My American Dream: A Full-Circle Story of Realizing Success Without Stress, Part III

The person who I am today is a sum of my successes and failures. The past 10 years of my career have catapulted me to success, have plunged me into failure, and have lifted me to success once again. This is Part III of my story of training myself to enjoy my American dream and to evolve my perspective. Read Part I and Part II.

My American Fear

I was teaching, coaching and training full time. The results were mind-boggling.

As I worked with clients on polishing their interiors, their exteriors began to shine too. They looked, talked and acted differently. Their pace of life and energy shifted. Their lives transformed.

Every metamorphosis that I witnessed astounded me: Losing 20 to 30 pounds. Developing clearer and brighter skin. Attaining raises and promotions. Establishing businesses. Moving abroad. Getting engaged. Feeling calm for the first time.

Read more

My American Dream: A Full-Circle Story of Realizing Success Without Stress, Part II

The person who I am today is a sum of my successes and failures. The past 10 years of my career have catapulted me to success, have plunged me into failure, and have lifted me to success once again. This is Part II of my story of expanding my relationship with yoga to expand the American dream and to expand my life. Read Part I and Part III.

From Failure to Freedom

My second superpower is my intuition. I do not analyze before I act. I just get a feeling – and go for it.

Within six months to a year of taking my first yoga class, I knew that I wanted to be a yoga teacher.

My practice had evolved from excruciating to emancipating. I remember forming triangle pose one class and thinking: “Huh. This is no longer miserable.” I developed flexibility, strength and body awareness. As I witnessed how quickly and deeply yoga was transforming me, I wanted to share it with others.
Read more

Ground Your Yoga Practice To Grow

This month’s blogs and teachings encourage building strong and stable foundations, whether in yoga, exercise, nutrition or even goal-setting. These facets of wellness do not need to be separate. To build a strong body and mind through any of these practices, you must have a solid base.

I see many yoga students, exercise enthusiasts and people in general wanting to rush to the end. They want to achieve advanced poses, lift heavy weights or overhaul their diets before they have mastered the foundations. Not only is rushing to the end unsustainable, but it also can be dangerous.

This week, we will explore the foundations of building a strong yoga practice. In the following weeks, we will examine the foundations of exercise and nutrition.

Read more

5 Big Takeaways From 2015

2015 was a big, powerful year for myself and as a result for many of my students and private clients alike. I’m not saying that to brag but to highlight the main theme of “The Big Yogi”;
Inspire, Move and Transform. My perspective and teachings revolve around the principal of filling yourself up first in order to be of greater value and service to the community and the world. The power to make change starts with the ability to inspire yourself to move towards transformation. You have got to get clear on who you want to be and how you want your life to be, then you can take this energy and purpose outward and share it. This blog represents my takeaways and personal experience with these principals and teachings over the past year and is in the first person for this reason. I offer myself as a tool for you to reflect on your own big takeaways from 2015.
Read more

Five Afflictions Destroying Your Happiness

Are you happy? Are you truly happy at the deepest level of your being? Sure, on a superficial level, happiness is relatively easy to achieve or at least to project outwardly, but on the inside it’s a whole different story.

Outward happiness can be achieved through a smile, purchasing a new possession, even a new relationship. What they all have one thing in common however, is that they are temporary. When I get what I want I’m happy. When I avoid what I don’t want I’m happy. When I’m in love I’m happy. But what happens when life doesn’t go how I want it to? I feel angst, I feel loss, I feel less than, I feel sadness. Today, I’ll talk about the “Kleshas” of the “five afflictions” responsible for causing suffering and ultimately, unhappiness.Read more

Fad Foods and Diets

Fad foods and diets- we’ve all heard of them, we’ve all followed them and we’ve all found that many of them are, well, simply fads. With so much information and marketing out there around health and wellness, it is hard, if not nearly impossible to know what (or who) to listen to or follow. Depending on where the marketing dollars are coming from, that’s usually what we are told to eat and what society begins to follow. First it was milk mustaches, then complex carbohydrates, then low-fat foods (which can be argued to have created our current obesity epidemic) and now we hear gluten-free and bacon is all the rage. Whatever it is, it’s not working and is mostly a bunch of crap. Why do I say that? Simple. Two-thirds of the American population is overweight or obese and our rate of preventable diseases is at an all time high. A shift must be made and it is not in the form of a “magic-bullet” or the newest fad.
Read more

Yogis Don’t Eat Tacos III: Yoga Is a Lie

In my near decade of practicing, studying and now teaching the art and science of yoga I have come to a deep and controversial stand- yoga is a lie. Yes, that’s right, you heard me correctly, yoga is a big fat lie. Part of me feels frustrated and upset to have dedicated a large percentage of my life, career and faith into a practice that has lied to me for many years, another part of me just sits back and laughs as more of the veil becomes removed. The modern practice of yoga has become so convoluted and so loaded with connotation that it’s to the point of being a big joke. To understand why I’m making this claim, here’s the first thing you need to know: Yoga means “union” or “to yoke”, it does not mean poses or “asana”. In fact, poses only make up 1/8 of the total scope of yoga (and that’ s Hatha yoga to be exact, as there are numerous other forms). The word yoga brings up thoughts of hippies, blonde babes in Lululemon pants, handstands, hot and sweaty rooms and teachers who are borderline insane. For all of these reasons and more, the word yoga has become a product, a commodity and a misguided movement. But just to be clear, here’s 5 reasons why modern yoga is a lie.
Read more

How to Manage Stress: Drop Your Expectations to The Floor

How to manage stress? Drop your expectations and assumptions to the floor, period

Expectations and assumptions are natural functions of the human mind and can exist at a deep and  unconscious level. They prepare and inform us how to act and can protect us from emotional pain, they serve a function. Expectations and assumptions however, are core contributors to our unhappiness and prevent us from living in the present moment.

Think back to a minute ago before you started reading this blog; when you read the title, what did you expect to find, what did you assume it would be about? That answer is different for all of us, so take a moment and see if you can recall your initial thoughts that came to mind.

Maybe you thought to yourself “I expect this to be good or I expect this to be bad.” Or maybe you assumed that this blog would only be related to yoga and not applicable if you don’t have a yoga practice.  Are any of these thoughts right or wrong? I do not know the answer, but neither do any of us until we actually experience this article, event or moment first hand.

I can hear you saying already “But it’s good to have expectations about things, we should expect things to be good and avoid things we expect to be bad.”

Well, I have some advice for you, drop your expectations.

Throw them out the damn window.

Read more

Sitting: The New Smoking

Did you know that the average American worker now spends more time sitting each day than they do standing?  The effects are evident. 2/3 of our population is overweight or obese, stress and preventable diseases are at an all-time high and for the first time in U.S. history, our children face the chance of being less healthy than their previous generation.

Sitting has been called by some the new “smoking” and here’s why:

Read more

Carrot-Ginger Chicken Soup a la Trader Joe’s

Today’s culinary adventure was inspired by the left over groceries from last week’s Trader Joe’s run. It was one of those days when you look in the fridge and wonder what you can throw together before everything goes bad. I have the  tendency to spend $100 on groceries and then let half, if not more go bad and to waste. It’s frustrating, especially with food prices these days, but sometimes I just get to lazy to cook and opt for a quick chicken salad or burrito bowl after a long day of work. Sound familiar? I know the food in my fridge is healthier for me and that cooking for myself is one of the best health habits one can create, but I honestly just don’t enjoy cooking. So knowing this about myself, I try to create quick hacks to make sure I eat my groceries and cook more often than not. For me, this comes down to being efficient with food prep and cooking times. Here’s how I hack my food prep time…

Read more