What if humans had expiration dates?

Posted on September 4, 2010 by admin
I constantly muse over this human experience of which I find myself a part. It is so uncertain. Life would be a lot more manageable if we knew how long we would be alive. It would sure make planning a lot easier. Imagine if when every baby was born, they came into the world with an expiration date stamped on the sole of their right foot. An expiration date like you would find on a carton of milk. A baby born today may have an expiration date of 9/4/2080. That would make planning life so much more manageable. If we knew that we had seventy years of life, we would certainly live differently than if we only had twenty years of life. Why would you go to school and prepare for a career if you knew that you were only go to live seventeen years. There would be no need for life insurance. There would be no need for unnecessary medical testing during the end of life. When your date is up, it is up. There would be plenty of time to prepare for end of life… No surprises.

Now, think of the social implications. Would you want to be in a relationship with someone who has an expiration date close to yours, or before yours, or after yours? Would it matter to you at all? Would you want to have children, knowing that you would not live long enough to see them grow up? Image the expectation when your child is born. Instead of asking the doctor if your baby is healthy, you would ask what their expiration date is. Always hoping that their expiration date will be after your own. Finding out the day of your death at the moment of your birth would be kind of ironic. If the date was in three months, or three years, would you want to get close to your baby, your child, knowing that you were going to lose them so soon?

Would you want to keep your expiration date a secret, or put it out there? If you tried to keep your date secret, would other people “out you”, posting a picture of your bare foot on the web? Would celebrities have pictures of their feet posted in the Star of National Enquirer with outrageous stories about their mortality? Would people try and change their expiration date? How would this change religion? Would God be the stamper of your expiration date? What about quality of life? You may suffer horribly through part of your life knowing that you will be in pain for another few days, or months or even years depending on your expiration date. I’m assuming that this date is absolute. It is unchangeable. You can do nothing to affect it. How different our experiences would be. We would plan to get everything done before the end. There would be no more stories of couples waiting to retire to take that vacation in Hawaii that they have always dreamed of, only to have one spouse die right before retirement. No more accidental deaths. Death may occur from accidents, but the date will be known. You can plan to have all of your money spent and assets reallocated before you died. Last Wills and Testaments for legal purposes would be obsolete. Population control would be easier to plan. If we knew exactly how many people were going to leave the planet in any given month or year, we could set quotas for replacement. We would know that we were in trouble as a species if everyone’s date started coming up the same, and no one had a date after that. Major disaster. Knowing our life is finite in such a tangible way, with our day of death on our foot as a constant reminder may bring an awareness of finality that perhaps may enable us to appreciate life deeper. Without this knowledge, many of us feel that life is frivolous and never ending. We live in the delusion that we have no expiration date. Sure, on some level we know that we are all going to die, but we don’t believe it is real until we are faced with it. Surprised, like “am I really dying”. No kidding. “You have been dying since the day you were born”. It is a cultural universal that there is ritual surrounding death. Maybe with this new info, there would be more rituals embracing end of life. Maybe just embracing life.
Contemplate That……………

 

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“Mindfulness’ meditation helps teens

Posted on September 2, 2010 by admin
“Mindfulness’ meditation helps teens
The Times of India  9/02/2010　
 
    　‘Mindfulness’ meditation, the process of becoming more aware of one’s surroundings, improves mental health and well being in teenage boys, says a new study.
Researchers from the
University-of-Cambridge found that after meditation, 14 and 15 year-old boys were found to have increased well-being, defined as the combination of feeling good (including positive emotions such as happiness, contentment, interest and affection) and functioning well.

“Our study demonstrates that this type of training improves well-being in adolescents and that the more they practice, the greater the benefits. Importantly, many of the students genuinely enjoyed the exercises and said they intended to continue them,” said Professor Felicia Huppert.

“Another significant aspect of this study is that adolescents who suffered from higher levels of anxiety were the ones who benefitted most from the training,” she added.

The meditation classes covered the concepts of awareness and acceptance, and taught the schoolboys such things as how to practice bodily awareness by noticing where they were in contact with their chairs or the floor, paying attention to their breathing, and noticing all the sensations involved in walking.

“If you practice being in the present, you can increase positive feelings by savouring pleasurable on-going experiences. Additionally, calming the mind and observing experiences with curiosity and acceptance not only reducesstress but helps with attention control and emotion regulation – skills which are valuable both inside and outside the classroom,” Huppert concluded.

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Swim upstream or Go with the flow?

Posted on September 1, 2010 by admin

I spent much of my life Swimming upstream. I rarely took the easiest path. In retrospect, I don’t know if this was because I was stubborn or defiant. It was probably a little bit of both. I have pretty much selectively blocked out most of my adolescent life. I was an angry teen who spent most of my time grounded for one thing or another. I was an oldest child, and was my parents test case. My parents were divorced and I had a step mother. The dynamics were pretty predictable now that I look back on it. Acting out behavior and all. At age eighteen, I joined the military. I was certainly smart enough to join the Air Force, but chose the Marines. Why? Because it was the hardest. I pride myself on overcoming adversity. This has been the way I have been my whole life. My wife calls me obsessed. I feel that is a strong word with psychological overtones. When we first lived together, someone gave me a video game. It was ancient by today’s standards. The objective was to control all of the provinces of China through a combination of negotiation, warfare, marriage, etc. I played the game for 3 days straight. No work, no sleep, no distractions. I barely ate. I conquered China in 3 days. Obsessive? Maybe. When I practiced Martial arts, I trained six to seven days a week for hours after work. I ran, sparred, lifted weights. This went on for years until my wife forced me to spend more time at home. When I discovered yoga, I was at first discouraged by my lack of ability to perform the poses. I was too strong and inflexible for many of the poses. I had to much muscle to wrap my arms around my legs in poses. I had no lotus pose. Why was I attracted to the Ashtanga Vinyasa practice? It was the most physically challenging. Some of the poses took me years of practice and dedication to accomplish. Many I still struggle with. There was a time, before I started teaching that I was a self proclaimed “Yoga Junkie”. I was taking as many as 3 yoga classes a day. Fitting them in between work and other responsibilities. When I began teaching and loaded my schedule with over 20 classes a week, all my yoga friends told me that I would burn out, and would not be able to keep the pace up for long. Here I am almost 5 years later. I am down to like 17 classes a week. I love what I do. I consider myself so fortunate to be able to do something that I enjoy so much, and to share my passion for it with so many people. I truly believe that I am on this planet to have a positive effect on the lives of as many people as I can. Yoga is the vehicle that I was looking for to accomplish this. Yoga has taught me much. What I have learned in my years of asana and meditation practice is that it is never to late to start anything. Nothing is impossible. It is easier to swim with the flow of the stream than against it. It is easier to know which way the water is flowing if you sit down quietly beside the stream and be present before you jump into it. Once you enter the stream, it is easier to stay with the flow if you are aware of where you are, and where you are going. There are many obstacles that you will encounter along the way. Without awareness of where you are, it is impossible to make adjustments to your course. Without an awareness of where your want to go, it is impossible to get there. It is so easy to get distracted, and stuck on obstacles. In our lives, people and things can be such wonderful distractions. In the end though, they are just obstacles. It is just us and the flow. A lot of water passes you by while you are stuck. People just drift on by. Family, friends, mentors, teachers. You miss opportunities. Everything flows in one direction. Forward, ever forward. You can move with the flow or against it. I have to agree that with age comes wisdom, and one of the things that I have learned is that life (and yoga) is much easier when you don’t struggle and fight with it. When you just breathe and go with the flow. I know that many of you want to swim upstream for “this or that” good cause. Be stubborn and defiant if you want. That is your choice. If you have the energy and commitment, go for it. In the end, it is inevitable that everything and everyone washes back to the sea.

Namaste,

Scott

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Fossil Springs

Posted on August 30, 2010 by admin
 
Why do I enjoy living in Arizona so much? Days like yesterday are one reason. Where else can you get up in the morning to a beautiful 100 degree day, make a few pb&j sandwiches, pack the family in the car, stop for gas and ice, water and a few snacks, and head north. North being Fossil Springs. Fossil springs is about a 2 hr. drive from Scottsdale. It is just north of Payson. It is a left turn at a small town called Strawberry. It is a funny name, because there are no strawberries grown there. Anyway. It was a lovely 75 degrees there in the pine trees. So, we planned to do some hiking there on an 8 mile trail that leads to a spring that bubbles up out of the ground in a valley. The hike drops in elevation 2000ft in a little over 3 miles of rugged terrain. Of course nothing ever goes as planned. We let out 16 year old daughter, Sam, who has her driving permit, drive.
 
She is a very good driver, and goes for her road test next week. Everything was fine until the paved road ended. We missed that on the website, or we would have taken my all wheel drive SUV instead of our Honda civic.
 This was compounded when we missed the sign for the trailhead, and found ourselves winding down a narrow unpaved road with a mountain on one side, a cliff with drop of over 1000ft on the other side, and a 16 year old behind the wheel. Good times. The winding road was just barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass. There were a few times that it appeared we were going to plunge to our doom.
 
The back seat drivers were urging me to take over the driving. My wife needed a tranquilizer (doesn’t take them though), and even the dog started whining at one point. I had full confidence in Sam, and 8 or so miles of these roads led us to the bottom of the valley. 
 
Cars in the parking area far below

 There were plenty of cars parked already, and we found a parking spot and a trail to explore. According to the website, “This 11,550 acre Wilderness boasts what has been described as the most diverse riparian area in Arizona. Over thirty species of trees and shrubs and over a hundred species of birds have been observed in this unique habitat. The stream seems to appear out of nowhere, gushing 20,000 gallons a minute out of a series of springs at the bottom of a 1,600 foot deep canyon. Over the years these calcium laden waters have laid down huge deposits of a material called travertine. That rock-like substance encases whatever happens to fall into the streambed – forming the fossils for which the area is named.”  The color of the water is amazing. There were small waterfalls leading into calm pools.

 
After some searching, we found an isolated pool, and plopped ourselves down. We were not alone for long, but everyone kept some distance. Dog had fun swimming. We were near a partially submerged branch that served as a source of fun and challenge to our balance. Sam and I did tree pose on it, and then a side leg balancing pose.               
Tree pose on a narrow branch
  

After a few hours of cool water, cooler temps, and a few pb&j sandwiches, we packed it up and headed out. I drove us out of the valley. I put on some of my favorite driving music. You guessed it “Van Halen”. With “Running With the Devil” blasting, we zipped up the winding turns. In no time we were back on the paved road. We stopped for gas in the town of Pine, and then Michelle drove us home. Upon our arrival home, we had a visitor. A small snake decided that the pole for our pool net that I had left across the pool was a good place to curl around and hang out. He was a really alert little guy, and after a few pics, we left him alone, sure that he would go about his merry way. Of course this morning when I went to clean the pool skimmer, there he was. He swam out of the skimmer, and to the sides of the pool. He was a good swimmer, but I soon realized that he was trapped in the pool. I scooped him out and gentle place him poolside.

He rested there for a few minutes before moving off. From the pics of him, I think that he was a baby Coachwhip snake. They are non-poisonous  snakes. That was the weekend adventure……

namaste,

Scott

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Free Yoga at Blissful Yoga

Posted on August 26, 2010 by admin

Free Week of Yoga at Blissful Yoga

From September 1st through September 7th

FREE YOGA FOR ALL!

For more info and to reserve a place in a class, go to:
www.blissfulyoga.net

Scott has a Vinyasa Yoga class at the North Phoenix Studio on Friday evenings from 4:30pm – 5:45pm.

Free is always the right price. Hope to see you all in some classes at Blissful Yoga……….

namaste,

Scott

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“Get out of the boat and on the path”

Posted on August 25, 2010 by admin
My teacher, Dave, is a wonderful storyteller. One of the stories that I remember him telling is about the asana practice. I don’t remember it exactly, but will give you the gist, and embellish as I see fit to enhance the story.

He said that yoga is a journey, and that journey starts at the bank of a wide river. The path that you need to be on is on the other side of the river. Fortunately for you, there is a rowboat on the shore nearby. You get in the boat and start rowing to the other side. The river is wide, and it takes you some time to get to the other bank. Eventually, however, you arrive on the other bank. Now it is time to get out of the boat and continue upon your journey. The river represents the obstacles that are presented in your yoga practice. The rowboat is the asana practice that you do daily. It is just a vehicle to take you where you need to be. When you arrive at the far shore, you need to get out of the boat and continue your journey. Once on dry land, you no longer need the boat. What good is sitting in the boat on the other shore, or even worse, continuing to row with the bow of the boat pressed against the shore. When your physical practice reaches the other shore. When your body is in a place of balance. When you can sit for long periods of time without your body distracting you. When you are healthy and strong and flexible, it is time to leave the asana practice behind and continue on the journey. To often, many yogis keep sitting in the boat, ignoring the path before them. That path is the one that leads to Paranayama (breathe extension- retention), Pratyahara (sense withdrawal), Dharana (concentration), and Dhyana (meditation). These are the higher limbs of the eight limbs of yoga (ashtanga yoga). Being stuck doing the same asana day after day with no awareness of where it is leading causes many yogis to be frustrated, lose focus, or discontinue their practice.

The reason that I decided to write about this now is that in the last few days, I have encountered people who have expressed some of these feelings about their practice. They felt bored or disheartened. They do not see the path before them. I tried to point the way, and explain my view on how to take the practice away from the physical, and make it about the breathing, and the bandhas, and the drsti. The repetition of the asana practice is useful only as long as it brings your body to the place of quiet. B.K.S. Iyengar says that “The practice of asanas purges the body of its impurities, bringing strength, firmness, calm, and clarity of mind.” To often, I feel that asana is being practiced without the proper intent to bring this calm. It is being used only for the enhancement of physicality. I always tell my classes that yoga is like a buffet. You can choose what you put on your plate, and what you don‘t. You can accept or reject any aspect of the practice. The yoga buffet includes asana, breathing, chanting, good works, knowledge, meditation, mindfulness, body awareness, philosophy, and much more.

Asana practice is just one small aspect of a huge practice. If that is all that is on your plate though, you are not being nourished…….

Much gratitude to my teacher Dave for his inspiring stories and teaching.

Namaste,

Scott

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New Beginnings

Posted on August 24, 2010 by admin
Having new little people come to the planet is always an auspicious occasion. On this past Sunday, our friends Sheila and Ian welcomed a new son, Dylan Vincent. We wish them all the happiness and fulfillment that their new son will bring their family.

New life truly is miraculous. All life is miraculous. Many people take the gift of life for granted though. What helps us stay in this appreciative state is when we witness new life, of we are exposed to the end of life either through illness, old age, or tragedy. The younger and more tragic, the more effect we feel. The closer the person to us, the more we are shaken out of our complacency.

At this point in my life, I feel that I would like to be around the planet for a while to see what is going to happen. These are exciting times. Change is all around us. There is economic change, social change, political change, environmental change, technological change, and most important to me, spiritual change. So much happening. I also do think more and more though that when my time is up here, that I will go gracefully onto the next leg of the journey. I think that when it is time to go, it’s time to go. I don’t want any extreme measures taken to perpetuate this body. It has served me well, and when it fails, it fails. Getting kind of heavy. Let’s lighten it up a bit.

Babies are so cute. Especially when they are not yours. When they are yours, cute wears off fast with no sleep and crying (Mom and baby). I enjoyed when my daughters were babies, but am glad that they are older now. Every age is a good age. Each presents it’s own challenges and rewards. Parenting has been one of our greatest challenges and rewards. Both my wife and I set out to try and be better parents to our children, then our parents were to us. I am not judging our parents, or saying that they were bad parents, we just wanted to be better. We hope that if our daughters choose to be parents, that they will be better parents than we were. We hope that this trend continues. The end.

New subject.

Michelle accompanied me to Kundalini practice this past Sunday morning. I reminded her to bring an open mind. There was nothing to crazy in the practice though. I still love the gonging, and the vibration that it brings to my very core. I am starting to learn some of the Chants that they use. I am accustomed to the Vedic and yoga chanting that I hear during my usual practice. No Kundalini practice for the next few weeks, so I will have to find something spiritual to do with my next few Sunday mornings.

Classes.

Yoga is alive and kicking up in Troon. Troon Mountain Health has a smaller space in the same plaza that they were in. It is right next door to the Pinnacle Grill. I teach a Monday night Deep stretch class there from 6:15pm – 7:30pm. For those of you who enjoyed my Gentle and Yin classes at other places, this is your opportunity to recapture those feelings of calm. Classes are open to everyone. No membership is required. It is just a $12. Class fee per person. Saturday class at Gainey Village health is an excellent class for those of you looking for a challenge. It is a 90min Power class from 4:15pm – 5:45pm. The club is beautiful and the yoga is top notch with some of the best yoga instructors in the valley teaching there. Now I have joined them. I have daily guest passes for any of you who want to take a class with me, or just check out the club. They are yours for the asking.

Some of you emailed me about the awesome cloud pictures that were my previous post. They are awesome, but only come as the result of a heat warning, 108 – 112degrees in combination with the end of the monsoon season. This makes it not only hot here, but humid. This is a combination only seen here during monsoon. It makes being here uncomfortable, to say the least.

Saw the movie Eat, Pray, Love. A total “chick flick”. My friend Kevin and I accompanied our wives. Wives both read the book. We both did not. Good karma for us, and bonus points with the wives. Win, Win…… The part where she is in the ashram in India was ok. The only yoga that they seemed to do was Bakti yoga. Did not see any Hatha yoga. Julia Roberts does have a good padmasana (lotus pose). Who knew?….. I do enjoy movies where some transformation takes place. (and I don’t mean the transformers movies with the robots that turn into cars.) I digress. Anyway, see the movie if you want to of have to….

More later.

Love and Light (from the movie)

Scott

P.S. Like it, don’t like, comment on it. Connect with it,  disagree with it, comment on it. Just want to say hi, Comment. I enjoy reading the comments.

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Clouds: no text necessary

Posted on August 22, 2010 by admin

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“Life is Good”

Posted on August 20, 2010 by admin
If we live in the moment, and are truly aware of our surroundings, then we get the messages that the universe sends us each day. I have friends that believe that if you just look at other peoples license plates while you are driving, that you will find the messages for your day. I have done this, and remarkably always seem to find something useful. I remember Sevak recalling seeing a license plate that read “KARMA” surrounded by a license plate cover of skulls. Kind of ironic. I have also used the method of starting my day by putting my Ipod on “Shuffle Songs”, and see what the first 5-10 songs that come up are. There is always a message in this as well, although I am not always certain what it is. Today while I was at Marshalls clothes shopping, The message was clear. As I was rummaging through the clearance rack, there was the shirt that I am now wearing. Below is what it says.
　
 
 
 

　
　
“Life is good”. What an awesome shirt. An awesome $3.00 clearance shirt. There was only one on the whole rack, and it was in my size. Definitely a message. Of course I bought it. Buying it wasn’t the message though. The message was to appreciate life, because despite all the struggles and drama, and everything else that makes up this human experience, “Life is Good.”
I went shopping this morning right after teaching my chair yoga for seniors. One of my seniors, Wendle came into the room early. He always sits in the chair directly to my left. I turned and I asked him how he was doing? He told me that he was really tired, and that it was all that he could do to make it to yoga. Wendle is in his 90’s, as are all my seniors, and I know that he lost his wife about a year and a half ago. As we talked, he mentioned that he had been married for 65 years. 65 years is a really long time ( to me anyway). I expresses that I could not imagine being away from someone after them being a part of my life for so long. I have been with my wife for 26 years, and I don’t know what I would do without her. 65 years is more than twice as long. I said that I hope that I will know when my time will be to leave the planet. It will probably be when I lose my passion for this life. When I feel that I have fulfilled my life’s purpose . Wendle nodded and expressed that he thought his time was close. As others started arriving for class, the conversation shifted to others, but after class, I touched him on the shoulder and told him that I appreciated him coming to yoga, and that I looked forward to seeing him there next week. We all take for granted that we will all be in yoga next week, but we really never know. It is not about age, it is about the fragility of life. The illusion that we create that life is something permanent that will continue forever in its present form. We fight to stay young looking and try to hold on to the way we felt when we were younger. How foolish we are to think that this will stop us from aging and dying. I love the line in the Desiderata that says …
”Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.”
I hope that if I stay healthy and make it into my 90’s, with my wife by my side, wearing my “Life is Good” tee shirt, that some young yoga instructor half my age will say to me “I look forward to seeing you in yoga class next week.” We will see.

Namaste,

Scott

PS. I read an awesome and heartfelt blog entry by my brother on Karma. Click to read.

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Root Canal is a Chance to practice Yoga

Posted on August 18, 2010 by admin

My wife read my last blog entry and said “ That is so boring”. I replied that it is important that I post some philosophy. She was not impressed.

       Started teaching at Lifetime Fitness in Scottsdale this week. Monday and Wednesday classes at 10:45am-11:45am. It is a cool, surreal experience at the club. First, It is huge. Someone likened it to an airport. There is lots of energy and activity. It is always full of people working out. It has a Spa, a café, a store, awesome childcare, indoor and outdoor pools, saunas, you name it, it is there. Now I am there to. Classes have been small. I had 9 in both of my classes, but I am sure that as word spreads, the classes will be full.

     I heralded the demise of Troon Mountain Health and fitness prematurely. They are still holding group fitness classes at a nearby location. I will still be teaching there on Monday evenings. When I find out where, I will let you know.

     After my Grayhawk class on Tuesday morning, which was awesome, if I don’t say so myself (no ego), I had to go to the Dentist for Root Canal. Lots of fun. I mentioned earlier that I had one bad tooth. Had to have it done. This is an excellent time to practice your breathing. It is inherently a stressful situation. It affords you the opportunity to observe your body and feel where you are holding the stress. Then you need to slow and deepen the breathe, bringing the awareness to the breathe and the present, and there it is, no more stress. I have had more than one student tell me that they have used the breathing techniques they learned in yoga class to help them relax in the Doctors or Dentists office. Anyway, I have had this procedure once before, and did not really find it that uncomfortable. I did relaxing yoga breathing. This time, I hardly was even aware it was going on. I put my Ipod on with some of the soothing music that those of you who have done a Yin class with me know, and just drifted away. If it weren’t for the vibrations of drills and such in my mouth, I probably would have slept. Everything was good until the anesthetic wore off. Man was I sore. I have been sore all day today as well. Not on any meds, other than an antibiotic for infection, a few ibuprofen from time to time for pain, and some arnica montana for swelling and bruising. Taught class today without any problems, and should be good from here out. Just relaxing and going with the flow……………..

Namaste,

Scott

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