Day 185: The Truth About My Soul

I have sat in lectures talking about the Purusha and Prakriti that we are made of or all that we are. Until recently, I didn’t quite understand what that all meant. I didn’t have a spirituality not let alone a God or spiritual path. I didn’t understand fully that we are all God’s within.

This has changed the way that I look at people, good and bad. People are not bad. They make horrible choices and hurt people but this is not who they are. It was explained to me once in class that even the murderer is not bad. The murderer even has a soul. When you look at it this way, your enemies are not bad.

They don’t deserve any more negativity that they are not creating themselves. The negativity that they create themselves will torture them daily, nightly and may even torture them for lifetimes ahead. Why bother yourself with something that you have no business or control of? Distance yourself from the person doing bad and let them fall into their own pit of misery and despair.

You can free yourself from an abuser by leaving. You can free yourself from others’ gossip and rumors by knowing your own truth. You can free yourself from negative people by choosing not to associate with them. There is so much freedom that we forget we have when we feel trapped by circumstance, situation and environment.

The truth about my soul is that it is free from all of my experience and all that I even think that I am. The soul doesn’t change profession or emotions. It doesn’t experience sadness or happiness. It treats all of the emotions, experiences and people the same. The truth about my soul leaves me free from everything in this life.

Day 184: Peace

I don’t have to worry about people screwing me over because I no longer need their validation, certification or accreditation because I did what I should have done all along. I did it all myself. I have several huge projects coming up in the next 6 months that I’m extremely excited about.

I am going to be the Course Developer for a University in creating a yoga certification program to spread the knowledge of yoga globally. Without going into too much detail, I get to create videos, modules and the entire course curriculum for people all over the world to enjoy. Being nice to people all the time has more benefits than let downs. This is all possible through a connection I made in college that I have stayed in touch with. After traveling to India over the last 3 years, we finally met and this opportunity came about.

I am conducting yoga workshops in the United States in October. I will be teaching classes as well. Sometimes, I can’t believe that this all happening and so fast. I started traveling almost three years ago with so little to offer the world and now I am returning back to the United States full of life and ready to share my knowledge with the west. I get to keep my ties to India with possibly returning to India in February and March to continue my yoga journey with The Yoga Institute.

The point of all of this is to show that you can go through horrible times and feel hopeless. You can seek justice and realize that justice is not up to you. You can encounter horrible people with bad motives and they will make you out to the be in the wrong. My best advice to you is to stay true to your heart because when you do that, the world will eventually repay you tenfold.

Day 183: What Am I Afraid Of?

Looking at the emotion of fear lately has had me thinking about what I am really fearful of? When I acknowledge these fears, I am allowing myself to process these fears and move on. When you conquer or move on from your even fundamental fears you are freeing up space in your mind for other things. This things can be positive as conquering a fear is a huge accomplishment and should be celebrated adequately.

The thing that terrifies me the most is death. I won’t bungee jump or jump from an airplane because there is a chance to die. Just the other day, I wouldn’t inhale helium because it doesn’t belong in my body. My fear of dying actually quite cliche. I have so much to accomplished, I don’t want to be forgotten and I don’t want to die all alone. These things keep me awake at night sometimes because I constantly worry about not getting something done or working hard enough.

I used to be absolutely afraid of the dark. Even as an adult, I would like going outside. I still catch myself running inside from my car at night or running up the stairs from the basement. Aren’t all basements just creepy at night?

I don’t like deep water where I can’t touch my toes. The last time I was in Sri Lanka, I walked pretty far out into the ocean and had a fantastic time but there were several times that something would rub against my legs or toes. I would, literally, want to jump on the top of the water and run all the way to the shore. During my days in San Francisco, my friend Holly said that I needed to conquer this fear. She took my to the ocean at night. Now, I am not afraid of the water and the dark but am afraid of them separately.

Fear is a nervous system response. When your nerves are disturbed so is your mind. You can’t make solid decisions, properly digest food or get sufficient rest when your nerves are disturbed. I have been working on conquering these fears slowly and getting rid of the one-by-one.

Day 182: Giving Thanks

Showing gratitude has many forms. Some say that it is a surrender to God’s will. Some say that is letting go of ego. Some say it is bowing down to the Devine. I think it is all of these.

Today, I give thanks to Yogendraji, all of his disciples who then found other disciples and then for all of them for becoming teachers and filling me full of wisdom and seeds of knowledge. I had a conversation with a lady from France that said she doesn’t believe in God. With this, I think most people get confused about religion because of the imagery and the way that religion has become unchangeable and non-diversified.

Religion has changed time and time again over the centuries and is still changing. If you look at what Jesus would have really looked like, he wouldn’t be a white man with pale skin. He would be completely the opposite. Mary would look more like an Indian woman than a white nun. How do we find thanks in this?

Let people believe what they want to. Stop joining churches because your families and friends go there and form some basis of religion on your own. People don’t want to think for themselves and use church as a matter of appearance more than for spiritual healing and growth. I have learned more about my spirituality in the practice of yoga than I have in any church. With that said, I’m not saying that your way of worship or your beliefs are wrong. I’m simply stating that you keep your beliefs and if I’m still trying to figure it would, let me Do it on my own time.

Giving complete gratitude is surrendering to the God inside of you. You are the image of God. If there is nothing that sparks inspiration there, you can always go outside and take a deep breath. If that’s not a reason to be grateful, then I don’t know what is.

Day 181: No Matter What Anyone Does, It Doesn’t Matter

I have spent most of my life making a big deal out of people not doing their fair share or doing wrong.  I have done this to such extremes that I have burnt bridges and worked myself tirelessly to try make some sore of justice out the sheer pointless.  People will always do more or less than you just as people will do some things better or not as great as you.

The point here is that I have started to create a defense of indifference so that I don’t have negative feelings and don’t attract negative people or situations.  I have done well in India by surrounding myself with likeminded people or, sometimes, no one at all.  I have learned that quantity in friendships is most certainly not better than quality.  This camp has brought out some of the worse things in my personality and has brought to light some of my best qualities.

Age in India is not as predicable in India as it is in America but being older doesn’t always means being more mature or independent.  High school type cliques have been formed and small groups politics have insured.  I sat in a room full of adults that have all been complaining about each other completely lie regardless of people being on campus, at the different sessions or being present physically or mentally.  

On of our assignments is to observe one person that is attending the camp.  We read their positive points and see if there is any change in attitude regarding their thinking.  We also see how they are conducting themselves in the camp.  How can you observe someone if you are never around of available?  It doesn’t make any sense.   

However, I have been stepping back from my criticism of these people that haven’t taken as seriously their tasks of helping people in their lives.  It doesn’t matter how well they do it.  I remember always getting bad marks on exercising self control in elementary school.  Now, as an adult, I have to wonder if this now coming into my adult life.  I don’t have to worry about what anyone else is doing except myself. 

Day 180: Missing Nepal

I miss being on vacation.  Being able to drive wherever I wanted gave me such freedom and joy.  The clean mountain air was so good for my lungs.  The more I study yoga, the more I love being alone.  I enjoyed those silent moments that I had getting my coffee in the morning while the women were decorating the temples and idols on the corners.  

I miss having traffic with no horns.  I miss being able to what I want to do when I want to do it.  There was so much freedom in Nepal.  I am reminded of my trips to Amsterdam not talking to anyone for several days at a time.  Those moments are bliss.  Those moments are beautiful.  

I miss not having to rush to this place or that place.  I miss not having a timetable at all.  I miss my morning yoga sessions when the birds are chirping and the sun is just starting to rise.  I miss silence.  

I miss waking up in the morning and looking at a map and choosing a random direction to go explore.  I miss all of the food and the mint lemonade.  I miss not having any responsibility except to be vigilant for my own self and actions.  I miss Nepal.

Day 179: Letting Go

Over the past couple of days, I have been emotional. I have been wanting to burst out in tears looking out of the window in the morning while traveling in my Uber. I have had moments like today where I surprised myself by not caring what everyone thought and just simply let go. We had a dance teacher that completely changed the way I look at expression.

At first, I was telling myself that I would just sit this one out and observe. Then, she had us sit on the floor and do a dance with our hands. I started to feel the layers of self consciousness peel off during this first five minutes. This instructor was a dancer but also a captain for 6 years in the Indian Army. Her smile was infectious.

Then, the part that I dreaded came. She made us stand up and dance like our favorite bird. I chose a crow because there are so many of them here and I find their black color to be completely beautiful. After getting us warmed up she let us literally fly like a ‘drunken bird’ in our space. It wasn’t long before I forgot that there was anyone else in the room and I was flying in my space like a drunken crow.

I would be lying if I didn’t look around to see what my fellow volunteers and the camper were doing. It was absolutely beautiful. People that were completely silent in the camp were expressing themselves and spreading their wings like they were about to take off in flight. Some I believe, in their minds, were actually flying. These are the type of moments I live for.

We spend so much time of lives worrying what others are thinking about us. I was telling a couple of my classmates that I thought drinking at a club was the secret potion that allowed me to dance freely and not worry about the judgement of others. This was not the case. However, in a room where the lights were bright and I was completely sober, I shed any fear of what anyone thought. I learned to let go so much that I started to cry to know such freedom.

Day 178: Business vs Duty

While the business world is always searching for the bottom line, duty is doing what it has always been doing regardless of the outcome.  Worrying about what people think, say or do is constantly affecting the business world while duty is business as usual regardless of weather, feelings or fruits.  What happens when these two collide?  I’m having a hard time grasping what a world looks like when the definitions of both of these are different yet people, all the time, try to make them the same.

Today was a rough day for me.  I went through so many emotions.  It all started when one of my fellow volunteers embarrassed me in front of the entire camp.  Even before that this guy was working my nerves by micromanaging every action.  

I was put in charge of making a list for Karma Yoga duties and splitting the campers into groups.  I was asked repeatedly if the list was made.  I finally asked if the person wanted to make the list as well.  It didn’t help that my group was never informed of an orientation that took place before the camp where everyone learned the ins and outs of the workings of the camp.  However, I was already frustrated.  

Then, after the second day, there was an upset between some of the campers that one of their duties was to clean the toilets.  The volunteers made a bigger deal about it than the campers.  Long story short, my leadership position was taken from me.  I was informed that we never make the volunteers clean the toilets.  I’m offended at this point because who is above cleaning a toilet?

After this entire ordeal, I was livid for about an hour and a half mainly because my embarrassment that I had people do something that they were never supposed to do.  My biggest frustration was that the guy that kept asking me for the Karma Yoga list, could have said all along that they were not to clean the toilets.  I was using the duties that the instructor had told me to have them do.  

This fellow volunteer also explained to me that out of the 7 day camp about 8-10 of them were expected to enroll in the Teacher’s Training Course.  If they want to be teachers and have a problem cleaning a toilet, I want nothing to do with them or their class.  I grew up in a family business.  I have cleaned puke, poop and many other things off walls, floors and toilets.  To have someone say, and apologize, to people for having them clean toilets is not only defeating the purpose but what kind of teachers are they producing?

Day 177: Sincerity

The lack of sincere people in this world is unfortunately becoming less surprising everyday.  The lack of sincere people in this world actually is having people reject people that are truly sincere.  Anyone who encounters a sincere person looks at them through a lens of disbelief or caution.  If we lack this inherent sincerity as culture throughout the world, what are we left with?

People go to job that they completely despise.  They look at themselves in the morning wondering how did they get where they are.  Why didn’t they live out that dream of becoming a Broadway singer?  Why didn’t they make that choice that could have changed their life forever?  Why weren’t they discovered for all the talents they possess?

All of these statements are a wrong way of thinking.  They are all containing a feeling of regret or a state completely opposite of being charismatic. When things are supposed to happen, they do.  Commonly, successes are forced without sustainability.  When your goal is to make quick money, it goes away just as fast as it comes.  

Anything worthwhile is not easy.  Artist spend entire lifetimes creating artwork that is never seen while they are alive.  Could you imagine what Picasso would think about one of his paintings selling for what they do or having a whole building dedicated to his paintings and drawings.  It must be absurd to him watching from wherever he is.  

Sincerity is doing whatever it is that you love not because it is going to get you somewhere or something.  People are motivated by money, drugs and really anything material.  If you are saying that you are doing what you love and you are more worried about your bank account, then you are doing it all wrong.  A friend of mine  once said that it is bullshit that people do stuff out of their hearts and not for money.  He eventually lost everything and had to scramble for housing.  

Day 176: Preconceived Notions

Before I went to volunteer at this camp, I already had made up in my mind how everything was going to go.  My previous health camp volunteer experiences were very upsetting.  I had this idea that because I was doing my job right in every detail that everyone else should do the same.  I have had this problem mainly because growing up making sure that my sister or, as we got older, my brother would do everything they were supposed to.  Otherwise, we would have to deal with the discipline of my father and cause tension between our mother and him.  

This serial codependency lead me to look for relationships with people that I would have to keep track of.  I made friendship that weren’t friendship because they were usually one-sided.  I dreaded being in group settings because no one would do their job the way I expected them to.  These expectations are unrealistic.

Today brought about a change after a teacher asked me what was a trigger to stress for me.  I told her that people who say their committed to one things but do another completely stress me out and, honestly, piss me off.  Her solution to this was astounding.  She told me that I can’t expect anything out of human beings because it is human nature to say one thing and mean another.  

She also told me that my expectation of people holding their commitments was more my problem than the person not holding their end of the bargain.  I was lost for a second but then relieved because knowing that this causes me stress and that I’m the one causing it makes it really easy to let this go.  I don’t want to be stressed and I don’t want to hate people.  Let them be as they are uncommitted and humans.

I have had such a problem with this because I built friendships like pacts.  Although we should build friendships in this way knowing that a friend has our back.  We shouldn’t place this unrealistic expectation on them to be perfect.  I cannot claim this perfection label myself so why would I place it on anyone else?  Don’t expect anything out of people not even for them to be their word and the disappointment will be less and you’ll be happier.  

Day 175: Letting the Love In

Today, we have a session at a camp that I am volunteering at that dealt with letting go of emotions.  The teacher explained that laughter and crying are two sides of the same coin.  She said that sorrow and happiness are two side of that same coin.  I had a profound experience in this workshop as a volunteer. 

There was one person that everyone in the group was lacking compassion with.  We were all pointing out the things that she was doing wrong.  She wasn’t being engaged with the rest of the group.  At one point, she walked in front of the entire group while the session was going on, unplugged her phone and walked back to her place in the back of the room with her face buried in the phone.  After she walked out I followed her.  

People are not bad.  When people are being perceived as bad, we often forget that they must have forgotten their importance or, maybe, they have some serious stuff happening that won’t allow her to be calm and loved.  So, I followed her to the stairway and asked her if she was ok.  Of course she told me that she was ok.  Then, I asked her if she was present to her actions.  She stared and me blankly.  She obviously was not. 

I told her what I had observed.  I watched her walk in front of a room full of people that we had told not to be on their phones.  Then, after that walked with her phone back in front of all those people to sit down in the back of the room to bury her face in her phone.  I explained to her that the volunteer team needed her.  At this point, my frustration was second to the importance of her understanding that she is valued and loved.  

By the afternoon session, she was dancing and smiling.  I have no idea if my interaction influenced this but it made me so happen to she her smile and have a good time.  She has been pacing around the room for 2 days with her phone in her hand checking her email.  People need to know that they are loved.  It is our job to make sure that they can’t forget that.  

Day 174: Standing on the Top of Mountain and Climbing Back Down

During my trip to Nepal, I rented a scototer and went to Shivapuri National Park.  This trip was incredible for several reasons but the most important was that fear can motivate you.  It can make you feel like a badass.  It takes moments like these to know that you are alive.

My friend Ronson told me that it was my day to lead in regards to where we were going to go.  We swapped SIM cards and immediately my Indian phone because a Nepali phone.  Google Maps was going to lead us to magical places with experiences that I never would have dreamed of.  Traveling on roads through a big city like Kathmandu was like driving on very remote country roads in the US.  

We went to see a place called Jhor Waterfall first.  This place was completely beautiful.  I am man was dancing like he was high on the presence of God and children were running in and out of the waterfall.  There was a cave that was actually a temple.  A woman there was very concerned that I would get inside and take pictures so I only went to the opening to peek inside.  The ceilings were very low.

After our experience there, we went on to the National Park.  At the top, we greeted by a man that charged me 1800 NR while my friend Ronson enjoyed a fee of about 400 NR.  This nationality discrimination was common on this trip to where my friend and I eventually started making jokes about it.  After we paid our fee, we found a nice place to just enjoy the mountain scenes and take it all in.  

The ride back was intense.  We realized that after we had reached the bottom of the mountain that the sun was setting and their was no way that we could navigate the roads, in their condition, in the dark.  We spent 5 hours driving back into Kathmandu in the dark on some roads that horrible and some that were smooth, blacktop surfaces.  We drove into the city the same way that our bus had taken so knowing how steep the cliffs were in come areas and riding on the edges of them was exhilarating.  

After we reach back to our AirBnb, the adrenaline was running through our body.  We both felt such a sense of accomplishment and joy that we made it back in one piece and alive.  I had never done anything like that in my life and would definitely do it again.  When you don’t have a plan, anything is possible.  When anything is possible enjoy the journey because the road that you are on will have sinkholes, smooth surfaces and parts that are just rock and mud. 

Day 173: You Don’t Have to Fight

There are many things going on in the world that are splitting it in two.  Politics, news stories or even drag queen reading to children to spread diversity can cause a rift in entire communities.  The most important thing is to keep level head.  You have to realize that someone is just as entitled to their opinion as you are to yours.  You don’t have to fight.

Donald Trump has been a title of discussion all across the world.  His controversial presidential style has cause a lot of debate of fitness for office, theories that the president is conspiring with foreign governments to if his wife has a stunt double at some public events.  While all of this is truly happening.  We don’t need to fight to prove which side is right and which side is wrong.  Look at the facts always and don’t judge them.  A moral compass is not hard to find with people that are rational.

With polarized news channels such as CNN and Fox News fanning the flames of the debates surrounding the American president, it is hard to weed out the truth as both are leaning to one side or the other at times.  If the goal of our president was to destroy the conventional way of our media, he has certainly succeeded in this job.  Even I have a hard time listening to news commentators voicing their opinions rather than reporting news.  People fight over which facts to believe and which to not believe.  Facts should always be facts.  

Recently, in my hometown of St. Joseph, MO, a drag queen was asked to read some stories to children at a downtown library.  People instantly turned to petitions and social media to voice their opinions about what is right and wrong.  This news story supposed the engagement of the stories surrounding our St. Joseph School District being plagued with fraud.  I don’t even know how this is possible but it is completely fascinating.  Plain and simple, if somethings not for you, move on.

The world today is anger and likes to fight.  However, everyone in this world wants to stand on a mountain taller than the next person.  There is not a single person that is above giving everyone the utmost respect.  Somewhere along the way, we have lost that.  We have lost the silent agreement that we are supposed to treat everyone like human beings.  

Day 172: Dealing With Difficult People

While today was rough, it was also a valuable learning lesson.  I was mad and upset but was able to be with it and overcome it.  Admittedly, I shut down for some time trying to figure out where this anger comes from, I realized that the person I was mad at is the same person I’m mad at in other situations.  Patrick, Brittany, Angela, Robert, Sara, Dwight and the list could go on and on.  However, today, I set myself free from those people because they can no longer embarrass me or make me feel less the. them.  

This gentleman I had a problem with saw a situation completely different than me, accused me of ordering him around and tried to play the victim just like all the people that I mentioned above.  They talked about me behind my back like all of those people as well.  My EGO was hurt because they talked about me behind my back.

When I was analyzing all of this, I started to think that it was all ridiculous that because I was embarrassed, I wanted to make this man into a bad man.  I wanted to yell that he was wrong and that I was pissed because I don’t like to be micromanaged.  Notice how many I’s are in the last few sentences.  I wanted for this guy to say that he was sorry for putting me in the situation that I was in.  I have already explained that expecting anything out of anyone is not realisitc.  

When you expect out of people you cause yourself more pain.  When you cause yourself more pain, start to fester with negativity.  When you fester with negativity, then comes disease.  I am genuinely a nice guy, but I am also human.  I make mistakes.  I also hurt people just by being who I am.  

We all do this.  We all harbor an embarrassment that we suffered from a long time ago.  This will happen over and over until you decide that it’s time for this cycle to end.  You will hurt people and retaliate.  You will lose friendships.  The next time you get upset sit with yourself and try to find out what is really making you upset.  Most of the time it will be because when you were 5 years old you didn’t get your way and you are still mad about it.  

Day 171: How to Let Go Even When You Know You Are Right

In life we are handed many things, but the most frustrating is dealing with people who do you wrong and having nothing to do about it.  I’m not talking about things that people have done to you illegally.  Those that wrong you on the side of law breaking will always have justice served to them one way or another.  I’m specifically talking about people who spread lies about you, fall off the radar without any closure or reason or take things from you like your sanity or things that have no monetary value.  

In my case, I have learned that the most simple thing to do is to free yourself form any thoughts of retaliation or the situation completely.  I had a mentor once that told me, ‘This may be happening to you personally, but it’s not personal.’  You might be asking yourself what that even means.  

As a breakdown things that happen to you personally are things that happen to you.  A person cuts you off on the road.  A friend spreads rumors about you.  You might get scammed out of $15,000 from someone that you thought you could trust.  These are all things that may have personally happened to you.

The second part of that statement is to not take those things personally.  The person that cut you off on the road probably didn’t even realize that he/she had done that.  Your friend may have spread those lies about you so that the feel or make themselves look better.  The person that scammed you out of $15,000 may have needed that money more than you.  

You may never know what someone’s motives are but those motives are none of your business.  It doesn’t matter if that person cut you off because you are above reacting to it.  That friend that spread rumors about you isn’t really a friend so why waste anymore efforts in that direction.  The hurt you feel from someone scamming you out of money may be real and very personal.  Know that your life is better without having involvement with any of them.  Sometimes, that’s the only blessing.

Day 170: Yoga & The Life of a Modern Yogi - Pt. 4

A modern yogi is often not guided by a guru. The guru system is lost on these younger generations especially as you head out west because people don’t feel that paying money to someone to guide them doesn’t have value. We live in a world where RuPaul, Oprah and Donald Trump can all be claimed as gurus. They all have books that people follow religiously. RuPaul’s latest book is titled - GuRu.

While a don’t discredit their influence and ability to create change, I don’t think it is possible for them to be personal gurus to people that they have never met. I could even self publish a book tomorrow and claim all sorts of things and be labeled as a guru to someone. It doesn’t make any sense to follow just one person because in the world today there are billions of people. In the classical yoga days, there were not as many people populating this Earth as we know it today.

A modern yoga has to fight through more negativity than a classical yogi. The world is generally a negative place so much so that their are Facebook pages and Instagram accounts solely devoted to positive quotes. I even write quotes on the whiteboard every morning with something positive to start my own day out right but hopefully inspire someone else to think the same way. I hear about it when I don’t write them so there is some enjoyment being had when I do write them.

A modern yogi has more challenges with man-made distractions while a classical yogi has more distractions that are nature-made. Today, there are notifications for everything on our smart device. However, they make us less smart. As modern day yogis, we are constantly bombarded with food, advertisements, ways of communicating and technology. We have to make conscious choices to disconnect with the outside world and go within. We have to be ok with not knowing what is going on at home or with our children.

A modern day yogi has to make a choice for themselves if something is right or wrong. We live in a world where nothing is as it seems. If someone believes that the sky is red and not blue we have to look at that person and say, ‘ok.’ We have to swim through life’s daily routines to be able to do what we want. We have to have a website, Instagram and Facebook for anyone to know who you are. A modern day yoga has more noise to try and muddle through to get a clear sense of who they are. Yoga is what it has been for centuries and it will continue to try to evolve for centuries to come.

Day 169: Yoga & The Modern Life of a Yogi - Pt. 3

When we think of what a modern day yogi eats, we think of a very skinny vegan going to yoga class and drinking a green smoothie with no added sugar with almond or walnut milk. During my visits to Los Angeles, I would have to say that it is the most warped idea of what yoga is. It almost like to say that you do yoga is to say that you are cool. Most of these ‘yogis’ are not yogis at all just twenty-somethings living in their parents house and smoking pot without any regard to Shiva during the day. Then at night, they are this raging party animal snorting or ingesting anything they can get their hands on in the name of mind expansion.

First, you don’t have to be a drug user to feel the effects of mind expansion. Do an hour of Pranayama and I guarantee you will feel better than any of the drugs that I have experienced. Festivals like Burning Man and other music festivals are crawling with these people. I am not judging them for their views or their own practice, I just know that they are not for me. Different things work for different people, but I don’t think drugs are a requirement for opening your mind.

While now a wide range of food is available that is organic, raw and farm fresh, I want to compare back to the time of the classical yogi. At this time, there were no factories making prepacked meals. People weren’t washing and chopping your lettuce and placing them in a biodegradable container made out of corn. It was your mother, mother-in-law or some other family member washing and cutting your vegetables. The modern yogi can’t appreciate nature because there is a lack of connection to nature. We treat life like a vending machine. I want this. I want that. We receive it, consume it and throw it away.

How can a modern day yogi be ok with all this lack of connection to people, nature and food? We do the best we can to be the best people we can be with respect to our duties. We have a more limited view of how the world works but feel that we are at the center of it all. It isn’t until this mindfulness training happens that the ego is lifted but we are constantly in a state of flux. We check our moderation. We make sure that we are nice to people. We practice and/or teach asana so that is qualification enough to the common man to count us as modern day yogis.

The drive for a modern day yogi has to be in high gear to want to achieve even Pratyahar not let alone Samadhi. In the life of being a modern day yogi, you have to be willing to be open-minded that everyone is right from their own perspective. You have to teach yourself to be secure with thoughts, feelings and actions. A modern day yogi have to differentiate between yoga being a physical exercise or a life exercise because both are right. It doesn’t matter if you are practicing everyday or just one time a week, mindfulness can happen at both levels.

Day 168: Yoga & The Life of a Modern Yogi - Pt. 2

We ended the last post about truth and fact in regards to the Life of a Modern Yogi. You have to wonder sometimes if, for the sake of yoga, it is important to have rules and guidelines. Or, is it ok to just let everyone run wild with an idea that many women and men spent entire lifetimes to create and mold, while a twenty something can receive their 200-hour certification and become a guru to thousands. What siddhi is that?

On one hand I’m proud of the twenty-something and extremely happy that someone that age has taken to yoga in their life. If I would have found yoga in my earlier days, I can’t even imagine how my life would have turned out. On the other hand, who is to say that this younger person has more knowledge from previous lifetimes and this is their time to shine. Keeping this in check is very important to a modern yogi. It is also very confusing because in a world where everything is labeled and classified, yoga stresses about not being too rigid and being open-minded.

Coming back to social media, how do we know that these followers are all real? With services that can get you as many followers as you want, you can easily deceive people into thinking that you have a huge following. However, the only people that you truly know is your mom and aunt who love you very much. This goes for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Bogus followers that don’t validate any skill or ability just a perception.

For example, take Natasha Noel, who I admire because I know her personally, but do not enjoy her social media practices. She promotes body positivity and helps people that suffer from abuse. Let me just say that these are fantastic things to do in the name of yoga. However, I have to wonder if part of her own recovery has brought on an ego sense that she is not completely aware of. Let me say again that I completely love her but just feel that she is way more genuine in person than on social media.

For the modern yogi, the business of yoga is all about the money. Can you go back again and imagine a world before the word business was create. Yoga was a lifestyle. I feel that yoga has become a marketing term used in the health and wellness to cover mind, body and spirituality. It is a blanket term that is thrown around to make people seem like that have everything together. Also, it is a justification for those people that just wear yoga pants all day everyday.

Day 167: Yoga & The Modern Life of a Yogi - Pt. 1

Studying yoga can bring a lot of idealistic thoughts about our way of life. The great yogis that we are studying about had a different world that they lived in. Can you imagine a world without automobiles or cell phones? Can you imagine a world where the music didn’t come through your earphones and the only way to have music was to have someone physically create it? Can you imagine going back to a time where all you had to do was exist and your existence was enough?

Yoga and Modern Life of a Yogi has a completely different meaning unless you are willing to leave everything as you know it and go into the mountains to sit in a meditative posture under a tree for hours and even days. Most of my classmates can’t go an hour without having their phone right next to them. Imagine being so detached from your children that you could go an entire day while you were doing your duties without having to check and make sure that they were ok.

Since we are on the subject of detachment. The modern yogi takes this as a way to let go of all the negativity in their life. While that’s a great way to start because it will open the door to so many other things, it is important to keep in mind that detachment is from all things. During my Advanced Course, I have learned not only to detach from the things that cause me pain but also to detach from the things that bring me joy. Often the things that I enjoy cause me more pain than the things I dislike.

A modern yogi has to deal with a world that is set up to feed their ego. You are conditioned to think that to be a successful yogi is that you need to twist and bend into all sorts of different shapes, have over a million followers on Instagram and be doing retreats in Bali for $6,000. While you can twist and bend into very beautiful or honestly bizarre shapes, do you know the real benefits of doing those particular asanas? You have a million followers on Instagram so you have to post pictures to know that you are enough bu them double tapping your photos. When they don’t you die a little inside. You do retreats for $6,000 a head while teaching people very little about what yoga really is. You spend all day talking about detoxing and ‘meditate’.

I once had a mentor that did podcasting that would do meditation on his podcast and in group retreats. This person couldn’t sit still for more than 2 seconds and doesn’t even have a clear mind while he is sleeping. The modern yogi has to be mindful of the knowledge that they except as truth. Truth and fact can have different meanings. Fact can be too academic but truth is universal and absolute.

Day 166: Driving is Freedom

In Nepal, as a tourist, you can drive a scooter anywhere. I feel most sad about leaving my home in the U.S. when I have to keep my keys in the jar at the front desk. So, when I got my keys and helmet there was no stopping me. Cozy Nepal set up the arrangement for the scooter and they delivered one directly to the hotel. I didn’t have to negotiate or haggle like everything else. It was a flat rate and since I booked my room through AirBnB they had my passport information already.

Since they only had one scooter through that service, we had to rent another scooter through B.S. Bikes in Thamel , Kathmandu. Again, Cozy Nepal sealed the deal by getting the price and everything arranged for us. We went to pick up the scooter and my friend being an Indian didn’t think that he needed his passport. Thankfully, I had mine with me. Previously, in Sri Lanka, it was standard to leave your passport with the scooter owners and then get it back when you return it. Without hesitating, I left my passport with them and we were soon on the road.

Driving a scooter is an amazing feeling especially in a foreign city. You are seeing things that wouldn’t ordinarily see in a car or van and the breeze feels amazing. I didn’t pack sunscreen so the tops of my hands are a little sunburned but nothing like the sunburn I had in Sri Lanka. We drove around Kathmandu. We zoomed through the old markets of Patan Durbar Square and Kathmandu proper Durbar Square. I was able to stop and take pictures as I wanted to without asking permission to stop. It’s these little things that give you freedom.

After a full day on the scooters, we were hesitant about where to park our bikes as the rental place warned that the bikes are fine during the day but are at risk during the night. Since my passport was tied to one of the bikes, I was scared to leave the bikes anywhere. Luckily, the owner of Cozy Nepal was loading his bike up and instructed us to park our bikes inside the courtyard where we were staying. Another high five to Cozy Nepal because they are freaking rock stars.

I am not used to an AirBnB being so accommodating. Usually, I never even meet the owner. Cozy Nepal has an entire staff with housekeeping. The owner is an architect that built the property after the 2015 earthquake that shattered much of the historical areas of Kathmandu. The staff has even offered to do our laundry. While this is just the beginning of this trip, I am already blown away by the hospitality that they have given and the lack of obstacles that we have had regarding our stay. Thank you, Cozy Nepal.