Gearing up to start a wellness program consisting of yoga, meditation, resistance training, book work, and feed 9 students lunch with the help of my new friend and yoga teacher, Shawn, I just wanted to reflect on how I got here and why.
When an American hears ‘yoga’ they are probably thinking of a women’s stretching class but that is window dressing from what lies at the heart of it, which is a yoking of inner and outer worlds. Yoga is a ‘practice’, you don’t do yoga, you practice it but not for a game, deadline, or some 3rd dimensional goal; but to form a bond between what is seen and unseen creating cohesiveness, a flow through poses and breath. It only took me years to figure out or accept what had been there the whole time by putting myself into practice.
My journey began after my 2nd MS attack on the Appalachian Trail and it was recommended to help with the flareups and discomfort of MS. The more I read and searched I came across Diamond Dallas Page, WCW former Champion, yoga program, DDPY. Watching him transform other wrestlers such Scott Hall was epic! So I ordered the DVD and did those workouts religiously mirroring my mother sweating to the oldies growing up.
After a couple months there was a significant difference in my ability to stretch and hold poses, I thought would be impossible, like being able to hold my foot on one leg outstretched. Even though I watched those videos over a hundred times DDP always brought flavor with his personality declaring, “this isn’t your mama’s yoga.” He made jokes about chanting in his grizzly voice but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t praised yoga for saving his life and so he had to share it with the world; and it found me. Thanks Page.
I have a background in gyms doing sales and training (ACE cert.) but it wasn’t until 4yrs. ago I entered into a yoga teacher training program that I got the other side of what Americans would associate yoga with. I had gone there for help with my meditations and signed up for 200hrs to become certified to teach. Too be honest I don’t think anybody needs a piece of paper to convince a client that they have their best interest, knowledge, and spirit at heart. Use the Force, you know if somebody gives a shit and is passionate.
I was naïve as I entered the 1st class and it hit me that I would be the only male, something that wasn’t at top mind awareness I suppose because I looked to Dallas. The program was rigorous with sessions on Saturday and Sunday, 8hrs each once a month but I was open, wanting to connect with someone who understood what I was going through spiritually. Luckly or by vibration I met Tiffany and I knew she was one of us. She helped me get certified after I failed to complete the in-person training and still listens and advises me regularly. Thank you, Henderson.
The classes and instructors I went through were hit or miss. Either I’d have a sensation I’d never experienced, my mind would get information that enlightened, or it could be straight torture. Everyone felt shy when we were asked to chant, sing in Sanskrit, or teach the class for a couple moves but it got much easier as the months past. The music that played was not my cup of tea, I guess a metaphor for it was house music that never hits that big break; I think it lacked the vibration I was seeking. Although when Suzy, the owner, played guitar and sung it was special.
It wasn’t until halfway through the program that the ‘yoking’ was finally practiced. The instructor made us face the opposite direction we usually would and had us hold poses for prolonged periods. I was in down dog, eyes closed, losing myself in breath when it folded over to what meditation was like for me; colors and shapes downloading, tranquility. I believe this is what most of us are searching for when we come to practice but without first learning how to breathe and meditate it’s an uphill climb. It’s simply solidified as a stretching class, boring!
I was introduced to many teachers but it didn’t seem to me that most would go on to teach and make a living or a dent. Too me, $20 for an hr. class will not yield a consecutive following weekly. It’s simply to expensive and beginners need more value to justify their time. Sure the top 10% of my instructors were successful but the others did it because of their passion and love. “Those who love to work never labor,” I’ve read. So how could I take my prior knowledge of health club promotions and training to a yoking of new information to spread what I learned from DDPY?
Coming back from Ohio, my home state, to NC 4yrs. ago I had a premotion that the lot next to my home would be for sale. I came down my street and there was the sign. The listing agent, a man named Shannon gave me the details as I probed him with my RE background. I confessed at the end of the call I lived next door and I would counter any offer because I moved to a rural area to have space. When he said my name again, “Steven, Steven Koss, you’re already programed in my phone,” I knew I had never met him; his name was Shannon, I would remember that, so I took it as a synchronicity, a sign.
I purchased the lot with a vision to build a pole barn, lean tube, or pavilion, whatever you want to call it from the advice of my tree guy, buddy, Jeff. I added a garden, a sandbox with turf on top for training, a 48-block smoker, picnic tables, and a trail. It’s basically a beautiful park next door and I couldn’t be happier or more thankful to reside in something so special. Lights On, my AT hiking buddy, constructed the pole barn with me as the helper. Jeff supplied lumber, dirt, manure for the garden, and built a box to secure the soil. Jimmy came over to aid me and Lights On with the 30ft. long rafters, man work. Also, Jeff hooked me up with a beautiful table that was sanded for hours and lacquered by the smoker to display the spread proudly. The carpenter I met through the restaurant to build the training area was a doppelganger of Lights On, whoa. But I haven’t been able to go the distance and start the program until now.
Since I love cooking, gardening, and training I figured why not start your own class next door. The elements of the outdoors (pun), small class, with lunch included (more value) I believe is winning a consecutive following or practice. And even though I wanted to charge $300 a person for 12 sessions from 10:30 – 12 and then lunch so to supplement my time teaching, feeding, and investment I made, I’ve decided it should be done at no cost. What? Why?
I’m not looking at it as a business model any longer because it kind of reminds me of getting a reading from a legit Medium, it’s donation only, and leave it on the porch. That vibration is not on par with the one I or we are trying to create and they/I don’t want it to influence the work, the practice. Living in scarcity is man-made disease. Honestly, I’ve been homeless couch crashing at one time or another but I’ve never gone a week without eating. Compared to the majority of humans on Earth my needs are met and exceeded. But that isn’t the story that I told myself for the greater part of my life. Why? The programming is powerful!
Maybe one of the most touching, profound, and life altering experiences of my life was hiking the Appalachian Trail because I was engrossed in what bred me without the bombardment of western society. A simple life some may say but not so. Learning and leaning into self-reliance alone in the mountains, cold, rainy, without experience garners many learning curves and switchbacks. The comradery built among my brothers, sisters, trail angels, rangers, scouts, locals, and the Trail cutting through ancient mountains helped purify a star seed. The separation dissipated and the fulfillment I sought my whole life appeared.
Seriously, if you want or need to lose weight, hike the AT for 2wks; amazing results when your burning double the amount of calories you’re taking in. Plus, as Anthony Bourdain said about Italian’s way of life, “It doesn’t suck!” It can be loudly embraced by trail life. And if you’re like I was living in more of the challenge instead of ‘practice’ it will reset an individual rather quickly, my opinion. I want to bring that to this program.
Going through Shawn’s yoga teaching last week outdoors here she said, “imagine you’re in beautiful place. Wait, we are in beautiful place!” Training at 10:30am has the class looking east for Sun Salutes but feeling that star’s heat, light, and energy is much more effective while practicing than being in a studio. Starting off with grounding meditation (with earbuds) followed by a trail walk, (I dap, tap the trees on every pass to my favorite song) leads us to then to bring the heartrate up engaging our breath work in a DDPY meets what I learned in teacher training. Next, we go into my last book, Thought Outlines the Vision Emotion Colors It In, for some discussion. Classes need interaction because we learn more effectively together. Thoughts I never had are like seeing someone perform a variation of a common exercise I had not dreamed of.
For example, on the first day of teacher training we spoke of trauma and how yoga helped release this energy one had been holding onto. I didn’t understand because I never thought of nurturing past agony, strain, and confusion; some experience that now had become a physical entity inside my avatar. Instead my thought with logic was yes, we hold trauma but only in the mind.
Then Shawn takes us home for the last part, which in the bodybuilding world refer to as weak point training or the overlooked smaller muscles. Having her take us home as I prepare the lunch gives me support, belief, and security to make it real. It gives the students different perspectives as well forming that yoking, balance.
Today, I understand that breath focused on certain areas of pain, inflammation, and aches releases blockage. Really when you add up the amount of thoughts on the negative it’s crushing whatever little awareness that love is spread. The good news is one can correct the imbalance with a practice of breath work, yoga, meditation, resistance training, good eats, nature, and family. But one never accomplishes anything on their own. Just as Arnold said of Franco, “we did everything together.” A teacher needs partners and students to aid in their growth, their fulfillment. An assist is as good as score!
Just like the LeBron’s Nike Cleveland commercial, 1-2-3, Hardwork, 4-5-6 Together, Together, Together… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8yOG3qYk08
As I taught Shawn yesterday, I put it in these terms. Hit the pose and inhale 1-2-3, exhale 4-5-6; now we’ll do 3 sets. I believe this pattern can be learned more effectively because it occupies the mind when one says, “fak this is hard.” During the ‘practice’ I incorporated freestyle and a natural flow that took us past the 25min. playlist because it was no longer work; time, sets, simply vanished into a knowing and remembering.
I understand that everyone is stand-offish on 13min of meditation to start because it’s so difficult to shut down the rational mind, (it’s only for Buddhists and Californians!) 10% in control of an individual but given 90% of the reigns. Just as I bounced a red scatter ball in 1st grade on the tan square among the green in a Mr. Donladson gym class sick of it, I learned coordination, mind muscle connection, and probably experienced alpha state for the 1st time. Breath, 22,000 a day, can harness energy for cellular growth and protein synthesis; one shouldn’t overlook it’s power due to invisibility.
Didn’t Matt Damon say, “liberty is a soul’s right to breathe?”
I want to make this program effective, engaging, and have that experience you seek. If you have been searching for such the mind has made it real to some extent. All that is needed is participation, belief, and ‘Practice.’
With a thunderous bolt of white light encased with love the signal shines.
Does it call you?
