Roxtar Yoga

toilet magic February 7, 2010

“Woody. I just wrote a top 40 song on your toilet.” said Michael Franti to his friend Woody Harrelson, whose house he was staying at.
“Michael, was it #1 or #2?” said Woody in return.

Last Friday I attended a yoga class with Sean Corn and Michael Franti with 400 yogis at the Yoga Journal SF Conference. The energy was incredible and the message they shared was profound. They reminded us to take action in whatever ways we can, right here, right now. No one else is going to be the change we want to see. We have to be that change. It reminded me how truly blessed I am. She started a challenge last year for anyone who could raise $20,000 in their communities (not just giving their own money) and if you met the goal you were able to join her in a 3rd world country to help build and create infrastructure to help those in need. She raised half a million dollars last year for Cambodia and is going to South Africa next year. Wow. They built a school, a birthing center, and more. It actually brought me to tears. They encouraged us to sit down and make a plan. I have a sort of plan, but I wonder what else I can do to to be the change I want to see. What really bothers you in this world, what do you want to change? Part of my plan is to take better care of myself so I can bring my best self to the world. One of Michael’s goals is to write a top 40 song this year and he told us a pretty funny story about it coming to him in the shower and the toilet. Isn’t that how it works, the best ideas come out of random places, and random times, as if magic, pixie, dust just appeared out of nowhere. Voila!

I returned from Yoga Journal SF a week ago and have been pedaling my hardest to keep up with this epic climb known as life. How did I maintain my yogi ways while away from home, you ask? I cooked kitcheree for breakfast the first day and it was awesome and I had leftovers the next morning. Even though it’s not considered “breakfast food”, it was really nice to have the mornings to myself, cook a nourishing breakfast, meditate, and do yoga, if only for a little bit. Sleep is imperative when traveling. I never sleep as well when I travel, so getting 8 hours is the only way to feel remotely normal. I usually am not a walker, but I really enjoyed walking every morning before my long days began. It was very meditative, relaxing, and the fresh air was like medicine for the body. I ended up sharing my hotel room with a friend unexpectedly. Although it disrupted my routine a bit, it was fun and good to help share yoga, even if it wasn’t directly through teaching. I didn’t eat all my snacks and food, but it was better to be over prepared. Kitcheree, trail mix, apples, tea, and vitamin c are the travel companions of champions.

I am on my way to Las Vegas and Seattle this week so I hope to bring my yoga and life practices with me for another week away from my nurturing routines. This is when it gets challenging, when the intensity and busy feeling stay for more than a week. I feel like this is it. If I can’t take care of myself under the stress of travel, how is a single mom going to do it, or a lonely grandma, or an executive, or student? We have to bring our yoga with us everywhere. And your yoga may be something very different than mine. I am thankful for and enjoy how much my yoga practice brings to me in day to day life, but I really want to find a way to bring it with me everywhere.

yogis in the city January 28, 2010

I’ve arrived in San Francisco yesterday for the 7th Annual Yoga Journal Conference. The drive from San Luis Obispo was so beautiful, the hills of California were dotted with happy cows and luscious green grass. It was so lovely that even my phone camera was able to capture a tiny bit of the bliss. I highly recommend a road trip to enjoy the beauty that the winter weather has brought your way. It reminds me of how winter forces us all to slow down and how it’s definitely nourishing, even if our productive lives don’t allow us to slow down and renew as much as the earth does during winter. I am reminded to give myself the rest I need. We arrived last night and immediately went to dinner at Greens, quite possibly my favorite restaurant ever. We enjoyed fresh spring rolls, artisan cheeses, butternut squash crepes, mushroom pot pie, dessert, wine, and catching up with friends. We are all on “Bev Time” which is when our co-worker Bev is on East Coast Time and wants to go to bed at 9pm West Coast Time so we were all in our rooms by 9pm. It was wonderful to me as I had to work a long day today and woke up to yoga, meditation, and kitcheree for breakfast. That is the way to start a long day if you ask me.

Today at the Business of Yoga Conference we shared some great advice for people in the “yoga business”, but in reality a lot of the advice is relevant for many. As much as many people would like to just do yoga and meditate all day, sharing yoga is still a business in many respects, albeit one that should come from the heart. We enjoyed a video of Snoop Dog doing yoga. Take care of yourself as you would your own children, you don’t let them get too hungry or too sleepy, right? We were reminded to set goals rather than make more vague resolutions. To cover our bases regarding the more difficult parts of owning a business (and possibly our lives?), rather than burying our heads in the sand. Finally, we were reminded to just say no to free yoga classes, don’t do it, just don’t.

Right now I was supposed to be setting up the MINDBODY booth in the Yoga Marketplace but somehow our freight did not arrive on time and we’ll have to wake up early to set everything up. Hopefully I’ll be able to get my yoga in first. That’s one of the lessons of traveling, you just have to roll with it some of the time. Setting up the booth is quite the job though, setting up heavy kiosks with huge computers and this crazy backdrop that requires super strength zipper skills. I teach Online Marketing Strategies tomorrow, but tonight, I am off to enjoy some of the bounty San Francisco has to offer, Osha Thai it is! I hope you find some winter beauty to enjoy as soon as possible and don’t forget to roll with it when life demands it.

have mac, will travel January 26, 2010

I’m getting ready to head to San Francisco tomorrow afternoon for the 7th Annual SF  Yoga Journal Conference. I will be presenting Online Marketing at the Business of Yoga part of the conference on behalf of MINDBODY, taking a few yoga classes, and manning the MINDBODY tradeshow booth.  I updated my presentation with the lots of options for creating an online presence these days, from Facebook to Twitter to E-Mail Marketing to Online Advertising, the options are getting endless.  There are lots of options for the yogis of the world to get themselves out there, create community, and share the wonderful practice of yoga.  I crossed my t’s, dotted my i’s, and even figured out how to get my powerpoint presentation to work on my new, sexy macbook pro.  I’m so proud of my technical prowess.

I spent a fair amount of the last few days plotting my travels. How much of our yoga practice can we bring with us while traveling, especially when it’s for work or not for leisure exactly. This trip is not a long nor far one, but I’ll be working long days and I have learned lately that a little planning helps make me a little healthier and more sane when outside of my routine. There are many things I love about traveling for work: exploring new cities, great food, reading, bonding with travel friends, a break from the routine, new yoga teachers. Yet, I am becoming more and more of a home body these days and stepping outside of my home base often leaves me exhausted and sick. Things that suck about traveling for work: too little sleep, not enough down time, less than ideal food and not-so-regular meal times, exhausting amounts of work, travel lonliness. I have made an effort to be prepared for this trip and have packed quite the epic bag of snacks and supplies. I know for a fact that I won’t eat it all, but I’d rather be over prepared rather than under prepared. The last time I was in New York City I remember multiple moments of “oh my god if I don’t eat right now I might kill someone” so here I am. It is my goal to practice yoga and meditate daily, if only for 5-10 minutes each, and eat one meal on my own each day. It would also be nice if I could get 7 hours of sleep per night and limit alcohol intake, it’s oh so difficult when having fun with friends in a new place. You’d think yoga conferences would be pretty chill, but it’s not always the case. I got some of my plotting and planning ideas from Good to Go, an article from Yoga Journal on eating well when on the road. I now bring a hot plate so I can even cook some kitcheree for at least one meal. I’ve also packed trail mix, larabars, fruit, kitcheree ingredients, tea, and vitamin c. I have a lot of travel supplies I travel with in fact, I suggest bringing any and all of the following: pain killers, ear plugs, eye mask, ipod player, laptop, camera, technology plugs/cords, business cards, good book, plenty of good food supplies, a good toiletry bag, netty pot, journal.

I will report on the conference and my healthy travel mission here.  I am looking forward to taking classes and getting a little yoga infusion from my favorite teachers. I am still battling my man friend for weight loss as a percentage of body weight in the new year.  I’m still not sure how much weight loss will be practical or achievable for me, I haven’t checked my body weight in a few weeks, but I’m making an effort still and feeling pretty good, so we shall see. Last weekend I rebelled quite a bit and it felt freaking good! Sometimes a little down time is just what the doctor ordered. When it comes to health, I sure as hell don’t believe in absolutes and I’ve been giving myself one free day a week while trying to moderate every other day. Easy enough so far. Lets see how things go in SF.

Cure a Broken Heart January 19, 2010

If you ever feel a little broken-hearted or down in the dumps, yoga is your cure just waiting to be unleashed. I am sharing this from Yoga Rants and Raves, a nifty little yoga blog, but I am adding my own input as well. Have you ever read or heard something someone said and thought, “yes. exactly.” That’s what this blog made me think, so I felt the need to share it.

1. When you wake up in the morning (or anytime throughout your days or nights) and the nagging sense of loss and directionless despair appear, get ye to the yoga studio. Welcome a sense of direction.
2. When dressing for yoga, be sure to wear your diamond earrings (for me it’s pigtails). Now you feel desirable again. (Bonus: you’ve found a healthy distraction.) But do not wear makeup (or cologne). That would be ridiculous.
3. When asked to state your intention at the beginning of yoga class, do NOT state this: “I wish to gain the ability through yoga to crush my ex (work/boss/mother…) with the psychic powers of my mind alone.” Instead chose this intention: “I wish to love and respect myself.”
4. When doing the chair pose (or the splits, oh they hurt so good), bend as deep as your legs will hold you. Let the lactic acid build up in your thighs until you want to scream. Realize there is a pain worse than a broken heart.
5. Breath. Don’t forget to breathe. Don’t worry about breathing through your nose or mouth specifically. Those restrictions are for the whole-hearted. Just respirate. If you can continue long enough, you won’t die. If you’re alive, then you are forced to accept that your heart isn’t actually broken. It’s functioning as normal and the other stuff is just a figure of speech.
6. When given the choice between vinyasa and child’s pose, take child’s pose. You deserve a rest. Rest. But do not stay there for long. You are better than that.
7. When in warrior’s pose, realize that you are a warrior. Applaud your inner strength. You are awesome. Repeat your intention. The loving yourself one, not the other one.
8. (When doing a backbend, try to breathe and feel your heart open. Feel love for all the other relationships and situations in your life that you are blessed with that nurture you.)
9. When the exercises are over, listen to the wise words of the yoga instructor. Realize that everything she says about letting go and about having nothing to do or UNdo and about not having anything missing in your life, all that is true. With or without a romantic interest, (job, friend, lover).
10. When in shibasana (corpse pose), imagine your consciousness as a tranquil sea (perhaps resembling the set of Cirque de Soleil’s O). When the sadness and regrets and anxieties rise up and distract you from the sea, imagine those thoughts as little flash-paper boats. Set them sail, and just before they dip over the horizon, set them on fire and watch them flash and disappear. Enjoy the tranquil sea. Repeat.
11. At the closing, when you say “Namaste,” remember what that means: That the divine in me salutes the divine in you. Remember that you possess the divine, too.
12. Go forth in peace. And do not check your cell phone until you’ve gone forth at least 30 yards from the yoga studio.

two weeks = healthy on the inside January 17, 2010

Two weeks into 2010, my life has settled down a bit and it’s feeling quite good. Work is back to normal, well as normal as things get working at MINDBODY. Which is kind of like the controlled skidding, er driving that happens immediately following a snow storm in Michigan, woohooooooo! I have to say, I feel freaking amazing after dedicating a little energy and focus to taking better care of myself. I have made a point of (1) not overindulging in my decadent food/beverage choices throughout the week, (2) exercising daily, be that riding my bike, a long vinyasa practice, hiking, or whatever, (3) and tracking how well I’m nourishing myself. I have come to the understanding that I may not lose weight on this challenge I am having with my man-friend (which is: who can lose the largest percentage of body weight, my goal 5 lbs). Weight is one way to measure overall health, but I’m not so sure it’s the best. I realized over the last two weeks that I am more fit than I have ever been, eat pretty well, and maybe my body just isn’t going to weigh what I think it should. I will continue to make an effort for the next few weeks and see how it plays out. If I feel as good as I feel now and don’t lose weight, then so be it. Overall health is so much more than weight. It is how I feel, my energy levels, my relationships, and my mental health, amongst other things. I think it’s good to remember that once in a while, when we’re overwhelmed by media images of women who look starved and men who look tan and shiney.

I would like to be able to say that I’m completely yogi about my health and weight, but it’s just not always the case. I would say 80% of the time I listen to my body and very roughly follow a vegetable, wholesome, Ayurvedic based diet. Yet, 20% of the time I enjoy a little freedom, enjoying some of the bountiful, yumminess available to me in SLO, CA. When I’m stressed and super busy, the scales tip further in the wrong direction and I like to reset once in a while, hence, my current focus on health.

On another note, last year I made a resolution to get to the ground in the splits (or hanumanasana) by the end of the year. I achieved the goal, but then unachieved it by not practicing it towards the end of the year! So, I have been teaching it this week and it’s feeling good again. I have been doing a lot of yin poses to open my groin lately too and it’s made a great difference in my hips, and in my right hip where I’ve been experiencing some type of tendonitis for a long time indeed. Love yoga, much love.

It started raining today and it’s supposed to continue all week so I won’t be able to get my daily breath of fresh air on my bike. So sad. It’s kind of nice to be forced into hibernation a bit though. I made some delicious minestrone today. Yesterday my friends and I rode our bikes from San Luis Obispo to Avila Beach to enjoy some fun outside before the week of rain. It was such a great day!

PS. I’m using www.livestrong.com, specifically the daily plate part of the website, to track my nutrition and exercise which also has a nifty iphone app. It’s a nice app for those anal, mathy types like myself who dig databases and software and tracking infinite amounts of data.  It’s really helped me to check on how I’m nourishing myself.

pride and not-so-prejudice January 13, 2010

Prideful. When I looked up the definition of the word I got the following definition: Having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy; “some economists are disdainful of their colleagues in other social disciplines”; “haughty aristocrats”; “his lordly manners were offensive”; “walked with a prideful swagger”; “very sniffy about breaches of etiquette”; “his mother eyed my clothes with a supercilious air”; “a more swaggering mood than usual.”

We at MINDBODY have been coming up with our Company’s Core Values and one aspect that we included in version 1.1 was that we aim to be a humble and helpful company. Rick, the CEO says, “Proud of MINDBODY’s culture and success, but not prideful, as pride alone prevents future growth”. I am going through some changes at work, namely my title is changing from “Director” to “Manager”. I have to admit when I first discussed the change with my supervisor I felt mildly attacked, hurt, and most of all like it was a reflection that I hadn’t done a good job over the last year or so. At the time, I had some residual stress brewing around in my body and heart leftover from other difficult situations at work over the last few weeks and looking back I see how easily our reactions are colored by so much more than the situation at hand. It’s amazing how sometimes you know how you want to react to situations, but sometimes the emotional side of yourself just goes where it wants. I often waiver during these situations between doing a pretty good job being present and honest with my feelings and yet burying them a little bit in an effort to be more cool and yogi than I really am able to be. I am happy to report that my emotional reaction was pretty short and mild considering what it might have been like for me in the past. I was very quickly able to think. “I love MINDBODY. I’m thankful for MINDBODY. I love myself. I want what’s best for us both. Sometimes changes need to happen that are no fault of mine.” I am reminded today to not get too prideful of my work, roles, or life situations and not to take it all so personally.

Overall, I am really enjoying my present moments being part of a company that provides technology solutions to the yoga community. I am able to combine my great passions: technology, teaching, and yoga.

In the February 2010 edition of Yoga Journal they have a great article (Aim High by Hillari Dowdle) on studying the purusharthas, or four aims of life, to create balance and happiness this year. Ah the word balance immediately brings peace to my mind. The aims are dharma (duty, ethics), artha (prosperity, wealth), kama (pleasure, sensual gratification), and moksha (the pursuit of liberation). I enjoyed this quote on kama: “Focusing on the right kinds of pleasure can lead you toward your dharma (your life’s purpose) – and help you fulfill it with passion. Passion is never the problem. It’s the solution.” There is more in the on them from Rod Stryker.  If that beautiful photo of a little artha in action made you hungry, it’s from the cafe at the Smiling Dog cafe recently. PS. I am going to ride my bike out of my way right now to try to get a leg up on the 2010 healthy roxtar challenge at 8:20pm. Man-friend is going down!

funky wild thang January 7, 2010

Have you ever done funky wild thing in yoga class? Maybe on the dance floor? What’s that you wonder? Why it’s Parsva Vasisthasana! It’s what you’ve been missing in your life and yoga practice, I swear! I can’t really find an English translation of this pose so I am calling it funky wild thing. I will try to include a photo of it later, this photo is the traditional “Non-Shivafied” version, but the funky wild thing version is so much sweeter. This week I decided to bust out of my yoga teacher rut and taught and practiced a sequence which featured this pose from Shiva Rea’s Fluid Power DVD. My yoga teacher toolbox has some good sequences, but sometimes we all have to be pushed outside of our routines to experience something new. I love most styles of yoga, but Vinyasa yoga still has me by the heart strings. Each time I get on the mat and start flowing, the world around me drops, I smile, breathe, and enjoy feeling my muscles and body move in a way it should be (or so it feels at least). After the standard holiday excesses I am happy to find my way back to yoga this week. I think most people enjoy practicing yoga in a classroom format, but I really enjoy Shiva Rea’s DVDs and I highly recommend Fluid Power for anyone who is looking for a way to get into practicing at home or for new, fun, flowy vinyasa sequences.  When writing this I also noticed she has a new DVD out, Daily Energy.  I will be sure to check it out soon and let you know how it is.

This week I have meditated and practiced yoga asana every morning, eaten vegan, and ridden my bike every day. It’s been a great week. No matter how far I find myself from my nourishing routines at times, they always feel really good to come back to. It makes me wonder why I insist on veering so far off track, yet I know that is just the way it is and hopefully it is getting better with time. If you haven’t meditated, practiced yoga at home, eaten tons of fruits and veggies, or enjoyed some fresh air lately, I urge you to do so. These practices make me sparkle in so many ways.

I have a healthy little competition going with my man friend to see who can lose the most percentage of body weight within the next month or two (we haven’t decided how long this competition will last yet). It has been really fun! I am typically not a very competitive person, but I am enjoying this. It’s been interesting to notice peoples reactions to our competition. It often seems like many of the women I tell this to immediately internalize it and think it implies something about their own health or weight. “But you don’t need to lose weight!” I hear often. We decided to do this because we had both gained a little weight recently and although we are technically still a healthy weight by the books, we felt unhealthy and were heavier than we have been for most of our recent adult lives. A little pro activity now to prevent dramatic changes needed later in life. I plan on living until I’m 100 years old (at which point I’ll probably laugh at this blog) and I don’t want to do so miserably riddled with every degenerative disease in the book. I want to be vital, smiling, and kicking asana. I have learned that we can’t exactly question each other and our intentions and motivations when it comes to healthy living, but at least we can get a little inspiration from each other, if we want it. Compare not my friends.

I have no idea how old Dharma Mittra is, but wow.

2010 January 3, 2010

A new year just demands inventory, adjustments, changes, and reflection, doesn’t it? No matter how silly I think New Years resolutions are, I still find this a great time of year to reset and reboot. What kind of changes would you like to see in the new year?

I’ve been keeping this blog for about 18 months and you may have noticed that there is a lot going on here. I have recently started writing more often and since doing so I have realized that I mostly post my thoughts on life, through the eyes of a Detroit raised California yogini whose looking to live life right. Yoga happens to be the one practice that has made the largest impact on this quest, and I love teaching yoga and sharing it with whomever I can. So, I shall update my mission statement on this blog accordingly and just thought I’d share that with you. I want this to be a forum for sharing thoughts on life and yoga and everything in between.

So what’s my vision for life in 2010? I want to live a little more simply, making as much of my own food as I can, maybe making Sunday a food prep day. I want to continue to make my home more “homey”. No, I don’t mean to make my home like a hip-hop superstar. I mean a place that I feel at home in, that I enjoy existing in, and that I can practice yoga in. I want to spend less money, especially on food and fun. Their are lots of things to enjoy on this bountiful planet, I feel like I’ve blessed to live where I live and do the work I do, yet I think I’ve been a bit liberal in my enjoyment of the good stuff. Hence the few extra pounds of holiday joy that are lingering around my waistline.

I’ve also been feeling such gratitude. I’m really thankful for my job today, the people in my life, and my life in SLO. I want to continue to appreciate all of this and give it my best.

Lately I also realized that I, like most people, get stuck in the day to day and wasn’t spending enough time thinking about long term goals. In fact, I didn’t have any long term goals after I stopped going to grad school in 2006 and was just living my SLO-life having a good ole time. But somewhere in the back of my mind I did have things I want to do that weren’t getting done. Such as traveling to new cultures for leisure. Continuing education. Owning a mini coup convertible. Becoming a rocking yoga teacher. Living in the present moment. Stuff like that. One goal I set was to save a large amount of money by 2010. It sounded kind of scary, but I felt I was living too ‘paycheck to paycheck’ and wanted to have an emergency fund. You know, one of those things people dream about but never do in reality? I kind of stole this idea from the CEO of MINDBODY. One day he walked in with a sign that said “50,000 clients by 2010″. While the sign almost gave me a heart attack (at the time in 2005 we only had 1500 clients and I was in charge of talking to the angry ones) but I liked the idea of this nice, slogan-ish goal that I could say to myself over and over again and maybe get myself to remember my long term goal.

The outcome of my 2010 savings goal? Well, I didn’t hit my goal, but I did save quite a bit more than previously and I feel good about my effort. Part of the reason I missed it was unplanned, large expenses. I also just spent a lot of money on stuff that wasn’t really necessary. Rather than go without once in a while, I satisfied most of my whim desires, most of which seem fair enough, but add up to a lot at the end of the year. Did I really need to spend so much on books and music?

So I am making a more aggressive plan for 2010 and I hope you’ll do the same. Cheers to a new year and a new decade of juicy goodness!

home base December 27, 2009

After yet another wonderful holiday season I found myself pondering the idea of a home base. I spent the holiday in the Garden State cuddling around a warm fire and playing games with new people. It was everything a holiday should be, spent eating wonderful food and sharing and connecting with loved ones. Being away from my family during this holiday got me thinking though. I wonder how much travel, jobs, and shifting cultural centers have had an effect on our families, and will continue to have an effect. For many it’s difficult to stay in the same towns or communities we were raised in making quality family time a rarity. I wonder what we are losing by leaving our hometowns and living where ever our jobs and lives take us, if anything at all.

Much of my family immigrated from Germany to Detroit, Michigan around the early 1900’s and many of my ancestors are still located there. I often miss knowing neighborhoods well, being so close to my roots and the places my grandmother’s lived and frequented, running into people you know, and feeling connected to those people for so long. Yet, aren’t those just physical places, isn’t the real history in my heart and mind passed down from my rockin’ grandmas and everyone in between? Is it detached to feel like the people who are right here, right now are the ones that are your family? I don’t feel like it is. Not that I don’t love and miss my family! I have found that the physical distance that separates us can effectively be lessened by connecting over the phone, via e-mail, random visits, or by sending a little love via snail mail unexpectedly.

Just a little Christmas food for thought as I lay on the floor in my pajamas doing a little head-to-knee forward bend. I have to say that is my favorite pose to do out of the yoga studio. It feels oh so good. I hope everyone enjoyed some sort of holiday time this season. It seems the cold, shorter days demand it.

passion and work, mutually exclusive? December 14, 2009

How passionate are you in your daily life? I have been thinking lately of what it means to have true passion in life. I’ve always agreed with the yogic philosophy of bringing joy and presence to anything you do. It says it doesn’t exactly matter if you sweep floors or program computers, it’s the attitude and presence that you bring to that activity that counts. Yet, I notice that I have often felt just a little something was missing here and there. My first desk job, my mid-twenties crisis, graduate school. I always start with a whirlwind of passion, activity and joy in my new adventures. Then I inevitably hit a passion wall. I get tired, bored or frustrated and it shows. I’ve often wondered what it would be like if I could hide what I’m thinking, but my face very accurately shows what I’m feeling, whether I want it to or not. I wonder why the passion seems to go. Is it just me and my life cycles? Will I always lose passion every so often? How much passion is normal? I have to admit that there have been activities that seem to keep the passion alive in me. Teaching is one of my passion activities. I have enjoyed teaching math, yoga, business, and technology, although teaching yoga really feels the best.
Maybe it boils down to the potential for growth. One common denominator in my life is that I seem to lose the passion when I feel stagnation. Sometimes it’s appropriate to work through the stagnation and try to freshen existing situations up. Often, I find that it isn’t exactly appropriate. Maybe it’s my age, but it seems that more often than not, once the passion goes, Roxy will have to go too, sooner or later. Somehow, things get better each time I leave those situations too.
A lot of this comes from my history. Many of my family and friends growing up felt work was just that, work, and fun time is separate. I have to say it sure feels a hell of a lot better when you’re doing something you feel passionate about. No matter how hard of a worker I am, I inevitably won’t work as well if I don’t feel passion about it. It doesn’t matter what I tell myself, I just can’t focus on it or enjoy it.
Food for thought.