Wholistic Fitness

Namaste Noble Fitness Warriors!…

“Don’t tell me what you are �going to do� or �what should be�.

Tell me what you’ve done and what is.”

– coach ilg

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i have always thought we – as individuals – have a responsibility to bare our souls to that which rings true to our heart.

i have always felt we should follow that truth with faith and determination, to see where it leads us.

i have always sensed that whatever we love to experience (or HAVE to experience) is a spiritual portal to our Higher Source. it could be anything really…for me, it was the unlikely combination of uniting the dance between several outdoor and extreme sports and living with chronic spinal pain from a mountaineering injury. but it could be whatever turns you on or challenges you; from sewing to serving tables, from trying to lose weight to juggling, surfing, or jogging. but for that which we love doing (or have to cope with) to become a genuine Spiritual Vehicle for us, we must persevere not just with it, but THROUGH it! like a warrior. warriors do not run around battlefields. they run THROUGH them! it doesn�t matter to a warrior what occupies the battlefield; dragons, enemies, or monsters. it�s all the same to the warrior. it must be gone through. in our own lives, we must be brave warriors too, brave enough to keep on climbing Higher through the disenchanting, scary, boring, or depressing periods.

i have always chosen to use my short life here to search for that ‘great perhaps’. i don�t care if i ever reach the highest levels of Samadhi, but it’s fun in the attempt and i’ve found no wealth richer than not submitting to obstacles and attaining a high degree of health. i�ve found no paycheck more profound than one earned serving others, be it through example, words, teaching, or just being present with people without judgment or pressure. some people complain to me of not getting enough for their job, but few have realized that everyone is getting paid just to practice Awareness in their breath, posture, and presence.

May your own life experience – and the joys and challenges in it – benefit from this most recent batch of correspondence from students of Wholistic Fitness and High Performance Yoga, across the country…

DIRECT LINES is really, really quite magic.

don�t you think?

for twenty years, these messages of Light and Love have spilled forth from spiritual fitness warriors…

just like you…

which is why…

I bow to you,

coach ilg

creator/Wholistic Fitness

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Dear Coach Ilg –

You have been a source of inspiration and amazement to me during the last twelve years. We met once in Santa Fe at Club International, I think that I was fifteen years old at the time. My Mother introduced us. She happened into meeting you not long before that and was impressed by your spirit. She has always had very good instincts about people and an authentic heart. At that time my family was struggling with a lot of pain. I took to solitary and outdoor sports/activities, and spent a lot of time on them. My family did not really understand my preoccupation because sports and the outdoors had not been part of their lives. My Mother was trying to be part of my life, and would naturally try to learn about my interests. I mention this because you were able to articulate some of your passion in a way that helped her understand mine. This was the start of my awareness and growing appreciation of you.

I read your book, and saw you running on the Windsor Trail above Santa Fe, and doing pullups at the Pagosa Springs Recreation Center, and nordic ski racing over in Durango, but I never did approach you beyond a greeting. I was however, often happening into your footprints and being reminded of, and distantly following your legacy. We moved through very similar geographic circles and activities, so every so often I would hear something about your adventures or your coaching. I remember the first Wholistic Fitness newsletters, and seeing new books and articles, and reading your heartwarming and inspirational reflections as WF took to the web.

It has been delightful to watch your success from the sidelines. You have been a beautiful example to me. I have always felt great resonance with the sentiment that immersion in nature and pushing of the physical body can be intensely spiritual and profound experiances.

I am writing you to let you know these things and to ask for your help. I am in a desperate place in my life and I do not know what to do. I have to force myself to do what has always been very natural before, pushing myself just to get outside. The joy of training is gone.

I feel like I am at a critical place in my life. I am aware of tremendous grief and and lack hope. I am rationally aware of the positive, but it is no longer visceral. It is time to do some healing. Life won’t let me move on without that.

I have made efforts at recovering from negative emotional patterns with only marginal success. I have tried the paradigms of psychiatry and psychology, and to some extent, have had those treatments most of my life. I beleive that there are different paths to increased awareness and peace for different people at different times, none inherently better or worse, just more or less timely or relevant. I believe that it is my time for a new approach for me. My heart moved me to tell you these things and I am trusting that there is a reason for that. I do not know if WF is the path I belong on right now, but I do know that I have learned a lot from you, and feel that you are a kindred spirit. I am looking for some guidance and I wonder if it is here.

Thank You for everything that you have done.

– B.C.

Dear BC –

i thank YOU for choosing to be brave enough to bare your soul. you and i belong to the same spiritual tribe. you are indeed h(om)e. like many along the WF and HP yoga Path, you realized that outdoor sports and/or fitness training came into your life to satisfy an inner education and yearning that was missing.

the challenges you are experiencing is the Universe testing your sincerity and capability to go Higher in this lifetime. you traveling the proverbial, “dark night of the soul.” you are to witness this stage of your life, feel it fully, but do not attach to any egoic drama or depression as you move through this phase. don�t get caught up in the i-need-more-Therapy circuit. few of us need to ‘heal’.

most of us need to grow.

you can achieve whatever you believe, this is true.

but ‘belief’ is a mental function and is not grounded in spiritual warriorism.

you must learn to replace ‘belief’ with ‘faith’

for faith to be true, strong, and reliable it must be tested in the daily chapels of hard fitness workouts, yoga, meditation, and nutrition. with faith and determination replacing your ‘belief’

you will Arise ever Higher!

there are many options for you to use this wonderful spiritual opportunity. ‘crisis’ is nothing more than the ‘shaking’ of the Divine rattle…like a shaman’s rattle, crisis is meant to stir us up…get us into action…create a molecular state of agitation so that change can more easily occur. do you understand?

i say, JUMP! DIVE into this spiritually ripe environment! perhaps in other lifetimes you reached this very same point…but you stayed stuck..rutted…depressed…caught in the ego.

but this lifetime, you have followed in some of my Mountain Yogi footsteps across the spine of the Rocky Mountains. this time you have felt the relentless bliss of snow driven wind against your frozen face and the setting of the Santa Fe sun into a sea of rosy liquid gold. this time, you wrote me.

this time, you are ready to Rise Higher.

i am Here Now. my humble Temple of transpersonal fitness training is ready to train you, teach you how to make optimal use of this great chance for Higher Journeying!

i am proud of you for writing me … i shall forward you a Training Application so we can begin.

– coach ilg

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Congratulations to MARK FEATHERMAN of Lancaster, PA who recently earned his WF STUDENT INKA training under Teacher Sheader!

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Coach: how do i use two CALLI tea bags per kettle and get about three kettle fulls from those two teabags? DO I brew a kettle with the two tea bags, and then dilute my cups?

Mark

Student Mark –

…here is how i MAXIMIZE Calli Beverage intake from SUNRIDER:

1) COMMIT TO A PURE CALLI KETTLE: do not use this kettle for anything else but brewing Calli Tea. very important.

2) bring a full kettle of water to boil.

3) turn down the heat to LOW. NEVER place Calli teabags into boiling water! this damages the properties of some of the more fragile herbs! herbs are human too, you know!!

4) place 2 Calli Teabags into the kettle and close and let it steep FOR AT LEAST 10 MINUTES! very important.

5) now you have a FRESH pot of Calli…

to EXTEND the number of cups do the following. BUT for most POTENT healing and health benefits; drink the full fresh pot of Calli without doing the following.

6) TO EXTEND the number of cups per fresh pot of Calli…pour off 2 cups of Calli from the kettle. refill the kettle and let steep for AT LEAST 15 minutes to over 24 hours! you now have another full pot of Calli to access and enjoy!

7) after drinking down the entire pot…be sure to tear open and put the used Calli teabags into houseplants (or onto aching or injured muscles!).

(Note; if you are also a devoted Calli Night fan like Kathy and i, then buy another kettle just for Calli Night…this way, during the day, the two different beverages can ‘steep’ independently from each other)

8) to really understand the intensity of integrity and the high standard of concentration, purity, and formulation of SUNRIDER products such as Calli, be SURE to order the COMPANY PROFILE booklet with your next order. it convincingly demonstrates the superior quality of the best whole foods on the planet! it’s item # is:

#574101

coach ilg

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Dear Coach,

Thank you for sharing in DIRECT LINES. I learn a great deal about how much i need to learn when you share what is going on with ‘others’. I am intrigued how it oh so often relates to something that i am dealing with in the moment. Impeccable timing.

Sending Light so bright,

it makes the shadows,

a shadow.

cheers,

heikosan

Heiko –

in-deed the miracle of humanity grows ever more magic, more mystic, more profound Real with each passing release of tension from our fibers and with each exhale from rebellion and restriction of mind and body…

our Students teach us

our Neighbors teach us

our Teachers teach us

our Circumstances teach us

our Workouts teach us

toward Love and Higher Light

tis a feeble ilg indeed

who has fallen into your Path of Awakening…

but i am devoted endlessly to you…

namaste,

ilg