Over the past few years, I've focused a lot of my attention on losing weight and living a healthier lifestyle. In fact, I'm pleased to say that I've lost 100 pounds and have, for the most part, kept the weight off.
In addition to a passion for long distance bicycle riding, I am a yogi. Actually, as of June 23, 2009, I have been practicing yoga, every single day (or night) for five years. I have not missed a single day of practice--not one. Now, some of my yoga practices have been shamefully abbreviated, but overall, I've been very dedicated to the practice. I started practicing yoga at a moment in which I realized that I needed to increase my physical agility, strenght and balance. Like many people in the western world, my motivation for doing yoga was purely for the physical health benefits. Little did I know that yoga held much more in store for me.
I mostly practice yoga alone. However, I've been attending classes with Crystal from Blue Heron Healing Arts (www.blueheronhealingarts.com) for many years. She has not only helped me with continuously improving my yoga postures, but has also become a good friend and teacher in many areas. Part of participating in Crystal's yoga classes always includes an amazing "relaxation period" at the end of class. Like most of Crystal's students, I've always enjoyed the chance to "mentally check out" at the end of class. It's kind of like the icing on a big yoga cake!
The more familiar I have become with yoga, the more I have become interested in the more spritual aspects of the practice. I have used the book The Deeper Dimension of Yoga: Theory and Practice by Georg Feuerstein as a reference for several years. It explains how yoga postures were originally intended to help yoga spiritual practitioners become more capable of sitting for long periods of time to meditate. As I learned more about the spiritual aspects of yoga, I decided that many of the teachings of non-duality and inter-connectedness of all creatures made a lot of sense. As I was raised in a very rural area, in a farming community, I was keenly aware of the interdependence of people, plants, and animals and the need to share resources and each other's understanding of how the world works. Much of what I read about the spiritual aspects of yoga made complete sense to me, but didn't require me to make any sort of spiritual or religious shift in thought. These concepts were just new ways to describe some of the universal truths that I have always believed and felt. It never occurred to me, though, that they weren't always an exact match for what I had learned in Sunday school every week.
Next time... is Howard Stern a Lama?
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