“If we don’t keep fit, our energy and vibrational levels are low and slow. It’s very difficult to develop the capacity to Recognize, Avoid, and Transcend our Habits if we are weak.” – coach ilg and Dewachen camping near Sedona to help break the Habit of Home-Dwelling. photo by Ananda.
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In the artful, zestful life of a Wholistic Fitness yogi,
there are no such things as “Bad” or “Good” Habits.
A Habit is, by nature, mechanical. It’s divorced from Consciousness through samskara…residual astral reverberations from prior experiences. Our Habits are our own doing, made manifest through Unconscious Repetition while we are ‘asleep’ (spiritually speaking, of course).
When we encounter a Dharma Teacher whose Teachings then ‘wake us up’ we begin to real-ize just how many Habits we have. Some classic WF Habitual Awakenings fall within our Non-Dominant Awareness Practices…we real-ize that we always vacuum the rug with the same hand and lead foot. Brushing our teeth, lathering our bodies, opening the door of our car, clipping out of our bicycle pedals…same thing; we always unconsciously repeat these actions with our Dominant Side. I’ve Taught you how this imbalance pinches and causes dis-ease not only to our nervous systems but also, resultantly, our nadic and thus spiritual channels. WF Awakens us to a plethora of such Unconscious Moments (Habits) and it is then up to our Temperament and Willingness as Yogis, to mine our Habits for the many Hidden Gems which lie within them.
If we don’t keep fit, our energy and vibrational levels are low and slow. It’s very difficult to develop the capacity to Recognize, Avoid, and Transcend our Habits if we are weak.
Weak people, for instance, are usually not able to understand WF, very well. Such a person will look only at the Surface of WF Techniques and Suggestions and quickly lose interest…
“Oh that is too hard to understand,”
or
“Who has time for all of that non-sense?”
The funny thing is that when such people say things like that about our Humble, Powerful Path they usually do so while sitting or standing in poor posture and breathing from the chest.
Simply adjusting their posture into Conscious Elegance and softening and lowering their Conscious Breath into Ujjayi or at least abdominal-pelvic breathing would instantly change their attitude toward WF, “Oh you mean WF is just about minding my breath and posture? Cool, i can do that!” With such an Acceptance of Dharma (in this case, WF Lifestyle Principle Number 1; Conscious Breath and Posture), comes the key to a lifelong embrace of the transpersonal depth and color of a WF life.
Weak people will also pass judgment on many components of WF, like the SUNRIDER Herbs, MAP Aminos, our all inclusive embrace of strength, cardio, yoga, and meditation…until a person has the energy and vibrational uplift to See Higher Perspectives to their approach to personal fitness, they will inevitably be attracted like moths to fancy, glossy lights which appeal to their comfort zones.
WF, on the other hand, is designed to keep us far, far away from our comfort zones. There is no growth in comfort zones. Habits are comfortable. Breaking a Habit is not. WF breaks the Habit of Unconsciousness making that which has remained Unconscious conscious. This requires energy and strength of body and mind.
If the body and mind are weak, there is no allure toward Wholeness and Balance…there is only a tremendous pull toward negative tendencies, addictions, specificity, and comfortable habits. Eating our Herbs, doing our EMR, taking our MAP Aminos…such basic Practices to WF are what ramps up our Energy and Vibrational Levels slowly, safely, accumulatively and also us to say “so-long” to our Habits.
Ilg is not a big fan of ‘getting rid of a bad habit.’ It doesn’t work very well nor for very long. Forcing ourselves to do something that has been eon-studded into our way of being is dangerous stuff. The Grace of my Rinpoche Trungpa advised us students at Naropa to, “just do your Practices and the habitual tendencies will eventually – this lifetime or a future one – wear itself out.” Getting rid of a bad habit, He went on to Teach, was the same as rutting out Egoic drives…we should treat them like friends, get to know their roots, and eventually, through Abhyasa (steadfast practice) our Egos will be worn out and we can say good-bye to them quite easily and with a sense of timely Appropriateness, “like finally tossing a pair of our favorite jeans into the trash.”
When we develop strength in body and mind, our truly unwanted Habits – both ‘good’ and ‘bad
– will Take Leave. When we are Strong and Trust in our Teacher(s), our Habits will drop away like a cloudcap over the Sacred Peak…revealing such Clarity! such Beauty! such High Purity! At such a m(om)ent, we Shift Higher and proceed upward, onward, and ever Inward with an elevated Sense of Sacred Joy.
May peace and freedom from habits be yours,
coach
These teachings are the "Rasas" or "sap" of Wholistic Fitness. You’ll find insights to ponder, student chi to keep your own chi topped off, and plenty of proven training techniques to test on your own body, mind, and spirit! Also, you’ll find my very popular Race Reports, and news of our Sangha’s (community’s) latest transpersonal fitness adventures!
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