoga Nidra For Grief Can Help

Yoga Nidra for Grief

Here’s my weekly tid-bit. I hope you enjoy. It’s a Yoga Nidra for grief practice. I find that …

We Stand Stronger in Community

With the difficulty and isolation of the past few years that we’ve all endured, one of the things that people value and prioritize now more than ever is community. Naturally, humans need to feel as though they belong to a family, a tribe. Ironically, one of the things we can do that will benefit the tribe of humanity the best is to meditate because when we do so we stop acting from an egoic place and start to feel ourselves as part of the larger whole.

Meditation may seem like such a solitary activity, but it doesn’t have to be. Just like a yoga class where everyone is experiencing a personal benefit, albeit in tandem with others and therefore growing both personally and together, so too people who meditate in groups can also grow personally while also together with a group.

Through the Covid isolations, precautions which limit in-person gatherings, and lockdowns due to the pandemic, the human family has shown remarkable resiliency and ingenuity by learning to nonetheless find community through mediums like Zoom. Of course we’d all love to be in person with our yoga and meditation classes, and while some of these have resumed (I led a glorious retreat in-person retreat in Bordeaux this year), a happy byproduct of this forced online connection is that we’ve become more comfortable building a truly global community. My sweet mother-in-law in Utah takes harp lessons from her teacher in Scotland thanks to both of them becoming more comfortable with technology because of the pandemic.

It seems that it took the loneliness of isolating in our own homes to realize that we actually have such a ready and vast connection to the larger human family. For example, during my weekly live Yoga Nidra classes on Zoom, it’s commonplace to have people attending live and watching the replay from several different countries, continents, and time zones.

The power of meditating in groups is astounding and demonstrated by some unbelievable but true stats from peer-reviewed articles. One statistic shows that in communities where people have meditated as a group (groups of like 1200 people), the murder and homicide rates decreased by a whopping 28.4%. (Click here to read the article). Plus, the benefits of regular meditation practice has a ripple effect and doesn’t just stop when you stop meditating. And even with smaller groups who meditate together, there is an incredible power given to families or friends who all commit to meditate for a particular cause, like the wellbeing of a person, people, or the environment.

Individuals also benefit from meditating together. People who meditate as a close group of friends or family, whether in the same place or time or not, are more committed to doing a practice as well as feel a greater sense of purpose in the practice.

I’m beginning a meditation group for the month of January and I’d be honored if you would join. Will you join my global meditation community who will all be meditating every day during the month of January during my 31-Day Meditation Challenge? The challenge is simply to meditate every day for 15 minutes or more in any style and at any time you wish. You may not be in the same room, time zone, or even continent as the others in our meditation family but knowing that we are all around the world meditating at different times during the day will make a connection to us all that will likely be palpable.

If you are new to the practice of meditation, the energy of our global meditation family will buoy you up as you start this new healthy habit. Plus, I’ll be giving you resources, support, and instruction every step of the way. If you are already a regular meditator, your energy and experience will contribute to the power of us all.

To emphasize the important community element of this challenge, I’ll be hosting a live, online meditation on New Year’s day to kick it off. Plus, once a week, I’ll host a global meditation where we can all log in from different parts of the globe to see and meet each other as well as meditate together. This is in addition to the daily email you’ll receive with encouragement, interesting articles, and specialized meditations. This challenge will be powerful, positive, and fun.

I am so excited to do this 31-Day Meditation Challenge and I want YOU to be a part of our mediation group. The last time I hosted this challenge people joined from all over the world: The US, England, Ireland, Belgium, France, Spain, Canada, Columbia, Iceland, The Philippines, and many other countries. Where do you live? Join and represent your region, city, or country and join our global mediation community.

Also, do you know of others who you’d like to join with you? Invite them along and make your own meditation posse. Many past participants have taken it upon themselves to build their own meditation groups, friends and family who all register together to support and encourage each other in this worthy endeavor. I can assure you that you will grow together as a group or family if you do.

Please reach out with any questions. I hope you’ll join this global mediation community.

My Mind Is Too Busy To Meditate

Meditation is supposed to be great, right? It helps you to quiet the mind, become less reactive, and feel calm … right? 

But one thing I hear all the time is, “My mind is just TOO busy to meditate,” like the ability to gain a calmer mind is only available to those whose minds are already calm, or something. What’s worse, many of us feel inadequate or somehow broken if we can’t magically turn our busy brains off at will. 

Can you relate to this? Do you ever feel that your mind is just too busy to meditate? Well if so, you’re actually quite normal.

Consider this: while focusing your mind is ONE way of meditating, it’s by no means the ONLY way to meditate. Think about it, our brains are meant to process information constantly, even when we sleep. It’s disingenuous to think we can suddenly switch off our brains. Our brains are computers that are designed to constantly process the millions bits of information we perceive each second. Perhaps clearing our mind is the wrong objective. Perhaps, we should instead learn to embrace our busy mind and find the calm that exists with that endeavor.

Have you ever considered that perhaps your busy mind could actually be a tool for meditation rather than a hindrance? In fact, it could be your greatest tool to acquire the calm you seek. And to explore this idea, maybe we should examine what meditation is. 

At its essence, meditation is simply the ability to remain present with exactly whatever you’re experiencing in the moment. That’s it. Meditation is not just clearing your mind, it’s being aware. What’s more, meditation can actually help you become aware of the part of your being that is larger than your thinking mind.

Back in the day, French philosopher René Descartes said, “I think therefore I am,” asserting that the proof of one’s being was invariably tied with their ability to think. But he was too tied to the idea of the mind equating our quality of being. Another and more recent French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, edited Décartes words radically and pared them down to: “I am.” This drastic revision asserts that what we are is fundamentally larger than our ability to think. In effect, Sartre is saying that our essence is simply being, and specifically to be present, is what lies at the essence of our being. We can practice this essential being, this being present, with any object, be that a person, a sunset, or even a busy mind. 

This presence is what we are ultimately doing in meditation. We are being with what is. And if what seems to be most present in your awareness is a busy mind, then so be it. That’s the object that is going to help you practice being at your most fundamental essence. I would also proffer that our most natural comportement, one that is tied fundamentally to our presence and therefore our being, is that of relaxed alertness. This is the calm that people talk about as the byproduct of meditation. 

But how do you put that into practice? How does one achieve this calm, especially with a busy mind? One way to use and even appreciate a busy mind is with a simple form of meditation I call the “There Is” practice. To do the “There Is” practice, set a timer for 5 minutes and close your eyes (regular but short bouts of meditation are the best way to start meditating, in my opinion). As you begin to meditate, in your mind, announce whatever you happen to be most aware of at the moment with the phrase, “There Is.” e.g., “There are thoughts of work. There is the smell of coffee. There is a cat licking my toe . . . .”  

Now, There are two basic rules with the “There Is” practice. First, try to avoid personal pronouns like I, me, and my. Instead of “I am thinking about work,” or “I smell my coffee,” change it to, “There are thoughts of work,” and “There is the smell of coffee.” This changes you from being conflated as the object you’re aware of to become identified as the observer of it. 

The second rule is that for the duration of the “There Is” practice, nothing is neither good nor bad. It’s all just information. This includes the meditation itself so there is no achievement in it. When your mind wanders (squirrel!), cuz even the most skillful of meditators mind wanders, simply bring it back to the practice without any judgement, perhaps even with the phrase, “There is wandering mind,” or “There is busy mind.” You are not trying to change it, you are simply observing it. 

Soon, you will learn to observe your mind rather than trying to control it. If your mind is busy, let it be busy and watch it flutter from one thought to the next, just like it loves to do, all the while simply observing it like watching someone flip through the different channels on a television. In no time at all, you will become grateful for the beautiful object that is your busy mind because you will realize that it has led you to an incredible presence. And since what you are is larger than your thoughts, you may start to realize that your natural way of being is calm, collected, and steady, despite the fact that your mind is still buzzing away. And you came to this awareness through the ability to watch your mind rather than identify with it. 

I’m starting my 31-Day Meditation Challenge on January 1, 2022. I invite you to join me and create an incredibly bold and positive foundation for a conscious new year.The challenge is simple: meditate every day for 31 days for 15 minutes or more in any style you wish. It costs $31 and if you finish the challenge, you can even opt to get your tuition back. I’ll be supporting you with emails, resources, and weekly live and virtual meditation sessions with our global meditation group. 

Even if you feel your mind is too busy to meditate, this is your chance to prove to yourself that your busy mind could in truth be the perfect tool to help you find the calm that is your natural way of being. I encourage you to meditate with us during this challenge and discover your natural calm, despite your busy mind. 

Apollo, Jesus, and You Walk Into a Bar …

Happy Solstice!

I love the Winter Solstice. I’ve always been fascinated by the movement of the sun, moon, and stars. When I was young, I loved sleeping outside in the backyard on summer nights with my brother and my cousins. Specifically, I loved looking up into the black mystery that is the stars, that pointillist painting of light which magically illustrates stories of Greek and Roman gods through the constellations and which somehow also functions as a clock that never needs winding and which has been silently ticking away time since time began.

But if we can train our vision, we might also notice that this royal procession of the sun, moon, and stars isn’t limited only to the illumination of the stories of Greek or Roman gods, but that your story is written up there as well. It’s the story of the divine light that rests inside of you. So that you don’t forget it, the sun, moon, and stars tell this story each year at the Solstice.

The word Solstice derives from Latin and means “sun stands still” and refers to the yearly rhythm of the movement of the sun as it rises and sets up and down the horizon. In the northern hemisphere, at the Summer Solstice (around June 21st), the sun rises and sets at its highest point along the horizon. Here, the days are the longest and the nights are the shortest. From that moment on, each day the sun begins to creep down the horizon each day until Winter Solstice when the sun rises and lowers at its lowest point, the days are the shortest and the nights are the longest. On both the Summer and Winter Solstice, for three days, the sun rises and falls in exactly the same place, appearing to stand still along the horizon.

I love symbols and relish this symbol of the Solstice, celebrating the moment when the sun, that which gives light and life to all beings on the earth, stands still for 3 days as if to say, “Whoa, hold up! Papa’s gotta put his dogs up for a bit, kick back, and watch some Neptune Flix.” After a good rest, it starts it’s long journey along the horizon again, just like it’s done every year for time immemorial.

But more than just rest, the Winter Solstice truly symbolizes a necessary and unavoidable death, and not just the death of its own cycle. It symbolizes a death for each person, the passing of everything that must and will die. The 3 days of stillness is the necessary mourning and composting period. It symbolizes our darkest moments, both in terms of sunlight, as well as the dark night of the soul. But the Winter Solstice also holds a promise of rebirth, a cosmic symbol for the myriad resurrections we will experience during our lifetime and portends the light, wisdom, and enlightenment which is to come and which exists within us already.

Nice, France was built by the ancient Greeks and gets its name from Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Nice’s connection to her Greek gods are proudly displayed in the central square with a giant statue and fountain depicting Apollo, the sun god, surrounded by other statues representing the planets that circle the sun in elegant harmony. You can’t miss him, he’s 23 feet tall, naked as a jaybird, and has a fantastically chiseled ass that would make any model jealous.

Despite it’s Greek roots, today Nice displays a very rich and beautiful Catholic presence—seriously, there are no fewer than 8 different Catholic cathedrals, churches, or sanctuaries, all within 100 meters of our apartment. Whether it’s the heavy and unctuous chimes heralding the hour or the celestial peals celebrating the sabbath, hearing these bells never, ever stops being charming. And just like the Greeks, the Catholics have their own sun god, Jesus the son of God who is the light and life of the world.

Undoubtedly, there are some fascinating parallels between this celebration of the cycle of the sun of the solar system and the day that celebrates the birth of the son of God. The sun symbolically dies on the 21st, doesn’t move for 3 days, and on the 25th, is born anew to set along its path to bring greater light to the world. Though usually celebrated around Easter, the son of God also died, rested for three days, and rose again on the third day. In Christianity, the 25th of December represents the birth of the son of God, the light that is destined to enlighten the entire world. Whether it’s Apollo or Jesus, the son of God or the sun god, a god surrounded by the 12 constellations of the zodiac or by 12 apostles (and by extension all of his followers), both of these symbols are foundational to this culture and both are celebrated at this wonderful time of year.

Personally, I celebrate both Apollo and Jesus (and a suite of other gods, goddesses, and symbols) because I believe they all poignantly represent the bright light of Source that exists within all of us. I believe that our journey to becoming who we are destined to be requires cyclical wanings and deaths in the unavoidable process continually being reborn anew. I believe that our mothers gave birth to us once so that we may forevermore give birth to ourselves through this slow and beautiful wisdom-practice called life. I believe that to fully embrace life, we must have a ready relationship with death.

Yoga and Yoga Nidra is an effective and even enjoyable method of practicing building a relationship with death in order to practice fully living. Known as corpse pose, Savasana, whether practiced at the end of an asana class or during a Yoga Nidra class, is the symbolic death we submit to where we must surrender our ego, our doing nature, and everything else that needs to die, so that we can be reborn anew. I think of Savasana kind of like a software update for your computer or phone: it doesn’t change your system that much each time but after a while, your system becomes completely incompatible with its older self. Each time we rise from Savasana, we are slightly different, ready to process the world with greater clarity and resolve as we move along our pathway to discovering our purpose.

Do you ever feel like you’re a completely different person than you were just 5 or 10 years ago? I know I do.

The Winter Solstice is a time we must use to compost what has died and to learn from it so we can grow stronger next season. This regular cycle of death and birth moves us, season by season, year by year, along our path of wisdom as we seek greater light and ultimately discover the truth that the light we seek is born inside of us. The ancient hermetic phrase, “As above, so below,” pertains not to the light represented in a naked god in the central square with its fine chiseled ass nor the one shrouded and demur, cached under arched cathedral ceilings, but to the divine flame that exists within your own immaculate heart.

Today, may we all celebrate the darkness as well as the promise of light to come. May we embrace and compost that which has passed in our lives and prepare for what’s to come. And may we wake up each day with a greater knowledge of the light that exists within.

Today, let’s simply practice dying. Let’s practice Savasana.

The Ghost of Christmas Presence

I LOVE Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, where the shrewd and crotchety Ebaneezer Scrooge literally gets the bejesus scared into him by three ghosts, Christmas Past, Present, and Future. The Ghosts of Christmas Past and Future are the sad and scary ones but the ghostest with the mostest is, of course, The Ghost of Christmas Present, displayed in the George C. Scott adaptation of the story as the larger-than-life jolly joe with alluring opulence, and whose hairy and barreled chest could incite jealousy to the most virile of reindeer. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, this tale offers many valuable life lessons that have the power to make every day, not just the holidays, merry and bright. In my opinion, the greatest lesson in this tale is offered by the Ghost of Christmas Present, and that, of course, is the gift of presence. 

When I was in my mid-teens, I had a Christmas that I think I’ll remember for the rest of my life. There was nothing particularly special about it. It’s just the one I remember the most fondly. I remember putting together puzzles with my family, a fire in the hearth, and Christmas tunes on the stereo. I remember watching movies like, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and of course, A Christas Carol, all while eating Christmas goodies and generally being wrapped in the beautiful spirit of winter wonder and cheer. 

One of the things I loved about that Christmas was the next-level gift wrapping we did. You know when you wrap a gift and it’s something with an uber-obvious shape like a tennis racket or something, and even though it’s wrapped up, it’s still uber-obvious what the present is? Well, my twin brother and I developed a method of wrapping gifts to uber-obfuscate the shape of any present while also making the presentation just as (and sometimes more) important than the actual gift. We were putting the presentation into the present and we called this over-the-top method of present wrapping, “Appendage Wrapping.” 

I wrapped one present to function as working a catapult, a low-tech engineering feat which employed wrapping paper tubes and rubber bands to hurl balls of wrapping paper scraps across the room. My step-mom loves Diet Coke so I fashioned a working Coke machine from a refrigerator box—push a button and out popped a can of Diet Coke. Also, the American businessman, billionaire, and philanthropist Ross Perot had run for president about that time and I had created a present for my brother in the shape of Ross Perot, a puppet made from newspaper, Scotch tape, and dressed with an old sweatshirt. It really looked like Ross Perot, except I doubt that Ross actually wore oversized Goth sweatshirts adorned with the pallid apparition of Robert Smith from The Cure printed on the front. The puppet featured a plug emanating from its back with a sign that read, “Plug me in!” When you did, the puppet began speaking in the unmistakable voice of Dana Carvey from Saturday Night Live who made a hilarious Ross Perot parody, all of which emanated from a stereo buried somewhere in the dummy’s chest. I don’t even remember the gift I buried under all that flamboyant wrapping but I will always remember the way I wrapped it. 

That was a truly magical Christmas for me, one that I will always remember with fondness. Yet if I’m not careful, those memories will haunt me like a curse of the Ghost of Christmas Past. This is because while it’s human nature to want to reproduce those things we felt were happy and good, it’s impossible to do so because all elements of that experience change and we become disappointed next year when we do all the same things but it doesn’t hold the same magic. Therefore something tragic occurs: we sacrifice the moment we are having now trying to reproduce the one we already had. Essentially, we attempt to “Appendage Wrap” the gift of this moment to make it look like something else and the sad result is like throwing away the gift with the wrapping paper. 

Of course traditions are great and past memories are beautiful but I can give myself and my loved ones an incredible gift, one that’s somehow even better than a fabulous talking Ross Perot, by simply learning to be unfailingly present with what is, with the moment we are creating right now. With the joy of past memories as a guide, I can excitedly make new memories in this moment with the possibility of every year being the best holiday to date.  

It is perhaps a little gratuitous to cajole you to be present during the holidays because it’s human nature to be conditioned to be otherwise. In truth, this kind of presence takes a little dedicated and regular practice. 

This year, give Christmas presence. 

Here are a few simple things to practice as safeguards against the curse of The Ghost of Christmas Past (or Future, for that matter).

First, mitigate your expectations. A student at a yoga retreat once taught me, “What are expectations but premeditated disappointments.” Amen to that! Without any expectations, you can be free to enjoy things simply for what they are. 

Second, no comparisons. Teddy Roosevelt and others said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” It takes perspective, openness, and willingness to see that each moment can be as beautiful as any other moment. Appreciate the past and hope for the future but don’t compare them to the present.

Third, be curious. Curiosity saves you from the confinement of comparison and allows you to open up to the possibilities of the present. Ask yourself questions like, “What am I appreciating at this time,” “What is illuminating my senses,” and “What can I be grateful for right now?”

Fourth, my magic mantra for happiness is, “This is exactly what I want to be doing at this moment.” Telling yourself this at any moment declares to the Universe and yourself your choice to be in the here and now and to appreciate it for what it is. It will enable you to look around and ask yourself why this moment is so great. You’ll be surprised at how even in the most challenging times how you can nonetheless find something miraculous. 

Fifth, connect to simple pleasures. A simple pleasure could be simply delighting in your senses: enjoying the lights, smelling the pine trees, enjoying the colors. When I was a teenager, I used to walk through my favorite florist once a week or so, just to delight in my sense and treat myself. I never bought anything. Plus, the florist was located in an old Victorian house and I’d read that there was an actual ghost in the attic named Edna, apparently the original owner of the house, and I secretly hoped I would somehow see her. I enjoyed going once a week or so and literally stopping to smell the roses, all the while keeping my eyes open for a chance encounter with an apparition. I also practiced mitigated expectations vis a vis seeing the ghost which was good cuz I never did but still went for the roses. 

Sixth, be creative. Creativity is it’s own gift. It is the art of using what’s currently at your disposal to make something new at the moment, like turning newspaper, a boombox, and a sweatshirt into a talking Ross Perot. Using our essential resource of curiosity, we open to possibilities and make something whether that be a unique gift, a curious way to wrap it, or simply create a moment. 

Seventh, practice not having an opinion about things that really don’t matter. You may have read my story about how Lionel Richie is my Guru because he taught me that I don’t need to have an opinion about Soft Rock. I discovered my simple mantra, “I don’t need to have an opinion about that.” I told this story to a couple at a meditation class around the holidays one year who emailed me a few weeks later only to exclaim, “I don’t need to have an opinion about that” SAVED Christmas. God bless you, Lionel Richie. 

Lastly, stay connected to your heart. The quote I live by is by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in the Little Prince which says, “One only sees correctly with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes.” As you are planning and executing this holiday season, be connected to your heart in all you do and you can’t go wrong. Being connected to your heart facilitates gratitude and generosity. Ask yourself, “What do I love?” and go follow that because that will both anchor you to the moment and to what I believe is the ultimate truth: Love. Turns out the Beatles were right. 

Do you have a favorite Christmas, one year that has stood out from all the rest? And if you don’t celebrate Christmas, maybe you have a different holiday, celebration, or birthday that really stands out as supreme. I’m sure if you took a moment to reflect you could practically bring this memory alive by remembering the events, colors, smells, people you were with, or perhaps just the way you felt at that moment. 

After reveling in that memory, might I invite you to use these suggestions above to create a truly beautiful and new experience during the holidays this year. I will certainly lean on this list as a recipe for a merry holiday. 

This year, living in France, we bought a Christmas plant rather than a tree. I might try my hand at some more “Appendage Wrapping.” We will certainly be remembering old traditions while making beaucoup new ones as well. This year, I’ll be practicing presence right along with you. 

My prayer is that this year, we are all spared visitations from the Ghost of Christmas Past or Future but are treated to a royal visitation by the inimitable Ghost of Christmas Presence. 

And hey, if you’re prone to seeing ghosts during the holidays and just happen to bump into a little ghost who lives in an old Victorian named Edna… tell her that I’m a big fan.

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We are in full swing with the holidays and if you’re like me, sometimes it’s easy to get overwhelmed with gift giving. This is because:

We’re worried about the planet and we hate the idea of buying more “stuff” that is likely to end up in a landfill and cause our poor mother earth to shed yet more tears.

We have people on our list who are really, really hard to buy for.

We want to give something that will really benefit your loved ones but, what can do that?

Everyone needs less stress, more inner calm and is it possible to buy that for someone?

I’ve had so many requests to make my offerings easy to gift to others that this year I decided to create the Online Body Mind Spirit Boutique. Here, you can find a lovely gift for all those on your “nice” list, and some that might even help those on your “naughty” list.

You can set these gifts to drop down your loved one’s digital chimney on Christmas morning so they have a fun email to open on the big day with their gift attached. If you want something physical, you can also print a PDF graphic that comes with your purchase to wrap or put in a stocking.

Speaking of stocking stuffers, I even have a few freebies that you can give away with abandon like you are Ebaneezer Scrooge on Christmas Day. Plus, on the night before Christmas, when all through the house, when everyone’s sleeping, even you and your spouse, you will sleep extra peacefully that night knowing that this year you’re giving carbon-neutral gifts, with zero shipping time or environmental impact, and you're putting money into the pockets of someone OTHER than Jeff Bezos. Most importantly, you’ll be satisfied knowing that your loved ones are getting something to support them to be the person that they are destined to be.

I can’t wait for you to check these out.

• Restore + Yoga Nidra Workshop Saturday, December 18th from 9–11 am MST.

• 31-Day Meditation Challenge

• Intensive or Intermediate Private Yoga Sessions Package

• Yoga Nidra Training: Live, Online, and In-Person (Jan. 19–23, 2022 in Salt Lake City, Utah) and/or Self-Paced, Online Training

• Yoga Teacher/Business Mentor Package Hire me to mentor you 1:1 to achieve your teaching and or business excellence.

• Yoga Retreat of a Lifetime in Bordeaux or Tuscany: Reserve your spot by only paying your $500 deposit

• Yoga Nidra Scripts: over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts to jump start your teaching today.

• Essential Yoga Nidra Volume 1: 8 hours of specialized guided meditations with varying purposes i.e., for stress, sleep, energy, grief, healing, etc.

• Guided Meditation for Sleep Program: over 3 hours and several PDFs to help you achieve, deep, restful, and nourishing sleep

• Yoga for Stiff Bodies Video Instant Download

• Live Online Yoga Nidra Class: 4 or 8 Class Pass

• Yoga Nidra for Sleep: a specialized 25-minute guided meditation to help you set the conditions for deep, peaceful, and nourishing sleep.

• Tranquility Tool Kit: a catalogue of resources to keep you feeling good, calm, and on top of the world, including breathing exercises, guided meditations, yoga videos, music, blog posts, and more.
  
  
  

Revelations, Heartburn, and Transformation

How are you today? I hope you’re feeling well, happy, and centered in your heart.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving for the United States. We had a truly unforgettable expat Thanksgiving with our small family of 3 and our adopted Nana. Sen and Nana Chris made a lovely free-range chicken, beautiful goat cheese and pomegranate salad, creamy mascarpone mashed potatoes, a truly mind-blowing stuffing with pecans, sausage and bread made from the world’s best baguette. Pics on IG.

This year, I didn’t personally cook anything. I was in charge of bringing the wine and some of Nice’s best pastries, including the finest macarons we’ve ever eaten, and we’ve tried dozens of macaron shops.

Though everything we ate was truly gourmet, the most pleasant surprise for me, the thing that completely took me off guard, was the cranberry sauce. Who knew, right? It was so good, it made me want to name my next child after it. Ok, if not a child, then at least a pet. We’re not having another baby, BTW. Did anybody else not know that the secret ingredient for astoundingly fabulous cranberry sauce was bourbon? Growing up, cranberry sauce was the part of the Thanksgiving meal that nobody touched, the pariah of the feast relegated to some far corner of the table. Maybe it’s because of its gelatinous appearance. Maybe it’s because of its color. Or maybe it’s because it stands unnaturally vertical sans support and retains the exact shape of the can it’s been resting in since 1989. Either way, I didn’t grow up enjoying cranberry sauce and never knew cranberry sauce could be this amazing, it paired so well with all the other dishes.

But in all seriousness, what’s difficult to swallow at Thanksgiving, more difficult than canned cranberry goo from a can, is the complicated affair of why we celebrate Thanksgiving in the first place. I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that Thanksgiving is at its core a celebration of colonialism whose damaging effects include the disenfranchisement of indigenous people. It’s a complicated issue to be sure but one that gives me heartburn. Yet, despite the sourness of this important issue, what I absolutely adore about Thanksgiving is that regardless of its origins, it is a day devoted to GRATITUDE, a powerful spiritual practice that has the power to steer ourselves as well as current and future generations toward the true Oneness of all people.

My opinions and reviews about Thanksgiving aside, today I wanted to write to you and let you know that even though I’m not offering any Black Friday deals, I do want to let you know how excited I am about a workshop I’m hosting that will help you to facilitate this Oneness of humanity. Please join me for my Yoga Nidra dyad workshop that I’m hosting online via Zoom Saturday, November 27th from 9 am to 12 pm MST. I’ll record it so you can join live, watch the replay or both. It’s going to be a very special workshop dedicated to the art of facilitating 1:1 Yoga Nidra with your clients in a way that is quite transformational. If you don’t teach Yoga Nidra, this will be a great introduction to a very powerful way of helping people become their best selves.

Do you teach Yoga Nidra or desire to? Make a bigger difference with you students by expanding your Yoga Nidra toolbox and becoming an expert Yoga Nidra Dyad facilitator.

What’s a dyad, already?

As you may know, Yoga Nidra is a unique, effective, and relaxing form of guided meditation which can facilitate a truly magnificent presence in life. It can also help with healing in body, mind and spirit, and can offer clarion insight into your purpose and the very nature of your being. In a Yoga Nidra dyad, a facilitator leads the practitioner through deepening layers of relaxed Awareness via a mindful dialogue which helps the practitioner illuminate their greatest Awareness. It’s a very powerful and beautiful process, but one that requires a bit of know-how and practice.

Typically Yoga Nidra is led by a facilitator who directs either one person or a group of people through the detailed process of layered and relaxed Awareness. However, leading a student through a 1:1 Yoga Nidra dyad can be exponentially more effective at facilitating transformation because it is personalized and tailored to specific needs of the individual student.

Typical Yoga Nidra is led by the facilitator. A dyad is led by the practitioner.

You’ll learn:

• Why dyads are so effective

• How to practice them safely with your clients

• The Yoga Nidra Dyad Roadmap, the essential guide to dyads

• How to ascertain your student’s needs in the pre-screening

• How to use the koshas as tools to affect transformation

• The art of Reflective Awareness

• How to ground and navigate your student’s awareness

• How to manage and facilitate emotions

• How to help your students process and integrate the experience

• Helpful professional, logistical, and tech tips.
  

You’ll receive:

• Recordings of the entire workshop (except others’ dyad practice)

• A detailed manual with discussion points and resources

• The Yoga Nidra Dyad Roadmap

• Partners to practice Yoga Nidra dyads with!
  

This will be a virtual and recorded workshop via Zoom. In this interactive workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to practice dyads with each other in breakout rooms and receive feedback about your teaching.

The world needs expert Yoga Nidra teachers. Become a masterful Yoga Nidra facilitator by learning Yoga Nidra dyads

Each person who registers will receive a recording of the workshop so even if you can’t make the time work for you, you may register and watch the training at your own convenience.

Counts as continuing education with Yoga Alliance!

Direct any questions to scott@scottmooreyoga.com

Thank you and I hope to see you tomorrow

A Vision of Gratitude

My family and I are living in France but are gearing up to have an expat Thanksgiving. I’ve been thinking of a few very important Thanksgivings for me as well as the importance of gratitude and feel that this email is kind of important, one that points to the essential spiritual practice of gratitude.

The first Thanksgiving I want to tell you about is when in 2002 I’d just arrived in Korea with a 1-year contract to teach English. The school was composed of both native Korean teachers as well as native English-speaking teachers from many different countries around the world. Though there were only a handful of American teachers, the owner of the school thought it would be a great bonding experience for all the teachers despite their nationality to come together and celebrate Thanksgiving.

The biggest problem was that Koreans don’t eat turkey— don’t even know what it is, really. But, thanks to a large US military base stationed in Seoul, about 2.5 hours away by train, nothing was out of reach … if you were willing to pay for it (read black market). One of the teachers of the school grew up in a military family and was no stranger to the black markets that often surrounded military operations.

A full-day’s journey and several hundred dollars later, he arrived back to the school with a mostly-frozen turkey. One problem remained: nobody had cooked a turkey before and given the cost of money and time, everyone was paranoid that they’d mess up the turkey. I volunteered.

I researched the many different ways that one can cook a turkey and chose a way that I hope would produce a nice bird. The pressure was on but I cooked it and it turned out wonderful and nobody got food poisoning. Despite how perfectly cooked the bird was, Turkey didn’t translate for the Korean teachers who passed with a hard “no.” The English-speaking teachers couldn’t understand the roasted silkworm larvae, the fermented soybean paste, and the cornucopia of squid presented in every form imaginable (and many unimaginable.) Everyone found common ground on the roasted veg, the rolls, and the desserts (despite how sickly sweet they were). I’ll never forget that Thanksgiving.

Another Thanksgiving I’ll never forget was last year, 2020 in Utah. After what had already been one helluva year with the pandemic, around the beginning of November, my mom began in-house hospice as the result of run-away cancer which started in her colon and had eventually riddled her body.

By Thanksgiving, she hadn’t left her bed in a week and hadn’t eaten in several days. In my family, my mom is the Queenpin of Thanksgiving so without her at the helm, the crew was going to have to steer that ship. My brother did most of the cooking but Sen and I stepped in as well; I was in charge of making mom’s famous rolls, a crucial and beloved element of our Thanksgiving dinner which, I must say, turned out beautifully.

The meal was a very special and tender-hearted affair—small and meaningful with only 6 of us, those who were closest to my mom, gathered around the table with my mom on a respirator in the other room. And though my mom wasn’t conscious and couldn’t join us at the table nor eat, it was nonetheless heartwarming to know that she was with us for this last Thanksgiving. My mom died two days later.

A few weeks later, I had something like a dream about my mom. Actually it felt so much more meaningful than an ordinary dream that I can’t help but call it a vision. In my vision, my family and I were sitting at something like a meeting in church and my mom was at the pulpit looking happy, well, and absolutely radiant. She was dressed in a beautiful emerald green skirt and jacket, the color of hope, renewal, and rebirth. She was speaking to all of her beloved family and friends in the audience with genuine joy. “I’m just so grateful. I’m just so grateful,” she repeated over and over again with absolute sincerity. This was her only message. Around her were a small band of Native American shamans who were chanting and drumming, building in an incredible crescendo. At their apex, my mother suddenly burst into flames. She didn’t catch fire but rather became transformed into flames—a phoenix reborn through fire. Everyone in the audience was taken aback with shock, everyone except the shamans who seemed to know exactly what would happen and who simply continued their rite of drumming and chanting.

As we prep for Thanksgiving, the bitter-sweetness of last year lingers; it is difficult to be without her. Still, her gift of gratitude survives her. Truly, my work, both vocationally as well as my personally, is one where I get to explore that eternal part inside of each of us that never dies. I believe that what my mom was telling me in my vision is that an eternal element that links us all together is gratitude. Surely gratitude is one of the greatest practices one can practice in this lifetime.

This year, we are living in Nice, France and we get to spend this Thanksgiving with adopted family. Nana Chris is also from the US and is the mother of one of my yoga students and dear friend from Utah. Nana Chris happened to be living in Nice the first time we came here to live around this time in 2018. Having never met us previously, she showed up to an introductory lunch at one of her favorite restaurants with a large bag full of gifts for us and our little Elio, and took no time to adopt us as her family. It was so nice to have someone we could relate to while we were being brand new in France, our first time living here as a family.

Being back in Nice, we are so grateful for her and are looking forward to a very French Thanksgiving with her. We couldn’t get a turkey this year so instead Chris’ butcher, Demian (she’s on a first-name basis with all of the shops in her neighborhood) has ordered us a very special and particular French chicken. We’ll also be serving and making stuffing from what we consider the best damn baguette in the known world. In fact, when I told the man at the boulangerie that this was the best baguette I’ve ever eaten, he blew off the statement as if it were already a proven fact. I may as well have told him that they have discovered that the earth is in fact round. Instead of pies, we will be buying some truly exquisite French pastries. We also bought a beautiful bottle of wine to share. Adopted food, country, and family will certainly be the theme to this year’s Thanksgiving.

Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? Regardless, do you have any very special holidays you can remember? Regardless of whatever holiday you celebrate, what I think is a more important question is what are YOU grateful for? If you’ll permit me, I’ll start …(a-hem).

I’m so grateful for my love, my partner, my muse, the Goddess who is my wife, Seneca. We are great partners and she supports me, loves me, and helps me grow in every way. I’m so grateful for her vision and sense of adventure. I’m also infinitely grateful to be the papa to little Elio and the stepdad to our older son Liam (1st grade and grad school, respectively).

I’m immensely grateful for loving and supportive family members, including parents, siblings and truly fantastic in-laws. I’m grateful for friends, many of whom are the kind of family you get to choose rather than what you’re born or married into.

I’m grateful for YOU! I love to have a job that connects me with you, wherever you are living on this globe. Truly we are connected in small and large ways through the inimitable practice of sharing ideas, life, and spirit. Thank you for who you are to make this world a better place and for your connection, kindness, and support to me.

I’m grateful for a career where I get to share my ideas and share spirit in a way that I hope makes a difference in the world by helping people to become their best person. I’m grateful that my career helps me as much as anyone else by driving me along my own path toward self-understanding.

I’m grateful to be able to travel, to be living in France (a country I adore), and for the opportunity to learn more about what I find to be a fascinating culture and a beautiful language.

Drop me a line, I’d love to hear about your memorable celebrations as well as whatever you are most grateful for at this moment.

May gratitude be among our essential spiritual practices as we work our way through the fierce heat of living and may we all transform into the angels of love we are destined to be.

PS

Also, this weekend I’ll be hosting my most requested Yoga Nidra workshop: Teaching Yoga Nidra Dyads. A Yoga Nidra dyad is a transformational, 1:1 Yoga Nidra experience where a facilitator leads a practitioner through deepening layers of relaxed Awareness via a mindful dialogue which helps the practitioner illuminate their greatest Awareness. This unique form of guided meditation is a very powerful method to work 1:1 with your clients. It can also help with healing in body, mind and spirit, and can offer clarion insight into one’s purpose and the very nature of their being. This will be hosted via Zoom and recorded so you can either join live (and even practice with other participants) and/or watch the replay. Please join me! Counts as Yoga Alliance continuing education credit.

I’d like to remind you that today, I’ll be a part of a free open mic meditation session via Zoom where I, along with a few other meditation teachers, will offer some wonderful and calming guided meditations. This will be happening from 8–9 pm GMT (3 pm Eastern, 2 pm Central, 1 pm Mountain, and 12 pm Pacific). The event is hosted by meditationcourses.co.uk and while it’s free, you will need to reserve a ticket. No matter where you are in the world, you can join from the comfort of your own home.

How Do You Impact The World?

You make an impact on the world by how you spend your time each day. Whether it’s working at a vocation, caring for family, or simply attending to daily necessities, you make an impact on the world.

We all make an impact on the world but how are you contributing your gifts toward a positive impact on the world?

The saying, “Chop wood, carry water” points to the fact that your daily work, whether it’s for a job, family, or to simply make sure the dishes are done and the dog is fed, can serve as a pathway to your own awakening into becoming your highest being.

Good work also can help us to see hidden gifts we didn’t know we had.

For me, teaching yoga and meditation has helped me to understand and develop certain gifts I didn’t know that I had. It wasn’t until I began doing this as a career that I realized how much it served me to serve people. I consider it a great privilege to help people journey toward their best selves through these practices and I didn’t realize how perfect of a profession this would be for me until I was well into my career.

You may or may not teach yoga or mediation. You may not teach anything. Still, you surely have gifts that the world needs in order to be a better place. Your gifts for the world matter. They may be private or public—we don’t all need to be Oprah to make a positive impact on the world—but you have something to teach or share with the world.

What are your gifts for the world? What are those well-known or lesser-known skills, passions, and talents you possess that can make the world a better place? Drop me a line and brag about yourself for a moment. Come on, what are you really, really good at?

How can you share your gifts with the world?

During my career as a teacher of yoga and meditation, I first learned how to master my craft, then discovered how to work smarter rather than harder, and finally how to scale my offerings to broadcast it to the world to make the greatest possible impact. Of course, I’m always learning how to do all three of these better—I’m constantly learning how to step into my role as a teacher. And while I’m always learning, I feel very fortunate to make a GREAT living doing what I love, to have the freedom to live anywhere in the world as I do it, and to spend tons of time with my family.

I’d like to teach you how to do the same.

If you’d like to explore how to leverage your personal talents, gifts, and passions to become more visible in the world and make a positive impact, please consider joining me for my Conscious Entrepreneur workshop happening Saturday, October 30th from 9 am to 12 pm MDT. I’ll be recording the workshop so even if you can’t make it, you can always watch the replay.

In this informative, interactive, and fascinating workshop, we’ll explore how to become a Conscious Entrepreneur by making a positive impact on the world while also making or improving your monthly income.

You’ll learn 5 essential steps to lay the foundation of how to make a positive impact on the world by sharing more of yourself, your gifts, and talents with the world.

We’ll start by doing some meditation to inquire into your heart and discover exactly what your gifts are and how to share them. You’ll make a list of your strengths and talents and outline who your ideal student is, what their needs might be, and how your unique skills and talents can possibly help them.

Then, you’ll learn how to discover and/or broadcast your message, how to effectively become discoverable by those people who are searching for what you offer. You’ll also learn about your role as someone with a gift which is to help them step up and become a better version of themselves.

You’ll learn about the essential principle of how to discover the simplest, most actionable way of contributing to the world, how to act efficiently, and then how to scale it as it grows.

We’ll explore the essential principle of establishing and nourishing a relationship between you and your students or client by simply offering them what you do best. When you simply do you, people will discover you and feel as if they just found something they’ve been searching for their entire lives. Plus, you’ll be making a massive impact in the world by doing what comes completely naturally for you.

We’ll even discuss the basics about websites, SEO, newsletters, and even creating digital products to start to make passive income, all the while making a positive impact on the world.

You’ll learn how to grow your audience from dozens into thousands.

Included in this workshop:

• Private 30-minute Zoom consultation

• Audio/Video Recording to watch or review whenever you wish

• Detailed PDF with a detailed manual including the outline of our discussion

• Starter Guide: a detailed, step-by-step method to get your business up and running or to improve your existing business

• Ideas about what’s next for your business

• Information on integrating systems to automate your business

• Connections with other professionals in your domain

• Exciting new ideas about what’s possible for your business
  
  

This workshop could be an essential investment in your ability to make the world a better place by learning how to offer it more of only what you can share. Remember that you can still register and watch the replay, even if the timing doesn’t work for you.

The world is waiting. Will you join me?

Some scholarships may be available.

Saturday, October 30th from 9 am to 12 pm MDT. Zoom. Recorded.

Give Back to The World

THIS IS A 30-MINUTE LISTEN AND WORTH EVERY SECOND. INSPIRING!

I absolutely love this time of year! The leaves are stunning, the air is crisp, and it reminds me that change is both inevitable and can be beautiful. 

What kind of changes are happening for you right now? Drop me a line and let me know, cuz I love to hear from you and I read every email I get. 

There are a lot of exciting changes happening for me I want to discuss today. 

First, my family and I got our long-stay visas to live in France and we will be arriving there in the beginning of November with plans to return back to the States soon for some workshops and trainings. I love Europe: the art, architecture, culture, language, food, and the pace of life. I gotta say, I’m so grateful to have created a global audience with my work of teaching yoga, meditation, and Yoga Nidra in a way that allows me the freedom to live anywhere in the world. 

I want you to join me! Sure, come visit us in France—the French Riviera is a dream— but specifically, I want to invite you to join me in learning how to leverage your mad skills, talents, and passions into a job that you create for yourself and which you can do from anywhere. 

I love to mentor others to manifest their dreams. This is exactly the subject I’ll be discussing with Carrie Ann Robson on Thursday, October 28th at 1 pm MDT on her Money and Miracles Love Virtual Mastermind. I’m super excited to have been invited to discuss this topic with her and you can register to join this conversation for free by clicking here.

What I also REALLY want to tell you about is my 3-hour workshop that I’ll be hosting in a week where I will share with you 5 straight-forward, actionable, and simple things you can do right away to create or improve your own conscious business. You’ll learn how to share your own unique gifts, talents, and personality with the world that will make a global impact for good. This workshop is designed both for people who want to uplevel their business or who are starting from scratch and whether you want this business to be your side-hustle or your main-hustle. This interactive and informative workshop is for conscious entrepreneurs who want to make a positive difference for the world while empowering themselves to create the life they desire for themselves. 

This happens on Saturday, October 30th from 9 am to12 pm MDT and will be a powerful investment for your satisfaction, happiness, and your future.

Today, I want to share my story about how I got here …

I started my yoga career in Salt Lake City, Utah in the early 2000’s. At first, I was struggling to make a living as a yoga instructor and stretching just to pay the bills. Eventually, I’d had enough of struggling to make ends meet. Discouraged, I took a hard look at my situation and decided that it was time to go and get a “real” job. 

One night, I announced to my class that while I love teaching yoga, I’d unfortunately have to give it up so I could spend my time pursuing a more “traditional” career. After class, one of my students, Cristy, approached me with tears in her eyes, and pleaded with me, “Scott! You CAN’T give up teaching this class. I have 4 kids at home UNDER the age of 4 and this class is my sanity! You do what you do so I can do what I do! YOU’VE GOT TO KEEP TEACHING YOGA!!”

I was floored. As a relatively new teacher, I didn’t realize that I’d made such an impact on someone’s life. Cristy’s plea inspired me to dig deeper and work even harder to find out how to make a living teaching yoga. I began teaching more and more classes and after about a year, I was regularly teaching on average 27 (I pause for effect) yoga classes a week. I rarely had a day off and could forget about vacations and even sick days. I didn’t even have the time to PRACTICE yoga. But after a lot of hard work, eventually I started earning enough so that at least I could leave the stretching to the yoga mat and less so to my finances. 

For the next 15 years, I continued to work my ass off building a yoga community and my career. I opened and closed yoga studios, worked for other studios, and developed my own personal yoga teaching business. Through hard work and much trial and error, eventually I found myself with so many wonderful teaching opportunities that I could pass many of them onto other teachers and still have as much work as I wanted. I was working less and earning more. I also figured out how to turn my European yoga retreats into vacations with my family and dreamed of living there one day. Also—and this is huge—I was so blessed to have a dedicated yoga community, many of whom had been in my classes regularly for 15 years or more and who had become family to me. 

But just like in many jobs, I hit a ceiling in my earning potential. I was constantly growing as a teacher but my career had plateaued. 

Then, everything changed. My wife, who has a PhD in nursing informatics and worked in global health, was essentially offered her dream job… in New York. I was thrilled for her and wanted to support her, even if that meant leaving my yoga community that had taken me so long to build. Somehow, I knew that this was exactly the next step I needed to take for MY career as well. Still, I worried whether or not the career that I’d built in Salt Lake City over the past 15 years or so would translate there. I mean, some of the best names in all of Yoga are teaching in New York! Armed with hopeless faith, I gave away all my teaching gigs, said goodbye to my students in Salt Lake City, and moved with the hopes of starting… all… over. In hindsight, I’d say that one of the best things I ever did for my business was to move. And here’s why…

New York was both wonderful and very, very difficult. I loved the vibrancy of the city and fell into teaching and practicing and at a few world-class studios, including with Nikki Vilella at Kula Yoga. Still, I knew that it would take a while to get established as a teacher. Also, my wife was working 50–60 hours a week and our son, who was only 2 years old at the time, needed childcare. Child care is ghastly expensive in NYC so I spent my days caring for him and teaching yoga mainly in evenings and on weekends. I found myself back to stretching my dollars more than my hamstrings and getting increasingly stressed and worried about it.

If you have kids, you may know how sensitive they are to emotions and energy. Well there was a time when my toddler would regularly ask me out of the blue, “Papa, are you happy?”  to which I’d respond, “Uh– (long pause). Yeah…I’m happy. Uh…just curious… why do you ask?” He was only two, but he wasn’t a dummy. He could tell that I was stressed. 

While in New York, I’d be at home watching Teletubbies, pushing the stroller through our Brooklyn neighborhood, or tearing it up at the playgrounds with my inexhaustible—and apparently very intuitive— toddler, and the thought kept nagging me, “Why should I be dependent upon teaching for local studios and private clients and corporate gigs to make a living? I mean, this is 2017, for Ganesh sake! There’s this incredible thing now called ‘The Internet’ that could potentially allow people to access my yoga teachings from all over the world.” 

I built a simple website and decided to take some online courses about how to share my message and teachings online and create a global audience. What if I could start teaching yoga to people all over the world? It wouldn’t matter where I lived. What if I could even learn to make some passive income while chasing the kid around the playground and eating a Nagel’s Bagel?

So, I started by developing and selling a few digital (downloadable) products like Guided Meditations for Sleep and a few Yoga Nidra courses, including a Yoga Nidra Zoom class. This was in 2017–2018, mind you, before Zoom became more important than oxygen (man, where was I for the IPO on that one?!). None of those first offerings made very much money but they did give me the experience I needed to plant the seeds for something that would eventually become essential to my career. It began the steep learning curve toward understanding how to share my work with people all over the world as well as how to use my website to gain more visibility. 

After struggling in NYC for about a year, suddenly my wife’s company decided to lay off a huge portion of their entire global workforce. Unfortunately, that included my wife. While this was a huge blow, it was also a blessing in disguise. In truth we weren’t thriving in NYC and were looking to leave anyway.

So, we went back to Salt Lake City to regroup. Meanwhile, my online sales were just starting to germinate. I was pleased to be able to return to Salt Lake City and teach some classes, trainings, workshops, and retreats to many of my former students. In fact, because I’d been living in NYC, when I came back to Salt Lake, my students and I were thrilled to be reconnected.  

I’ll forever be a student of yoga and of life and I thought that in this time of regrouping, it would be the perfect time to take some additional training for myself. I attended a 4-day workshop about writing and flow with Steven Kotler in hopes that one day I would publish a book. I also attended a 75-hour training at the world-class Wanderlust Hollywood yoga studio with the inimitable Schuyler Grant and Matt Phippen to learn the Wanderlust style, an alignment-based vinyasa style that really speaks to me. It’s both fun and intelligent. 

We even toyed with moving to L.A. and while we were there testing it out, one day I was at lunch during my Wanderlust training and got a text from Seneca that said simply, “How would you like to move to Nice, France?” We’d always dreamed about one day living in Europe and the idea totally lit me up. I responded with only two essential words: “Hell” and “Yes!”

So, we gave up the Pacific Ocean, sun-kissed beaches, and endless freeways and hopped on a plane for the French Riviera. We’d always wanted to live in Europe but never thought we could make a living doing so. I mean what self-respecting romantic hasn’t thought of moving to the South of France at some point in their life? Well, my online sales, especially my Online Yoga Nidra Teacher Training, were starting to grow just enough to allow us to dare to hope that we might survive if we went to live in Europe. So off we went, hoping that it would all pan out. 

It did. 

In France, something remarkable started to happen: all those online courses I’d taken while I lived in New York really started to pay off and my monthly sales started growing slowly more and more each month. Soon, people from all over the world were downloading my yoga classes, trainings, and recordings. I was absolutely thrilled to be getting digital downloads from China, Australia, Argentina, the UK, Canada, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Antarctica, the States, India, Africa, Egypt, and even Mecca. Finally, my online sales were sprouting little legs that were strong enough to start carrying us financially!!!

And wouldn’t you know it, because of how I was using my website to be more visible, a publisher even found me and asked if I would write a book about Yoga Nidra which I was absolutely overjoyed to do. My book-writing workshop had trained me how to essentially beg on hands and knees to a publisher to even look at a book I might write. I didn’t think they’d be the ones asking ME to write the thing. Turns out my weekend workshop only 9 months previous had prepared me perfectly for this opportunity. Crazy how life works! And if you’ve been following me, you know that I just published my SECOND book. I swear, sometimes I feel like I can’t even make this stuff up!

Of course, living in France wasn’t 100% smooth sailing all the time but still, on several occasions we found ourselves on the beach with a bottle of champagne as we looked out over the emerald-green Côte d'Azur celebrating reaching our financial goals for the month. We LOVED living in France! We came closer together as a family and had a truly remarkable year, full of growth, culture, and beauty. Sometimes I’d be sitting at a cafe, sipping an espresso or glass of wine while writing and thinking, “How did I get to live this life!” Oh, and did I mention that I was still spending TONS of time with my family?! I felt so blessed!!!

Well, during this time, my wife decided to make a right turn from her career in global health and took several trainings to become a women’s transformational coach and facilitator. By the end of 2019, we’d had a great year in France and Seneca was eager to start working with clients back in the States, so we decided to move back to Utah. Something life-changing was about to happen …. 

We came back to Salt Lake City in January of 2020. Upon our return, I really wanted to start teaching some more live yoga classes and reconnect to my yoga family. Mind you that this was before COVID had changed the world. In the first two weeks at home, I agreed to substitute a metric TON of yoga classes at my old home studio for other teachers — about 20 classes in two weeks. It was a far cry from the 27 classes a week I was pulling off in the early 2000’s but was much more than I had been teaching while I was in France. I don’t mind saying that it kicked my butt. 

Listen to this, cuz this is huge…

One morning I woke up and was thrilled to see some emails showing that a few people had purchased some of my online products while I was asleep. I gotta tell you, there’s no greater feeling than making money while you  sleep! And wouldn’t you know it, that same day I was eager to open my check from the yoga studio because I was going to get paid for all those 20 classes I’d taught. Well, when I opened my check from the yoga studio, something happened that would change my life. I saw that I had earned more money in passive income while sleeping in ONE night than I did in two weeks of busting my asana at the studio. When I realized that truth, a huge smile broke across my face. This was an arrival moment for me. At that moment I realized that from now on, I get to teach live, studio classes for the sheer joy of teaching and connecting with my students and the practice and not worry about the money. That realization changed my entire relationship to teaching yoga. 

Hear this: I am absolutely passionate about teaching yoga. Many yoga teachers can teach enough to make a living and be comfortable. However, I’ve discovered that if I am overextending myself teaching, I’m a much less effective teacher. If I’m overtaxed, I can’t give my all to my students, it doesn’t honor the practice, and the balance is skewed between energy exchange. Exhausting myself teaching yoga doesn’t serve me nor does it serve my students. 

Then COVID hit.

In a matter of weeks, the yoga industry essentially shut down. Yoga teachers across the globe were reeling. Yoga studios went dormant. My home studio closed its doors for good. Yet, while I could have never predicted it, I actually found myself perfectly prepared for this COVID iceberg. I had already been teaching on Zoom since 2017. I was already regularly writing and creating content for my website, publishing articles, and working on another book, etc. (easy to do while socially distancing), and my online business was doing better than ever. I offer an online Yoga Nidra training and other yoga teachers suddenly had the time to take it because it was affordable and they weren’t teaching their own 27 classes a week. 

Other yoga teachers reached out to me and asked me to coach them how to do what I was doing so they could keep working during the pandemic. One of my students I mentored is now earning on average an extra $6,000 a month, all due to what she learned with me. 

During COVID a few things have become very clear to me: more than ever it’s a time to be generous. So, I developed several products on my website that I could give away for free, including a free Tranquility Tool Kit and Gratitude Challenge that help people cope with these trying times. I even offered pricing plans for my online Yoga Nidra training. One thing I learned was that the more generous I am to others the more generous people are back to me. 

I’m earning more money now than ever before in my career. I’ve got tons of time to spend with family. I even have time to practice yoga and meditation— Imagine that. Plus, being more financially stable helps me have the mental and emotional freedom to be more creative and therefore helps me to have the energy to share even more ways to share my talents with the world. 

And the best part is that I feel like I’m just doing me. I’m offering the world that which I’m most passionate about and people who are pickin’ up what I’m putin’ down find me organically and easily. A few weeks ago, I was talking via Zoom to a woman in the Philippines who has a great teaching career but at the cost of teaching 25 classes a week much to the detriment of her own wellness. She was interested in doing my mentor program which is a personalized 1:1 approach to learning how to do what I’m doing which is to use skills to both make a greater global impact and also make a great living. “Working smarter rather than harder,” I told her, “Is just mostly learning how to organize what you already have and put it out there to impact people’s lives. People desperately need what you have to offer.” She told me repeatedly, “Wow, I feel like the Universe led me right to you.” I told her that “It’s no wonder that we were having that conversation because as I committed to simply do what I do, and not trying to be all things to all people, I attract the exact kind of person who is interested in what I’m offering. So easy. So effective.” 

I strongly believe that we all gotta share what we have, and for me that means sharing yoga and Yoga Nidra with the world. It also means sharing what I have learned about turning my passions into my paycheck. It means helping anybody who is interested in learning how to make a positive impact on the world while also making a living doing it. 

I believe that you have something to share with the world. The world needs your mad skills, passions, and interests and will be a better place as you step up and share them with the world. I don’t believe in scarcity so stop being stingy and share a little bit of your awesomeness with the world by making something you can put out there for everyone to learn from!

Are you a teacher, and that doesn’t have to be only yoga or meditation? Do you have a mad life-skill or talent you could share with the world? What’s your unique expertise that could make the world a better place if more people knew about it? Are you an artist? A therapist? Come on already and share it with the world!

Learn how you become a conscious entrepreneur, including the systems, mindset, and skills, to share your unique talents with the world in a way that feeds you back. Let me teach you the skills to make a living doing what you love while living anywhere in the world.

Come on! Let’s do this!

On Saturday, October 30th from 9 am–12 pm MDT I’m offering a 3-hour Zoom workshop on how to become a conscious entrepreneur. In it, I’ll share with you 5 essential steps to getting your conscious business up and running so you can start to organically attract those from all over the world who need exactly what you have to offer. 

These steps will be easy to understand, organized, and actionable so you can start right away. In this live Zoom workshop, I’ll take questions, offer examples, and even give you a behind-the-scenes look at how I run my business. 

You’ll learn about:

• Simple Websites: creating a hub, spreading the word, and delivering actionable solutions to your clients’ problems

• Creating your message and how to put it out there to get noticed

• How to turn your message and mad skills into digital products. Make money while you sleep or are on vacation!

• Simple systems and tools to automate things like event registration, newsletter service, and digital products

• Creating/maintaining relationships with your clients

Let me teach you what has taken me many years, dollars, trial-and-error, and hard work to learn. One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that it’s really not that complicated, it just takes a little know-how and a little work. Let me show you what to do. I’ve tested it and I can tell you from experience that it does work.

I’ll be recording the class so you can watch it later if you can’t join live but you’ll want to join live because it will be more impactful that way. Plus, I’ll be giving away 2 free 30-minute consultations to two different people who are in the live session. 

At the end of the day, a few years ago, I took a bit of a gamble and invested in learning how to put myself online to first supplement my income and then to be my monthly income. The gamble paid off, and it’s been a complete game-changer for me and my family and I want to share with you some of what’s working for me. 

Now is the time to make an impact on the world by sharing your talents, and make money in the process. 

Please join me! Also, do you know anybody who could use this skill? Please pass this along.

Feel free to reach out with questions and I hope to see you at this workshop. 

Also, don’t forget to join me for Carrie Ann Robson’s Money and Miracles Love Virtual Mastermind on Thursday, October 28th at 1 pm MDT. You can register for free by clicking here.

Kula Style with Nikki Vilella

THE ART OF TEACHING KULA STYLE YOGA:
A 75 HOUR ADVANCED LEVEL PRACTICAL TRAINING
(HYBRID VIRTUAL + IN PERSON)

with Nikki Vilella + special guests 
Andes, Catskills, New York
October 16—24, 2021

October 16 + 17 (Virtual Prep Weekend)
October 18 + 19 (Guided Self Study)
October 19—24 (In-Person Intensive)

When I moved to New York, I was so excited to be able to study with some of the greatest yoga teachers in the country. I checked out many studios and when I landed in Nikki Vilella’s class at Kula Yoga, I knew I’d found a great match for me. Nikki is a teacher’s teacher and challenged me in the best ways, always giving me great personal attention and inviting me to stretch my practice. The Kula Yoga style is an alignment-based vinyasa approach that was fun, educational, and therapeutic all at the same time.

I even asked Nikki if I could audition to be a teacher at Kula. When Nikki auditioned me she said that she could see that I could teach and would need to learn the Kula Style in order to be a teacher at that studio. Unfortunately, I moved away from NYC before I could take the training but not long after moving away from NYC I took the 75-hour training at Wanderlust studio, Kula’s sister studio, in L.A. As a career yoga teacher of almost 20 years, It’s essential to keep learning new styles and methods so doing the 75-hour training at Wanderlust was an incredible growing opportunity for me as a teacher and has influenced my teaching in incredibly positive ways.

Nikki is offering a 75-hour training called The Art of Teaching Kula Style Yoga an Advanced Level Practical Teacher Training with Nikki Vilella + Lauren Haythe in Andes, Catskills, Upstate New York. The event is limited to 10 people and there are only a few spots left. I can’t recommend this training enough. Please click the link for details and contact nikki@kulayoga.com to register (with a little bit of background about yourself + your teaching; and check with jen@kulayoga.com that your lodging choice is available.

(hybrid virtual + in person for all students) October 16—24, 2021 October 16 + 17 (virtual prep weekend) October 18 + 19 (guided self study) October 19—24 (in person intensive; arrive Tuesday eve for a light dinner + depart Sunday after brunch)

Best Laid Plans

The Gorgeous Library in the Amazing Apartment.

A few years ago, I’d just taught an inspiring and beautiful yoga retreat in Amalfi Coast of Italy and my wife, Seneca, and I were musing about how wonderful it would be to one day live in Europe. “Yeah, but how do you earn a living?” was one of the obvious answers to that dream. Regardless, we decided to state it as a serious dream and somehow figure it out. 

Around that time, Seneca introduced me to something called Mind Movie which acts like a digital vision board. In essence, this program helps you focus on several areas of your life, to make goals and visions around those goals, and then build a movie which you watch regularly to continue to inspire you to work toward those things. As I was building my life movie, one of the things I dreamed of was living in a beautiful city in Europe in an exquisite dwelling that had a gorgeous library. I found a picture of a truly inspiring home library and put it in my Mind Movie so I could see it regularly to work toward that goal. 

Well, not long after that yoga retreat in the Amalfi Coast where Seneca and I were dreaming about somehow living in Europe, we found ourselves in a transition between jobs and locations (we were living in NYC at the time) and decided to search around the US to find another home that would suit us. With all but a few suitcases of stuff in storage, we were mobile to search for where we might want to settle. In our search, we went back to Salt Lake City and also explored L.A. I even attended a yoga training at a studio I wanted to work at in L.A. so I could teach their method. It was during a break at this training that I got a text from Seneca that simply said, “Hey, wanna go live in Nice, France?” My answer back was an unequivocal, “HELL, YEAH!” Since all of our stuff was in storage, the house we owned was being rented, and our kid wasn’t old enough to be in school yet, we figured, “why not?” 

We enjoyed a lovely year in France and came back to Salt Lake City about the time that our renter in our house was eager to buy his own house. Incidentally, only about a month or so after we returned, the world shut down due to COVID-19 and we found ourselves staying in Salt Lake City longer than we’d intended. It turned out to be a blessing because my mom’s cancer came back during that time and we were able to spend several months with her before she ultimately passed away in November of 2020. A difficult and trying time, yet we were extremely grateful to be close to family.

With COVID-19 vaccines rolling out, we yearned to be back in Europe and decided to try someplace new, maybe Spain this time. We honeymooned in Barcelona and fell in love with it so we thought maybe we’d learn Spanish and attempt a life in that town of architectural wonders, warm hospitality, and cosmopolitan appeal. 

Seneca has many gifts and talents but one of her superpowers being a bureaucratic ninja who can cut through red tape with her katana-like smarts and unrelenting determination. Yet, even with her superpowers in full force, after 5 months and literally HUNDREDS of hours of effort, we were no closer to getting a long-stay visa to Spain. We were met with roadblock after roadblock, and with each roadblock we’d discover a loophole that we could trace, only to meet another roadblock and yet another loophole. 

Eventually, Spain finally opened up to tourists who had been vaccinated from COVID-19 and a consultant informed us of the possibility to arrive in Spain on a tourist visa and then apply for a language school whereupon we could then apply for a student visa and stay there longer than our tourist visa (only 90 days). So off we went to Spain!

First on our list of tasks was to find a suitable apartment for our family. We had enrolled our son in a bilingual school and we wanted something that was relatively close to his school. We found a truly INCREDIBLE furnished apartment (see a video walkthrough here) and when we walked in to see the apartment, wouldn’t you know it, but there was my gorgeous library that I’d dreamed of several years ago and had envisioned in my Mind Movie. It dawned on me then: there I was, living in a beautiful city in Europe in an exquisite dwelling that had a gorgeous library. I had to pinch myself, it was so perfect! We’d made it, right?

Not exactly.

Fortunately, our first experience living as a family in Europe showed us that we could still earn a living no matter where we lived. Here we were in Spain, trying to do what we’d done in France a few years previous but the bureaucracy blocks we were getting were a serious wet blanket to our plans. We were kissing Spain but Spain was not kissing us back. 

After about a month of living in Barcelona and teasing out yet more loopholes to try to make it work, we hopped on a plane to France because I was hosting a yoga retreat at a historic and luxurious château near Bordeaux with a pre-treat to Paris. As we arrived in France, both Seneca and I lit up with joy. We remembered how much we loved France! We honestly felt like we’d come home. 

We spent a delightful fortnight in France and came back to Spain with an important resolve: Spain is over—France is giving us the love. So we decided to pivot and apply for a French long-stay visa and in 1 week, we found a new school for our son in France, left our incredible apartment with the gorgeous library, and found ourselves sitting in an office in San Francisco, submitting our applications for our French visa. 

Unlike Spain, France was meeting our action with more action and it confirmed to us that this was the path we needed to take at the moment. France was kissing us back! Currently, we are back in Salt Lake City temporarily as we await our French visas with our fingers crossed. Nothing is assured but we are hopeful that by November, we’ll be back in France. 

In truth, we are hoping that France will be ONE of our primary hubs, Salt Lake City being our other hub. To say that we will be operating from any one place would be incorrect because next year’s plans include classes, workshops, trainings, and retreats in Salt Lake City, New York, France, Hong Kong, Italy, England, and Spain. 

What does it all mean, and what does this say about manifesting your dreams?

I think it would have been too simple to see that beautiful apartment in Barcelona with that wonderful library and think, “Boom. Done. I’ve made it.” Instead, what Seneca and I have been discussing about all of this is that the apartment was just one of the many breadcrumbs we’ve discovered along our path. What we are discovering about manifesting is that the process itself is a creative process, that manifesting isn’t just one thing. 

First of all, I made that intention of the fine apartment and library several years ago and my experience, needs, and desires have upgraded since then. It’s ok —and expected— to edit your dreams along the way. As the years go by, we become more evolved along our own spiritual and personal journeys, so some things we’d hoped for in the past might become obsolete. 

Also, the process of manifesting, including this experience, has taught me the importance of tuning yourself to be in sync with your True Self so you can feel when it’s necessary to course correct. I wrote a blog entry that explores the principle of Sympathetic Vibration, resonating in tandem with sounds, ideas, and people that hum at your same vibration. Keeping your body, mind, and spirit tuned through practices like yoga, meditation, and sustainability help you to be tuned such that you can hear your True Self whispering sometimes subtle shifts in life’s direction. 

Also—and this is what I think is the most important realization of all of this— my wife helped to remind me that rather than being tied up in the individual details of how life is unfolding, we always have to keep our eyes on our North Star, our really big desires and dreams. There are many points of our North Star, including spiritual desires, relationship and family desires, career desires, but for Seneca and me, some of the elements of our our North Star regarding our living locations are to live in a place that affords: 

• A multilingual, multicultural environment

• Good schools for our kid

• Beauty, art, history, and stunning architecture

• A hub for international travel

• Affordable and accessible healthcare (France RULES for healthcare…don’t get me started)

As we keep our eyes on our North Star, we realize that many different places can offer what we desire. I have to remember that there are more beautiful abodes with incredible libraries in other places than just Spain. Of course, we understand that France isn’t necessarily the end-all-be-all. It’s just what’s calling to us at the moment. And the truth is that we don’t have to decide on one place. 

At the end of the day, and what I really want to say here, is that in the creative process of manifesting, there isn’t a right or wrong answer. Instead, tune yourself to feel what resonates in the moment and keep our eyes on your North Star. Then enjoy the ride.

And truly, what is home? Wendell Berry hits the nail on the head with this poem:

A Spiritual Journey

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,

no matter how long,

but only by a spiritual journey,

a journey of one inch,

very arduous and humbling and joyful,

by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,

and learn to be at home.

At the end of the day, we are all making it up as we go, trying our best to discover what most feels like home. And since we are making it up along the way, let’s make it good and let’s have an adventure! Plus, let’s stay open to what reveals itself along the way lest we miss the point and potentially some really good stuff we hadn’t previously conceived of. 

Like the immortal Ram Das says, “We are all just walking each other home.” May we forever stay rooted in love and with our hearts open to whatever reveals itself along the way as we find this elusive place called home. 

My New Book Drops In A Week

Happy Wednesday!

In just under ONE week, on Tuesday, September 28th, my new book, 5-Minute Manifesting Journal: Focus Your Mind, Raise Your Vibration, and Turn Your Dreams Into Reality, goes on sale. This was a really fun and challenging book to write. In truth, this is a book that YOU will write because it’s a journal designed to help you create a simple, daily 5-minute writing practice to co-create the reality that you’d like to see for yourself.

Can get real for a sec…

In truth, I don’t really love the word, “Manifest.” I think that too often that word abdicates responsibility for doing the work necessary to co-create what you’d like to see in your life. Also, the word, “Manifest” is sometimes used as a weapon to demand that the Universe behave in a certain way and if it doesn’t, that same person threatens to give up on life or faith in the Universe. That’s straight up blackmail. Instead, this book is an approachable program that helps you to invest your own sweat equity into the life that you’d like to build for yourself as you learn to partner with the Universe. I like to think of manifesting as a cosmic chess game. This book helps you co-create what arrives in your life by encouraging you to clarify your vision for what you want, for refining your ability to know what to ask for, and learning how to ride the wave of “YES.” This book also invites you to practice raising your vibration to attract the kinds of things you’d like to see, and to create a ready relationship with gratitude, one of the strongest facilitators of creation. This daily 5-minute practice exercises your ability to work together with the Universe to create what you’d like rather than abdicate or dictate to the Universe what you feel you deserve.

Another concern I have with the way that the word “Manifest” is used frequently lies in the fact that it often does not acknowledge the role that privilege plays regarding the concept of manifesting. Though manifestation allows you to connect with the powers of your mind, real-world inequalities and privileges related to race, gender, age, physical ability, and access to financial resources still exist in the external world—oftentimes resulting in more opportunity for some and greater obstacles for others. In this book, I invite you to consider the role that privilege plays in your own life, and whether there are ways you can be an ally for others and contribute to positive change in the world. In this book, I explore the idea that manifesting is less about getting material things and more about becoming the kind of person that you are destined to become.

How This Journal Works

Each day, this journal provides space for you to write about what you’re grateful for, what you are manifesting, and what you are reflecting on. To inspire you each day, I’ve written tons of brief prompts and/or practices to get your pen moving, as well as with an affirmation for you to repeat to yourself while completing each page.

Just like flossing your teeth every day, there is enormous benefit in a simple and consistent practice which, in time, slowly but inevitably provides massive benefit. Plus, if you are working toward a big project or realization you’d like to see in your life, a small and consistent practice like those in this book gives you the structure and framework to help you attain what you’re looking for—inch by inch— until you realize your goal.

I’m really proud of this book and I’d love your support by pre-ordering this book now by clicking here. Plus, posting a review on Amazon helps the book’s rankings and helps the algorithms to put this title under the noses of more people who might benefit from the book. I invite you to buy this book, and a few more for friends and family. Please read it and if you’re inspired to, post a review on Amazon to tell others what you liked (or didn’t like) about this book.

In the next few days, I’ll be sharing some thought-provoking stories about manifesting and would love to hear from you about any experiences you’ve had with manifesting the kind of life you’d like to see.

All the best,

Scott

Introducing 5-Minute Manifesting Journal!

I've been working hard these past few months on ANOTHER book and I'm so delighted to finally share details with you! If you enjoyed my last book Practical Yoga Nidra: A 10-Step Method to Reduce Stress, Improve Sleep, and Restore Your Spirit, I hope you'll love this one too! I'm excited to announce 5-Minute Manifesting Journal: Focus Your Mind, Raise Your Vibration, and Turn Your Dreams Into Reality!

Manifest the life you want, 5 minutes at a time. Writing is a powerful tool for connecting to your true self and envisioning the life you want. This journal helps you develop your manifestation practice through short, daily prompts that encourage you to express what you want out of today, what you’re thankful for, and what you can do to get more out of tomorrow. You’ll learn all about the importance of gratitude, the law of attraction, and methods for tuning into the vibrations of the universe.

What sets this manifestation journal apart from other manifesting books:

Create a routine―Make manifestation a daily experience with 150 short and simple writing prompts designed to help you form a lifelong manifestation habit.

Find encouragement―Inspiring affirmations help you stay on track and positively aligned, even when things look tough.

Unlock your potential―As you write, you will learn how to clarify your vision and become an active participant in a joyful, purposeful existence.

Discover how journaling can help you unite with the universe and co-create your ideal life with this manifestation book.

Keep an eye out for lots of sneak peeks over the next few weeks! I would love your support as I launch this new book. You can preorder your copy here.

Here’s a story and a bit of the introduction from my book …

I was freaking out. My lease was up, and unless I found a new apartment soon, I’d have nowhere to live. It wasn’t like I hadn’t searched for apartments. I had. In fact, I’d seen dozens of them— but they all had huge problems that made living in them an impossibility for me.

Then it dawned on me: I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for. And if I didn’t know what I was looking for, how would I possibly know when I found the right apartment? I immediately pulled out a pen and paper, and wrote down exactly what I wanted in an apartment. I listed 15 very specific criteria, including the monthly rent, neighborhood where the apartment was located, and that it would have parking and laundry facilities. I even included ridiculously specific details like architectural style, construction era, and that I wanted it to have arched doorways.

The very next day, I went to look at one more apartment. This apartment met every single one of my criteria, down to the construction dates. I couldn’t believe it!

This is just one example of manifesting, which is the process of transforming your hopes and wishes into reality through the power of the mind. But don’t be fooled—manifesting isn’t always as easy as just making a list. Rather, the simple work of writing down my desires opened me up to greater possibilities.

What made this experience different from simply passively hoping I’d find a good apartment? I used specificity in calling out exactly what I needed to the universe, I trusted in the universe that what I wanted was attainable, and I engaged in the action of writing it down.

These simple but crucial steps helped tell the universe that I was not messing around, and that I was an active participant in creating what I desired. These steps can be applied to any realm of your life, be it family, home, work, creative endeavors, or anything else (we’ll get into the details in a few pages).

Much of my thinking on manifesting has been informed by my 20-some years of work as a licensed yoga and meditation teacher. Through my practice and teaching, I have observed our innate human capacity to connect the body, mind, and spirit to become who we are destined to be.

Using this journal for five minutes each day will serve you in many ways. Whether you are a manifesting expert, a novice, would like to get back into practice, or are simply intrigued by the possibilities, this journal can be a catalyst for expansive personal growth. It can help you if you are going through a hard time, feeling stuck, or just looking to take the time to include more intentional, thoughtful, and focused practices in your day. It will help you clarify what you want in life, and put a message out to the universe that you’re ready and willing to see these kinds of changes in your life.

You’re about to begin a wonderful journey that will transport you miles down the road to who you are destined to become. The simple action of writing words on a page creates magic that can transform your life in ways that are both small and large.

Your life is a cosmic chess game, and it’s your turn to move!

A Selfie With The Most Famous Woman In History

I’m really excited because France has finally opened up to tourism again and in about a week I’ll be heading to France to lead a much-awaited retreat at an unforgettable château in the rolling and bucolic hills of Bordeaux. Before arriving in Bordeaux, I’m also leading a “pre-treat” to Paris where I’ll personally guide guests for three days of walking tours around some of my favorite quaint Parisian neighborhoods, with perhaps some impromptu yoga on the lush lawns of the Tuileries Gardens. 

My intention for this entire retreat is to practice several days of regular, deep presence and thereby truly uncover the secret to savoring life. I proffer that presence is the pre-qualifier for pleasure. Without presence, you could be standing in front of the Mona Lisa or being served an exquisite French meal and the experience would totally be lost on you. But, with presence, even the most mundane bowl of oatmeal could be a delicacy. So, why not have both: the Mona Lisa and the presence to truly appreciate it. 

Speaking of the most famous woman in the world, here’s something I wrote about my first trip to Paris where I saw the Mona Lisa for the first time and became aware of a very curious phenomenon about not actually seeing her at all. Check this out and I’d love to hear what you think…

In 2011, I was in Paris for the first time, visiting the Louvre, perhaps the finest art museum in the world. While there were many paintings I'd been waiting my entire life to see, and I know I'm cliché here, the Mona Lisa was primo on my list.

I mean almost 60 years ago, they tried to insure the Mona Lisa for 100 million dollars but had problems because many felt that the sum was much much too low, and that was 1960s dollars! Fun fact: Napoleon used to have the Mona Lisa hanging on his bedroom wall and would spend hours in rapture starting at it. 

I’d waited years to see the Mona Lisa and finally in Paris, giddy with anticipation, I made my way to the Louvre, a monstrous institution, through the Denon wing densely packed other priceless yet unnamable art, and found room #6 which houses the one and only Mona Lisa. I was dying to get a glimpse of the most (in)valuable painting in the world. At last, I turned into the room where the Mona Lisa hangs and at a distance, I could see the renaissance rockstar enshrined on her own dedicated wall, protected behind a guardrail, bulletproof glass, and flanked by two bouncers.

Suddenly, the hallowed hush of the Louvre was irreverently replaced by the din of excitable tourists. As I approached her, I was pressed in a hot vice of adoring fans, all craning to ogle the most mysterious woman on canvas. The venue felt transformed into an arena at a rock concert where I was squeezing through hordes of fans, desperately hoping to make eye contact with that infamous seductress and her inimitable half-smile. 

As I jockeyed my way forward, I began to notice something very peculiar. Nobody was even looking at the Mona Lisa. Not really. Instead, everyone was looking at the viewfinder on their smartphones, tablets, or cameras. More than taking a moment to drink in this priceless work of art, most people were worried about getting the perfect selfie with Mona in the background. 

And as I looked around at the crowd, I started to notice a distinct pattern. Many people would fire off several photos of some priceless art, including a few hundred selfies with the Mona Lisa, then without so much as a pause, they would scurry off to some other art masterpiece to do likewise. For what? So they could  brag to their friends that they were in the same room as the Mona Lisa… but never really took a second to actually see it? 

Still, I have to admit that something about this phenomenon is natural human behavior. Hasn’t everyone been guilty of experiencing something extraordinary—a resplendent sunset, an aromatic cup of coffee, or a masterpiece like the Mona Lisa—and we’re afraid the moment will end, so we try to capture it with a photo because doing so and posting it to social media will somehow make it permanent, right?

And have you ever tried to show some innocent, unsuspecting person the photos of that moment? It goes like this, “Here’s the great hotel I stayed at, only it’s so much nicer than the photo suggests, you should really see it. Oh, and here’s the most amazing latté I had at the perfect café, but you had to be there, this photo doesn’t do it justice. Here’s the Mona Lisa but she’s much smaller than you’d expect. . . ” 

This is when you look up to see your friend’s eyes gloss over or start to check their watch. The photos don’t translate because the optics of the picture represents only the smallest part of what you hopefully experienced in the moment. Or which perhaps you didn’t experience . . .

Ironically, trying to capture any moment prevents you from actually having it in the first place. It’s because you’re thinking about the future you want to create around the object rather than experiencing it in the present. To really experience any moment requires practiced presence with all of your senses. Your senses are an incredible tool for presence. 

Without being present to the experience, when you’re back at home, looking at your dozen or so selfies with the Mona Lisa, you’ll have no connection to that moment. The photos will mean about as much to you as they would to your friend whom you abused with photos of your latté. The photos won’t recall an experience you thought you had because you never really had the experience to begin with. 

And this is getting a little Zen here, but since our identity is the product of our ability to pay attention, if you weren’t present with all of your senses, there was really no “you” to have the experience in the first place. 

I’m just as guilty as the next guy of trying to capture the moment with a photo. But by bringing my unconscious actions to consciousness, I can deliberately make a choice to do something different. 

So never take photos of amazing things, right? Never post anything on social media? No, let’s not be luddites. But maybe try having the moment first, then if you want to, take a photo to remember a moment you truly experienced. 

And sometimes, try allowing yourself to simply experience a moment without a camera. Soak it up and be 100% there by consciously involving all of your senses, raw and unfiltered. 

Before there were cameras or smartphones, people had to use memories to recall experiences. Go old-school and create a real mental repository of experienced events. What did the light look like in the gallery? What does the smell of paint on canvas evoke to your imagination? What sounds did you hear in the gallery? What were the textures and temperatures you felt on your skin? How did it taste? And remember that if you try to taste the Mona Lisa you better be prepared to lose a tongue.

I realize that it’s a little glib to simply say , “be present.” But practices like yoga and meditation help us to establish presence as our default when we are having any experience, whether mundane or extraordinary. And with presence, even an otherwise mundane experience can prove to be extraordinary once your senses come alive.

Without presence, even the miraculous or priceless moments (read experiencing the Mona Lisa) will pass you by without leaving an impression. I'm thinking about those simple but perfect moments like hanging with our kids, focusing on good work, or experiencing live music, dance, or poetry. To receive the gift of these moments truly requires presence. 

The immortal poet Rainer Maria Rilke speaks to being existentially destitute as the result of lack of presence in his rather stark poem, Already The Ripening Barberries Are Red.

Already the ripening barberries are red,
and the old asters hardly breathe in their beds.
Those who are not rich now as summer goes
will wait and wait and never be themselves.
Those who cannot quietly close their eyes,
certain that there is vision after vision
inside, simply waiting until nighttime
to rise all around them in the darkness
it's all over for them, they feel old and tired.
Nothing else will come;
no more days will open,
and everything that does happen
will cheat them.
Even you, my God. And you are like a stone
that draws them daily deeper into the depths.

He’s saying that without presence, without any poetic imagination for things as they are or could be, you’ll never experience the heaven which is here. Indeed, he suggests that even the notion of God offering you a future heaven is itself like a stone drawing you deeper into the depths of hell, the product of unconsciousness. 

Sometimes in a yoga class, I see the fidgets, the distant stares, and the vacancy of someone whose mind is somewhere else. It happens to all of us sometime or other. Still, I want to say, “Come back. We’ve missed you. Be here now. Be there later.”

When you sense you’re having an extraordinary moment, or hell in any moment, try closing your eyes and running through all of your senses for a minute or two. Then open your eyes and add the most dominant sense. Ask yourself, how does this make me feel? Truly involve all your senses to practice being completely present to the experience. 

This might all sound like a Mr. Miyagi mantra and probably is. But hey, that dude could break boards with his forehead so that’s gotta count for something. Plus you can’t break boards with your forehead if your head is somewhere else. 

I invite you to practice being fully present in all your experiences whether mundane or extraordinary. Be completely present by using all your senses and truly experience the moment. 

When that's done and you’ve actually stimulated the neurons enough to make a memory, then you can opt to pull out your phone and take a selfie to remember the momentous occasion. 

Drop me a line. I’d love to hear what you think about taking selfies and more importantly, the practice of being present enough to enjoy any situation. 

Live Yoga Nidra Training Starts Tomorrow!

The best courses not only give you knowledge and teach you a new skill, they also change who you are. 

Please join me for my live Yoga Nidra Training. 2 weekends: July 31–Aug. 1; Aug. 6–8, 2021 live via Zoom. Space is limited!

Yoga Nidra Is My Greatest Teacher

I’m absolutely passionate about Yoga Nidra. Yoga Nidra has taught me more about myself, the Universe, and my purpose in the world than any other practice and I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned with you. This is why I can’t wait to tell you about my live Yoga Nidra teacher training starting this weekend.

You may be reading this because like me, you’ve experienced one of the many profound benefits that Yoga Nidra can provide: deep emotional healing, body/mind/spirit wellness, unparalleled relaxation and stress reduction, and profound insight on the forever-journey toward spiritual awakening. Plus, you may want to develop the skills to teach Yoga Nidra like an expert. Or, maybe you’ve heard other’s rave about this practice and you’re curious to learn just what it is that makes Yoga Nidra so special. Either way, I’m glad you’re here, you’ve come to the right place. 

If you’ve ever thought about teaching Yoga Nidra, now is the time—the world needs it more than ever. Also, the world needs more qualified Yoga Nidra teachers, and this course is designed to teach you to become a Yoga Nidra expert, delivering this healing practice in the power of your own voice— because there’s no one who can teach like you can. 

One of the things I’ve learned about Yoga Nidra is that even though practicing it is very easy and can lead to profound transformation, being an effective Yoga Nidra facilitator can be very difficult. This is why I’ve created Facilitating Transformation with the Yoga of Sleep, an enlightening, engaging, and enjoyable Yoga Nidra teacher training where you will learn the art and science of teaching Yoga Nidra using the power of your own voice. You’ll also learn how to apply your expertise to acquire and create excellent teaching opportunities through live or online group classes, workshops, courses, private sessions, and even how to lead yoga retreats and other paid events. I’ll even teach you how to create digital products to sell and share your teaching gifts with the world. In short, you’ll learn how to make a massive impact while making a great living doing what you love. 

What’s So Great About Yoga Nidra?

Often called the “yoga of sleep,” Yoga Nidra is a several thousand years-old form of guided meditation that is uniquely designed to powerfully connect the body, mind, and spirit to wake you up to the limitless power within. Though it’s an ancient practice, Yoga Nidra couldn’t be a more relevant and potent tool to meet the complexities and demands that we face in everyday modern life.

In my 13 years of teaching Yoga Nidra, I’ve seen thousands of people benefit from this essential practice in both simple and profound ways, including:

• Optimized performance, learning, and creativity

• Diminished stress and depression

• Better sleep

• Lower blood pressure

• Improved relationships

• Pain management

• Greater sense of purpose and meaning

• Greater perspective over life’s problems

• Improved self confidence

• Powerful spiritual insight

• Managing compulsions and addictions

My Journey of Teaching Yoga Nidra

When I completed my first Yoga Nidra teacher training in 2008 and started incorporating the practices I’d learned into my yoga classes, I quickly became frustrated as a teacher because I knew how powerful Yoga Nidra could be, but it soon became clear that I wasn’t nearly as prepared to teach it in my classes as I needed. First, I couldn’t make the impact I wanted to because the scripts I was given in my training were far too general—they didn’t meet my clients’ specific needs, and I was never taught how to deliver customized Yoga Nidra. What any experienced teacher can tell you is that just like in yoga asana, one size doesn’t fit all. Second, my training didn’t teach me how to leverage my own voice, so my teaching didn’t feel authentic and my students could tell. I knew I could make the largest impact if I could teach from my own voice, experience, specialization, and interest, but I hadn’t a clue how to do this at first. Third, as much as it pains me to say this, though I’d had transformational experiences with Yoga Nidra, many of my yoga students found Yoga Nidra to be, well… too boring. They may have enjoyed it the first time, but hearing the same tired script over and over again was putting people to sleep...in the wrong way. 

But, my early struggles facilitating Yoga Nidra turned out to be an enormous gift, because it taught me that this ancient practice was in no way designed to be a rote experience. My struggles in teaching drove me to dive deeper in my studies and to practice more Yoga Nidra. And doing so, I learned volumes about the essential principles of this fascinating practice. Soon, I began incorporating these principles into my Yoga Nidra classes, now with the ability to innovate, adapt, and deliver profound Yoga Nidra experiences that were customized to my clients. My teaching became fresh, authentic, engaging, and transformational. And faster than you can say “savasana on steroids,” my Yoga Nidra classes, workshops, and courses were packed. Even my clients who were previously bored by my Yoga Nidra classes came back to stay. 

Since then, I have facilitated thousands of hours of Yoga Nidra for my clients, and this beautiful practice continues to reveal deeper and deeper transformation, both for my clients as well as myself, more than I ever realized was possible in those early days of teaching. I even discovered how teaching Yoga Nidra itself is a pathway to greater learning and spiritual awakening. 

My approach to Yoga Nidra caught the eye of other yoga teachers and it wasn’t long before I developed a novel teacher training program, where I taught that once you have a deeper understanding of what the principles and techniques of Yoga Nidra are pointing to, you can deliver them in any context for any client, using the unparalleled power of your own voice.  

Offering my Yoga Nidra teacher training program helped me to discover another passion of mine, which is helping others reveal the expert teacher that is already inside of them and empowering them to share this essential practice with the world. 

What makes this course stand out over other Yoga Nidra trainings?

To be a transformational teacher your teaching must be based on your own very personal and powerful experiences, and not simply by repeating someone else’s information. In fact, this point is so important that I’ve created this course in two distinct parts. The first part, called Waking Up with the Yoga of Sleep, exists solely to facilitate your own deep transformation through practicing Yoga Nidra. The best courses not only give you knowledge and teach you a new skill, they also change who you are. This course facilitates your own personal transformation by using Yoga Nidra to help you experience:

•  A deep personal inquiry to know your True Self

• The Universe embraces you in the fascinating dance between form and consciousness

• Mapping the beautiful illusions: Understanding the Koshas

• How everything in your life is inviting you to wake up the person you’re destined to become

• The secret power of Presence 

• Uplevelled states of consciousness leading you to uplevelled stages of consciousness

You’ll wake up to your True Self through the power of Yoga Nidra as you experience and learn about the fascinating angles of this ancient practice, such as:

• Storytelling, poetry, and the mythic landscape

• Philosophy and history of the practice

• Mantra and mindfulness practices 

• Science and psychology foundations

Then, once you’ve done a deep dive into your own soul in the first section, now knowing even better what Yoga Nidra is pointing to, the next section is dedicated to teaching you how to become an expert Yoga Nidra facilitator. Not only that but how to boldly offer this practice to the world based on your own experiences and in your own voice. You’ll learn the essential tools, principles, rudiments, and techniques that will empower you to adapt any Yoga Nidra session to meet your client’s needs. You will also learn how to improvise your own Yoga Nidra classes and write your own Yoga Nidra scripts based on your personal interests and specializations.

What you’ll get in this course unlike any other is:

• How to facilitate any Yoga Nidra class by following the The Yoga Nidra Roadmap and Yoga Nidra Dyad Roadmap

• How to create the container and hold the role of a true teacher

• The art of facilitating deep observation

• 15 essential tools necessary to master the art of facilitating Yoga Nidra

• How to be an extraordinary teacher to your students with supportive integration

Lastly, included in the second section is the crucial but seldom-taught information about how to actually be a successful yoga or Yoga Nidra teacher because knowing what to teach and being a successful teacher are very different things. As someone who has graduated hundreds of yoga and Yoga Nidra teachers, and who has been in the industry for 20 years, I see the stark—and frankly unfair— gap between new teachers and experienced teachers in their ability to generate well-paying teaching opportunities in communities, the workplace, and online. Most yoga and Yoga Nidra teacher training courses contain little or no information about how to be a successful teacher, often because the lead trainer is a “yoga rockstar” and does not teach in the community—they simply can’t relate to most of us who are out there every day teaching in our communities. Sadly, the result is that too many new teachers never get the chance to start teaching because they were never taught how to acquire good gigs. My many years in this industry has taught me how to make an excellent living teaching yoga and Yoga Nidra (I earn 6 figures a year) and I’m here to tell you that there are many more good paying Yoga Nidra opportunities than there are good teachers to teach them. I’ve designed this training to teach you the industry secrets to help you begin to earn money right away doing what you love. Allow me to debunk the myth that you have to be a “yoga rockstar'' to be a successful teacher. You don’t. 

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

• Public and online classes, workshops, and courses

• Private students and groups, including Yoga Nidra dyads

• Yoga and meditation retreats

• Teaching corporations and institutions

• Paid speaking events 

• Creating digital products creation to earn passive income

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

This Is My Best Training

I’ve taught dozens of Yoga Nidra teacher training courses, both in person and online. The paradox in teaching a subject is that by teaching it you actually learn that subject deeper. Each time I’ve taught a Yoga Nidra teacher training, I receive progressively deeper insight into transformational teaching with Yoga Nidra. I’ve spent three years combining, distilling, and refining the essential tools and principles, roadmaps and methods to offer what I believe is the best Yoga Nidra teacher training course on the market, one that will teach you to become an expert Yoga Nidra facilitator much quicker than it took me. While I feel that this is my best Yoga Nidra training yet, the real proof is in the teachers that have graduated it. 

Here’s what others are saying …

“Scott’s training was an absolute joy. Not only does Scott possess a wealth of knowledge about the practice, he brings the teachings to life through his energetic presence, compelling storytelling, and heart-centered teaching. This offering is truly unique, and I’d highly recommend Scott’s guidance to anyone interested in going deeper with the incredible practice of Yoga Nidra.”

— Eden Orion, Yoga Nidra Graduate and Meditation Teacher

“I signed up for Scott Moore’s online Yoga Nidra teacher training course after discovering his scripts online and absolutely loving them. The course was very relaxing and easy to follow … I now feel much more confident in facilitating Yoga Nidra after completing this course. The price was very reasonable and Scott is SO generous, he gives us scripts to work with, meditations that I listen to daily, and online recordings for life. I now have a fantastic Yoga Nidra library to tap into whenever needed. The course itself really helped me to become connected to my inner Self and to become more fully aware of the power inside of us. Thank you Scott Moore for everything!”

—Amy Pople Yoga Nidra Graduate

“I have never met Scott [in person], yet I have found him to be one of the best instructors I have ever had. He is  knowledgeable, interesting, and kind. He also responded to all my questions in a supportive way, and just made himself available. His teaching website was easy to navigate, and he required that some beneficial work be completed by the student. Just a great program!  No wonder he was listed on the web in the top 5 Yoga Nidra Teacher Trainings.” 

—Andrea Mathwich

What’s Included In This Course

You’ll get: 

• Two illuminating weekends of Yoga Nidra wisdom, relaxation, and knowledge and practice of how to teach this transformational practice, via Zoom.

• Recordings of each session in case you have to miss a part or simply want to reference it later.  

• Full and life-time access to my online Teachable course which has all the same curriculum and more for continued and deeper study.  

• A 160-page manual for study and support

• 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts. These scripts will also serve as a template for you as you create your own scripts and classes.

• A 30-minute private consultation with me. 

• Dynamic, easy-to-follow lessons, practices, and assignments 

• Specialized pranayama, mindfulness, and mantra practices to help prep your for each lesson

• Specialized Yoga Nidra practices that optimize your learning (this is incredible!)

• Resources to help you plan and organize yoga and meditation retreats

• Fascinating myths and stories to illuminate the teachings

• The science and psychology of Yoga Nidra to explain why it works

• A suite of resources with dozens of supplementary Yoga Nidra recordings, PDFs, links, books, poetry, myths, articles, and more.

Check out the course modules to see everything that you will learn …  

Section1: Waking Up With The Yoga of Sleep

The first weekend will be an organized curriculum of 10 modules complete with specially-designed  and relaxing Yoga Nidra practices, fascinating lectures full of interesting stories, science, psychology and philosophy, as well as breathing and other mindfulness exercises. 

This section is about taking care of YOU and will help you wake up from the illusion of being a limited being and as you experience your life as beautiful and miraculous. This section will help you feel as if all the colors in your life have been turned up to 11.

Module 1: Begin The Journey

Start along your path as I show you the map and trails you’ll follow on the course of your Yoga Nidra adventure.

Module 2: What Is Yoga Nidra? Waking Up with the Yoga of Sleep

What is this ancient practice and how does it help you wake up?

Module 3: Yoga Nidra: An Inquiry to “Know Thyself”

Socrates will be your guide on this inner odyssey to hear the Oracle’s special message just for you.

Module 4: The Greatest Love Story of All Time: Shiva, Shakti, and YOU

You are the lovechild of consciousness and form. See how the world exists as a love note to you.

Module 5: The Koshas: Mapping the Beautiful Illusions

See the world dancing before your eyes, evoking your consciousness to wake up.

Module 6: Non-Dualism and Your Both / And Nature

Ancient myth illuminates the higher dimension of your True Being.

Module 7: The Secret to the Universe is HERE: Presence

The secret to the Universe is literally at your fingertips as you learn to practice presence.

Module 8: Stages and States of Consciousness

Upleveling your state of consciousness uplevels your stage of consciousness.

Module 9: Why Yoga Nidra Works: Science and Psychology

Take a look under the hood and learn how spirit and philosophy is supported by science and psychology.

Module 10: The Big Message & FAQ

The simple and profound truth, how Yoga Nidra applies to every-day life, and listen to me answer some common questions.

Section 2: Facilitating Transformation with the Yoga of Sleep

The second weekend will take what we’ve learned in the first weekend to apply it to learn how to facilitate this incredible practice for others. In this section you will learn how to teach Yoga Nidra like an expert in the power of your own voice using the specific tools and techniques unique to my method, how to be a successful Yoga Nidra teacher, and how to make a positive impact on the world while also making a living. 

This course has three parts, each with several modules. Each part has practices and assignments including Yoga Nidra practices, teaching assignments, and class-building assignments. 

Part 1

Module 1: Introduction and Overview

Familiarize yourself with the tools to find your voice in this practice.

Module 2: The Yoga Nidra Roadmap

Learn to read the map of an effective Yoga Nidra experience to facilitate transformation for yourself and your students.

Module 3: Creating the Container & The Role of the Teacher

Learn the subtle and essential art of set and setting for a transformational Yoga Nidra experience and understand your primary roles as a teacher.

Module 4: Facilitating Observation & the Three Heavies

Facilitate Transformation by effectively pointing to presence with 3 key objectives.

Module 5: Essential Tools Part 1

Master the tools that will help you facilitate transformation in a Yoga Nidra practice.

Module 6: Essential Tools Part 2

Master the tools that will help you facilitate transformation in a Yoga Nidra practice.

Module 7: Essential Tools Part 3

Master the tools that will help you facilitate transformation in a Yoga Nidra practice.

Module 8: 2 “Yoga Ninja” Tactics

Uncover the 2 GAME-CHANGER tactics that completely revolutionize the practice of teaching Yoga Nidra and will help you to teach like an expert almost immediately.

Module 9: Connecting The Dots—Building an Effective Yoga Nidra Class

Together we’ll work through the step-by-step process of building specialized Yoga Nidra classes for yourself and your clients.

Module 10: Yoga Nidra Dyads and Self Practice

Turn facilitating Yoga Nidra on its head and the transformational power of allowing the practitioner to direct the Yoga Nidra experience as you learn the Yoga Nidra Roadmap and the art of Facilitated Awareness.

Module 11: Accessibility and Healing with Yoga Nidra

Reveal how to make this beautiful practice available for all by eliminating discriminating language, marketing, and practices from your teaching. Discover the role of Yoga Nidra toward healing.

Module 12: Integration

Provide the essential integration tools for your student to learn to apply Yoga Nidra in their every-day life and discover the miracle of their own life.

Module 13 FAQ

Clarify any questions you may have about teaching Yoga Nidra.

Part 2: Sharing Yoga Nidra with the World

This section is dedicated to learning how to become a successful teacher. I’ll share with you the industry secrets to acquire and create well-paying online and in-person yoga opportunities, how to build interest for your classes as well as format classes, workshops, courses, and even retreats. You’ll learn how to support your students and maintain a positive teacher/student relationship. I teach you how to make an impact while also making a living. 

Module 1: Introduction

The world needs you to share this practice in only the way that YOU can.

Module 2: Developing Interest

Make your skills available to those who need it.

Module 3: Formatting Classes, Workshops, and Courses

Presentation is everything. Create an offering that will give your students what they need and keep them coming back for more.

Module 4: Virtual Offerings & Supportive Tech.

Broadcast Yoga Nidra to the world with simple and effective tools. Use the “minimum viable product” and learn to scale your offerings.

Module 5: Private Sessions

Tailor a Yoga Nidra experience to the specific needs of an individual. Intake, format, and support for private individuals and groups.

Module 6: Retreats

Learn the insider’s tips to leading retreats and provide life-time memories and transformation for your students while giving yourself a “paid vacation.”

Module 7: Supporting Your Students

Establish the learning trajectory for your students to support them along their journey.

Module 8: FAQ

Questions and insights about the course

Part 3: Finishing Up and What’s Next

Module 1: Resources and Recap Progress

This broad recap will cement the knowledge and experience into your soul to ensure your confidence in teaching right away.

Module 2: Resources Reminder

Re-familiarize yourself with the vast array of supportive resources that come with the course.

Module 3 Finish Line

The big fat message. What it all means. What’s possible.

Module 4: Graduation Requirements

Prepare for your graduation: assignments, requirements, and certification.

Part 4: Building Your Mechanism of Influence

Module 1: Make and Impact and Make a Living

5 simple, actionable tools to help you make an Impact and also make a living doing what you love to do.

Resources Included in This Yoga Nidra TeacherTraining

Audio Recordings: 

• Dozens of Yoga Nidra recordings 

• Mantras

• Pranayama practices

• Mindfulness practices

Gentle Yoga Practices (Videos)

• Restore Yoga Full Practice

• Short Prep-For Nidra Gentle Practice

PDFs

• 160-page manual

• 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts

• Yoga Nidra Class Building Worksheet 

• The Yoga Nidra and Yoga Nidra Dyad Roadmaps

• Prop Setup 

• Yoga Retreat Locations 

• List of Koshas

• Yoga Nidra Prop Set UP

• Yoga Nidra Door Hanger

• Pranayama Practices

• Mindfulness Practices

• Chakras

• List of poems used in the training

• Essential links to books, websites, articles, podcasts, and interviews

I’m very proud of this Yoga Nidra teacher training, it’s my best work yet. 

There is nobody like you and your skills, talents, and personality have the power to impact certain students in only the way that you can. The world is waking up and in the process, we all desperately need effective Yoga Nidra teachers to transform us into what we may become. 

People are waiting for you to step up to your higher Self, to become an expert Yoga Nidra teacher, and to facilitate transformation in only the way you can. This is the course to help you find your voice and share this transformational practice with the world. 

Space is limited so that I can offer the best and most supportive environment for each student. Plus, this is the last live course that I’ll offer this year. 

Will you join me?

About Your Instructor

Scott Moore is a senior teacher of yoga and mindfulness in the US. He’s taught classes, trainings and workshops in New York, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and L.A. as well as in Europe and Asia. Scott is the author of Practical Yoga Nidra: The 10-Step Method to Reduce Stress, Improve Sleep, and Restore Your Spirit. When he's not teaching or conducting retreats, he loves to write for print and online publications such as Yogi Times, Conscious Life News, Elephant Journal, Mantra Magazine, Medium, and his own blog at scottmooreyoga.com. Scott also loves to run, play the saxophone, and travel with his wife and son. Check out his yoga retreats and trainings in places like Tuscany, France, and Hong Kong , his online Yoga Nidra Course and his Yoga Teacher Mentor Program. Scott is currently living in Barcelona, Spain with his family.

What They Didn't Teach You in Your Teacher Training

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

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

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

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

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

• Public and online classes, workshops, and courses

• Private students and groups, including Yoga Nidra dyads

• Yoga and meditation retreats

• Teaching corporations and institutions

• Paid speaking events 

• Creating digital products to earn passive income

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

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

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

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

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

Yoga Teacher Mentor Program

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

The World Is Coming Back On Line. Are You Ready?

Across the world, yoga studios, therapists offices, schools, etc. have been mothballed to wait out the pandemic. Some are gone for good and others have somehow managed to stay alive. Many are starting or planning on opening sooner than later and when they do, are you ready to join in and make a serious impact on your community? Are you a yoga teacher, therapist, coach, parent, or leader?

The pandemic has changed the world in profound ways and our communities desperately need avenues to practice personal wellness in body, mind, and spirit, now more than ever. To do that, our communities need teachers and facilitators who can skillfully help people recover from the past very difficult 18 months, to restore their spirit, recover from stress, and remind them of their innate wholeness. Your community needs you to teach Yoga Nidra, the best practice I know that helps people practice resilience, gives immediate relief from stress, and affords people an expansive world view to help them remember how powerful they truly are. Though Yoga Nidra is very easy to practice, it is very difficult to facilitate effectively.

This is why I’ve created a Yoga Nidra training that teaches you all that you need to know, not only to become an effective Yoga Nidra facilitator, but to do in the power of your own voice, because after all, there’s nobody who can teach like you can, with your unique skills, experiences, and personality. You will impact people’s lives in ways that nobody else can.

This weekend starts my live Zoom Yoga Nidra training, an in-depth 40-hr. training that spans two weekends, July 30–August 1 and August 6–8. It’s live so you’ll be a part of a vibrant and consciously-minded cohort from all over the world. It’s on Zoom so you can participate from anywhere in the world from the safety of your own home. You can ask questions, practice with others, and experience the transformation of this practice in real time. It’s also recorded so that you can review the information as often as you’d like and if you have to miss part of a session, you can always go back and watch it on your own timeline.

Included in this training is 40-hours of instruction, an informative 160+ page manual, over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts, access to my complete pre-recorded online Yoga Nidra course, connection to our exclusive Facebook page for dozens of others who are currently in the program or who have completed the program. Plus, each person receives a 30-minutes private consultation with me.

By the time you are finished with the training, you will be a certified Yoga Nidra teacher who understands the intricate complexities of this profound and much-needed practice. When the world opens up again, you’ll be ready to offer this vital skill to your communities.

This will be the last live training I do this year and space is limited so I can provide the best support for each of the students.

Your community needs you to teach Yoga Nidra. Are you in?

Brimming With Joy

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

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

But I wasn’t expecting this …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Cosmos of Emotions

Today I want to talk about how a live Yoga Nidra training changed my life by helping me to see that I don’t need to be afraid of emotions.

Emotionally Flatlined

A long time ago, I was the kind of depressed person that didn’t feel any emotions at all. I was going through some difficult times and had somehow learned to turn off what I considered to be “dangerous” emotions like grief, sadness, and despair. What I didn’t understand was that I couldn’t turn off certain emotions without turning them all off. During this time of being emotionally flatlined, I remember thinking that I couldn’t recall the last time I’d had fun, laughed, or had shed a tear of either sadness or joy. This emotional deadness lasted about a decade. 

The Yoga of Sleep

About this time, I discovered Yoga Nidra, the so-called “yoga of sleep” where you lie down and listen to a facilitator lead you through a relaxing series of deepening layers of Awareness. There was going to be a Yoga Nidra training in town and I felt strangely pulled to do this training. I’d already been teaching yoga and meditation for about 8 years and I was interested in adding to my toolbox as an instructor. Little did I know just life-changing Yoga Nidra and this training would be.

The Cosmic Journey

I learned a great deal about Yoga Nidra during the training but as often happens with practices like this, my greatest learning came from actually doing the practice itself. One evening during the training I lay down to practice Yoga Nidra like I had done several times before, and as I was listening to the facilitator lead me through the practice, I suddenly felt myself soaring through the cosmos at an incredible speed. I felt like I had entered a different universe. I could see stars whizzing by in bright streaks and they eventually all melted into one bright light. I felt immense, larger than my body, larger than my emotions, larger than my thoughts. In fact, I felt larger than anything that I might call “Scott.” I became the entire cosmos, the universe itself. I was everything and everything was me. I stayed like this for an eternity, floating in a world of unfettered calm, peace, and joy. 

Eventually, I felt something annoying pulling me back into what felt like a foreign world, one of time, tangibility, and this thing called being Scott. The facilitator had concluded the Yoga Nidra practice but I continued to lay on my cushion for many long minutes as I struggled to feel back into my body. It felt so familiar, so comfortable like a well-worn glove, yet felt strangely foreign at the same time. Certainly this was a rebirth of sorts and coming from such a place of expanded consciousness, I felt as if being human was reduced to mere game, one that is very interesting and beautiful, but a mere game in the larger scheme of the cosmos. I felt a sense of freedom and joy in my entire being and that there was nothing to try to attach to or repress about the experience of being human but that my work on this earth was to do good and simply enjoy the ride.

Open The Floodgates

That night I drove home in a daze, seeing the world as if for the first time in wide-eyed wonder and awe. When I got home, I made myself a cup of tea, donned my bathrobe, and put on a slow jazz record. I had just become viscerally aware of that eternal part of me that is eternally more expansive and complete than anything that an emotion or an event could define me as. I no longer felt afraid of emotions. I no longer felt afraid of anything. I sat heavily in my large reading chair and intended to contemplate all of this when, without warning, a decade worth of desperate tears suddenly burst from my eyes. For many long minutes I sat and wept. Then in an instant, my emotions switched from sadness to hilarity and I found myself laughing with mad abandon. After many minutes of laughing uncontrollably, I abruptly switched back to tears, then more laughter, more tears. This two-step dance between sobbing my eyes out and laughing my ass off continued for several hours. I was grateful to be living alone. 

Eventually, all my tears were spent and an entire box of used tissues rested in the form of a soggy mountain on the floor. Without any further fanfare, I turned off the stereo, washed my mug, and collapsed into bed. For a second or two as I was slipping into sleep, I wondered if in my dreams I’d be able to go on that cosmic ride again. Instead, that night I slept dreamless and like the dead. 

Reborn

The next day, I arose new and fresh and could tell that something was substantially different about me yet I did not have the vocabulary to describe it. I didn’t want to tell anybody about my experience flying through the cosmos and later bouncing between the two poles of tears largely because at the time I didn’t have a clue of what had happened and I worried that if I told someone about my experience, they’d think I was crazy. And they’d have been right. I was the best kind of crazy, especially if crazy means breaking away from the ordinary to have an experience completely outside of normal. For me, normal was numb and I was leagues away from normal. 

Looking back at that experience, I truly see it as a veritable rebirth for me. That event marked the beginning of a new phase of my life, one where I was reborn into the great bouquet of the human experience, one that involved emotions. Now, I know emotions for what they are, just more of the beautiful objects in this world that are enticing me to wake up and pay attention to my True Self, the eternal and expansive part of me which can never be confined to a body or an emotion but which can be revealed by them, the True Self which is Awareness itself.

Yoga Nidra taught me this and myriad other essential truths about who I am and what my purpose is for being on this earth. In the 15 years that I’ve been practicing and teaching Yoga Nidra, I’ve also been a humble witness to dozens if not hundreds of other people's experiences of transformation as the result of this simple, yet profound practice. 

Gratitude

I’m so grateful for my teachers who started me on my path toward Yoga Nidra and I’m also grateful for the practice itself which has all on its own taught me volumes about how to practice and teach Yoga Nidra, let alone what it’s taught me about myself. It’s an honor and a privilege to discuss, study, and facilitate this transformational practice that I love so much. 

Yoga Nidra Training

While practicing Yoga Nidra may not always result in such a cosmic experience, it can almost certainly produce any of dozens of essential benefits including: deeper sleep, less stress and reactivity, the ability to create more connectedness in your relationships, more focus and productivity in your job, an enduring sense of purpose and perspective about life, and the ability to program your consciousness with positivity. When you connect to your True Self, the part of you that is fundamentally whole, your entire being will experience greater wholeness.

Yoga Nidra is very easy to practice but very difficult to teach effectively so I developed an original, inspirational, and very effective Yoga Nidra teacher training program to help people who are interested in making a difference in the world learn to become powerful facilitators of this  transformational practice. I would be deeply honored to spend two weekends with you where together we will help you discover your own voice in learning to facilitate Yoga Nidra and create lasting transformation for students, clients, family, and community through this essential and ancient practice. The training spans 5 days over 2 weekends and will be hosted live and online via Zoom. Each session will be recorded for your convenience and continued learning. I only teach this live training a few times a year and registration is limited. 

It’s time to make a difference in the world. It’s time for you to learn to teach Yoga Nidra. 

Will you join me?

July 31st–August 1st, 9 am to 5 pm MDT and August 6–8, 9 am to 5 pm MDT. Live, Zoom and recorded