Tag: Philosophy
Giveaway: Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses
If you’ve been teaching online or if you’re considering getting started, you might have looked at the hundreds of professionally produced videos already available and asked yourself, “Who would want to watch ME over this?” The answer: the people who will connect with you for who you are: you, uniquely you.
Wrong-seeing and Two Seconds of Buzzfeed Fame
When I woke up Sunday and glanced at the iPad, I saw that my colleague Sara sent me a link to the Buzzfeed article “27 Things That Are Too Real for People with Terrible Posture,” telling me to check out number 20 on the list. I scrolled down to see a picture of myself in cat pose, labeled…
Read: Consistency and Variety
At Yoga for Aging Athletes, I’ve just posted some thoughts on the importance of consistency and variety. As we age and grow more set in our ways, it’s easy to depend on habits and avoid new things—to value consistency over variety. But variety helps us continue to grow; it prompts our brains to stay engaged and plastic. This…
“How Do I Make Myself Relax?”
The youngest participant in my recent weekend on yoga for athletes at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health was a twelve-year-old swimmer. Toward the end of the first session’s savasana—the quiet relaxation period at the end of practice—he raised his hand. The question: “How do I make myself relax?” This question sits at the heart of the…
Revising Your Goals
I enjoyed giving a webinar called “Your Perfect Race Day” for USA Triathlon today. (If you missed it, it’s archived online, along with its predecessor on race week and its cousins on yoga for triathletes and on recovery. Each offers CEUs for USAT coaches.) There was a great question that came in after I’d logged…
Au Contraire, Mon Tea Bag
“Mantras you shouldn’t say: I don’t know; I’m not ready; I can’t do it.” While I’m not usually a fan of the tea-bag statement—they are often reductionist New Age yada-yada—this one especially ticks me off. Let’s dissect quickly, through the lens of yoga/training: “I don’t know.” What better thing to say, especially when followed by,…
Mopping the Floors
in YogaTuesdays and Thursdays, I arrive at Carrboro Yoga midday to sign in and enjoy Ruth’s noon Power Flow class. One of my first chores, and my most favorite, is cleaning the floor. I slowly push the wide dust mop back and forth over the century-old wood. When nails are lifted out, they snag a piece of…
It’s Always Been Here
in YogaOne of my regular private yoga lessons is to a couple in their home. I see the wife more often; the husband travels a lot for his busy job, and when he’s in town, he joins. This morning during practice, he remarked on the sounds of the house: an imbalanced washing machine clacking through the…
Creatures of Habit
My dog, Manta Ray, accompanies me on my twice-daily walk taking the girls to and from the elementary school down the street. Morning departure is hectic and broadly telegraphed, with increasingly insistent instructions about the packing of snacks and donning of coats and hats and backpacks and “Lord, child, why am I just getting this…
Soul Run
One of my coaching clients, Tara, wisely labels some runs as “soul runs.” These may not be the fastest, but they feed your soul in some way. Another of my athletes, Erin, had a soul run on Monday. A fourth-year medical student training for Ironman South Africa, she’s on rotation in New Orleans. Here’s an…
Turn Off, Tune Up, Drop In
For the last few months, I’ve been writing a biweekly column on balance for Competitor Running. Sometimes this is literal balance; sometimes the topic is more figurative balance. (Competitor is also running my video series on recovery, my new hobby horse.) My most recent piece is a play on Timothy Leary’s famous “turn on, tune in, drop out.”…
Practice, Practice, Practice
Most of what I do—and, I’d bet, most of what you do—all day is filling in the spaces left out in success-story montages. It’s the work necessary between setting a goal and reaching it. Much of it is tough, much is repetitive, and the progress comes in fits and spurts, rather than following a linear…