Sunday, March 29, 2015

Tools


If you're not into my hippy rants, x out quickly....





Awww, you're still here!!! Thanks for staying!!!


I was listening to a podcast... that should be the new name of this blog... anyway, listening to Joe and Aubrey and somehow Aubrey spilled out this quote above, and the conversation ensued.
It lingered around on my drive to work and I thought about it more, the root of it all.
Then I went in for one of my "therapy," sessions later that day and thought about it some more and had a fantastic visualization...
I had this view of maybe 12-20 people... I was above the stage but even with the curtain, so I could see the action on the stage as well as what was happening behind... I'd see people out and performing, but when they went behind curtain and out of the bright lights, their bodies and faces changed.
It was like a conveyor belt.... they'd circle around and come out and all these different bodies and shapes and faces and then when they went around back, everyone was the same shape and color and looked the same.
And it made me think deeper about this quote and empathy and how a few moves in one direction or another and we could all switch places, real quick.  Our lives are... whatever you just thought, but few moves can change everything.  Money can come and go like water. Health can come and go, we think we have a handle but we dont (I knew a 38 vegan triathlete who died of a heart attack last year).  Friends and loved ones, jobs, you name it... it can all fade away or triple in volume, we never know.  So this quote makes me think of empathy a little more and it caused me to slow down a few notches and treat people a little nicer... and I'm already a super nice guy! (insert smiley emoji).  So next time you encounter a grumpy douche  or someone who is just rude, maybe give them a little crap to settle them down but also know, they could be you.  In a different light, on a different stage, with some different luck or circumstances, that could be you.
On a real tripped out level, it is you.

Buuuuuuuuut...
Part two of where this thought took me was to a "witnessing," gear.  I started taking steps backwards and paying attention or reexamining some of the "therapy," I've been through... and I see it all as a tool.
Then I started thinking about this "tool," concept and accessible it all is, if we choose to use them intelligently and with an intent to truly improve ourselves.  And this isnt about sales or promos, but my recent massage with Audrey kinda helped get this rolling.  What a tool it is, to have such a skilled massage technician (is that the title?  I think it fits).  I told her the symptoms I felt, she went to work and I'm sooooo much better, so much stronger and more effective in day to day life, its unreal and crazy to ignore.  Same can be said for what I do and go through when I see Jared and receive an acupuncture treatment.  I tell him whats going on, he makes an assessment and bam, we're off.  What a unique tool he offers, to be able to work that magic and heal... with what?  Needles, knowledge and my body.
I think those two go very hand in hand.
Same with yoga but it was much more "me," as far as I didnt sit down and have an assessment and then a pro went to work on me... it was me going to work on me, which is a f'n incredible tool to tap into, even for just that one brief moment, someone calls a breakthrough.  Those "ah-ha," moments. Yes, as a tool, its used for whatever we choose.  But yoga and Buddhism always went hand in hand for me and has many branches of tools circulating, such as meditation and body awareness, so... it is what it is.

But then to pause our life-game and look at ourselves like a... wild, dynamic, alien monkey with this incredible computer brain that we really dont know much about... and looking at our lives and all these tools surrounding us.  Classes to learn, music to inspire or relax or motivate, social media to reach and share, computers to expand and grow our "database," nutrition to heal and improve...
I think too often, we go monday-tuesday-wednesday-thursday-friday-saturday-saunday-weekweekweekweekmonthmonthmonthyearyearyear oh shit, I'm 38... what have I done w my time?
When this question pops in your head, its a good thing, even if it temporarily makes you sad or depressed.  Because the questioning, hopefully, makes you start to see tools around you and start getting to work on....

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Be useful, Be helpful, Be a Tool!!!
That would look nice on my stone :)
Awww too cryptic? Just wait til my next blog on April 5 (thats a hint, free hug if you text me the topic)

Sunday, March 1, 2015

He said/she said

(laptop was down so I pulled up the app and started writing random thoughts to finish once my laptop is back, which it is)

So I'm texting w/ a friend...

We're going back and forth about meeting up to workout and all that.  He says his workouts are ok, wants to introduce more of what I like to do and his nutrition is solid... back and forth, back and forth and eventually we come to an agreement that its the MRS in our homes that tank it for us!  (that's right and i guarantee every guy reading this agrees!)
So my question, what is it with dairy?  Everything can be rolling along just fine then BAM, "someone," needs cheese and sour cream.  Why?  I often say no cheese because I don't really taste it and don't see the benefit of having it (other than mexican).

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Me and my daughters are driving through  a parking lot, looking for a Redbox.  As we drive, a car comes up the wrong way, cuts us off and "steals," a spot we were pretty clearly moving towards.  Talk about yoga being a great tool for life?  Do you know how hard it was for me to not roll a window down (imagine manual windows) and rip this person up?  Holy moly.  Instead, i used it as a teaching tool as what kind of person to not be.
Somehow these lessons followed us around.  As we walked in, two boys about 25 were in front of us.  They opened the door and stepped... think they held a door for a 10 year old girl or the old man (me)?  Nope.
THEN we're driving home and another car pulls in front of us at a red light like we werent even there.  It was a drive way where I would've let the person out anyway, once we made eye contact and a wave so they could see I wasn't moving anymore.  I eventually just told the girls that there was a crazy virus in air turning everyone into rude, mannerless monsters and we need to get home before we catch it.
Yes, they know I'm an idiot w analogies but jeez... Maybe it was the day or something, but I'm starting to wonder if this weather is turning people into assholes.

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I'm reading this new book on "tapping into your talent..." which I need to find first, anyway, but the first chapter said "Stare at your role model."  Study how they walk and talk...  Study how they move and their body language....
This immediately depressed me.... actually had to put the book away and pull it together before heading out to train some clients.
If you've been reading this longer than 6 months or so, you know my role model passed away on January 22, 2012 and I've been a real wimp about it all since.  Probably in a pretty unhealthy way too.  Setting football season aside, I can try to imagine he's still alive and I've been working on the whole "energy," thought from my last blog, that's been helpful... but I cant help but get super emotional about it.
Is it ok for your role model to be gone?
Someone text me "Hey i liked the energy stuff, especially for music."  He got it.  Thinking of Jimi Hendrix, he's gone but the music still lives, so he's still here.
Just hard to do when thinking about someone a little closer than a rock god from the 40 some years ago.

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Another friend text "Hey man, I need something positive."
My first thought was "shit... what do i have?" Not often that happens where its requested, usually it just slips out at a good time.
But i'm flipping through instagram and then the onnit page and then i see Joe Rogan, who is a bit of an inspiration these days.  Yup, the ole Fear Factor guy.  He's a but more than a comedian and UFC commentator, you should check out his podcast, preferably one with Aubrey Marcus, Graham Hancock, Alex Grey, Neil Degrasse (spelling).
Anyway, the quote was "Write down 3 things you want to improve.  Write down 3 things you wont tolerate from yourself.  Write down 3 things you never want to see yourself do again."  So 5 days later, this was my advice.

Improve
1 My overall health
2 My level of education
3 Relationships w family and friends

Things I wont tolerate from myself
1 Cutting corners (laziness)
2 Being involved in gossip
3 Accepting less than I deserve

Things i never want to see myself do
1 Beat myself up over things i truly cant control
2 Accepting anything but the life i see myself living
3 I never want to see myself not being a person of my word

(nice exercise, I'll expand in a future blog)

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Another friend once text "I just want to teach yoga... somewhere off in Colorado... build a nice studio with state of the art heating system and towels for everyone... a scenic view (and I swear, as I'm reading this, I start to hear Kurt Cobains guiter puking all over this)... a scenic view looking out into the woods..." and on and on.
My thought was "how easy."
I want yoga where it's needed.  Schools, cities, i want it in a factory.
I want it to go back where it belongs, before stay at home moms and poshy little studios turned it into a fad and something to brag about on girls night.
I want it organic and real, taught by lifes warriors, people who are living and grinding, battling and surviving.  i want it here one minute and gone the next.... it'll taste better that way.
Counting on it never leaving?  it'll be taken for granted.
I see it like art and like life.  That was 8100.  It was never built to last forever, it was supposed to come and go.  It means more.

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I said
I dont see life as a path, a thin line heading in one direction or even zig zagging.... I see us circular.  Like a merry-go-round.  We come and go, we see things and move and see new things and move, then maybe we see it all over again, but different.
Like a wheel, and we're in the center.  We steer it and head into a direction, but so does everyone.  Think of the people who have come and gone in your life... then they come back and go again and on and on... are you headed down the same path?  Maybe, maybe not.
Is it because we attract events and circumstances? Maybe, maybe not.
Maybe we're on a ride... and if we acknowledged it, we'd be having a little more fun and things would be better.

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She said
i finally did it!
And I thought... this is what we all need, to push ourselves, every single day.  One day might be mental, one day might be physical, one day might be everything and completely overwhelming... but this is how we grow and evolve and I dont think theres much more important that doing just that.
Training is the obvious analogy to growth.  
Whats your weakness in life?  Where do you want to improve?  what are you plans to work on it?  How else can you grow?  To be full?  Like what I wrote above... its a ride... and what I wrote above that, it'll come and go.  So while you're on the ride, be great.
Motivation?  just that.   Be great.  how?  work at it.
Whats your "it?"  how will you know?  
you already do.  Stop talking yourself out of "it."
i want to travel more.
i want to see more live music.
i want to experience cultures and see everything.
how?  i'll work to make it happen.
dont be stagnant.
go back to school if you need.  I'm about to be 38... but I'm also a sophomore.  and it doesnt bother me at all, it actually excites me.  because soon, i'll be a junior and then a senior and then guess what?  Dreams turn into reality.
and then maybe I'll be ok to keep staring at photos of my role model and get back to working on that dream
Never mind school for a sec... Look at the list you wrote above... What's the plan to a better...?
To never...?
To not allow yourself to...?
dont give up
i know its hard.
Life has a way of f'ing us up sometimes... but pause and think of it as  a challenge, something knew i read.  "A warrior doesnt see good or bad, hard or easy, just challenges," and in the challenge is the lesson.
these lessons and challenges mold us.  who will you become?
it really is our own choice





This Is Blue Chip