Back in the Summer of this year I saw the on-stage musical version of my favorite movie, “Rock of Ages”. I don’t know if everybody is familiar with the movie Rock of Ages or the stage show, but in short it’s a musical that tells a love story using rock songs from the glam rock days of the 1980’s. Watching the movie is great but when I got to see the musical on-stage it was a whole other experience. Anyway, after rocking out for two hours with my fellow middle aged brethren I started to head home. My voice was hoarse and my ears were ringing but my spirit was soaring. Usually I get that sort of high from my yoga practice and so my mind started to ponder a question. I wondered, “Is my love of rock and roll compatible with my love of yoga”?
Now let me be clear, in celebrating my own love a particular type of music I’m not putting down anybody else’s favorite music. I would say that I have a fairly broad range of tastes when it comes to music. When I go to yoga classes I enjoy the soundscape type of dreaming background music or the electronic dance music with a nice beat but I have always noticed that rock seems to be missing from the play list.
I can understand the aversion to rock. It has a more pronounced drum track and electric guitar solos. It’s hard to wonder how you are supposed to settle into a relaxed state of being if you are listening to a killer guitar riff from say, Eddie Van Halen. However, in my listening I have noticed that rock and roll chords can put me in a relaxed, reflective state-of-mind that helps ease me into a meditative state. Two tracks that I listen to when I like to relax is Queensryce’s “Silent Lucidity” and Guns N Roses’ “November Rain”.
For the parts of the yoga practice when we start working hard in a flow series and we may have done our 20th sun salutation or we are struggling to hold a warrior two pose we need a more upbeat track to help us through our struggle. There are several rock tracks that I think work very well for this portion of our routine. I always enjoy listening to Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”, Queen’s ”Another One Bites the Dust” or the Smithereens’ “A Girl Like You”.
I think the purpose of using music in any physical routine is that it helps the mind focus. Whether you are trying to relax the mind or you are trying to push your body past the point of exertion music helps us to concentrate. When your mind has a pleasant soundtrack to focus on, it helps to keep you in your present moment to aid in your mental relaxation. An up tempo beat can keep your mind from dwelling on the discomfort in your muscles as you are trying to hold your pose for just one more breath. If focusing the mind is the purpose of using music in our practice then as a fan of rock and roll I believe that rock works just as well as any other type of music.
So I’m coming full circle back to my original question asking if rock and roll is compatible with yoga. I am somebody who likes to think that yoga is compatible with just about anything. If rock and roll could successfully embrace the “power ballad” in the 80’s then I believe that yogis everywhere can successfully embrace Bon Jovi during peaceful warrior. So if that’s the case, grab your yoga mat, meet me in the front row and we can rock the night away.
Man Up Dog Yoga
A blog for men's issues in the world of yoga
Friday, November 15, 2013
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Can Yoga Defeat the Seven Deadly Sins?
Can Yoga Defeat the Seven Deadly Sins?
I've read quite a few articles dealing with the question of,
“Is yoga a religion?” Most of the
articles dispelled the idea and I agree that yoga is not a religion. A couple of weeks ago, I was reading some
texts dealing with the seven deadly sins which are: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and
pride. As I began to think of how we try
to avoid falling prey to these sins I was drawn to thoughts of my yoga practice
and how I thought some of the yoga teachings help me cope with avoiding these
sins. Even though yoga is not a religion
I found myself asking the question, “Can yoga defeat the seven deadly
sins?” These are my thoughts on the
seven deadly sins and how yoga addresses them.
1. Lust. Lust is a
sin usually defined by excessive sexual desire although the word is also
associated with excessive desire for money, power and fame. As people, the problem is not that we feel
desire: the problem is that the feeling
of desire overwhelms us. We push other
important things aside to devote our energies to try and satisfy our lustful
desires.
Within our practice of yoga we don’t try to purge ourselves
of lusting desire and purposefully deny ourselves from receiving pleasure. Instead our practice tells us to focus inward
and when we discover these feelings of lustful desire we acknowledge the
feeling without judgment or guilt.
Because we acknowledge that we have these feelings we can then try to
understand where these feelings come from.
We learn that excessive desire comes from wanting things to be a certain
way instead of loving and accepting how things are. Yoga teaches us to love who we are right here
and right now. By focusing inward and
loving ourselves for who we are and all that we are we learn to control lustful
desire.
2. Gluttony. The word
gluttony is derived from the Latin word, gluttire which means to gulp down or
swallow. When we think of gluttony today
we think of over-indulgence and over-consumption to point of wastefulness. Gluttony is mostly associated with food
however it equally applies to the excessive purchasing of materials. Gluttony most often comes from a place of
trying to fulfill a need that can never be filled. In other words we are not living a life of
balance.
Balance is one of the most important aspects a yogi learns
in their practice. The secret in
learning to physically balance the body is to learn to maintain focus. Maintaining balance in the rest of our lives
is no different. We all must consume to
live. We consume air, water, food and
material possessions in order to maintain our lives. When we learn to focus we are able to discern
what is important and when we know what is important we can maintain
balance. With focus we can balance our
consumption to just meet our needs instead of being gluttonous in trying to
meet our wants.
3. Greed. Greed is a
sin associated strongly with excesses of lust and gluttony. Greed is most commonly thought of in terms of
excessive desire for material wealth.
Greed has its roots in people wanting to demonstrate they are superior
to their fellow man. Whether it is a
bigger car, a bigger house, or nicer clothes, excessive material wealth is how
people try to satisfy a need to demonstrate they are better than someone else. This unchecked desire leads people to commit
acts which cause harm to their fellow man.
People will steal, lie and betray their fellow man in the name of
acquiring more material wealth to satisfy their greed.
One of the benefits of yoga is we learn to develop a
connection to other people. When we feel
this connection we understand that we don’t need to be superior to our fellow
man because we need our fellow man. It
doesn’t matter what level a yogi is at, or what the quality of their mat or
clothing is, we all draw energy equally from each other during the chant of Om. The yoga
teacher needs the students, the students need the teacher and the students need
each other. With an appreciation of this
deep human connection, greed becomes a useless desire.
4. Sloth. The sin of
sloth is usually thought of as physical laziness although it also is defined as
spiritual laziness. This laziness is a
symptom of a person loosing the connection with their true selves. When this connection is lost a person gives
up on any desire toward self-improvement.
With no desire for improvement people form connections with things such
as food and television which fill large swaths or their time.
In our practice of yoga sloth is combated by first
establishing a connection to your inner self.
By shutting out the outside world we focus on how we feel inside. When we pay attention to our inner feelings
this helps motivate us to want to improve ourselves. After we have discovered this want, we are
motivated to continue our physical yoga practice. With continued practice we feel better both
physically and spiritually and so our motivation to improvement continues to
build.
5. Wrath. Wrath is a
sin of having uncontrolled rage in which people are subject to overwhelming
feelings of anger and hatred. The sin of
wrath has lead mankind down a path of self-destruction involving violence,
murder, feuds and wars. Wrath is a
symptom of a person who feels that a physical reaction is the only way to
correct whatever they perceive to be wrong.
They feel they have been harmed, slighted, embarrassed or disrespected
and the only option available is to explode.
These people are slaves to their emotions.
Yoga helps to control wrath by teaching a yogi to connect to
the breath. The expanse of the chest
during a deep breath prevents the chest and the body from tightening when the
feeling of wrath is experienced. Without
this tightening of the body it becomes easier to relax which allows the feeling
of wrath to begin to fade in the mind.
With continuing deep breathing the yogi focus on their breath which
prevents wrath from compelling the yogi to physically react.
6. Envy. Envy is an
insatiable desire for what somebody else possesses and is strongly associated with
feelings of jealousy. In religious terms
it is defined as coveting your neighbor’s property. People that tend to feel envious suffer from
low self esteem. They don’t like things
about themselves and don’t know how to fix them so to feel better they focus on
what other people have and they try to emulate these other people. Fifteen minutes in a supermarket checkout
line and you will find numerous magazines dedicated to feeding the sin of envy.
One of my favorite phrases in yoga is, “Loving yourself for
who you are and all that you are.” Even
though we learn to have a connection to all other beings, yoga is a very
personal practice. Whether you are in a
studio class with 50 people or you are just practicing by yourself yoga is a
uniquely personal experience. I think
what makes it personal is that yoga teaches to focus on how you feel during a
pose instead of how you look. When we
learn to focus on how we feel instead of how we look it’s very easy to defeat
feelings of envy.
7. Pride. Pride is
the granddaddy sin of them all. The
Catholic Church deems pride to be the most dangerous sin of all the seven
deadly sins because it is considered a gateway to all the other sins. Pride is usually defined as excessive love of
oneself. This self-love can be love of
one’s looks, accomplishments or possessions.
Pride is marked by a failure to acknowledge your fellow human being due
to a feeling of superiority.
When I am struggling in class I remember a phrase, “Not
today, but maybe tomorrow”. For me, the
core of my study and practice of yoga has always been battling my own ego. I feel that pride has its roots in a person’s
ego. Ego tells you what you should be
able to do. The study of yoga teaches us
to look inside and embrace what we can do and not to listen to our prideful
egos tell us what we should be doing.
When you learn to control the ego, pride simply withers away.
So can yoga defeat the seven deadly sins? I think the seven deadly sins are symptomatic
of living a life out-of-balance. There
are many paths that a person can follow to attempt to bring balance into their
lives and yoga is just one of many different paths. Even though I don’t think yoga by itself is a
religion, I think it can play an integral part to leading a more balanced,
spiritual life which would include avoiding falling prey to the seven deadly
sins.
If you want to live a life that is more balanced I would
advise getting off the sofa and getting onto the mat.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Ten Ways Yoga Made Me a Better Dad
Ten Ways Yoga Made Me a Better Dad
In looking at the title of this article I realize that it
sounds a little arrogant. I’m not really
sure if I've been a better Dad to my children.
Like most people I've reflected back on my own childhood and have thought
of some things I wished my Dad did differently.
I sometimes wonder now when my own kids reach adulthood what will they
think of the job I did as a father. So
I’m not really sure I've been a better Dad.
I do know that I always wanted to be a better dad. I also know that my yoga practice has
affected my approach to fatherhood and here is how I think that it hopefully
made me a better Dad.
10. Yoga helped me have a calmer approach to
fatherhood. It goes without saying that
raising kids is stressful; so whether it was saying a quite Om
chant to myself or just remembering to breathe deeply, yoga helped with the
stress. I don’t think success or failure
in fatherhood is determined by whether or not you felt stress but how you
reacted to the stress. When you yell at
a child, they never forget it. I wasn't
always perfect and I did sometimes raise my voice but hopefully my kids
remember me as someone who stopped to take a breath and didn't let the little
aggravations get to him.
9.
Yoga taught me humility so I could say “I’m sorry”. As I said, sometimes I raised my voice when I
shouldn't have. I made all sorts of
mistakes along the way. Yoga helped me
deal with my ego so I didn't always feel the pressure to be the perfect Dad and
I didn't beat myself up when I made mistakes.
I hope my kids remember me as a Dad that could admit when I made a
mistake and even though I didn't have to, I wasn't afraid to ask my kids for
forgiveness.
8.
Yoga has helped me live a healthier life. Life takes a physical toll on the body. Kids have lots of energy and they are always
ready to play whether you are or not. Yoga helped maintain my health as I have
aged. Specifically it made me stronger
while also increasing my flexibility. A
healthy strong back definitely helps in raising kids. Hopefully my kids remember me as a Dad who
was active and was always ready to play.
7.
Yoga taught me that life does not conform to my ideals. Through my yoga practice I learned to let go
of preconceived notions of myself and what I thought I should be able to do and
I learned to embrace what I could do. As
a father I think we all have preconceived notions of how we hope and think our
kids will turn out. I always try to
remember to practice acceptance while teaching and encouraging my kids without
trying to force my ideals on them.
Hopefully my kids remember me as a Dad who gave them the space to be who
they wanted to be.
6.
Yoga taught me not to pass judgment.
In giving my kids the space to be who they wanted to be, sometimes they
embraced things I didn't entirely understand.
My yoga practice helped teach me that different approaches work for
different people. Just because I really
love a style of yoga or particular poses within a style doesn't mean that
somebody else is going to feel the same way.
I hope my kids remember me as someone who encouraged them in whatever
they were interested in.
5.
Yoga helped me balance my life.
Through out fatherhood there are a million different directions that I
feel like I am pulled. Between work,
marital relations, housework, taking care of kids and attending yoga
classes: maintaining balance is
crucial. In my yoga classes when I would
perform a balancing pose, l learned to keep my drishti constant. If the eyes wandered and I didn't maintain
focus odds are I would loose balance soon.
Fatherhood is no different from this.
When I was with my kids, I focused on my kids and when I was with my
wife, I focused on my wife. I hope that
my kids remember me as someone who paid attention to them when I was with them.
4.
Yoga taught me patience. No doubt
about it, kids will try you. This really
goes hand-in-hand with maintaining my calm but it is a little bit
different. When I started my yoga
practice there was a long list of things I couldn't do. Gradually through the years I've improved,
and the thing that helped me the most was being patient with my own
progress. The greatest lesson I was
taught was that while something is not accessible today does not mean it is not
accessible tomorrow. Sometimes my kids
easily understood what I was trying to teach them and sometimes they did
not. Fatherhood was a learning
experience for me in how to teach my kids.
Hopefully my kids remember me as a patient teacher.
3.
Yoga taught me not to be afraid to fall.
Part of learning is falling and part of teaching and raising children is
letting them fall. Yoga helped me accept
that in order to learn a pose sometimes I was going to fall. However, with each fall I would learn more
each time until I no longer fell. As a
father, letting my kids sometimes fall was the hardest thing to do. I hope my kids understand that I protected
them as much as I could and I never wanted them to get hurt but I also wanted
them to learn to fly.
2.
Yoga helped me love women without objectifying. Yoga helped teach me respect for my body and
what it could do. Along that path I
learned to view and respect my fellow female yogi’s bodies for what they could
do and not just how they looked. I
haven’t mentioned it until now, but my kids are both boys. Hopefully my kids remember me as a good role
model for how to relate to and treat women.
1.
Yoga made it okay to love. In my
personal experience of being raised, showing emotions and vulnerabilities was
not encouraged. Throughout adulthood,
this translated into being guarded with my expressions of feeling. Yoga provided an atmosphere that exposed me
to people who exuded kindness, caring and compassion. Through my time with these people I've
learned that I don’t have to be guarded and I can give and receive a hug from a
fellow yogi. Kids need a father who is
strong but is also kind, caring and loving.
Hopefully more than anything, I hope my kids remember me as a Dad who
was not afraid to express his love for them and receive love from them.
I don’t have any fatherhood secrets and I certainly don’t
think I’m an expert on fatherhood, but I do think yoga helped me be a better
Dad. For anybody that asks me how to be
a better Dad I tell them to find a yoga class, get off the couch and get onto
your mat.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Pretty Woman and the Defense of Oral Sex
Pretty Woman and the Defense of Oral Sex
It seems everybody is writing a sex article these days so I
figure why not me. Here goes. I was channel surfing the other day and I
came across one of my favorite movies, “Pretty Woman”. I had not seen the movie in a long time and I
happen to catch it when it first came on so I figured why not.
Its funny how you can view something you have seen many times
before and then you see it in a new and different way. In particular a specific scene in the movie
really caught my attention because it was like I was viewing it for the first
time. I’m talking about the scene
towards the beginning of the film where Vivian has agreed to stay the night
with Richard for $300. Before the night
ends the film scene heavily implies that Vivian gives Richard oral sex.
Now, in my opinion the porn industry and our society have
ruined the female offering of oral sex.
I think women believe that men’s desire for sexual pleasure from
receiving oral sex comes from a dark place of watching pornography that subjugates
women and just involves getting-in and getting-off. But in watching this scene I was struck by
what I considered to be the beauty of the scene and I thought this was the
perfect defense of this male desire.
For those that might not have seen the movie or are not sure
what I am talking about, allow me to describe the scene. The male character, Richard, is a wealthy
business man in Beverly Hills
for the week on business. He has just
broken up with his girlfriend and is in a little bit of a funk. He is driving back to his hotel after a party
and has become lost. The female
character, Vivian, is a prostitute living and working in Hollywood .
She is working the street this night when Richard shows up in his car
looking for directions to Beverly
Hills . Vivian
gets into Richards car and shows him personally how to get to his
destination. Long story short, Richard
is intrigued by Vivian’s infectious personality and pays her to come to his
room for the night.
Once in the room Vivian tries to move things along towards
sex but Richard resists only wanting to talk.
To slow things down Richard offers to pay Vivian for the entire night
instead of just an hour to which Vivian agrees.
Now that the pressure of having sex for money has been
removed, Vivian relaxes with some strawberries and champagne on the floor and
is watching “I Love Lucy”. Richard sits
down in the chair in the living room close to Vivian. Now we get to the good part. After a couple casual words bantered back and
forth between Richard and Vivian, Vivian pauses and reflects for a couple of
moments. She looks into Richards eyes
and slowly begins to crawl across the floor towards him. It’s almost as though Vivian has realized
that Richard is not her usual clientele.
He is a nice guy who is lonely and was looking for some type of a
connection with another person. In this
moment Vivian decides that she wants to provide an offering to Richard.
Once she has made her way to Richard she positions herself
on her knees between his legs. While
still keeping eye contact, she strokes his leg and slowly removes her outer
clothing. Then a moment of comic relief
as Vivian gets off her knees to get a pillow to put on the floor in order to
have a comfortable place while she is on her knees. Vivian mutes the television, pulls Richard
into a more relaxed seated position then proceeds to unzip his pants and
unbutton his shirt. She then looks him
in the eye and asks, “What do you want?”
This is of course a rhetorical question; Vivian has already
decided that she wants to give Richard this offering of oral sex. Vivian kisses her way down his chest before
pausing one last time to look at the television and smile at the program. Richard takes a deep breath in as the scene
then fades away.
What strikes me about the scene is the idea of one person
making an offering of pleasure to another person. Vivian clearly did not have to make this offer
to Richard. Richard appeared to be
perfectly content just to have her company for the night. When Vivian realized that she was safe with
Richard and that Richard was a nice guy she was overcome by a feeling that she
wanted to make an offering to Richard.
This was an offering to show him that she appreciated him.
For men, receiving oral sex from your partner is highly
pleasurable on a physical level. I don’t
think most women realize however how pleasurable it can be on a spiritual level
though. For men I think we tend make
stronger emotional connections from being touched. There is no more intimate way of a man being
touched than receiving oral sex. Also
what this scene communicates to me is that when one person wants to demonstrate
a feeling of appreciation and gratitude to another there is no better way to
convey this than through some type of offering.
I believe that men and women respond to different types of
offerings from partners or loved ones.
The offering of oral sex that I have just described here is a beautiful
scene to me. What makes it a beautiful
scene is that it demonstrates that oral sex does not have to be a dirty thing;
instead it can be a spiritual offering of beauty and love. I think that is the best spiritual defense
for oral sex.
Friday, May 10, 2013
I'm Spiritually Opposed to Weight Loss
I’m Spiritually Opposed to Weight Loss
Recently I was asked by a group of office co-workers about
joining a “Biggest Loser” competition at work.
I respectfully declined citing that I was spiritually opposed to the
concept of weight loss. I got a good laugh
out of that comment but to everybody’s surprise I was serious.
Now, let me start by saying that we all know about the
obesity problem in our country and the obesity problems that other countries
are starting to have. In stating that I
am spiritually opposed to the concept of weight loss what I am saying is that I
am opposed to the idea of reaching for a number like 160 and drawing a
conclusion that when I step onto a weight scale that the number I should see is
160 instead of 175. Why?
In our society we obsess over numbers and we let these
numbers control our thoughts which then affect our mood. I remember reading a story about how women’s
clothing sizes have actually changed over the years because the fashion
industry wants women to feel better about the clothing they buy. The idea is that the better you feel you will
want to buy more of their clothing. A
size 8 versus a size 12 dress size is an example of just meaningless numbers
assigned by people wanting to manipulate you into buying their product. Because we are focused on numbers that are
just made-up constructs of reality we loose contact with how we truly feel
inside which can lead to spiritual demise.
In order to fight back against this manipulation we have to
have a spiritual, meditative and physical practice that allows us to reconnect
with our true selves. One of my favorite
parts of yoga and meditation is sitting and quietly scanning the body. During this quiet time we learn to look
inside ourselves for areas of tension, pain and discomfort. In this time of quiet contemplation there is
no scale to look at, there is no meter to get a reading from; all that you have
at your disposal is your internal wisdom.
When we scan the body there is only one criterion we have for ourselves
and that is trying to answer the question, “How do I feel”? This is an expression of reality, an
expression of our true selves.
Unfortunately for the large majority of our society today we
have almost completely cut ourselves off from our bodies because we have tuned
into the question of, “What do I think”?
I think 175 is not a good weight, I think I should weight less; I think
I need to wear a smaller pants size. We
never stop to ask ourselves, “Why do I think this?” When we purely rely on these thoughts to
determine our self-worth we are vulnerable to being manipulated by a
constructed, false reality created by whoever wants to control you.
The best way to lead a healthy life is to live a life of
balance. When we can balance our mind,
body and spirit we become more aware of our feelings and less concerned about
our thoughts. Our feelings come from our
spirit and when we can tune into what the spirit tells us about how we feel
about ourselves we put ourselves back in control. When we eat; how do we feel about what we are
eating? Do we feel as though we are
honoring our bodies with what we are putting in it? If not, then change what you are eating. If you feel like you are hungry, then eat
until the feeling goes away. Why would
you keep eating if the feeling of hunger has left your body? If you feel like you need to exercise then go
and exercise until you feel as though you have had enough.
Don’t sit and think that you have to follow whatever the latest
issue of whatever magazine is telling you.
They tell you that you need to count this calorie, and that you need
this many minutes of exercise this many times a week with this heartbeat.
So what am I spiritually in favor of doing? I’m in favor of getting on your yoga mat or
your meditation cushion and following what your mind body and spirit are
telling you. If you do these things
there should never be a reason to step on a weight scale again.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Is Weightlifting Incompatible with Yoga?
Is Weightlifting Incompatible with Yoga?
I remember a number of years ago; I journeyed to FEDEX Field
to watch the Washington Redskins take on my beloved Miami Dolphins in an NFL
regular season game. During one of the
TV timeouts, the players on the field were trying to keep loose and I saw one
of my heroes Zach Thomas who played middle linebacker for the Dolphins do
something that completely surprised me.
Zach Thomas went into Pigeon Pose, right there in the middle of field,
fully dressed in pads, uniform and with a helmet on. Holy crap!
I couldn't believe it, a man who can bench press God only knows what and
regularly takes on 300 pound lineman to then have the privilege of tackling a
240 pound running back was in full Pigeon Pose.
This reason that this was so incredible to me is that it
seems as though for men, weightlifting and yoga exists in two completely
different and incompatible universes. My
self personally, I had lifted weights for twenty years but once I started my
yoga practice my interest in weightlifting fell by the wayside and I really
haven’t been back since. I notice that
within my community when I practiced yoga in a local gym that the male
participation was roughly the same as any other yoga class which is twenty
percent. So clearly the large majority
of men in the weight room did not feel the urge to come to a yoga class as part
of their routine and I had little interest in going back to weight room as part
of my routine.
You can "Google" the term, “pro athletes yoga” and you will
come up with a myriad of hits. One in
particular that I pulled was this link, http://www.stack.com/2012/09/17/yoga-athletes/
that has a list of ten pro athletes that incorporate yoga into their
routine. Clearly professional athletes
don’t have a problem integrating a weight lifting program along with a yoga
exercise. This then leads me to wonder: what’s the difference between the state of
mind with pro athletes and us the rest of us in our workout routine?
To start with, I think one of misconceptions that men have
about yoga is that it just involves stretching.
While it is true that yoga heavily involves stretching, a well rounded
yoga practice will involve many physical and mental facets which benefit all
athletes. These facets include balancing
though standing postures, upper body strength through arm balances and
inversions and lower body strength through lunges, chair pose and warrior poses.
Myself personally I feel that my yoga practice is enough of
a strength workout. In my yoga practice
when I am doing an inversion or an arm balance with a body weight of 175 pounds that to me is quite a workout. There are
some yoga classes that I attend where I can feel a certain amount of muscle
soreness the next morning. The soreness isn't as intense as with a good weightlifting session but still sore
none-the-less.
I do have to admit though that my yoga practice has been
helped by all those years of weight training.
Weight training does a great job of targeting specific muscle groups and
developing and strengthening them. I
feel having strong shoulder, triceps and pectoral muscles is a real benefit to
performing some of the various inversions and arm balances.
Physical aspects of yoga aside, I think the mental aspect of
yoga is the most appealing aspect to a professional athlete whereas an amateur doesn't think that much about it. The
practice of calming the mind and scanning the body helps the athlete to
maximize his potential while helping to avoid injury. The calm mind helps give greater focus
towards reaching competition goals while at the same time teaching us to slow
down and listen to what our bodies are trying to tell us. This helps define that point when the body
has had enough and effort and struggle cross over to pain and injury.
Maybe the answer is just purely that amateur jocks just
don’t have the time to do a mixed weightlifting yoga routine as part of a
practice. Women like to talk about their
busy schedules but truth-of-the-matter is that we men are pretty stressed with
our schedules as well. Maybe we feel
that we only have so many hours in a week to devote to exercise and so those
that like yoga stick with yoga and those of us who like weights stick with
weights.
So is weightlifting incompatible with yoga? One thing that I have learned from my
practice is that whatever you do, balance is required. This is something the professional athletes
all know. In order to hit peak
performance you need to draw from multiple disciplined routines. Weightlifting develops the individual muscles
and yoga teaches how to make those individual muscles work together. All yogis could benefit from sometime in the
weight room and all the people in the weight room could benefit from sometime
in the yoga studio. I think all of us benefit from a balanced approach in everything we do.
So to be the best you can be, get off the mat and into the
weight room and get out of the weight room and get onto the mat.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Yoga and the Male Ego
Yoga and the Male Ego
I wanted to start this article with one of my favorite lines
from the movie “Top Gun”. The line is at
the beginning of the movie when Maverick is being chewed out by his CO who
tells Maverick, “Son your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash.”
There are so many ways that the male ego can get us in to
trouble. From spending too much time at
work because we are being driven to outperform our coworkers, to spending too
much money to buy that bigger car or that bigger house. In the gym we push ourselves too far too fast
which leads to injuries. The drive to
perform to be number one can be a tremendous asset if we can control it and if
we can’t it can lead to our destruction.
The society that men live in tells us that bigger is better,
we need to be able to last longer and crush the competition.
Our existence is dictated with an outward focus because the
ego demands that we constantly compare ourselves to our competition. This outward focus can lead us to
insecurity, anxiety and worse of all, overcompensation.
A dedicated yoga practice teaches us to look inward instead
of purely focusing outward. One of the
most difficult lessons I learned was the concept of not being afraid to be a
“C” student. When the focus is inward we
learn to concentrate on how our effort makes us feel in and of itself instead
of an outward focus that concentrates on how we look. Our mind and spirit only feel good if we
think our pose is better than our fellow yogi.
When we try to perform an arm balance or a challenging
inversion we have been working on for a couple of weeks it’s easy to become
frustrated if we still can’t perform the pose.
Our ego dictates that we should of mastered that arm balance by now, the
girl on my left can do it, why can’t I.
The concept of being a “C” student doesn’t mean that we accept
mediocrity and give up on trying to improve our practice and thus improve
ourselves. It means that we acknowledge
and appreciate the difficulty of the pose.
In the acknowledgement of this difficulty we understand that our yoga
practice, just like life is a journey and not a destination.
It is the journey that we go on in our yoga practice that
gives us meaning, not the culmination of the effort and the perfect, “Grade A”,
performance of the pose. The ego says
you should already be there and pushes you into a place you are not ready
for. In our yoga practice when we learn
to control the ego, the body communicates this is where I am at in the pose,
the spirit accepts this and the mind envisions where we will one day go in the
pose.
When we can practice in this calm accepting frame of mind,
our minds become free from the ego. When
we are free from the male ego, we reduce our anxiety, we become more secure and
confident and we avoid overcompensation.
And with this secure, confident frame of mind always
remember, “You can be my wingman anytime.”
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