Wholistic Fitness

Namaste Noble Warriors!!!!

�The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you.

Don�t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don�t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth

Across the doors where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don�t go back to sleep.�

– Rumi

�The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you.

Don�t go back to sleep.

� Students new to Wholistic Fitness training often blow off my prescribed morning meditation sessions. I guess they think like i once did as the cold wake up alarm tried unsuccessfully to pull me from the warmth of my bed sheets; �Meditation is not really fitness training, there is no reason for me to wake up this early just to sit and do nothing.� What takes time – and what requires perseverance to earn – is trust that the internal breezes of the breath during morning meditation is what truly blows Truth throughout your day. those who do not begin their day with some sort of meditation – no matter how few minutes or how tremendous seems the sacrifice – will not ever see what most never do. It�s your choice; not mine. hit the Snooze button. don�t Awake. but don�t say you practice Wholistic FItness if you choose to sleep.

�You must ask for what you really want.

Don�t go back to sleep.�

� When i lived in Pagosa Springs, Colorado there came several years of drought which withered the grasses and dried alpine lakes yet still the crickets sang and birds still danced. when the rains came and the snows weighed heavy again upon the land, mountain creeks roared their appreciation and clouds thundered in applause. never doubt your Highest fitness seeks only your permission to prance. so too, all Joy and Abundance resides within you. �Ask, and It shall be given.� but you must be Awake to ask. how do you Awaken? meditate. do the inner work with as much passion as you pray. the Gods help them who help themselves.

�People are going back and forth

Across the doors where the two worlds touch.�

� Most of us spend our lives coming and going never realizing where we stand is Here. most people flirt with the dance between Heart and Mind but few are true to their Heart and the shouting of the outer World wins out. only artists and a very very few athletes of the Heart ever honor the inner whispers.

�The door is round and open.

Don�t go back to sleep.�

� At the root of the spine sleeps a round and fiery bulb. Her name is Kundala. she swings to and fro upon your every step, upon your every conscious breath, like a wavering Moon eclipsed by a tawny Sun. so which will you Prioritize this time around/ will it be the pleasures and strivings of the outer world or the refined release into the Divinity of the Inner? when i sleep i am inelegant and ignorant of so many moons.

when i am Awake diverse planes of Wisdom, Humor, and Happiness collide with such gleeful Intensity that every turn of my feeble life takes on the magnificence of tiger lilies, full moons, and caribou journeys.

love life

be Awake.

don�t go back to sleep.

fitness

is

key.

because

when you don�t feel good,

you

don�t

feel

God.

Enjoy the following Tribal Dharma from Wholistic Fitness and High Performance Yoga Warriors…

just like

you…

and keep your insights,

comments,

and

questions

coming…

because

ripples

make

waves.

May your Practice be full like the moon and fiery like the sun…

i bow to you,

coach ilg

�����

�Coach Ilg.

Thanks for your insights. I certainly hear you loud and clear.

I do believe an injury can be a good thing. Besides I should be meeting all my difficulties, including injuries, with my breath and posture. Sometimes I get too focused on the goal and not on the day to day journey, the present moment! Thanks again.

– Namaste,

student trevor

���

�What you are doing by starting along this path of Wholistic Fitness is something to be proud of. The training will challenge you, uplift you and expand your health beyond your wildest dreams. I like to think of it as giving yourself tools to be in the present moment…giving your-Self presence!

Trust in the process; ask questions and most of all Practice.�

– WF Certified Teacher, Grant Couture

���

�Hey Steve,

I am a member at Powerhouse, and I’ll be a bigger yoga enthusiast again when my work schedule calms down. I truly love all of your yoga classes (Kathy and Trina, too). Anyway, I am a Christian, and so I often don’t agree with your spiritual point of view in your emails, but I always read them because you’re such an interesting guy. Anyway, I had to respond to this one because I TOTALLY AGREE with you on this! Now I believe in prayer over meditation – I find it much more pro-active, and after all, I believe that we are meant to have a relationship with the Creator of the universe, and any relationship takes work, which means, in this case, prayer. But truly, if we knew that our U.N. leaders made it a priority every day to seek out guidance from above (I know you would say from within, but we’re allowed to differ, right?), what a different world we might live in. I also wholeheartedly agree with you that spirituality cannot be legislated. When people are coerced to believe in anything, it becomes empty and meaningless. God must be chosen. I partner with you in wishing that our political leaders would acknowledge their need for wisdom from a higher source than their own frailty. And gratefully, we can do more than just “wish”, we can pray for change.

Have an awesome and blessed day!

– Jan�

{Note; look for more on the Christian/Yoga connection in future DL columns, but remember, I am a teacher of spirit, not religion.}

���

�Happiness is not a matter of intensity, but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.�

-Thomas Merton

���

On Finding Happiness Through Body/Mind Fitness:

�Stand knee deep in the flow of life, and pay attention.�

-Coach Ilg

���

On Steep, Technical Downhill Running:

�Be quick with your feet, high with your elbows, soft in your breath, and fearless in your mind.�

-Coach Ilg

���

On Being A WF Teacher

�My style of fitness teaching is based more on remembering than inspiring. i am at my best as a Teacher when my students connect their own and most ancient dots. i do my best to make people remember what it once meant to be human which is to be capable, to cope, and to adapt: to carry water, squat close to the earth, endure cold, breathe heavy, appreciate sun, gather herbs, and stalk what is truly needed. Stalking fitness is stalking our most ancient and beautiful self. It�s all yoga, we�ve just forgotten our Higher Union largely due to an addiction to comfort.�

-Coach Ilg

���

The following is another in a series of contributions from HP Yoga Teacher, Grant �Heikosan� Couture linking classical yoga precepts with my Wholistic Fitness system.

February 13, 2003

Ahimsa � Listening and Speaking

Wholistic Fitness Daily Meditation Practice: �LISTEN to your word choice today. Before speaking ask your-Self: IS IT KIND, IS IT TRU(E)TH, IS IT HELPFUL? IF NOT, DON�T SPEAK�

When we LISTEN and then SPEAK or NOT SPEAK we have an opportunity to practice ahimsa. If we do not Listen we can not Speak from a space that is kind, tru(e)thful or helpful. If we are listening and at that same moment forming an opinion we are not listening, we are forming an opinion. Are you with me?

We are so well trained in our society to have an opinion about what is the tru(e)th of a situation such that we rarely see what is going on in the moment. An opinion lies in the past, it is based on what happened to us. It is not based on the moment. Think of something that was REALLY important when you were younger and NOW well, it is irrelevant.

So here is a Way to Practice the above meditation. To Practice Listening is to Prepare the Ground for Speaking. In this practice simply repeat what a person says to you, word for word if you need to when you start to practice. You can tell the person you are practicing Listening to them, to be with them in a more authentic Way. I have found that people appreciate being actually listened to without an opinion about what they are going through. It is a simple form of communication that ensures that you are Here Now listening. The practice is to just repeat, to be present, AS IF you did not know the tru(e)th. In this Way you do not put your own spin on the situation, you do not ADD to it or INTERPRET what is meant by this�the Ego will rise up to defend your opinion, its important to say your opinion, right? To have opinions, right? This is indeed a difficult thing for the Ego to handle, to sit back and just listen to another.

As we cultivate this listening ability �for the love of another� it will start to translate into �listening more deeply within�. When this happens we will need to Speak less and we will Act more consciously in the World. When we speak we will Speak from a space of not knowing, we are acting in that moment with appropriate action.

I am fortunate enough to be a yoga teacher, a husband, a brother and a son and I am also fortunate to have a lot of opinions! So I get to practice this a lot, in fact every day I come to the yoga studio and a student asks me something I have the opportunity to practice non-harming in the way I respond. Ahimsa with the Way I Listen is the practice.

So when you practice Listening then Speaking in this way you Will be practicing Kindness by letting them he(a)re what they are saying; you will be speaking Truth as it is seen from their eyes and you will be practicing being helpful as you will help them �he(a)re� themselves more clearly. What else can a bodhisattva do?

The Wandering Yogi

Vancouver, BC

{You can train directly under Heikosan through WF Online Training Services. Sign up now: wholisticfitness.com}