Training Your Body Is Training Your Mind
Mind & Meditation | Self-Cultivation | Strength Training | Yoga
I enjoy moving my body in a variety of ways: trail running, climbing, weight training, biking, swimming, mountaineering, playing games, etc. I find it satisfying to experience the challenges that these activities present and the strength, speed, agility, and skill required to manage those challenges. Some days the challenges feel more inspiring than others, but the idea is to always strive for improvement in some way. About 9 years ago, I began to wonder if there were ways to train the mind to be more flexible, creative, pleasurable, and less irritable. To my delight, I found several wonderful tools to train my mind. What surprised me was that training my mind made me question how I trained my body. I began to wonder if the “more is better”, “always strive for improvement”, “good things come to those that suffer”, “go hard or go home” mentality that accompanied my physical training was necessary to achieve my goals. I also wondered if there are consequences to training within that context.
Then my heart-light flipped on. Here’s why. The brain is very much like skeletal muscle in that it adapts according to how it is or is not being used. The parts of your brain that you use a lot get bigger, richer, and more fortified. The basic structures of the brain (neurons) can change size and how they connect to each other based on when and how much they are used. Read more…
Readers note: this is one of my favorite articles, and in my opinion, one of my best. However, this article was turned down by several magazines. At first I could not figure out why. I have been writing articles for many magazines for years (see bio) and I know a good article when I see one..if I say so myself. Then it hit me. The article goes against what the mags think people want to hear about their protein products. Soy has been bashed for so long, and the market for other proteins like whey has becomes so big, that they didn’t want any article showing soy in a positive light. Once an industry or an individual has set a position on something, they would rather ignore new evidence to the contrary then change their position. As for me, if I find new information on something that alters my position, that’s fine by me. I just change it to reflect the new information, which is exactly what I had to do with my view on soy proteins. The article did finally get published in MuscleMag International. MMI might have its faults, but they are one of the most open minded and flexible magazines and didn’t have any problems with publishing this article with them. Hope you all find it useful. Read more…
The way you choose to experience an event will determine how destiny unfolds from that event forward. Reactions within yourself become an expression of internal mechanisms brought into outer manifestation. The seeds of your future are being planted by you in every moment, in every reaction, with or without awareness. It is simply that with awareness you can have some positive effect on the outcome and positively affect destiny.
There are many ways to experience any event or experience in your life. What we suggest you seriously consider as a response is what we call “the highest expression of choice” – identifying that internal alignment or attitude within yourself that allows you the greatest level of awareness, the greatest level of choice, and the highest level of vibratory resonance with your unfolding destiny.
The highest expression of choice has to do with what you would call, the use of compassion. In compassion you are coming from an understanding that all are evolving to the best of their capabilities at any given moment. It is the understanding that people make what appears to be the best choices for themselves or they make what appears to be very bad choices for themselves. Nonetheless, that choice-making is their free will, just as you have your free will. So in those moments of your frustration, sadness, anger, blame, or whatever arises within you – the attitude of compassion allows you to shift those emotional responses inside yourself to an attitude of acceptance. Read more…
No matter how long you have been studying yoga, starting and maintaining a personal home practice is a challenge. Aside from family, work and other life obligations that beckon you away from the mat, there are other obstacles that loom. There is the decision to make of what poses to do today, what order to do them in, what type of practice to do, what to emphasize, what to pass on, the worry of “am I doing it right?”
Stand upon your own altar and let every pose become a prayer and an offering.
The sequencing of yoga poses within a practice session is an art form. When you attend a class, you simply follow the guidance of your teacher trusting that s/he knows best. But what to do on your own at home? There are certain styles of yoga such as Bikram or Ashtanga Vinyasa that use set sequences, however even hardcore followers of such styles might benefit from occasionally deviating from the tradition and giving their body a chance to free itself from its normal patterns of movement. Read more…
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