Do ever wonder why an exorbitant amount of women get bunions and men do not? The picture tells the story. That’s not to say that men don’t wear tight, pointy shoes too. But its usually without a major heel lift.

The better idea is to go barefoot more often. Wearing wider shoes helps too. Keens and New Balance are well known for having wider toe boxes. Yeah, maybe its not as fashionable to wear Mary Janes. But would you rather have this?:

Your feet are the foundation for your life. Of all things on your body, they should be treated the best of all. Unhealthy feet produce unhealthy lives. Activities like yoga, Tai-chi, and walking barefoot on the beach does wonders for your feet.

For me, teaching yoga goes beyond the studio. Its about connecting and caring for people. When I learn that someone is a long distance runner, I think about what I needed doing the same things. If I know someone has faced trauma in their lives, how can I make the space comforting and safe? When I know someone has serious shoulder issues or wrist pain, how can I care for them so they feel included? These are all things I have in the back of my mind when I teach. It shapes what I do as a teacher.

But what if I never talked to my students? What if I never interact with them before or after class? I just walk in, do my thang, and then leave. Collect paycheck. Do it again.

That’s just not me. To be honest, I’m not a professional yoga teacher. This is my part-time gig that I just love to do. Its the best hobby I could ever have because it isn’t selfish; it is all about serving others. So if you serve others, a yoga teacher can’t be selfish. They can’t just teach and leave. If you never hear of their problems, how can you address their needs?

I may be in the minority, but I do my best to connect with students. But I am careful to allow friendships to manifest themselves organically. Many students friend me on social media, so I get to see their lives outside of the studio. It brings me such joy to see them. I think that about half my students on social media are now former students. They’ve either moved away, attend other yoga studios now, or have fallen away from yoga completely. But that’s all ok. We are all on this journey of life. Just because they take a different path doesn’t mean they can’t be my friend anymore. And I still find the same joy in their happiness.

Nearly everything in life is fleeting. We can do without most material things if we had to. A close friend of mine lost everything in a fire. It is devastating to have something like that happen. But to have family and friends who care for you; that is priceless beyond measure.

Seek and savor people who enrich your life for the better. Care for each other. Nurture them. Communicate with each other. Be there when they are in need. That’s what friends do.

Have you heard of the Persian flaw? It was an intentional flaw introduced into something, possibly into a rug or other work, acknowledging that we are all imperfect.

I love this idea of humility. When we accept a misgiving in our character, then we don’t have to worry about perfection. It keeps us humble.

When I teach or practice yoga, I accept in myself that I have many flaws. I do my best in classes to not appear invincible. I know I have flaws and I accept them.

I remember having two yoga students who would practice side-by-side. They were the Yin to the other’s Yang. One was super flexible; she could do all the binds and funky poses. But when it came to very strong poses, like one-legged crow pose, she struggled. Whereas my other student could do one-legged crow, handstands, all the strength stuff, but could barely fold forward. It is a perfect example of how strength and flexibility work hand in hand.

I knew of a yoga teacher who seemed to have everything. She had both strength and flexibility. She could do very amazing things with her body. She was also very smart, experienced, and a great yoga teacher. In the yoga studio, she was as perfect as a teacher could be. But socially is where it fell apart. Within the four walls of her home is where her flaws rose to the surface. The bane of her existence was what lurked in the shadows of her solitary darkness.

The Apostle Paul in the Biblical realm had a seriously terrible history. But he ended up writing half the New Testament and is a major player in the modern church today. Yet he had an unknown issue with an "affliction in his side". It was a pain that he said kept him humble. It kept him from the easy road to pride. Pride can be the most devastating character flaw of all. It keeps you from being humble and accepting flaws in others because you are always striving to be better than everyone else. Pride is what caused the most beautiful angel in heaven from falling from glory and being the thorn in the side of all mankind.

My title is "Get It Together". But it really should be, accept who you are. Yes, if you have a vice that you need to work on, work on it. But don’t try to hide and be ashamed of who you are. And by all means, never think you are perfect or continually strain toward perfection. Its an allusion of vanity.

Krishnamachurya, the Father of Modern Yoga, said "If I say I am a Guru, I am no longer a yogi". There is truth in that.

If you have never read anything I’ve ever written, read this! If not for yourself, for someone you know and love.

You don’t have to accept back pain or diagnoses of what causes back pain.

Wow I said it!!

I was listening to a podcast recently that talks about this in great detail. In most cases of "Science", the scientific method asks to you consider alternative hypotheses. So please listen!!

AN MRI ISN’T THE MOST EFFECTIVE DIAGNOSTIC TOOL.

I posted a link below that explains some of the research. So please listen!! A study was done with MRI’s taken from people with NO back pain at all (asymptomatic). I don’t remember the exact statistics, but more than 90% showed disk degeneration. Something like 30+% showed disk bulging or herniation. Another large percentage showed stenosis. Yet none of these people had back pain.

CAUSE & EFFECT

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you do Mixed Martial Arts as a hobby along with your day job of being a carpenter. You also play with your kids a lot which involves rolling around on the carpet with them and them jumping on you a lot. And you have a 100 pound dog that loves to play too. You notice a big bruise on your arm. You blame it on running into a wooden beam the other day, but you’re not really sure. When in reality, it could be one of the 50 other instances where it could actually have been bruised. Cause and effect. Do you really know the cause?

When you get an MRI and visit several doctors, they don’t want to know the previous diagnosis. They would rather come to their own conclusions. What is found in research is that every doctor can interpret MRI results differently. You can go to 10 doctors with 10 different results. It is very subjective to opinion. When in reality, you may have had what appears to be a bulging disk for many years. If you have pain, they are going to blame it on what appears obvious. When, in fact, you don’t know what is really causing your back pain.

PAIN IS OFTEN MISLEADING, SO DON’T BELIEVE IT

The psychology of pain is complex. A signal is sent from your back to your brain and if you’ve never had a diagnosis of back problems, you may just let it go. Your brain doesn’t get in the way of your life that way. But if someone told you you have stenosis or a disk herniation, then the signal instead turns into pain. Now you have a reason to focus on your pain because of a diagnosis that you truly believe. When your pain may have nothing to do with what appeared on the MRI.

Sure, there may be a serious situation where acute pain is something that needs to be addressed. But that is rarely the case. In most cases, it has to do with lifestyle. If you sit in an office for 8 hours a day; and it often hurts to stand; and it takes you a good 50 steps before you can walk upright again; then the problem is something else. Its not your back. Its how you treat your back. Studies show that more office workers have back pain than people who work outside. Its because outside workers are always moving. They aren’t stuck in one position for long periods of time. The constant movement keeps the pain away. And if you workout, its probably for no more than 1 hour out of a 24 hour day. What are you doing with the rest of your day? An hour of fitness is never enough. You have to keep moving and varying your positions throughout the day.

AN MRI DOESN’T ACTUALLY TELL YOU WHAT IS CAUSING YOUR BACK PAIN

The bottom line is, don’t trust an MRI or a doctor’s interpretation of an MRI. Better yet, skip the MRI entirely. I was told this in my Thai Yoga Massage training, but I was skeptical at the time. Now I’m a firm believer in this. Instead, start moving. Don’t abide by a doctor’s prescription of bed rest or limiting certain things like lifting, running, or other activities in life. You don’t have to be a basket case for the rest of your life because of a wrong diagnosis. And, per the physical therapy podcast I was listening to, if any practitioner tells you that you need to be cracked back into shape, or they need to crack you to fix your scoliosis, or adjust your hip to relieve a leg length discrepancy, run the other way. They just want your money. You can solve your problems with good posture, variable movements, and lots of activity. You need to work out these issues you have or have someone find those issues if you don’t know how. But don’t isolate yourself to an office chair or couch for half your day.

In all of life, think cause and effect. Don’t give credence to pie in the sky suppositions. Life isn’t black & white. Just because you have a ding in your car fender doesn’t mean that is causing your engine to sputter. You have to think outside of the box and look at things in a different way. And you definitely don’t have to resign yourself to the sidelines. Don’t stop picking up your grand kids and hugging them. Don’t stop playing tennis or doing the things you love. And never accept bed rest. Its almost never the answer.

https://futurelifenow-online.com/back-mri-results-maybe-misleading/

I often see students who have an accomplished yoga practice and think they would be good yoga teachers. I also see students who have a lot to give, not necessarily because of their practice, but because of their optimism and joyful attitude.

I love encouraging students to become yoga teachers. For those who believe in Parampara, it can sometimes be an extension of yourself. Parampara is the handing down of tradition from generation to generation. Its a continual chain of learning and sharing. I know I’ve taken bits and pieces of my teachers and made them my own. There are always certain things I especially love about my teachers. And it certainly shows up in my practice. I know there are many things about me are solely about me. And I am very honored if someone shares those things to others in their own practice and teaching.

When I first became a yoga teacher, nothing changed right away. If I was going to 4 or 5 classes a week, I still did that. I would pick up a few teaching gigs, and if it didn’t interfere with the classes I was taking, I’d still attend the classes. I really felt it was good for me to go to classes since it helped keep me learning and sharing what I learned.

Also, when I was in yoga teacher training, my svadhyaya was strong. I was still reading the Sutras before meditation. I was still studying books and reading only journals about yoga. I wanted to be a good yoga teacher and I did all I could to keep learning.

Slowly, as time went by, I started to get a little tired. Not overwhelmed, but kind of in a routine. After a while, I added another class to teach and then I stopped attending a class. Eventually it whittled down to maybe one class a week. And then I only went to yoga maybe once a month. Mind you, I still had a strong personal practice. But even that started to wane. Instead of doing the Ashtanga full primary, I’d just stretch in front of the TV. Instead of following Yoga with Adriene on YouTube, I’d work a few skills with my weight workouts.

Eventually, I was just teaching and nothing else. My regular workouts kept me in shape. And I had plenty of muscle memory to demonstrate the poses. But my yoga practice was really a facade. This phase didn’t last long because it did affect my teaching. And you can easily feel like a fake. So I knew something had to change.

I feel like I’m more balanced today. I practice regularly and work on poses a lot. Its more of a lifestyle for sure. I do yoga because I need it and its an integral part of my life. And I try to attend as many classes as I can. Acro Yoga is taking up a lot of my space now. I used to always seek the new teachers to see how they were doing. But I love my ole stalwarts too, those teachers who have been around a while. I gain so much from their wisdom.

As phases come and go for me, I know my former students who teach yoga probably wrestle with this too. I will still see a few wander into my classes and I’m super delighted to see them. But I knew when they became teachers, that I probably wouldn’t see them as much or at all. Its the sad part of having your prize students become teachers. You know you’ll probably lose them. And as they see their own path, its kind of like your parents. You end up doing all you can to divorce yourself of who your parents are because you want to be independent and your own person. I think yoga students go through this phase too. They don’t want to be caught doing what you do.

For me, after I’ve gone through that initial growth phase, I totally embrace my teachers and honor the parampara they’ve given to me. I honor their legacy and lavish praise on what they’ve done for me. I think of Kelsey, Amber Geean, Laura, David, Grace, Kathryn, Allen, Don, Linda, the other Linda, Swenson, Freeman, Schultz, Kino, my fellow YTT colleagues, and all the other yoga teachers who have influenced my past. Its fun to think about how they influence my teaching today.

As I grow older, and possibly wiser, I lose my ego more and more. I can become the true me. That is the essence of transparency. I don’t have to hide weakness. I can wear it like a badge of honor. I tell my students often that I can’t do everything. A little bit of humility goes a long way. It helps you connect with students and makes them realize this isn’t a performance or competition, its a way of life. We breathe, engage bandhas, and focus our gaze at what we are doing. Its not just yoga. Its life.

For the past week, I couldn’t figure out why I was burping mint. It wasn’t anything bad, it was just minty. I have been using a new fish oil capsule and was wondering if that was the culprit. I asked my wife and she checked the label. "Mint". Awww, yes. I guess that’s better than burping fishy smells.
#diet #supplements #burps

My heart goes out to those soldiers who are serving to help civilian communities. I was thinking back to a time in the mid-1990’s when I was called to flood duty.

Fortunately, I was done with classes, but my research plots were being planted and prepared for the year. I was a Doctoral graduate student in Crop Sciences working on diseases of corn. My help was badly needed, but the crew I worked with in my lab knew really well how to get the job done. So I am very grateful they could do the work in my place. However, I had a lab mate who didn’t see it that way.

Do you ever know someone who has traveled a bit and thinks what they’ve seen is monolithic in thought and presence for an entire community? As a young lady, she visited New Mexico for an extended stay. She experienced some aspects of Native American life. The problem is that she came to think she knew everything about Native America from that one trip. So she would infer things on me as a Native American about how I should think and do. There are around 567 Federally recognized tribes with their own traditions, languages, and history. You can’t make a blanket statement about two tribes that border one another, yet across the entire country. The problem is, her short-sighted viewpoints are reflected in many people’s eyes. I see it all the time.

This same lab mate also had a boyfriend who was in the Navy. She visited him a time or two and interacted with his ship and shipmates. She talked about the crazy things they did and "how sailors are". But she couldn’t leave it at that. She now extrapolated the experiences of a couple sailors to all of the military. So when I went away for weekend training or my two weeks in the Summer with the Army National Guard, she just thought I was one of her sailors. She didn’t have a clue about the legitimate work I was doing. As an Infantry Scout Platoon Sergeant, we often spent the entire weekend without much sleep doing maneuvers through the night. After a training weekend, I would walk out into the corn fields totally exhausted. Yet she would ridicule me for my goofying around all weekend. She didn’t have any idea of what I was doing.

I would say, before you make judgments about anyone, walk a few days in their shoes. Learn and understand what they really do in life. It might surprise you how hard and important their work is.

After a Spring of massive snow melt and heavy rain, I got a call from my guard unit. We were to report in 24 hours for flood duty. The rain was causing levees on the Illinois River to be saturated and in fear of collapsing. I always had a Go-Bag ready if something went down. So I grabbed it and went. We started loading up 2.5 ton trucks (Deuce & Half) with gear and people and convoyed to the staging area. Since school was out, we unloaded cots into a high school gymnasium. We got situated and received briefings about our conduct. Since I was the highest ranking enlisted man in my unit, I ended up acting as the Company First Sergeant. I also didn’t have any Officers, so I was a one-man show on the leadership side of things. Out on the levees, I was just one of the guys. But when it came to moving personnel, discipline, inspections, organizing food, and all the other things that needed to be done, I was the Man.

Every morning at 5am, I’d wake up my unit and we’d get ready to move. Since we didn’t have a chow hall or cook staff, we got loads of food from the local Hardee’s and other fast food places. That’s not all bad because I love their biscuits and gravy. Then we’d load up the trucks and take a half hour trip to a location on the levees. A dump truck would drop a whole pile of sand bags and we’d start putting them into place. For the unaware, a heavy sandbag gets really heavy in a very short time. You start to feel it in your back, shoulders, and legs. But the worst of it all is your forearms. Since you grip every single bag, your forearms swell to Popeye the Sailorman’s proportions. You’d have to open and close your hands several times in the morning or after a break to get them working again. Then you get to a point where pain turns to numbness and then back to pain and sometimes they stop functioning. You’d have to cradle sandbags in your arms because you couldn’t grip them anymore. Add to that, you are in muddy, humid, hot sun with mosquitoes and gnats in your face. In an even bigger flood, some of my guys talked about dead cattle and pigs floating by and water moccasins. When we worked at times at a sand bag filling location, we often worked alongside convicts from a local prison who were recruited to the same duty.

While on duty, each site had to have an evacuation plan and a rally point. We needed to have a good head count of our people at all times. At any time, a bubbling levee could give way and we had to know where our people were and if they were safe. If a levee actually blows out, it may not end well for anyone in the path of the water.

But even more than the physical toll was the mental toll. After a week, you become zombies. Knowing home is not far away, you start to think about your options in life. You wonder about decisions you’ve made. My guys start to get into trouble for sneaking alcohol or partying at night and not functioning in the morning. And of course, I was the guy who was supposed to stamp out trouble. Many of the farmers were extremely thankful for our help because their farms and homesteads were in peril. They would bring baked goods out to us or sandwiches and drinks. We were grateful for those treats when we could get them. However, one County Commissioner didn’t make me very happy. He was close to us talking with one of his officials. He said "we need to get more peons working on this site!" Really, peons?!! I was a Ph.D. student. We had lawyers and doctors who were among our group; and many intelligent and hard working people throughout our ranks. When I was on Active Duty with the Army, this wasn’t true. Almost all of the enlisted troops were right out of high school like me. Only the Officers had gone to college. Whereas, I’d say 60% in the National Guard are college graduates or currently in college. The rest of us were electricians, salesmen, carpenters, politicians, or serving society in some significant way. So his lack of appreciation threw me for a loop. I just kept thinking and reminding my troops of the good we were doing for that community.

After several weeks on the levees, we all returned home safely. We were happy to do our part for our State and communities. We were ready to heal our aching backs and forearms and get back to normal life. My wife and dogs were so happy to see me and I was happy to be home. I was ready to get back to my research and tending to my field plots. But that one lab mate who knows it all gave me her same old gruff. I was just goofing off according to her. I really wish should could have spent one single day doing what I did. She would know of the intense physical and mental hardship we faced every day. The same is true with troops and sailors all around the world. You can’t even fathom what they are facing every single moment of the day and night.

Appreciate first. Be thankful. Never judge.