Iron Will

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been discussing tending to our subtle body—ways to maintain wellness through managing our energy as it relates to the friends we choose, the media we choose, how to manage energy in a group, and how we consume the news, or rather how it may be consuming us. There’s more I want to say on this subject but I wanted to give subtle body a break this week and instead insert a different story, a story about a time when my body and integrity was tested to the max. 

Ironman Nice happened this weekend and no, I did not compete. 

Last Friday morning as I was walking along the Promenade des Anglais, Nice’s famous boardwalk, on my way to teach yoga to some private clients at their villa overlooking the sea, I could feel the anticipation for the Ironman like palpable energy in the air. Uber-fit athletes were doing easy pre-race runs along the promenade, prancing around like race horses before a big race. Event workers were busy scurrying around like roadies assembling the outdoor arena for these athletic rockstars, constructing tents, transition stations, and the finish line. 

All this pre-Ironman energy gave me a flashback to a moment in my life that tested my mettle with immense challenge to both my physical stamina and more importantly my integrity.  

Ironman is that small little sporting event where athletes perform a mere 2.4-mile splash in the ocean, then hop on their little bikes wearing fun alienesque, aerodynamic helmets for a merry 112-mile spin, and then just to round out the afternoon, they hop off their bikes and leg it at top speed for 26.2 miles, that’s a full marathon. 

The Ironman has always fascinated me—a veritable feast of grit and endurance. Some of my best friends have completed Ironmans and watching them train and perform showed me that regular people, people I knew, could do this event. 

I had to wonder, did I have what it took to do an Ironman? 

So, many ago, I decided to do my first sprint triathlon, a drop in the bucket compared to a full Ironman with only a .5-mile swim, 12.4-mile bike, and 3.1-mile run. I surprised myself (as well as my seasoned triathlete friends) by taking 2nd place in my age group. And since then, I’ve competed in several triathlon sprints including a few hosted by Westminster college.

But, a sprint triathlon is miles from full Ironman (124.6 miles to be exact) and the question nagged me whether or not I could manage to do a FULL Ironman. Maybe I’d hate it. Maybe it would be miserable. Maybe I’d love it and find a new passion in life. Either way, I had to try. 

So, in 2015, the same year my son was born, I registered for the “Tough Man,” a half Ironman. I thought, before registering for a full Ironman, I would be wise to work up to these things. 

The event was scheduled to be held only miles from where I grew up in Orem, Utah and would feature a 1.1-mile open swim in Utah Lake, a 56-mile bike through flat farmland, and a 13.1-mile run along the paved trails skirting the lake, trails I’d ran thousands of times growing up. 

The swim worried me the most, not only because it was my weakest sport but also because, sadly, growing up friends didn’t let friends swim in Utah Lake. I mean, its dubious green hue and  visible pollution floating in the lake did not make for a great swimming spot. But I registered anyway thinking (hoping, moreover) that I’d heard that they’d done extensive cleanup since my childhood. 

Concerning the bike, my brother-in-law had decided the year before to retire from triathlons and gifted me his beautiful, high-end racing road bike which, after trudging around on a steel framed mountain bike for several years, felt like feather-light, well-tuned, and foot-powered Ferrari. Plus, I figured that since I would be biking through mostly flat ground, I could lean back and let the bike do most of the work. Piece of cake. 

Then there was the run. Of the three events, running is my forte. At the point of registering for this race, I’d run 4 marathons and several half marathons and had always run for the sheer pleasure of it so I felt I could probably run a half-marathon straight off of the couch with little or no training. In short, the run was no problem.

Half Ironman, “I got you!” 

Or so I thought. 

Let me say at the outset that I vastly underestimated the time I’d need to train as well as the amount of time I’d need to care for my infant son. Not long after registering, I realized that I was probably in over my head. I considered giving up on the half Ironman but figured that even if I didn’t have all the time I wanted to train, I’d do my best and lean on my general fitness thanks to my regular runs and practicing yoga to pull me through.

Jumping in the pool for my first training swim was a wake-up call. I quickly realized the 1.2-mile swim of half Ironman a was drastically different from the .5-mile swim of a sprint triathlon. Admittedly, I was not in my best swimming shape but after just a few laps I was sucking so much wind that the lifeguard was eyeing me steadily wondering if at any moment she would need to drag me out of the pool and administer CPR. 

And this was swimming in the controlled and chlorinated environment of a swimming pool, mind you, not the open water of dodgy Utah Lake where I would be dodging not only the feet of other swimmers furiously kicking in my face but also perhaps also old tires, possibly glowing 3-eyed fish, or worse. 

I emerged from my first training swim feeling humbled, like I was a lake minnow about to be dropped into the ocean of competitive swimming. I was going to need a LOT of time in the pool so I decided to focus most of my training on the swim. 

During this time, I was a professor of Yoga For Wellness, an accredited class at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, and had free access to their pool early in the mornings before class. Since swimming was my weakest sport, I figured that if I could at least get my sea legs beneath me, the other two sports would be relatively easy to tune up. So I spent a lot of time in the pool (often 4 days a week) and bit by bit, I was very pleased to see myself sucking less wind. Eventually, I could even swim a mile or more without stopping. 

As for running, I ingeniously combined my childcare with my running thanks to a fancy jog stroller we’d purchased. A few times a week, I’d put my infant son in the stroller and he’d fall asleep as I pushed him 5 miles up and 5 miles down the paved canyon road near my home, lulled by the hum of the tires against the asphalt. Due to the relatively steep incline of the canyon road and pushing the extra weight of kid and stroller, I figured I was getting a better workout than if I was just running alone. 

Remember that my plan for the bike was to let the bike do all the work. Still, I knew I couldn’t ignore training on the biking so I’d ride when I could, mostly weekends. I did a few long rides, maybe the longest being 45 miles or so. On these long rides, my pedaling cadence would put me into a meditative state as I glided along the lonely roads bordering Great Salt Lake listening to Shogun on audiobook (all 53 hours of it). The problem with training for the bike was that it took a lot of time, time I just didn’t have with a new kid.

After many months of my less-than-robust training schedule, the race was set to pop in only 5 weeks. I knew I hadn’t done enough training to feel comfortable in this half Ironman but nonetheless, I was determined to do my best. Adding to my poor planning for adequate training, I’d also scheduled a working trip and vacation to Spain and France—a yoga retreat with my wife, then 1-year-old son, and sister whose life-long dream had always been to go to Europe. 

While on vacation, I’d wake up very early to run the Paris streets before everyone else got up. This afforded me an entirely unique view of this city, a city I thought I knew so well. Thanks to some of the longer runs I did on that trip, I discovered how relatively small Paris feels when you circle through several arrondissements and arrive back to your AirBnB after running through the almost tourist-free streets at 5 am. 

I came home from a decadent trip to Europe feeling sluggish, jetlagged, and worried about this race. I only had a week or so left to prepare for this race. Apart from a few runs while in France and Spain, I justified my break from training by telling myself that I’d simply taken my taper early, that part of one’s training where you back off to allow your body the chance to load up on rest and energy. I justified that I had supplemented my extended taper with loads of baguettes, croissants, and cheese to build up the necessary carbs to do this race. I knew this was a lie but baguettes or not, I was doing this race. 

The day before the race, the organizers sent out an urgent email stating that they were forced to cancel the swim due to an “algae bloom” in the lake making it unfit for people to swim. Fears confirmed. Instead of swimming, we’d be running the same distance, 1.2 miles, along the shore where the swim would have taken place. I was gutted. I had swam more than either of the other two events and now they were canceling the swim. Plus, quietly inside, I didn’t think this event would really count as a “true” half Ironman. 

To add insult to injury, the night before the race, I began to get a sore throat and stuffy nose. Noooooo! I couldn’t get sick right before the race. I pounded some vitamin C and went to bed early but I still woke up on the morning of the race with a stuffy nose and scratchy throat. What was worse was that I felt very low energy. 

But cold or not, I was doing this race and for the hour + drive to the venue, I gave myself a massive pep-talk.

The half Ironman started great. I was feeling great as I jogged the 1.2 mile run-not-swim which was a mild warmup for the bike. 

I was having fun and feeling pretty good until about mile 25 into the bike, my knee started to really hurt. Guess, I should have done more training on the bike. I used yoga breathing techniques to breathe energy into my knee and tension out. It worked and before long my knee felt perfectly normal. I felt like I had an unfair advantage with all these yoga techniques up my sleeve. 

But about 10 miles later, about 35 miles into the bike, my legs really started to burn. I wasn't even halfway done with the event and already my energy was seriously winding up. This couldn’t happen! My hydration and fuel were on point but my legs felt like they were done. Kaput. 

Then, I remembered some of the visualizations I had done weeks prior to the event: I remembered a time when I felt amazing during a bike ride. After only a few minutes of putting myself into this mindstate, all those sensations, emotions, and energy came back to the surface. Boom, energy was back again. Ha! My mantra was, "Energy in. Tension out. Energy In. Tension out." I wasn't breaking any land speed records, and I ignored the fact that most of the other racers were passing me on their bikes, but that didn’t matter. I was moving steadily forward and feeling good. 

… Until my back tire blew out. 

I stopped, pulled off to the side of the road and to my luck, no sooner did I remove my punctured tube then the aid-van arrived. Out stepped a tutu-wearing bike-cowboy named Rorey who kindly asked me to step aside while he replaced the tube, pumped the tire, and replaced the tire onto my bike in what seemed like seconds flat. It was like watching a seasoned, professional cowboy rope a calf at a rodeo. 

Disclosure: no bikes were harmed in the production of this story. 

By now, I was about 4 hours into this event. I'd finished my pre-run-not-swim and the bike portion of the event and was thrilled to be slipping on my running shoes to run the paths I’d trod thousands of times in the past. This was going to be my strongest sport. I had this!

The run comprised two loops each 6.55 miles long. After the first mile or so, I was really feeling it—totally exhausted. My legs were throbbing, my lungs were screaming, and it was scorching hot July afternoon heat, but I was upright and still putting one foot in front of the other. I just continued with my mantra, "Energy in. Tension out. Energy in. Tension out."

On my first go around the loop, I recognized the furthest point of the loop. I figured this because there was an aid station with both water and energy drinks on a table as well as balloons and other decorations with and a speaker blasting hip-hop … that is until the music started cursing loudly which made the very worried woman assigned to direct traffic at that aid station to scramble and change the music. 

At the aid station, there was a T in the road with an arrow pointing right and a sign that said 2.5 miles to lap/finish. I looked right and saw other runners in that direction and started hobbling in that direction just as some decidedly more wholesome music started over the speakers. 

My muscles were burning, I was exhausted, and I was moving slowly but I told myself that I just needed to finish this loop and repeat it one more time and then I would be finished. 

When it started to feel impossible, I'd look down at my arms to access my lifeline: I had used a Sharpie to write in big black letters, "Sennie" on my left arm and "Ellie" on my right. Seeing the names of my two most favorite people was magic. It gave me my heart wings and put my spirit back into the race. 

As I finished the first loop, there they were: Sennie and Ellie. I hadn’t seen them since the night before and seeing them was everything to me. Also accompanying Sen and Elio were my mom and sis. What made that special in retrospect is that both of whom have since passed away. I was buoyed to have all 4 of them—Sen, Elio, my mom and sister—standing there, cheering me on (except Elio who was only 1 and was just getting the hang of standing, and who was probably confused by all the commotion, and likely just happy that he was spending a Saturday afternoon NOT getting schlepped around in the jog stroller). 

"One more loop! I'll be back here in an hour," I shouted as I bounded off for my second loop, my fists pumping in the air. 

But my jolt of enthusiasm quickly thinned. Every mile got harder and harder. I was reduced to making little goals for myself, "Just get to the mile marker, that's all.” Soon, my goals were reduced to the next half mile marker and eventually simply to the next turn in the road. 

On those last 6.1 miles, I was running on fumes. This was the most difficult thing I’d ever done to my body. I was utterly spent, my reserves were gone, and it was sheer endurance to keep going. One. Step. At. A. Time. 

Finally, like an oasis in the desert, I arrived at the furthest aid station, the point with the drinks, balloons, and speaker which was now hymns or something. Finishing felt almost impossible but I gave myself a pep talk by telling myself again that all I had to do was make the turn and head back along the road for the last 2.5 miles and to the finish line. I was on the home stretch!

But then I saw something horrifying. 

Devastating.

I realized that on my first lap, at the T in the road, I was supposed to turn LEFT, not right. The road to the right was actually a continuation of the leg that started off to the left. I realized that I’d skipped an entire mile and a half of the first loop, an impossible distance in my current state. 

Now, it was ME who was cursing loudly at the aid station. Fortunately, I couldn’t afford the calories to curse out loud and resigned to only scream in my head. 

As I stood there for a few minutes, my spirit utterly destroyed, justifying to myself all the reasons why I shouldn’t run this forgotten leg. The course was poorly marked, especially for someone whose brain is in energy-saver mode. The woman assigned to direct traffic was more worried about the music cursing loudly than doing her job (you have 1 job!). Plus, without the swim, this wasn’t a “true” half Ironman so it wouldn’t count regardless of whether or not I ran the forgotten leg. 

Everything in my body and soul was begging me to forget the forgotten lef  and just turn right, take the shorter path to the finish line.

But I knew I couldn't do that. I’d be cheating, cheating myself. Even if the woman at the aid station wasn’t directing traffic well, it was still my responsibility to ascertain the correct path. It was my mistake, not hers.

It was one of those stark moments that truly tested my integrity. 

I knew what I had to do so I pulled myself together, steeled my resolve … and turned left. 

I ran the mile and a half and once back at the aid station of despair, I paused for a moment (crying to myself—more internal cursing) and turned around to do it … all … again. 

Only after doing the forgotten leg TWICE did I finally take the coveted right turn for the final 2.5 miles to the finish where my family was waiting for me with worried faces. After all, I said I’d only be an hour but I didn’t return to the finish line for almost another 2 hours. They were worried that maybe I’d died or something on the second loop.They were more correct than they knew. 

Noticed the forced smile

Few things in life have felt so satisfying as crossing the finish line, ceasing to run, and lying on the grass—race over.

So, I salute anyone with enough gumption to either attempt or finish any endurance sporting event, whether it be Ironman Nice, a sprint triathlon, or the not-a-true-half-but-tuffer-than-you-know “Tough Man.”

More than physical endurance, this “Tough Man” taught me about how tough it is sometimes to maintain my own personal integrity. 

It showed me that I can muster the strength to do what’s right, even when I’m completely spent, and even when it’s easy to justify that my difficult situation is someone else’s fault. It also taught me never to compete in an event I haven’t trained for. 

Thanks for hearing my story. I’d love to hear yours. Drop me a line and tell me about your “tough” moments. 

Best Online Yoga Nidra Training YET!

How are you?

You’re receiving this email because you’ve either registered or shown interest in my Yoga Nidra teacher training.

Whether you would like to learn to teach Yoga Nidra like an expert or have previously registered for my training and would like to dive deeper or have support to finish this in-depth training, I’ve built a course just for you. 

When: June 10–11; 17–18, 2023

8 am to 12 pm MDT or 4–8 pm CET

This is a 20-hour live and online course designed to support anyone who is going trough my Yoga Nidra teacher training, Facilitating Transformation with the Yoga of Sleep. 

My Yoga Nidra teacher training is rated among the best online Yoga Nidra teacher trainings in the world. This course allows you to go deeper into the vast and fascinating subject of Yoga Nidra than you could with just the online course alone.

It gives you the motivation and encouragement to finish the course so you’re ready to teach when it’s done. It also provides you with opportunities to teach to a wonderful cohort and gives you personalized attention about how you can make a unique impact on your students with Yoga Nidra

Returning Students

If you have already purchased my online Yoga Nidra training, this course will support you to complete the course, offer you a wonderful opportunity to work with a cohort to practice teaching, and will allow you to receive personalized attention about your UNIQUE perspective and need for Yoga Nidra.

New Students

If you are a new teacher, you will also purchase and watch the online course in tandem with attention this live support course. This allows you to have the best Yoga Nidra leaning experience possible. It gives you a wonderful cohort of like-minded people, allows you to ask live questions, gives you the opportunity to practice teaching with other students, and gives you individualized attention to your comments, questions, and how YOU will make a difference by teaching Yoga Nidra. 

Let me (re)introduce myself or reintroduce myself. 

I’m scott Moore, senior yoga and mindfulness teacher, author and creator of Waking Up with the Yoga of Sleep, a celebrated and revolutionary style of Yoga Nidra, rated among the top 2 online Yoga Nidra teacher trainings in the world. I’ve been teaching yoga since 2003 and Yoga Nidra distance 2008. I’m also a registered school of yoga and Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider. My books include: Practical Yoga Nidra, 20 Yoga Nidra Scripts Vol. 1 (included in this course), and 5-MInute Manifesting Journal. 

I’ve spent the past 20 years studying, practicing, and teaching yoga , Yoga Nidra and meditation. I’ve been teaching and mentoring other teachers for over 15 years and I’ve discovered that EACH TEACHER is unique and powerful in their ability to reach  certain people better than anybody else. 

It’s my passion to help you find your voice as a teacher and to show you how to find those students who are waiting for you. 

This course is designed to give you the personalized attention you need to maximize your impact as a Yoga Nidra facilitator. 

How this course works:

On your own timeline, you will review the contents of the pre-recorded online training and then we meet for 4 5-hour live, online Zoom sessions to go deeper, expand the concepts, ask questions and offer comments, and especially to practice teaching each other Yoga Nidra.

Pre-recorded online portion

The online portion is a robust course with:

• Engaging video lectures where we study both the what and why of Yoga Nidra as well as how to become an extraordinary facilitator that makes a difference in the lives of your students. We explore stories and myths, science and psychology.

• Specialized Yoga Nidra practices designed to help you become an extraordinary Yoga Nidra facilitator (cool!)

• PDF with breathing and mindfulness practices that you can use for yourself and print off to give to your students

• Sections about how to become a successful Yoga Nidra instructor, meaning how to incorporate your Yoga Nidra skills into an existing class, create a stand-alone Yoga Nidra class, create workshops, courses, retreats, etc and market yourself to get paid what you’re worth to offer this amazing skill to the world. 

20-Hour Live Zoom Portion

Then when we come together online, we can go deeper into the subject and practice teaching. I understand that every teacher brings something unique to the mix and I want to help you discover or optimize what your gifts are. 

When you’ve completed the course, you’ll receive a certificate of completion as well as continuing education hours for Yoga Alliance if you are registered with them. 

Included in this course is:

• 160+ page detailed manual

• Lifetime access to the complete 50-hour online training

• Lifetime access to the full audio and video recordings of the live online training

• A library of dozens of Yoga Nidra recordings

• Over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts so you can start teaching right away

• A course of profound relaxation (think how much your family members and coworkers are going to love you!)

• A deeper understanding of Self through the practice of Yoga Nidra

• Certificate of completion

I believe in the principle of adopting, adapting, then innovating. Like I mentioned, you get my booklet of Yoga Nidra scripts so you can adopt the principles right away and teach quality and specialized Yoga Nidra classes such as:

• Yoga Nidra for Grief

• Yoga Nidra for Goals

• Yoga Nidra for Healing

• Yoga Nidra for Sleep

• Yoga Nidra for Stress

• Yoga Nidra for Relaxed Alertness

• And more

You’ll begin to adapt those scripts to sound more and more like you. Then using the principles you learn in the training, you’ll be able to innovate by creating your own style of Yoga Nidra done in only the way you can do it, and more importantly made for the people who are going to receive this practice from you better than anybody else. 

If you’ve been thinking of becoming a Yoga Nidra teacher this is really the opportunity to maximize your training and truly become the best Yoga Nidra facilitator possible. 

If you’ve already taken some version of my training and would like to get a refresher or some support to finish the course, this is both the opportunity to have the most support possible as well as to get the most up-to-date information. 

I’m so confident that you’ll love this training that I’ll offer you a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Please join me!

Yoga For Walking, Hiking, and Trekking

What’s up?! How are you?

Today I want to share with you the perfect yoga poses for walking, hiking, and trekking. But first, here in Nice, the weather and temp has been such a dream and our family has been taking advantage by exploring the trails and hiking in this area. There’s an exciting network of great trails (and steps) leading up the craggy mountains of the Azure Coast that tops out at a mountain-top castle, situated right next to Elton John’s lush villa, overlooking the cerulean waters of the bay below. So beautiful!

(Elton, if you’re reading, I’m available for yoga sessions at your house and I’ll bring my sax!)

How about you, do you like walking, hiking, or trekking? Maybe you have any plans this year for travels which include walking the Camino, trekking through the Himalayas, or exploring the cobblestone streets of European medieval cities. 

Lately, several friends and clients have asked me for some suggestions for yoga poses they can do to help them to recover after a long day hiking trails or walking destination cities so they can stay mobile and energized. 

So, whether you like to hike or walk near your home or are planning a trekking vacation sometime this year, I thought I’d offer a few suggestions for some essential poses you can do to help you stay in top shape and maintain your wellbeing. 

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Yoga for Hiking, Walking,
and Trekking

Here’s a few of my favorite prep and recovery poses for walking, hiking, and trekking. 

First, remember to always incorporate conscious breathing into every pose and even try to be conscious of your breath while you’re walking or hiking. Keeping a good flow of oxygen supports everything from your heart, your brain, your muscles, and even your joints. 

Breathing is not optional!

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Pre-Walk/Hike/Trek

Better than starting your day with stretches, it’s much more important to take just a few minutes to warm up the body. A lot of wear and tear on the body occurs when we subject it to force and movement when it’s simply not prepared. Here’s a few of my go-to warm up poses.

Sumo Squat to Forward Fold or
Utkatasana to Uttanasana Variations

Start with your feet a little wider than your hips, hands on thighs, blocks, or the floor. Inhale and bend your knees up to (but not more than) a 90° angle, flatten your spine, stick your butt out, and look forward. 

As you exhale, straighten your legs, round your spine, tuck your tail, and look between your calves. 

This combo helps to loosen knees, spine, and calves while warming up your quads, the front thigh muscles. You may also find this stretches your hamstrings, calves, and lower back. Make the stretch very light because remember that more important than stretching, your primary goal is to warm up joints and muscles while oxygenating your system.

High Crescent Lunge Pose or Asta Chandrasana 

Hold this pose for 5–8 breaths on each side. It helps you to warm up your quads, the front thigh muscles, as well as offer a gentle groin stretch (the psoas). It also builds the proprioception (your sense of movement, body position, and force) in both your feet so you are more connected to and feel sure with the ground beneath your feet. Poses like this help your feet to navigate uneven ground. 

Figure-4 Chair or Utkatasana Variation

I love this pose! Inhale, bend your knees and as you exhale, cross one ankle over the other thigh in a figure 4 stretch and stick your butt out until you find a light stretch. Hold it for 6–8 breaths each side. This pose may challenge your balance so you can also opt to hold onto something while you do this pose. 

This pose also helps to warm up and build your proprioception muscles in your ankles, feet, and calves. It also gives you a light stretch in the performs muscle, the deep muscle under the glutes that get sore after a long day of walking, hiking, and strangely enough, sitting (read a long flight). 

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Post-Walk/Hike/Trek

Kneeling Lunge or Anjaneayasana 

Kneel down, perhaps with a cushion or towel under your knee. Extend the opposite leg forward and then bend that knee up to a right angle (not more). Find a moderate stretch in the groin of the back leg, especially as you press your back foot into the mat, toenail-side down, and lifting your pubic bone slightly. Hold this pose for 8–10 deep breaths on each side and visualize your breath dropping into the muscle you’re stretching. 

This is meant to be a groin stretch (psoas muscle). The psoas is like a bungee cord that connects your upper inner-thigh, through your pelvis, to the lower lumbar region of your spine. When contracted, it lifts your legs toward your trunk each time you take a step or pulls your trunk toward your legs like in a sit-up. When it gets tight, it can cause a lot of tension in your lower back making you wish you’d packed both your chiropractor as well as your infrared sauna on your trekking trip through the Himalayas.

Half Splits or Ardha Hanumanasana

While in the kneeling lunge position, straighten your front leg and as you exhale, fold toward the knee, holding a comfortable stretch. You may bend your knee as much as you’d like to get the stretch in the very center of the muscle and not in the attachments, behind the knee or high in the butt. Keep your foot flexed toward your shin.  

I love how this pose because it’s such a perfect stretch for the hamstrings and the calves. 

Seated Forward Fold or Paschimottanasana

While in a seated position, extend your legs out and hold onto your feet or behind your calves. As you exhale, fold into a comfortable stretch and hold this pose for 8–10 breaths. 

This is a beautiful stretch for both the lower back as well as the hamstrings and possibly the calves. It’s also a wonderful way to get grounded after a long day of walking, hiking, or trekking. Remember to bend your knees as much as you’d like to avoid pulling the attachments of the muscles. The goal of this pose is not to have straight legs but rather to hold a moderate stretch in all the places you may feel this pose. Attempt to keep the stretch in the belly of the muscles. 

You may find it beneficial to sit on a cushion or a block as you do this stretch, especially if you’re very tight. 

Seated Twist or Ardha Matsyandrasana Variation

Keeping your spine mobile is essential to keep all the other parts of your body in top condition and twists are excellent for that. Since you’ll be coming from Paschimottanasana, seated forward fold, it’s easy to cross one leg over the other knee and wrap your opposite elbow around your opposite knee. Lift your spine as you inhale and give yourself a slightly deeper twist on the exhale. Hold this pose for 6–8 breaths on each side. You may choose to keep your other leg either extended on the floor or bent. 

This pose helps to lengthen and mobilize your spine while also stretching the deep and superficial muscles of the trunk and around the spine. 

Cobbler’s Pose or Baddha Konasana

One of my go-to poses for inner-thigh stretches. Stretching all the muscles in the legs are important, not just the hamstrings. Tight inner-thighs can make your knees track incorrectly which over time can cause knee, hip, and ankle problems.

Sit with your feet together. Inhale and lengthen your spine then exhale and fold forward toward your legs with your spine straight until you feel a moderate stretch. You may choose to round your back a little but try to bend through your hips more than bending through your spine. With each exhale you may go a little deeper. Like seated forward fold or Paschimottanasana, you may find it beneficial to sit on a cushion or block.

Lying Down Figure 4 Stretch 

This pose will add years to your life! 

Lie down flat on your back and cross one ankle over the opposite knee. Cross your right ankle over your left thigh, reach your right hand through your thighs, and clasp both hands around your left thigh. Hold this pose for 8–10 breaths. Switch sides. 

Rest or Savasana

Dedicated rest is too often overlooked but is essential for recovering your body and energy. After a long day of being out and about, and after even a short sequence of poses, give yourself 10–15 minutes (or more) to lie down and settle. You may choose to focus on your breath or set to memory all the beautiful things you experienced during your trek. Your body, mind, and spirit will appreciate it, not to mention your trail partner … especially if that trail partner has 4 legs. 

Now you’re ready for a day of exploring on your feet, be it a pilgrimage, a hike, or a walking through a city.

Drop me a line or comment below and let me know how you like this short sequence of poses. 

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If you’d like more of this, I’m offering an online yoga workshop on Saturday, April 29 from 9–11 am MDT (5 pm CET) where I’ll lead you through 4–5 short sequences like this that you can use every day to optimize your walking, hiking, and trekking. 

This class is perfect for all levels of yoga. 

You’ll leave feeling transformed in body, mind and spirit. Plus, you can take it with you wherever you go to maintain feeling amazing. 

We’ll start off with a few gentle warm-up sequences, follow up with some must-have stretching, grounding, and feel-good sequences, and finish with some luxurious cold-down and grounding sequences. We’ll have a decadent savasana and a Yoga Nidra so by the end you’ll feel like you’re floating on the clouds. 

Whether or not you join live, you’ll get the video and audio replay so you can take this class with you wherever you go. 

You’ll also get a PDF with the sequences that you can download (or print) and take it with you wherever you go. 

Register to join live on Zoom and/or get the replay so you can take it with you everywhere you plan to explore. 

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Lastly, if you’d like to join me for some in-person roof-top yoga, overlooking the Bay of Naples as we recover from some jaw-dropping jaunts around some of Italy’s most beautiful coastlines, join me at my Amalfi Coast yoga retreat May 27–June 2, 2023. 

There’s still room for you. 

I hope to see you on Saturday and happy hiking!

Best Business Hacks

What To Do When The Old Stuff Just Isn’t Working

Do you ever find yourself doing the same things over and over in your business but they just aren’t working, or maybe they did once but they don’t seem to be working now?

This happens to me all the time. I think it’s just part of being in biz for yourself. 

I want to share a few things that have really helped me when the usual things don’t seem to be working, things that might help you when things are slow, things that might help to put some mojo back in your business, some excitement back into what you do, and maybe even give you some insight for the future of your business.

But first, I want to share a story that inspired me to write this … 

There’s A First For Everything

A few weeks ago, I was surprised to see a hand-written letter sitting in my mailbox addressed in English to “The Moore Family.” 

No return address. 

No postage. 

Here in Nice, like most people’s mailboxes in France, only residents of our building and mail carriers can access our mailbox so I was quite perplexed by this letter. I opened it and read in tight, neat handwriting a truly heart-felt invitation for our family to attend a religious meeting to celebrate what the author asserted was the precise day that Jesus was born. It was signed by a woman who also included her warm regards as well as her email address.

It would have been easy to be annoyed by this letter—the disregard for my privacy, no return address, the kinda creepy spy tactics used to case my family—and toss it in the recycle bin and carry on about my day. 

But something compelled me to write her back. 

Maybe it was the care in which the author had hand-written the letter, maybe it was her zeal for her cause, maybe it was my morbid curiosity of learning of how she knew who we were, where we lived, and that we were, an English-speaking family living in France. 

So, I emailed her back.

I sincerely thanked her for her care in writing us the letter and for inviting us to this event which clearly meant a great deal to her. I wrote that while I was very grateful for the invitation, I’d previously attended enough religious meetings in my life to have developed a sort of allergic reaction to them and that my personal religious views centered around simply loving people regardless of denomination. I said that while I would not be attending her meeting, I nonetheless appreciated her for caring enough to invite us and offered a heart-felt sentiment of love and wellbeing toward her and her family. 

She wrote me back. 

She was absolutely thrilled to receive my email and said something that FLOORED me. 

She said that in the 15 YEARS … (I pause for effect) that she’s been leaving these hand-written invitations in people’s mailboxes, I was the very … first … person … EVER to actually respond to one of them. 

I mean, you gotta admire this woman for her unwavering faith and tenacity. I hope that by leaving these meticulously hand-written letters in strangers’ mailboxes she’s somehow racking up some bigtime heaven points which she can cash in for some celestial rewards like the eternal jacuzzi in the great beyond … or maybe a word processor. 

But at what point do you realize that the way you’ve been doing things … just … isn’t … working.

Why Rinse And Repeat Is So Essential

What’s true is that I relate to this woman. I relate because I’m the king of getting into a rut, doing the same damn thing over and over, wondering why business slows down. 

This is why “Rinse And Repeat” is an essential pillar to my business model and mentor training I call The Mechanism of Influence. “Rinse And Repeat” is about regularly going back to the drawing board and reevaluating or refining your business’s direction so that you continue to be passionate about what you do, continue to meet the needs of your clients, and continue to be relevant in your field. It’s about avoiding a rut. 

Here’s a few ideas I use that might also help you keep your business fresh and alive. 

The first step in “Rinse and Repeat” is to go back to the drawing board and ask yourself: 

• Who am I—what are my interests, skills, and qualifications, both tangible and intangible? 

• Have my interests, skills, or qualifications changed since I started my business? 

• What sounds most interesting or fun to ME right now?

Next, return to your avatar, the theoretical model of your ideal client and ask:

• Who is my ideal client—get really granular in understanding them, everything from age to income, and especially their needs?

• Have their needs changed in the last year or 6 months?

• What are their most relevant and urgent needs at this moment?

Brainstorm ideas about how to meet what you perceive as the needs for your client. There are NO bad ideas. If you stumble upon an urgent need of your client that meets up perfectly with something you’re REALLY interested in, this is a big win. It’s likely that your excitement alone will stir up some amazing energy for a new project and that will carry you into awesome opportunities. 

Next, do you have a secondary market product you could offer, i.e., the next level product for graduates of the first product?

If the economy is booming, develop more high-ticket offers and bundle products.  

If the economy is slow, keep the same value to your products but cut them into smaller, more affordable chunks so that people can either buy smaller versions or purchase the full product over time. For example, instead of offering a 100-hr training, break it up into 5 modular 20-hr trainings. 

Another idea is to look at what others in your industry are doing and get curious how you might adopt, adapt, or innovate what’s already out there. Also, look at what’s being offered and determine that product that is glaringly absent but deeply needed by your avatar, no matter how niche. 

Stop guessing and simply ask your clients what they need.

Lastly, do your best to try to anticipate possible changes in the industry or economy 6 months or a year from now and make a plan to take advantage of those changes. 

At the end of the day, whether you’re a teacher, coach, or selling widgets, nobody has written the manual for your business. You’re writing it, day by day as you get curious about the events that occur. Everything that happens in your business is just information. Evaluate that information and take the next best step in a direction you hope is right. If it’s fruitful, keep going. If not, change course until you find the one that is. 

Please, for the love of god, if what you’re doing is not yielding results, don’t wait 15 years. Instead, “Rinse And Repeat.” 

Regardless of how well things are going for you in this moment, I invite you to get curious about your business and conduct a “Rinse And Repeat” cycle to keep your business fresh. 

Elsa And The Easter Bunny

I have ZERO hesitation to admit that I’m a grown-ass man who has seen Frozen II like 6 times and I cry every…single …time. 

Without fail. 

Have you SEEN this movie?! It’s a total life-changer. 

I get so moved by this movie because it touches on themes very close to my heart:

• Healing by making amends with the earth 

• Healing my making amends with indigenous people

• Healing by affirming the power of women, including the divine feminine

• Healing by discovering the divinity that exists within all of us, but maybe in an unrealized way, and that sometimes, the old version of us must die in order to transform us into the version we are destined to become

Whether it’s Osiris, Jesus, Elsa, or the Easter Bunny, truly, I love any myth, story, or religious tradition that celebrates resurrection. 

I believe that birth, life, death, and resurrection is truly the story of our ultimate personal and collective evolution.

I think we can all understand this in both basic as well as metaphysical ways. 

I don’t know if you get more than one go around on this planet but I can tell you this: I feel like I’ve lived several lives within THIS life. I mean, I feel like I’m a completely different person than I was even just 10 years ago?

Can you relate?

I teach a live, online Yoga Nidra class every Sunday at 9 am MDT (5 pm CET) and since tomorrow’s Easter, I can’t wait to explore the theme of resurrection as we practice living, dying, and being reborn through the unfailingly relaxing yet transformational practice of Yoga Nidra. 

If you can’t make it live, no worries because you can still register and get the replay. 

Please consider joining me with a drop-in, buying a class pass, or becoming a subscribing member. 

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy a poem that has been very transformational for me. I hope you love it as much as I do. Tell me what you think. 

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The Layers

BY STANLEY KUNITZ

I have walked through many lives, some of them my own,

and I am not who I was,

though some principle of being

abides, from which I struggle

not to stray.

When I look behind,

as I am compelled to look

before I can gather strength

to proceed on my journey,

I see the milestones dwindling

toward the horizon

and the slow fires trailing

from the abandoned camp-sites,

over which scavenger angels

wheel on heavy wings.

Oh, I have made myself a tribe

out of my true affections,

and my tribe is scattered!

How shall the heart be reconciled

to its feast of losses?

In a rising wind

the manic dust of my friends,

those who fell along the way,

bitterly stings my face.

Yet I turn, I turn,

exulting somewhat,

with my will intact to go

wherever I need to go,

and every stone on the road

precious to me.

In my darkest night,

when the moon was covered

and I roamed through wreckage,

a nimbus-clouded voice

directed me:

“Live in the layers,

not on the litter.”

Though I lack the art

to decipher it,

no doubt the next chapter

in my book of transformations

is already written.

I am not done with my changes.

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Dogs and Hogs

I’m not a Luddite, but come on. It’s kinda scary what AI can do, especially as it relates to writing text on the internet. It’s also kinda cool. 

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, let me explain. These days a writer can pop a question like, “How can yoga help to calm your nervous system?” into a text generator on the internet and have AI pop out a ready-made text that you can use for whatever you want, like writing an article, newsletter, or blog post. At the very least, it can help you create a base for your text after which you can go back and clean it up and make it sound a little less like a Speak and Spell and little more like a human wrote it. 

I mean, who needs to learn to write well if AI can do it for you, right? 

Have you heard of this or are you already using AI to help you write online? 

True, putting relevant information out there about your subject might be helpful, and if we are writing just to add to the seemingly limitless information about your subject, chances are that AI is already doing it faster and better.

But only using AI to write sidesteps an enormous opportunity. 

Our great opportunity with our writing is not just to share information with the world but rather to share ourselves with the world through our words. 

Plus, AI will never be able to tell YOUR story. 

AI doesn’t know your history. It can’t constellate the different events of your life and weave them together into a greater and more beautiful tapestry of meaning. It can’t mold this meaning into a heart-felt story that you can share with the world to make relatability, connections, and relationships.

Today, I wanted to share an example of connecting the dots of what could be meaningless facts and exploring questions around those facts in an effort to choose or invent a greater meaning to those facts. 

Public Service Announcement: YOU GET TO CHOOSE THE MEANING OF THE EVENTS IN YOUR LIFE. In part, this is how we are co-creating our reality. 

“The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order, a timetable not necessarily—perhaps not possibly—chronological. The time as we know it subjectively is often the chronology that stories and novels follow: it is the continuous thread of revelation.”

— Eudora Welty

I wrote this story today and yesterday and I’ve purposely chosen to write a very personal story precisely because it is heart-felt and not something AI could do. My intention is both to show you my thought process of creating a story and also to demonstrate that through the writing process, I discover more about myself and make meaning to my personal history. I also hope to connect with you, heart to heart with something that maybe you can relate to as well. 

Speak and Spell, eat your heart out. 

Here’s the story …

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Dogs and Hogs

My older sister, Charity, was easy to love. 

She loved many things but above all, she loved dogs and hogs. 

Charity owned a litany of Golden Retrievers, each one legendary. 

First there was Sadie, mild and docile, until she saw a cat then she was positively possessed. Plus, Sadie had bad doggie breath, god bless her.

Then there was Shadow, an unruly male with fire in his eyes. It was a full-body workout just to walk him around the block—a lot of shoulders, triceps, and core work. 

Then there was Chase, cool (and as round) as a cucumber, a total rockstar amongst the kids in my sister’s neighborhood who would come to her house and ask if they could play with her dog so they could dress him up in costumes, ride him like a pony, or lay on him like a pillow. As long as he was getting a pet and people were involved, he was into it. 

Finally, to break up the long dynasty of Golden Retrievers, Charity owned a little white Cantonese named Suri, a happy lap dog who weighed 10 lbs soaking wet. 

Forever, my sister’s dogs were her kids and my other siblings and parents all treated her dogs like our nieces, nephews, and granddogs. 

Charity also loved Harleys. 

She loved the spirit of freedom and ruggedness of Harleys. A rebel at heart, Charity loved how Harleys slightly leaned toward lawlessness. The spirit she appreciated in Harleys, Charity also appreciated in men. The nickname for Harleys is hogs, an adjective also attributable to many of the men she dated. 

This lawlessness of motorcyclists isn’t unique to Americans. Oh, no. Now, this is completely my opinion, here, but one thing that I’ve noticed living in France, and my French friends largely agree with me on this, is that the attitudes of French motorists in general, but specifically motorcyclists, whether driving a Harley Road King or a Honda Trail 90, also exhibit a level of blatant lawlessness. Clearly the legacy of French car races like the Grand Prix is in their blood causing everyone on the road to emulate a Road Warrior persona, driving too fast and too aggressive, pedestrians be damned. If it means that I sound like a curmudgeon just because I get annoyed by dodging cars and motorcycles that are driving on the sidewalk or have to sprint with my family through a crosswalk (mon Dieu) just because Road Warrior can’t be bothered to slow down to less than Autobahn speeds, than so be it. 

I know, I know, I don’t need to have an opinion about it …. 

Somehow, I feel that Charity would more than likely snigger at and condone this moto-mayhem. 

Charity always did everything her way and no way was Charity going to ride on the back of someone else’s motorcycle. Being a fiercely independent woman, a self-learner, and because many of the men she dated were often even less reliable than their bikes, she bought and learned to ride her own Harley-Davidson—a silver Deluxe Softail with Screamin’ Eagle pipes and whitewall tires. 

She adored that motorcycle. 

Every year she would load up her hog on a trailer, attach it to an RV, and haul it from Salt Lake City, Utah to Sturgis, South Dakota to attend one of the biggest motorcycle rallies in the world. 

But one year while at Sturgis, her love for motorcycles died after witnessing a horrifying accident that killed another woman rider. Seeing this accident shook her hard and she resolved to park her bike on the trailer and sell it as soon as she got back to Salt Lake. 

For a year or two, her Harley sat in the garage gathering dust under her Cowboys on Motorcycles calendar.

Then one day, one of her less-than-reliable ex-boyfriends rolled by to say hi. He suggested they dust off her hog and go for a short spin. On this occasion she uncharacteristically rode on the back and uncharacteristically rode without a helmet. 

Not speeding, but taking a turn too sharply, a foot peg caught the pavement and flipped the bike, throwing her headlong into a large boulder on the side of the road, killing her almost instantly. Her ex-boyfriend sustained injuries but survived. 

Charity’s sudden and violent death was a massive shock to our family as well as her enormous wake of friends. We just weren’t prepared to lose her. 

Over many weeks and months, we gathered as a family and wrapped up her affairs including finding a home for her surviving dogs, Chase and Suri, who were generously adopted by some of Charity’s best friends.

I love Charity immensely but unexplainably, I felt numb about her death for about 18 months or so. I felt guilty about not feeling more than a little grief. I think that I just couldn’t wrap my mind and heart around it. 

But eventually, in my own time, I opened up and was able to properly grieve her death, which no doubt was the result of the healing work I’ve done with my personal meditation and Yoga Nidra practice. Oh, and a great therapist. That and I can’t forget the help of a shaman and a healthy dose of ayahuasca in the jungles of South America. 

It took a while but through all of this I came to realize that my relationship with Charity didn’t end. My friend, Tiffany Burns, is a fellow Yoga Nidra teacher, a River Writing facilitator, and the founder of Continuing Connections. It’s a business that uses Yoga Nidra and writing to help people who have lost loved ones to maintain and even improve their relationships with their past loved ones. In exploring how to use Yoga Nidra to deepen her work with her clients, she opened my eyes to understand that you’re not meant to “get over” someone who has passed. Rather, you get to create continuing connections with them in an ongoing dialogue of symbols, memories, and meaning making. 

I suppose that is what this story is all about. 

I loved Charity’s dogs but I didn’t feel like I was the dog-owning type. I mean, growing up, our family had a few dogs but the first one ran away and the second was hit by a car in front of our house. Both of these instances broke my heart and frankly traumatized me. So, not wishing to relive that all over again, I was quite content having doggie nephews and nieces and leaving the actual owning of the dog to others. 

Plus, there’s a metric shit-ton of dog doo to pick up. No thanks.  

My attitude changed after many months of convincing by Sen and Ellie. So, in December of 2022, our family adopted a beautiful and loving Australian Cobberdog. We named him Cosmo because the name came to Sen in a dream and if your wife gets a revelation that you’re supposed to name your dog Cosmo, you name your dog Cosmo.

Cosmo at 4 months, his adoption day.

Cosmo at 7 months.

We fell instantly in love with Cosmo and in the 4 months that we’ve owned him, we’ve had so many bonding experiences, whether it’s sitting with us at cafes, snuggling on the couch reading Elio bedtime stories, or spending time training him. One of Cosmo’s favorite things to do is to wake Elio up in the morning by going into his room and licking his face. As he is doing it, Cosmo’s so happy, his tail wagging so much, that you’d think it might fall off. He's undeniably a messenger of joy and happiness, so much so that I don’t even mind picking up the dog doo. 

Now here’s the scary part …

About two months ago, when Cosmo was only 5 months old and totally puppy-brained, we were on a walk with him en route to one of our favorite cafes here in Nice when, walking on the sidewalk next to a busy intersection, we encountered another dog on a walk with his owner. The dogs greeted each other like long-lost friends (brothers from another mother) and instantly began playing, hopping around, and pawing at each other. Immediately, the leashes of the two dogs became impossibly tangled. 

I was holding Cosmo’s leash but when the dogs started to tangle their leashes, Seneca who was opposite of me in the foray of ecstatic dogs, reached for the leash to help untangle them. In poor judgment, I let go of the leash thinking that she had it but she didn’t. Suddenly, without anyone holding his leash, Cosmo’s leash slipped from the knot. Feeling his leash untethered, Cosmo burst away from the cluster, drunk with freedom, several feet from where I could grab it. 

In his euphoria, he bolted blindly and at a dead sprint toward the busy street with oncoming traffic. We were horrified to see that a huge delivery truck was tearing down the street, fast and furious. Lawless. It was clear that Cosmo was in a trajectory to be hit by this huge truck. 

In the space of only one or two seconds, this nightmare was unfolding before our eyes and there was no way to grab his leash in time—we were completely helpless.

The oncoming delivery truck couldn’t see Cosmo because he was driving too damn fast and because his vision was blocked by a motorcycle that was parked (lawlessly) on the sidewalk perpendicular to the street, totally blocking any view of pedestrian traffic. I mean, who parks like that? Oh, yeah. The French do. 

But thank you, Angel of Lawlessness, because in a fraction of a second and by pure cosmic intervention, our dog’s untethered and flapping leash somehow wedged itself under the rear tire of the illegally parked motorcycle and within only a few inches before Cosmo met Road Warrior’s front wheels, the leash caught, yanking Cosmo to a dead stop, landing him flat on his back, dazed and confused. Road Warrior whizzed by down the street, completely unaware that he’d come within inches of plowing into our sweet dog.

It was an unmitigated miracle. 

My hands shook as I removed Cosmo’s leash from under the tire of the parked motorcycle and picked up my trembling dog from off the ground. I held him tightly against my chest and could feel our two hearts pounding from fear. 

Elio and Sen gathered around and we all loved on him and pet him reassuringly as we passed wide-eyed glances to each other sharing our wordless gratitude for our dog who was just miraculously saved from an untimely doggie demise. 

In the days following this event, Elio and I chatted during our walks to school, processing and making sense of the events of that terrifying moment. We decided together that clearly Cosmo must have a guardian angel. We decided that if it’s heaven’s law that you’re not supposed to meddle in the lives of the living, there must have been a rebellious angel up there who took things into her own hands to save our sweet dog. We decided that this angel could be none other than Charity because what other rebellious angel loves both dogs and hogs?

One motorcycle took a life and another motorcycle saved a life.

Thank you, sweet Charity. 

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What a great writing practice! Writing this has helped me profoundly to add depth and narrative to both my sister’s death and the near death of my dog. Again, the “history” is made in the interpretation of the events. That’s what’s true and real, or at least what really matters. 

Ok, so in Saturday’s workshop, I’ll show you how I fleshed out some pretty straight forward and neutral facts, then made some long-chain connections, and wove it all together to make a story with heart and meaning so that you can do this with your own stories. 

This online writing workshop is perfect for all levels of writers. It’s going to be empowering and fun as we explore the power and play of writing in a way that AI can’t. I’m going to give you templates for writing for your website, including your About Me page, impact statement, opt-in (valuable free offer) and how to write to establish yourself as an expert in your field. I’ll also give you tools to help you write simple, clear, and cogent blog posts and newsletters that speak directly to your clients’ needs. 

You can join live and/or watch the replay. I’ve also priced this to be very affordable so you have no excuse to put your ideas and stories out into the world. 

Remember that more than just adding information to the internet, your opportunity through writing is to share your story with the world. Learning to connect these dots between your life’s events and your ideas will add beautiful meaning to your life and connect your heart with your clients, students, and the world.