Do you practice Yoga? Do you go to class where you have an instructor? Well, today what I want to talk about is,

How to dress for yoga and give your instructor a break, especially if he’s a man.

Now, I teach yoga. One of the things that get me about teaching yoga is that people don’t seem to know how to dress. Especially women! Now I know this is a touchy subject.

The human body, to me, is not something that’s terrible. I used to go to nude beaches years ago and would probably be a nudist today if my wife were willing to do that.

The human body isn’t a bad thing, and yet, there is a couple of problems with some young ladies and even some older ones who come to yoga class.

Last night I taught a yoga class and it was kind of interesting. There was one young lady who came to class in very short shorts with kind of baggy open legs. The thing about this was that in many of the postures it was a little indelicate.

I also had another young lady who was, shall we say, rather well endowed in the chest department. She was wearing a very low cut top.

Now if you’ve ever done yoga you know that there are particular postures that you get into that having this kid of clothing is a problem.

Here’s the deal. In a lot of these postures, you have to move your body in such a way that, if you’re wearing inappropriate clothing you’re going to be showing a lot more than you intended.

Now this young lady with the short shorts, let me just say that, without my being a real pervert and staring, that she shaves, and don’t just mean her legs. Also, that I had to alter what I was going to have the class do because one of the postures would have put her in a position where I would have known her as well as her gynecologist! I just didn’t think that was appropriate.

Now you may be saying, “This guy is just a perv.”

Let me tell you, as a yoga instructor, you have to look at people’s bodies. You have to look at the hip area. You have to look at the chest area. Are they sticking out the chest, are they arching their back, are the shoulders down, are the collar bones wide?

These are the kinds of things that yoga instructors look at. If you’re a yoga instructor you know I’m telling the truth. I’m not pervin’ out here or making dumb excuses.

So when a person is in position, these are the areas I’m looking at.

So this gal with the short shorts, I had her in bridge pose. Bridge pose is where you have your feet on the floor and you’re laying on your back. You push with your feet and lift your hips so you are in a back bend, your shoulders are rolled under. Your hips are up in the air. I have to look to make sure you are in proper position. I was looking at areas that were a little indelicate.

The same with true of the others postures. Postures that cause the chest to come forward and the weight is down. Like down dog. If the lady is wearing a low cut top and is well endowed, it can be a problem.

Last night, with the lady with the low cut top, one of the times I thought, “My God, I think her nipples are going to pop out! If they do, what am I going to do? I’m gonna notice and everyone else is going to notice. I’ll probably never have her in class again because she’ll be so embarrassed and besides that, she’ll probably slap the crap out of me on the way out!”

Well just don’t wear that kind of stuff and it won’t be a problem!

I have to look at body parts. It’s happened to me. I’m looking to make sure that shoulders are down, collar bones are wide and I get a look like, “Quit scopin’ out my tits, man!”

Just don’t have ‘em hanging out there then! Okay.

So, when you go to yoga class ladies, and it happens for guys too. I mean, you’re wearing short shorts with no underwear and you have testicular escapation! Dress appropriately!

This is a tough one. I understand, you want to wear something low cut because it’s hot, especially in the summer! If I had my way, I don’t care, come to class topless, but then don’t get pissed if I look!

Wear loose fitting clothes and wear something comfortable. For goodness sake, if you don’t want people seeing various parts of you, dress appropriately!

P.S. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. If you think I’m just a perv, say so, I want to hear it. Don’t forget to sign up for updates!

I’m not going to transcribe this one. I know that’s a big no no, but I could never write the passion I have for this subject. The fact that exercise is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves would not come through with the same fire! The video isn’t that long.

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a comment or story of your own!

Are you out of shape? Damn near all of us are these days. Sitting, they say, is the new smoking! We all sit so much at our jobs and during our leisure time that we hardly move at all. Sitting is killing us!

Do you find yourself being embarrassed starting an exercise program? Especially if it’s something that others can see?

Don’t let embarrassment kill you!

The whole sitting thing is very real for me. Last February I was in so much back pain that I could hardly walk to the end of my driveway, about twenty-five feet, and back. My knees hurt so bad I didn’t think they would hold me up, and I was a fat flabby two hundred and twenty-seven pounds. That’s about thirty pounds overweight for me.

That sucks for someone who teaches yoga!

I started walking. I walked to the end of the driveway. I walked fifty feet up the road. I kept extending the walks. It was embarrassing! People could see me hobbling along. I had to use a walking stick to make sure I didn’t just collapse!

It was embarrassing to go to my yoga classes to teach when I could barely sit there for the duration of the class. Forget about demonstrating anything!

Recently I started running a little. I run barefoot. I run barefoot for two reasons. I like being barefoot and running barefoot keeps you running on the balls of your feet instead of hitting the heel down on the pavement. That heel strike is what hurts your knees. Run barefoot and the knees actually build up rather than get hurt. At least that’s how it works for me!

It feels embarrassing for this sixty plus guy to be running down the street barefoot. What will the neighbors think? What about the people passing by in cars? Do they think I’m crazy?

What has this got to do with you?

If you don’t exercise, you will die!

Well,…you’ll die someday anyway, but if you don’t exercise, it’s coming a lot faster than you think!

The thing that holds many people back from starting an exercise program is the fear of embarrassment. They don’t go to the gym because they are so out of shape. They don’t walk or run, because it’s embarrassing to let all that blubber bounce along the road.

That embarrassment is killing you!

What’s worse? Feeling embarrassed about being so out of shape, or having dirt thrown in your face as you lie in that final hole?

It doesn’t matter if you’re twenty or sixty, if you’re out of shape, you need to exercise! I see so many teens and twenty somethings that are down right fat! They aren’t overweight. They’re fat! I see people in their sixties who can’t walk to the end of the driveway.

Oh wait, that was me!

It doesn’t take much courage to get out there! You know what I found out? Other people really don’t give a shit about you! The most comments I’ve gotten about running barefoot have been positive. No one cares if you jiggle your way down the road. No one at the gym cares if you look more like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow man than you do like a body builder. They have their own lives to worry about.

Get out there and move! Walk, run, go to the gym! If you sit more than a few hours a day, you’re killing yourself. You gotta move or you’ll die much younger than you want to.

Don’t let embarrassment stop you! Don’t let what others might or might not think about you stop you from enjoying life to the max! Remember, they don’t care near a much as you think they do. They really don’t.

I haven’t posted here for a while. I feel like I should have posted a sign that says, “Gone Fishing.” The truth is, today is the first day I have gone fishing in over ten years,

I used to like fishing. I was never any good at it, mostly because I didn’t care if I caught anything or not. I liked to be by the water and in the outdoors. I suppose, it’s a lie that I didn’t care if I caught anything. I’ll just say that I didn’t care enough to learn how to do it right. Being outside was enough.

My little fishing trip this morning was great. It is the first time in a long while that I have taken any time for myself. It’s important to do that.

Maxwell Creek

I don’t care how old your are, you have to take care of yourself. Sure it’s important for us old folks, but it is just as important for young people too.

At one time, I was so involved in my career that I missed about two or three years of my kids lives. I was at the shop more than I was at home.

My advice? Take care of yourself. Do what you need to do. Get exercise and do something to take some of the pressure off. I don’t care what it is. It can be fishing, rollerskating or hang-gliding. Whatever it is that helps you to leave the day behind you and live in the moment is not something that is nice, it is imperative!

Would you like to live a full life? I have spent the last three months suffering from sciatica pain. I had back surgery about four years ago, and ever since, if I sit too much, my sciatica acts up. That’s a problem because I spend most of my waking hours sitting in front of a computer. When this bout is over, I am becoming an exercise fanatic!

Here is the key to living that full, large, life.

Don’t spend all your time sitting on your ass!

That’s right! Get up off the couch and do something. Exercise!

• Go for a walk.
• Do yoga.
• Ride a bike.
• Play tennis.

Do anything, but keep your body in as good a shape as you can! You would think I would know this since I teach yoga. Life has a way of showing us what our priorities should be, and what they appear to be!

I said I sit in front of a computer. As a writer, blogger, techno geek, I sit way too much and I don’t sit up straight. This causes my back to be weak. Then, on top of that, I get involved and don’t do my own yoga, don’t go for walks, don’t do a damned thing besides pound away at these keys, then get pissed when my sciatica acts up.

I’m not alone!

It is small comfort, but I know there are thousands of you out there who are just as stupid as I am. I know a woman who has diabetes because she won’t follow a good diet and not eat until she feels like she might explode. She is a good hundred pounds overweight. If she would just eat right, the diabetes would not be a big problem and might go away.

I know people who are overweight, high blood pressure, weak, and in general poor health. They sit at work and then they come home and watch the idiot box until it’s time to go to bed. Do they really think that reality TV is real?

If you would like to live the life of your dreams, live a full life, then the best way to come close to what you want is to go out and live it. You may not be able to jump up and fly to Bora Bora, but you can do something. Sitting on your butt dreaming about is not going to get you much of anything.

Get up and go to the local beach and take a walk. Winter time? Go to the local high school during open swim time and do a few laps! Spring for the cost of staying at a local motel with an indoor pool. No, it isn’t the beach in Tahiti, but neither is your couch!

We have become a culture that wants to avoid all stress and strain. We were made for stress and strain. There is good stress and bad stress, good strain and bad strain. Exercise is good stress and strain. Learning something new is good stress and strain.

To live a full life, we have to give ourselves that good stress and strain if we want to be strong and healthy. Why not start now?

Would you like to take control of your life in the New Year? I know I have some things I want to do! The problem is, most New Year resolutions don’t hold. If they make it a couple of weeks, it’s a good thing.

I have been reading a great book!

The book is entitled, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” The book is about the things in our lives that influence us to make decisions. There is some cool stuff in there!

One of the things that influence our behavior is that we tend to be consistent with whatever we have committed to. It is one of the major reasons why women stay in abusive relationships. They made the commitment and they feel they must be consistent with that commitment.

What has this to do with making a New Years resolutions?

If you commit to, say losing weight, you will be much more successful if you do two things. The first is to write down the goal and put it somewhere that you will see it frequently. Writing it down tends to commit you to the goal. If you are reminded of that commitment often, then you are that much more likely to stick to it.

The other thing you can do is to tell people about it. The more people you tell, the more accountable you are to those people. Being accountable means that you are more likely to stick to your commitment so that you will avoid embarrassment.

You can’t live large if you can’t take control!

I know that you would like to live a larger life than you do now. I mean, who doesn’t, right? I know that I do. I want to be in better health, I want a better income, I want to travel more. To do those things, I have to take control!

If you don’t take control, then you are, in effect, allowing someone else to control your life. You might not even like those people! Even so, they are making decisions that affect your life.

Is that what you want? I can’t imagine you do.

Doing this simple exercise, writing down your desire and then telling others, will give you the control you are lacking. Now understand, it won’t work if you don’t use it. Do you want to take control of your life? Then do it!

I live in upstate New York. Right now, as I look out the kitchen window, it is snowing rather heavily. It has been for over a week with only a day or two respite. Our driveway is really short and only one car wide. Since I’m cheap, I don’t pay for snow plowing and I don’t own a snow blower. I shovel. The question is, is snow shoveling good for you?

I’m not a huge fan of winter. I grew up in Southern California and although the snow is pretty at Christmas time, I would be just as happy if it were gone by January 1st. Snow shoveling is a required activity in these parts, but I have to admit that there are things worse than snow shoveling.

If you are anything like me, you don’t get enough exercise. Even though I teach and practice yoga and walk, I don’t do either enough to keep me in good shape. I should, but I don’t. I write instead or worse yet, I eat. I love food. I bet you are the same.

You don’t get enough exercise, you weigh too much and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.

Try shoveling snow!

Man, it’s cold out there at six in the morning and the wind is howling. The flakes hit you like they were fired from a gun, but you certainly don’t have a problem waking up.

You do have to take care not to go at it too hard. If you are out of shape, take it easy the first few times. Let your body build up to it a bit. It you don’t, you will be a candidate for sore muscles or worse yet, a heart attack. You think it’s cold out there just standing and shoveling? Do a face plant in the snow bank and not be able to get up and you’ll feel cold!

Take your time. Enjoy the experience! I know, I made it sound terrible, but in reality, it’s quiet and peaceful. The work is not too tough as long as you use some common sense and don’t over do it.

We get in trouble when we try to blast through the job. This is true no matter what. Ever felt exhausted from mowing the lawn in the summer. Yeah, we always want to blast through things. Slow down. Enjoy the cold and quiet of a snowing morning.

So you are a little late for work! Most bosses in snow country understand if you have to dig yourself out. The worst that could happen is you get fired and then you can go out get a nice big fat icy snow ball and plant that sucker right in that jerk wad’s face! Think how refreshing that would be!

Is shoveling snow good for you? I would say yes!

Have you ever felt that life is somehow passing you by. There are things you want to do and places you want to see, but you never seem to do them or go there. There are universal laws that can help you do the things you want to do.

There are many laws that govern our lives. In this book you will find seven of these universal laws that I have found to help me live my life.

These laws will help you to live a life that is more successful and happier.

You Will Learn How To

1. Become aware of your full potential. You are more than you ever imagined.
2. Receive power and give it to others
3. Your thinking controls your life. Control  your life with your thoughts.
4. Let go of the things that cause you to fail
5. Get more out of life.
6. Turn the disasters in your life to something good.
7. Become free of others control of your life.

Everyone wants to have more control over their life. Everyone wants to become more successful, happier and direct their life in the way they desire. Why should you be any different.

The thing is, most people don’t know how to do that. These universal laws can help you to become the person you always wanted to be.

The cost of the book is $19.00. The wealth possible from it, is in your imagination!

We all want to have the life we dream of. My life isn’t perfect, but I can tell you that the more I live according to these laws, the more successful I am. It was by these laws that I found the courage to do some of the things I could only dream of. I am now a published author, have my own CD, and have a life that just gets better every day.

You can use these laws to:

• Earn more money.
• Have better relationships.
• Find the courage to do the work you want.
• Most importantly, be happy with who and what you are!

I know that there are tons of people out there telling you this same sort of thing. “Just do what I say and become a millionaire!”

I won’t tell you that.

Living by these laws is the hardest thing I have ever done. The reason it is hard is because we have all been programed to think that we are never going to be happy, have to work in a mind numbing job, and die poor. To use these 7 simple laws takes a whole different mindset. You have to learn to live them!

When you read these laws, you may say to yourself that you already know them, or something similar. You probably have heard something similar. The question I have for you is do you live them?

What are you waiting for? Each second that goes by is a moment out of your life that you will never get back! Will you leave this life regretting all the things you never did?

$19.00 is a small price to pay! I bet you spend that much each week on something that will never bring you lasting happiness!

One of the things I want to do in my quest to live my life by design is to get in better physical shape. I stumbled across a website called bodyrock.tv. There is a delightful young lady on there that teaches what I have learned to be High Intensity Interval Training. It is an amazing way to physical fitness!

If you take one quick look at Zuzana you will be able to tell that this sort of training can get you in very good shape. Once you get past how she looks, watch her videos of the routines she does. I doubt very many people could keep up with her.

This post isn’t about the girl or her show, however. It is about getting in shape and using High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to do it. I have been interested in physical fitness for a long time. The problem is, I let myself get terribly out of shape.

I practice yoga and that is wonderful for being flexible and calm. However, the style of yoga that I practice is not one of the more vigorous styles. My aerobic fitness was lacking.

I started copying some of the exercises from Bodyrock this week and I have to tell you, I was so sore yesterday that I could hardly get up and down! This stuff works incredibly well!

The cool thing is, the workout only lasts about fifteen minutes and it requires no equipment. It is almost all bodyweight stuff, like pushups. I take that back. It is easier to do if you get an interval timer. I bought mine through amazon. It is a gymboss timer and cost me less than thirty dollars. That might sound expensive, but it is a lot cheaper than a gym membership!

Now if you are thinking, “God, I haven’t done a pushup in years,” don’t worry. You can do whatever it is you can do and you will become stronger in a very short period of time.

The one word of caution I would give is that if you are very out of shape, it might be best to get a checkup from your Doctor before you start this. In a matter of minutes your heart rate and respiration rate will be quite high. I don’t want to see you having a heart attack trying to do this!

I suggest you watch a couple of Zuzana’s videos to see how she does it and then see what you can do. You can also get a book on HIIT at your library and from Amazon. I will freely admit that I am no expert on HIIT. I will tell you that I am going to include this with my yoga to get me in shape. I am sure I will be posting more on this as I learn and do.

Don’t wait! If you want to live the life of your dreams, you can do it best by being in good shape. Try High Intensity Interval Training and see what it does for you.

Just remember, my first time out, it damned near killed me! Go slow, take it easy, work into it and work your way to physical fitness!

How many times have you said to someone else, “Don’t worry, things will work out,” or “You need to get up and do something!” That sort of advice is handed out by all of us to children friends and family. We are eager to dish it out, but when it comes our turn to be down or confused, we don’t know what to do. Well, perhaps you should learn to take your own advice!

I wrote a short report about productivity. In it I teach some ideas that will help someone become more productive. The lessons are not hard and they work.

Today, I have sat for several hours trying to think of something to write. I have been lost in a see of unproductiveness. Suddenly that report came to mind and I started using the principles in the report and in no time I was here writing away and getting done what should have been done much earlier. I needed to take my own advice!

I am often asked by people what they can do about certain problems in their life. The thing is, I know that they know the answer. I might have even heard them talk about the same problem with someone else. They know the answer. You do too. Take your own advice!

I would be willing to bet that whatever your problem is, if you step back from all the negative thinking and the darkness, you know and can see the answer. Whatever your frustration, You know that you need to get busy and give some action to the problem, or you need to stop worrying and look for the solution. You have told your kids or someone else this same thing when they had a similar problem. Now take your own advice.

We all are smarter than we give ourselves credit for. We have lived life and have had experiences that have supplied the answer. Usually, it is the same few answers for nearly every problem. They are:

• Get off your a** and do something.
• Stop worrying and look for the solution. Worry does nothing.
• Ask for help.
• Believe in yourself.
• Believe there is an answer.

I am sure there are a few more answers, but these, in some combination, hold the key to every problem you could ever have. Personally, the first two can do much to solve every problem.

Don’t wait for someone to give you some “magical” answer. You already know what it is. You already know what to do, just do it. Take your own advice.