core values – draft 1

Posted on January 23, 2012 by admin

Today is the first day I have enough front desk staff working and trained since taking over as owner of SDY 4 months ago! I feel as if a weight has been lifted. I’m so grateful for my new yogi family. In honor of this momentous occasion I shall post twice in 2 days. The blogosphere might come down around me!

As I was going through piles of things undone, I found a copy of MINDBODY’s Core Values and realized I hadn’t worked on my own Core Values since November. (Double sad face). After reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and feeling completely connected to MINDBODY’s while I was employed there, it was on my list of Big Picture – Must Do Things. Most people I know don’t feel the need to think about this or write it down, even if they do have a list of sorts. I have an intimate connection with writing things down though. So, below I am so excited to share the first draft for Smiling Dog Yoga. I’ve certainly borrowed a bit from MINDBODY and Steven Covey, but added my own spin. I’m pretty sure these can serve as my personal core values as well, but we’ll see how I feel after I marinate on it a bit. Enjoy.

SDY Core Values

do yoga. be you. be awesome.

Committed to Living Yoga. We bring the yogic attitude to all we do. Aware that we must take care of ourselves beyond the mat and nourish ourselves in multiple dimensions. Committed to not letting our ego’s get the best of us. Striving to live well balanced lives, focused on responsibilities, relationships, recreation, and rest.
Continuously Evolving. Aware that we must evolve to remain useful and relevant as yoga river guides. Questioning the status quo. Pushing ourselves to our healthy edge and inspiring others to do the same. Not judgemental of where we are today.
Brutally Honest and Committed to Integrity. Willing to be honest with ourselves and others. Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living with integrity. Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.
Humble and Helpful. Proud, but not prideful as pride impedes future growth. Thankful to be part of such a great community and to serve our wellness community. Helpful because we can, not because we have to. Seeking first to understand, then to be understood.
Proactive. This means more than merely taking initiative. We have the responsibility to make things happen. Once we have taken control of our lives we can begin to influence our world-our homes, workplace and community. Bring solutions to observed problems rather than merely complaining about conditions.
Caring and Happy. Caring for each other, our vendors, students. Striving for win-win in all situations. Taking actions that lead to long term happiness in ourselves and others.
Environmentally Conscious. Conscious that maintaining a healthy planet is the paramount responsibility of every human being. Commit to taking actions to minimize environmental footprints, at the studio, in our personal lives, and beyond.
Committed to “3 C Leadership”.
- Competence – knowing what we are doing
- Character – doing the right thing, even when it’s not convenient
- Compassion – care as much about others as we do ourselves
Respectful. Treating others as we wish to be treated, with courtesy, politeness, and kindness.
Driven. Driven to help our students have the best yoga experience possible, ensuring they always leave taken care of and satisfied. Creating a better world through lives of purpose and integrity. Conscious that SDY is serving a cause greater than each of us individually.

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yoga and injuries? whatever.

Posted on January 22, 2012 by roxtar

It’s all over the interweb. This article from the New York Times, How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body, has got the yogis talking to say the least. I thought the article was a little one-sided and harsh about the dangers of injuring yourself on the yoga mat, but I understand what it feels like to injur yourself and the frustration it brings. I’ve dealt with hip pain after cardio kickboxing, knee pain after a running stint, neck pain from life and yoga, low back pain from being a desk jockey. In many ways I think it’s just part of the human condition. Our bodies are amazing feats of genetic engineering, but they are fragile, they age, and will one day will completely degenerate back to the earth. Do we really think we won’t have issues with our bodies, that they aren’t fragile? I feel strongly that people need to be nicer to themselves in yoga, that it’s not an athletic competition, that you can gain strength and mobility without torturing yourself.

I enjoyed this quote from the article which makes a good point about how different it is to practice yoga today in the west: ”Indian practitioners of yoga typically squatted and sat cross-legged in daily life, and yoga poses, or asanas, were an outgrowth of these postures. Now urbanites who sit in chairs all day walk into a studio a couple of times a week and strain to twist themselves into ever-more-difficult postures despite their lack of flexibility and other physical problems. Many come to yoga as a gentle alternative to vigorous sports or for rehabilitation for injuries.”

And I really appreciate a response to the article from Sadie Nardini, another yoga teacher. I love that she included some great questions to consider and also some resources for teachers and students to become better informed. Some good quotes from Sadie:

“Yoga injuries? OK, so a lot of yoga injuries don’t bring people to the ER, but neither do many cycling injuries, which chalk up around 580,000 emergency room visits a year, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. I’m still waiting to see a “Can Cycling Wreck Your Body” story, one that would be more appropriate for more readers.”

“People can get hurt anytime they move, and sometimes even if they don’t. For example, other proven causes of injury, stroke, nerve damage, and death (involving many more cases than yoga, by the way) are: eating, having sex, running, walking, cycling, dancing, traveling, …”

And a quote that hits home and is nice reminder for me, a fairly green yoga teacher in all honesty: ”From what I’ve seen, so many of our yoga instructors at every level could use a refresher course in the anatomy of yoga and movement, say, from a credible–and anatomically correct–expert. Not an expert in classical pose shapes, but in actual human anatomy and the anatomy of movement. In my opinion, there are way too many teachers out there with way too little anatomy experience.

I think Sadie sums it up nicely with this ”I’d like to pose the question: Should you shy away from yoga because it could possibly, somehow tweak your body? My educated answer to you would be: Absolutely not.”

Posted in health and wellness, yoga reading, yoga resources | 1 Comment

Just Not Enough

Posted on December 28, 2011 by roxtar

Today I’m pondering a statement I hear often when discussing yoga, health, wellness with family and friends…

“But mellow exercise is just not enough.”

“Enough for what” is probably a pertinent follow up question. If you exercise for health reasons, weight loss, or fun you’re attitude probably differs. (It’s good to check in and remember why you do what you do once in a while) I’m talking about this attitude that it’s not worth it to exercise the body if you’re not a sweaty mess afterward or something along those lines. I can relate to the need to move and sweat. It’s good for us, mostly. But I think we get hung up on this “beat myself into submission” kind of exercise attitude. Bikram yoga, triathalons, bootcamp, crossfit, that sort of thing. Guess what? The bodies we have right now are different than the ones we had at 18. We only get one body and it’s constantly changing and it is constantly getting older and moving towards death! It cracks me up how much this thought really freaks people out. Doing 2 hours of running, cycling or hot yoga a day is fine when you’re in your 20′s, but will that really be nourishing and helpful in an older, more lived in body? I find it fun to challenge myself and see what I can do with this bag of bones of mine. To watch my body literally get stronger, fitter and more flexible as I age with yoga is pretty incredible. But after giving birth, being sick, injured, sidetracked, I’m not sure the hardest, sweatiest workout is what we often need although it’s often what people describe when they say they need to get back in the saddle.

Yet, where do we draw the line between healthy challenge and being too harsh on ourselves? I want to make sure I’m listening to my body accurately. I want to make sure I’m challenging myself in a healthy way. Sometimes it says, “I can’t move, I don’t feel good” when really it means “I don’t want to move, I want to be lazy.” Other times it says, “I want to become an endurance athlete, do 108 push ups, and only eat broccoli” and I wonder what it really means then. It feels good to control one of the few things we can control, ourselves, to burn the anxious, nervous energy many of us live with, but my inner yoga teacher wishes people would be a little nicer to themselves, without promoting laziness and avoidance. I love the post exercise endorphins, feeling strong, flexible, and comfortable in my own skin, but why do I cause myself injury? Why do I beat myself up mentally for letting life get the best of me sometimes? How do I deal with the inevitable injuries life will impose on me in a healthy way? How will I make sure to stay on my own health wagon and what will that look like in reality?

I see lots of bodies on the mat as I teach yoga each week. Some glow. Some shake and suffer. Some come back for more and some don’t. It all comes back to learning to listen to our bodies in a healthy way, to tuning in to the subtle, to remembering why we do what we do. I think it’s more important to create the habit of doing something that nourishes you on a regular basis, and then phase two can be stepping up the challenge. Many of us are inconsistent and then forceful and intense. We really like to avoid the “long way” in our culture or sticking with something we suck at. I realize doing something new kind of sucks for a while. So does falling of the wagon of fitness. But I’m sorry, I think doing mellow yoga or exercise is ok. It’s a great place to start if you’ve been inactive for a while. It’s a great way to balance stressful work days or workouts or phases in life. Life beats me up enough without me adding to the fire. Stop trying to skip the baby steps, perhaps? It doesn’t mean you’re a wimp. And don’t worry, I’ll still make you sweat and shake on the yoga mat. Right before I force you to be nice to yourself in savasana.

Posted in health and wellness, life | 1 Comment

Top 15 Vegetarian Recipes (Revisited)

Posted on December 19, 2011 by roxtar

Do all yogis love to cook? Do all cooks do yoga? As I was type, type, typing away adding my favorite recipes online to create a gift for family I remembered I already have this online! This is a repost, but I’ve added some new gems to inspire new and improved yummy eating.

This is my list of new and improved list of “go-to” recipes that make eating healthier not feel like eating healthy, but feel like eating good food.

If you’re cooking for people who really love meat or cheese and they start to lose it and muttering something about “the evil baby corn”, stop, don’t make them hate veggies forever! I advise adding cheese or avocado to save the day! Baby steps my friends, baby steps.

Roxy’s Oatmeal Surprise – This is my default winter breakfast. It is a finely tuned recipe honed over at least 10 years after I realized instant oatmeal packets have something like 13 teaspoons of sugar or something absurd like that. It’s so unnecessary with a little sweetness from dried fruit and spices. It smells so good you’ll feel like you’re treating yourself to pie for breakfast, but it’s actually pretty good for you.
It’s a Soup Tie – I can’t get enough of either of these which don’t require canned tomatoes and take well to adjustments: Black Bean Soup – Like a little black dress, simple and tasty, goes with everything. Chickpea Noodle Soup – Love the flavor of the simple herbs, miso and veggie broth. I use rice pasta instead of soba noodles.
For Parties - Skinny Spinach Artichoke Dip or Grandma’s Cheesy Potatoes. While I love my healthy veggie food during the week, these are my standby’s for weekend parties. Comfort food at it’s finest.
Desserts - Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies or Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes (Yes, I’m for real). I use rum in the cookies instead of brandy. It’s amazing.
Crock Pot Beans – It’s so easy and cheap to make your own beans. Plus it makes you feel like you just conquered something magical in the kitchen. I use this recipe and immediately use some in a soup or salad, and freeze the rest in one cup servings to use in place of canned beans or as emergency bean burritos for lunch when I haven’t grocery shopped. Soak a bag (pound) of beans (black or pinto are my faves) in cold water in the fridge overnight. In the morning drain and rinse the beans. Add them to the crock pot, covered with about an inch or two of water. Add one onion peeled and quartered, two cloves garlic peeled and crushed, two bay leaves, lots of cumin (a few tablespoons). Cook on high all day (6-8 hrs). At the end of the day you come home to yumminess. Serve with rice and cilantro and whatever fits your fancy.
Butternut Squash Risotto – This is my favorite way to use a butternut squash, leftovers are even better. I suggest not omitting the white wine or butter, I often use two buck chuck or whatever I have, but if you omit the wine the final product suffers.
Esalen Kale Salad – This was the recipe that introduced me to kale. I will be forever grateful. Lovely the way it is, but is also fine with substitutions. I like to add beans or tofu to make it more of a meal. Really good with the braggs aminos and avocado.
Lentil Stew – This stew is a favorite for winter, also freezes well. I found it in a magazine a long time ago, and have been making it for years. My first veggie meal before I even knew what a veggie was.
White Bean Kale Soup – I make a version of this often, anytime I cleanse as well. Good and simple and has lent itself well to my “whatever’s leftover from farmers” kind of cooking.
Khichadi – My favorite easy, healthy, lunch meal. Love it with peas, lemon pepper, feta. Also good with lentils and shows up in a many cookbooks and mulajara or something like that.
Minestrone – A great basic soup recipe, you could make it with whatever you wanted and I have used this as a template for many variations. I have added veggie sausage, omitted/added pasta, added different beans, veggies, parmesan, avocado chunks you name it. Everyone I’ve served it to loves it too. If you haven’t noticed, I love stews that are more of a meal, like they used to say in Chunky Soup commercials. Screw buying them canned though, homemade is so much better!
Black Bean Quinoa Salad – (This recipe and the following are from my favorite cookbook ever, the Veganomicon) I use this as a staple recipe. I use whatever beans I have on hand, whatever grain I have on hand (usually rice or quinoa). It’s really simple and tasty. Even better with avocado.
Mac Daddy – Vegan mac and cheese? Yes. It’s good. Try it.
Scrambled Tofu – This is actually better than scrambled eggs because it gets better leftover. A few slices of avocado, roasted potatoes, and you’ve got a pretty good breakfast burrito.
Vegetable Korma – This is a bonus recipe. It’s the best vegetable curry I’ve ever made. It’s not exactly “light” but it’s vegan. So good. Try it if you like Indian food or curry. I’d say it’s more of a weekend meal, it took me 1.5 hours to make it from start to finish, but the leftovers were even better. Great for potlucks.

Comments? Suggestions? What are your favorite recipes, veggie or not?

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Today’s Special Is Humble Pie

Posted on November 26, 2011 by roxtar

I just finished teaching my first yoga class to the inmates at the women’s jail in SLO county. Are they really called inmates, I wonder? I feel so humbled and blessed! How did I even find this life changing practice called yoga? I don’t know what they did to bring them to the jail, but I do feel that yoga can help everyone in some way, shape, or form. I’m thankful they were willing to practice with me. I asked, what are you hoping to get out of this class, and their answers were simple, mostly to de-stress and stretch. I wondered if they were only attending because it’s something different in their days, they shrugged and it didn’t seem like it. This photo isn’t from me today, but pretty inspiring!

I thought we should start class seated and connecting to the breath, but hell, I needed to move a little to get my teaching grove on. Sitting cross-legged on the floor was pretty uncomfortable for most of them. One women showed me her knee and I can’t say I’ve seen a knee scar with bones sticking out like that before. I noticed another crying a little after Let it Be played by the Beatles. I wondered if they’d be resistant to me assisting or touching them, and they weren’t. As I touched them it was pretty amazing to notice the deepening of breath and of the stretches themselves. I noticed another with her face crinkled throughout the entire class. It seemed like she was having some intense feelings and it showed on her face. I think she was crying a bit too at the end. I was surprised by the young, intelligent faces, and the older, painful ones as well. I ended up teaching a lot less poses than I thought I would, and holding them a bit longer. I walked around and barely held any poses myself. I had to remind them to close their eyes and breathe constantly, but it definitely seemed to help shift their energy. Their was a big difference before and after class. Before class I couldn’t hear their breath, they kept looking around at each other. After class, they were breathing deeply on their own and savasana seemed extra sweet.

Their was a sense of lightness in the class. They cracked jokes and laughed when they couldn’t do something which was fine by me. I had to physically help them get into postures quite a bit. They asked if I was a flexible pretzel and I said not really, but I am much more flexible than I once was. I pointed out that there is always someone more flexible, strong, prettier,…than all of us, that we have to be ok with ourselves where we are today, and try to not take that personally. They were so grateful afterwards. I am going to print what I taught and bring it to the next class in hopes that they’ll be able to do a little on their own.

What an experience. It left me feeling so blessed, honored, and respectful of these women. I’m so blessed that life dealt me the hand it’s dealt me, and that when it has been challenging, I’ve found a way to turn those lemons into lemonade. Much of life is our choices, but much of it seems to be luck of the draw. And what about that secret beast, Karma? It seems to me the only way to create change is to become aware of karma, and try to put the positive energy out there, somehow, even when life seems to be feeding us the negative.

I’ll probably write this up more formally, but the following is what we did today. Next time I might teach the “max” ladies. That means maximum security. We agreed they would like to move more, and I’m ready to bring some sweaty vinyasa next time!

A Simple Class for the Ladies
Cross-legged forward fold, forward, and to the side
Cat-cow
Ragdoll
Mountain
Standing forward fold
Hands & knees to Cobra
Childs pose
Bridge x2
Seated single legged forward fold
Both legs forward
Legs wide
Butterfly
Savasana

PS. Image is from http://www.amanuddinfoundation.org/yoga-jail-bamyan.html.

Posted in health and wellness, life, random, yoga teaching | Leave a comment

A Green Piece of Cake

Posted on November 18, 2011 by roxtar

Mother Earth = +1. Roxy = .

Yes, my green travel mission was a true success and learning experience. Did you expect otherwise? I succeeded in confusing the cashiers at Whole Foods by bringing my own food containers and telling them to “Take 10 off”. One cashier said, “Do we sell those here?”. Haha! My cloth napkin and reusable fork were super easy to carry in my bag and helped me realize how many paper napkins I often use in a meal, a day, a trip. I kept all my recycling with me and have a bag of stuff to recycle including all my receipts and paper plates from eating slices of pizza. A city as amazing as New York City doesn’t really have recycling everywhere which I never really noticed before. I’ll likely be bringing it back with me to SLO. The only stuff I really ended up throwing away was uneaten food. My travel mug was great in the airport, they filled it with hot water at Starbucks and on the plane. Having tea was enough of a treat so I resisted the call of the free can of soda. I didn’t feel uncomfortable doing any of these things, it was all easy with just a little forethought. It didn’t cramp my style or make me stand out in a crowd. It really makes me wonder what change we could all affect with just a little effort. And I mean LITTLE effort. I worked 9-10 hours a day, attended yoga a few times, and was still able to fit this in.

My last event with MINDBODY was a lesson in patience and presence. Try teaching 90 people about internet based software without the internet for 3 days! I have to say that my students were mostly gracious and understanding, which is kind of a surprise in New York City. Alright NYC, maybe you’re not as grumpy and aggressive as some might say. My friend SJ said something interesting, that what passes in our culture for control is really just routine. When our routine gets rocked, we get freaked out and can’t handle it. But we can’t control what the universe hands us every moment of every day. We can do the best with what we’ve been dealt, but it makes me wonder how much we control and how much we don’t in our lives.

Off to one more class at Laughing Lotus in NYC. It’s one of my favorite studios in NYC and I look forward to taking a training with them soon and bringing some of the lotus energy to the Dog.

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My Green Travel Mission

Posted on November 11, 2011 by roxtar

I’m on a mission which begins this Sunday-Friday. My goal is to have “0% waste” during a trip to NYC. My inspiration? Mother Earth? Lets see how far we can take this! Yesterday I attended the SLO green awards, a yearly event in San Luis Obispo, CA where the city Chamber of Commerce recognizes businesses, organizations or individuals who have voluntarily undertaken effective efforts, projects or operational improvements to reduce pollution, improve resource conservation and sustainability or improve air and water quality. This years winners were the Paso Robles Recycling and Waste Processing facility, A building company, a hair and skin care company, and Mr. Eco, whose video is pretty funny if you want a chuckle. It was super inspiring to see what can be done on a large scale with the right intention and reasonable effort.

Have you noticed how much trash and waste is part of traveling? And how normal it is for people to travel by car and air these days? I’ve been traveling often for the last five years and although I’ve made some simple changes I feel good about, it’s always a challenge minimizing waste when you’re outside your comfort zone. Lets see. I can’t bring food or water through security, so I guess I’ll buy some crappy airport food, if I’m lucky I’ll find a bean burrito with a bell pepper in it. You often end up buying some water and a smutty magazine. Breakfasts and lunches are often grabbed to go. The plane trip itself uses tons of fuel.

So, I already have some pretty awesome travel routines and I will outline my plan below to take it to the next level. It’s great to do the things that are easy, but eventually you’ve got to kick it up a notch and do the things that aren’t.

Airport food. This is always the hardest. Once I brought a kale salad and tofu in glass tuperware through security and it wasn’t a problem. So I’m going to bring food from home for my departure trip. Energy bars, nuts, fruit, a sandwich or burrito or something. The SLO airport even said I could bring food in a thermos as long as it’s mostly solid food. Maybe I’ll try that, but I’m afraid of causing a ruckus and losing my awesome thermos.
Water bottle. I’m going to bring two this time because I often lose one. I’m bringing the small one with a wide mouth for the airport. I can often find a way to fill it with a drinking fountain or the water button at the soda fountains at fast food restaurants. I’m bringing the 32 ounce bottle for my work event so I can stay hydrated while I teach all day.
Tea and Emergen-C. I bring these on the plane so when they are serving the soda to everyone else, I can have some tea. This would be another good opportunity to use my thermos so I don’t use a styrofoam cup. Yes, I’m going this far!
Breakfast in my hotel room. This is a no brainer which I do every time I travel already. I bring “Roxy’s Oatmeal Special”. It kind of tastes like pie. It’s rolled oats, raisins, walnuts, vanilla soy protein powder made with the hotel coffee maker.
Lunches. This will be a challenge. I often only get 45 minutes in Manhattan for this. I often get to go food from Whole Foods or a cafe which comes in to-go containers with bags and utensils that get thrown away. My ideas: I’ll try to eat in rather than take it to-go. I could reuse my whole foods container for the week or bring my owner containers. I could bring my own utensils and cloth napkins too. I will try to avoid whole foods and stick to the local cafes too.
Dinners. We often eat at restaurants but sometimes I get it to-go so I can have a hotel room picnic and relax. Same ideas as lunch.
I’m going to offset my flight for the trip. I figure the savings I’ll make by bringing my own food for my departure flight, eating breakfast on my own each day, can be applied to offsetting the carbon footprint of my flight.

I’ll let you know how I do!

Posted in green living, travel | Leave a comment

gratitude

Posted on November 1, 2011 by roxtar

Is it already that time of year again? My how time flies when you’re having fun. Actually, you don’t even need to be having fun, it just marches on and on either way. We are all on the accelerating time train. Grab your bags, it’s not that long of a trip!

Some things to ponder before the holiday parties take over: What are you grateful for in your life? How do you express your gratitude and ensure you are paying it forward? How can you make your holidays a little more about that which is really important, and less about shopping and over-committing in our lives?

My top 5 grateful list today:

Amazing food. The fact that I usually get to eat whatever tasty food I’m in the mood for, whenever I want it. I’m serious. I’m on day 9 of a 14 day cleanse of eating vegan & eating only kitcheree. Cheese almost brings tears to my eyes at this point. How many people have such plentiful choices of what they eat?
SLO. I get to live in this great place with such great people. How did I find this little slice of paradise? How did I get so blessed to be surrounded by such great people? So thankful for all of you!
My mom. She taught me how to work hard, amongst many other things, but right now, the ability and desire to work hard strikes me as special.
Yoga. Like you didn’t see that coming. I’m so thankful I found yoga. It has taught me how to live a better life and for that I’ll be forever grateful.
Smiling Dog. Mindbody. Grad school. Undergrad. Rouge. All those life experiences that have taught me so much. It’s true that sometimes we need struggle to really learn. I am thankful that my struggles have made me who I am.

And about the cleanse. Luckily, I am past the crazy, “I just want to lick that pumpkin pie”, phase. This is my 3rd time doing a cleanse like this, I try to do one every fall and spring. No matter how strange and intense the experience is, I always feel grateful for it. It’s so interesting to notice how attached to food we can be, my tendencies toward salty, heavy foods during stress, the little signs of unhealthiness that can go unnoticed. Click here to read about my cleanse notes, books, resources. xxxoxoxoxox.

Posted in ayurveda, funny, random | Leave a comment

outliers

Posted on October 18, 2011 by roxtar

I just finished the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. It was an interesting, quick read on what makes successful people a success. It felt very anecdotal, although a lot of the reasoning seemed valid. Some of my favorite tidbits follow. May they serve as inspiration perhaps?

(This quote was in response to the fact that most Canadian hockey players are almost all born in the first quarter of the year, which gives them up to 12 months of maturity and growth on kids born later in the year, which gives them better access to the better coaches, practices,…)
Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung. We make rules that frustrate achievement. We prematurely write off people as failures. We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And, most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role we all play — and by “we” I mean society — in determining who makes it and who doesn’t.

The striking thing about Ericsson’s study is that he and his colleagues couldn’t find any “naturals,” musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing a fraction of the time their peers did. Nor could they find any “grinds,” people who worked harder than everyone else, yet just didn’t have what it takes to break the top ranks. Their research suggests that once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t just work harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.

(Comparing two geniuses, one “successful”, one not)
Would Oppenheimer have lost his scholarship at Reed? Would he have been unable to convince his professors to move his classes to the afternoon? Of course not. And that’s not because he was smarter than Chris Langan. It’s because he possessed the kind of savvy that allowed him to get what he wanted from the world.

“They required that everyone take the introductory calculus,” Langan said of his brief stay at Montana State. “And I happened to get a guy who taught it in a very dry, very trivial way. I didn’t understand why he was teaching it this way. So I asked him questions. I actually had to chase him down in his office. I asked him, ‘Why are you teaching this way? Why do you consider this practice to be relevant to calculus?’ And this guy, this tall, lanky guy, always had sweat stains under his arms, he turned and looked at me and said, ‘You know, there is probably something you ought to get straight. Some people just don’t have the intellectual firepower to be mathematicians.’ ”

There they are, the professor and the prodigy, and what the prodigy clearly wants is to be engaged, at long last, with a mind that loves mathematics as much as he does. But he fails. In fact – and this is the most heartbreaking part of all – he manages to have an entire conversation with his professor without ever communicating the one fact most likely to appeal to a calculus professor. The professor never realizes that Chris Langan is good at calculus.

That particular skill that allows you to talk your way out of a murder rap, or convince your professor to move you, is what the psychologist Robert Sternberg calls “practical intelligence”….

Posted in life | 1 Comment

it all begins on the mat

Posted on October 7, 2011 by roxtar

Riding the wave of change the last few weeks I have felt on the verge of crying and cheering all at the same time. Yes, I’m still riding that wave. Buying a yoga studio was getting in the way of me practicing yoga. Typical dichotomy of life, right? When you’ve got money, you don’t have time. When you’ve got time, you don’t have energy. Like many of my yogi friends, I had to prioritize the infinite tasks of living life and finding time, energy, and the mental strength to make it to the mat just wasn’t happening. And I knew it. And I thought, “This is just for now, sometimes we need to sacrifice more”. Finally, one night this week I went to bed at granny/kid time (8pm) and woke up for an early yoga class before a long work day. By the end of the class, I wondered, what was it that was really keeping me from this? I really couldn’t find the time? What are my real priorities? My to-do list melted away (albeit temporarily) and I felt so much more ready to tackle the many challenges that lie ahead. It was the right amount of physical challenge to get my energy flowing. It cleared my mind of the incessant “I’ve got too much shit to do” chatter. It put a smile on my face. My to-do list seemed cute rather than heavy.

I learned this week to be careful before I give up that which keeps me the most sane, energized, and happy in my life. I am so thankful to have found something that can give me those feelings/gifts. Many people never feel that way. I love that yoga welcomes me back time and time again with open arms, and always feels good no matter how long I’ve been away. I felt sore, but not so sore I hated my instructor. I felt challenged, but not so much so that I was exhausted for three days after. So, get out there, hit the mat, ride your wave, ride your bike, read a book, find your zen, and all else will follow, I promise. Just do it!

Posted in health and wellness, lemons, life, remember | 2 Comments

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