The video is out.

Wow.  It's exciting and frightening all at once.  I did not really think of myself as someone who would get spread all over the internet, but there it is.

Here's the link:

http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3dhdGNoP3Y9c3VUUG5zNWN5X1E=

I like being in front of a classroom; I'm not too crazy about being up on a stage, especially one this big.

But, I take comfort in the simple reality that it's not about me.  Even though it's about YRG, it's really about something very much deeper than that.   It's about THE IDEA.

THE IDEA:

     You can retake control of your life; no matter what has happened to you.  It's not how many times you fall that matters; what really matters is how many times you get back up.  There is incredible power in goal setting, decision making, and reinvention.  Failure is not an option.  There is so much more to it than just this, but it is all summed up in three words:

     OWN YOUR LIFE

     It's not just a slogan.  It's what I believe.  This idea - THE IDEA that made it all possible - has the ability to change lives.  It has changed my life - more than that - it saved my life, gave me back my life, whatever words you want to put on it, it's true.  It has changed the lives of many other people. 

I am confident that it will change more lives.

STAY STRONG!!!!!

Saturday, February 23, 2008 If you go to the YRG Website (YRGWORKOUTLLC.COM) look at the "Do YRG Live!" link, you'll see me under Baltimore MD. Who would have thought it?? I was worried - just a little bit. I don't know exactly why. I am a TEACHER,  after all. It's what I do for a living; I TEACH. I love teaching. I'd rather teach than do anything else for a living. It's a pain in  the butt a lot of the time. Long hours, lots of paperwork, low pay, little respect  from students and parents, etc . . . but, there are those moments. When a  lesson plan goes right, when you finally reach that one student who just has  been unwilling to learn, it's a special feeling - you just get jazzed. That good  feeling stays with you for a long time. Like I said, I love teaching. So, why was I so worried? I was prepared. I spent a good amount of time going over the details, the sequence, the dialogue, accommodations and  modifications, timing. I even spent a looooong time going over the playlist (mostly Stevie Ray Vaughn and Los Lonely Boys, with one Bob Seeger cut in  the middle to let me know when I was half way). I knew that I did not want to  disappoint. I wanted to uphold 'my lineage,' so to speak. In simple words, I wanted to  make sure that I did not let YRG and DDP down. These are great teachings, but was I a worthy teacher? Thursday night was the first class. Dallas asked me to call him before then. I  called him that afternoon, and he gave me a lot of pointers, fine tuning. He also  told me just to go with my gut. So, I relaxed. I felt a lot better. The first class was all ladies. Well, I went in with the plan to do a total body  workout, with an emphasis on core work and work on the lower back. I did  that. We started with an explaination of engaging the muscles and what YRG is.  I covered breathing, and went on from there. Most of the ladies had taken  Yoga classes before, but they were game for a new experience. They were  giving it their best, and were engaged to the point where they were trembling. I  reminded them that 'trembling is good - it just means you're turning on muscles  that haven't been turned on in a long time.' It was a good workout. I had my eye on the clock. We had to be done right on the mark for they next group to come in and use the room. It went well. As I  left, I thought about things I would have liked to have done if I'd had more time.  On the other hand, If I had done that, I would have ended up running close to  two hours, when I was only allotted one. So, I'll work those things into my next  class. My next class. What a thought. I can hardly wait. In a couple of weeks,  I'll be doing two classes a week. I was Jazzed all the way home. STAY STRONG!!! Sangey Dorje

It's been one year.

A year ago, I was waiting to die.

That sounds melodramatic, but it's true. I looked at myself - a disabled veteran who couldn't walk without crutches. I knew that I was dangerously unhealthy. I needed mechanical braces on my legs and back. I had a hard time even breathing. I knew it; I just did not think I could do anything about it. I was a major candidate for a heart attack or a stroke. My doctors knew it, too. They were just too polite to tell me to my face. We all knew, but we all decided to ignore the obvious. I was over 300 pounds - much more than 100 pounds overweight. I had tried to lose the weight several times, but each time I had failed.

That was when I talked with Dallas Page for the first time. I had seen Smokey on the website - a man who had a work schedule just as insane as mine, but he'd lost a lot of weight doing YRG. I thought, if he can do this, maybe I can too. Dallas made me look at myself. I did not like what I saw. He showed me that I was placing food over family. I was acting in a way that showed my wife and children that I valued my junk food more than I valued the years that I would not be spending with them. Dallas made me see that I was not living in a way that matched my values.

Without him saying it, he made me look at the things I had done to my family. I saw the times I had been too weak or too tired to play with my boys. I saw all the things I had never done for them or for my wife. He made me see that I had become afraid of trying to fix myself, that I had relinquished control of my life to a disability and to food. I did not like what I saw. I did not like who I had become.

That was when I said "I can do this."

Those were four very frightening words. I was not going to give myself a way out. To borrow a trite phrase, "No Retreat, No Surrender." I was going back to war - - only this time, my enemy was my own weakness. I was going to give it one more try. I remember laying in bed next to my wife and I said that if this didn't work, I knew that I would never have the will to try again. I was more than scared - I was downright terrified. I did not want my boys to see me fail. I think I feared that more than death. I knew it would be all or nothing.

I remembered a site on the web called 'fat man walking,' which followed a man trying to walk all over the place to lose weight. I decided to do the same thing. That way, if I backslid, people would get on me and keep me honest. That was why I started posting all the videos and the pictures. I started getting up early in the morning to work out with the DVD. I fell down - a lot - more than a lot. I made it a point that I would always try to get back up faster than I fell, and that unless I was hurt, I'd never stay down for more than a three count. I used it as a teaching point with my boys - that you don't fail when you fall, you fail if you don't get back up. I followed the eating plan religiously. I even carried a copy around with me everywhere I went. (I still do.) I listened to the "Own Your Life" CD so many times that I think I may have memorized parts of it. I still keep it in the CD player in my car.

Thirty days in, at my first month's weigh in I was shocked to see how much weight I lost. DDP was there with me (on the phone, on the web, -but most of all - in spirit) and we celebrated that victory. With each month, I became more of the man I used to be. Six months in, I had lost 100 pounds. Summer school was starting, and I was proud that I was getting around with no braces, using only my canes.

Dallas challenged me. He said I should set a goal to get rid of the canes by the beginning of the school year. Again, I was scared. But it wasn't like before. I knew this time that I could do it. I remember hearing a line when I was in the Army: "Success is not an accident - success is a habit." It was a habit that I had fallen out of, but Dallas Page got me back into it. When the students came back in August, on that first day, I was there to meet the busses on my own two feet. Since then, I have gotten stronger, faster, and I continued to lose weight. I decided to stabilize my weight at 160 pounds. It sounds strange, but I have to worry nowadays about losing too much weight. I am still a little unsteady on my feet. I still fall down sometimes, especially when I have to run.

Run.

I can run.

I am still disabled. I still need hand controls to drive, although I hope that someday they will join the braces and crutches on the junkpile. There is no way I can ever even begin to thank Dallas and all of you for the friendship and support that has helped me turn my life around.

One year.

All in one year.

One year ago, I said "I can do this."

One year ago, I changed my life.  

So can you.

Never quit!!!

I love yoga!!!!

 

Miscellaneous quotes from The Essential Rumi , translated by Coleman Barks

Iron Man by Ozzy Osbourne

Has he lost his mind?
Can he see or is he blind?
Can he walk at all,
Or if he moves will he fall?
Is he alive or dead?
Has he thoughts within his head?
Well just pass him there
Why should we even care?

He was turned to steel
In the great magnetic field
Where he traveled time
For the future of mankind

Nobody wants him
He just stares at the world
Planning his vengeance
That he will soon unfold

Now the time is here
For iron man to spread fear
Vengeance from the grave
Kills the people he once saved

Nobody wants him
They just turn their heads
Nobody helps him
Now he has his revenge

Heavy boots of lead
Fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can
Iron man lives again!

I've been playing with a Road Warrior sequence.  It goes something like this:
3 leg dog into lunge  into virabadrasana 1, 2, revolve 2, reverse 2, ardha chancrasana, reverse, warrior 3, 3 leg dog, down dog, plank, chattarunga dandasana, cobra, plank, down dog, 3 leg dog on other side, repeat on other side. 

Still not quite there yet.

Well, I've been spending some time lately reading Rumi and a book on Yoga for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Neurodiverse Populations).  Tonight, the weather was pretty crappy, and I did not want to fight the bad weather and the Friday rush hour  so I stayed home and did my own yoga for a couple of hours. 

Sometimes, Yoga teachers start with a short quote from some good yoga-related text: 
Yoga Sutras,          Upanishads
Bhagavad Gita      The poetry of Rumi
     or something else.

I started out by reading a little bit from Rumi, and working silently.  I turned on the CD player, and the first part was Deva Premal (60+ minutes of the Gyatri Mantra).  After that came the Greatest Hits of Black Sabbath (1970-1978 - The Ozzy Years). 

Rather than stop and change it, I worked to it. 

At first, I looked at it as "something to transcend" - you know, something to put up with.

An opportunity to practice equanimity.

What crap.

As I worked, I noticed I really began to push harder and deeper into the positions with greater engagement.

What a fool I can be sometimes!!

Instead of saying "I can put up with this - I can suffer through, I can endure,"  I should have been looking for the joy in it.

Because it was right there waiting for me.

It's like the man says - no ordinary moments.
============================================

There is a community of the spirit.

Join it and feel the delight

Of walking in the noisy street

and being the noise.

When I'm with some of my classmates, or my friends and spiritual family at the ashram

I feel a giddy happiness.  It bothered me at first, but I came to understand that it is because we all share the same simple joy of yoga.

Don't go to sleep one night

What you want most will come to you then.

Warmed by a sun inside, you'll see wonders

Tonight, don't put your head down,

Be tough and strength will come . . .

Some nights stay up till dawn,

As the moon sometimes does for the sun.

Be a full bucket pulled up the dark way

Of a well, then lifted out into the light.

Three verses in praise of the simple joy of insomnia.

Dance, when you're broken open.

Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.

Dance in the middle of the fighting.

Dance in your blood.

Dance, when you're perfectly free.

Sometimes, I just practice YRG/yoga in a flowing made-up sequence.  Listening to my 'inner guru,' I work on what feels like it needs work.  I take it easy or push based on what my body tells me.  Somedays, I push really hard, and other days I'm lazy.  More the former than the latter.  Doing yoga like that is like dancing with the whole universe as my partner.

It's the dance that makes me happy. 

I don't need a whole bunch of expensive stuff to be happy.  I used to think a lot about taking a trip to Tibet.  I would often think that Getting to Tibet was the secret to enlightenment. 

If only I could get there  . . . . . . . . . .

Nope.  Not gonna do it . . . .

Seriously, if enlightenment depends on having the $$ for a plane ticket, then it might not be all it's cracked up to be.  If I cannot do it here, what makes me think that I'll be able to do it there???

Humble living does not diminish.  It fills

Going back to a simpler self gives wisdom.

Nope, no ordinary moments.

Stay Strong!!

Sangey Dorje

I finished my RYT 200 hours today.  All that's left is the paper I'm writing on Yoga and Neurodiversity.  It was raining on the rive home.   I suppose I'm happy, but I'm also a little bummed that it's over.  This song was in my head and wouldn't leave me alone. 

"Love is why I came here in the first place
Love is now the reason I must go
Love is all I ever hoped to find here
Love is still the only dream I know . . . "

- Seasons of the Heart, John Denver.





I also love the people in front of them.

Kim Manfredi of Charm City Yoga.  Great teacher and wonderful person.

Here are some of the links again

Charm city yoga

Inspired the Movie Trailer on Youtube

 

Well, I should start this with a MAJOR apology.  It has been several months since last I posted.  I've been lurking, and responding to emails (some of them - sorry).

SO, what have I been doing -

how I spent my summer

I've done a lot of YRG and Yoga this summer.  I also worked at summer school as an administrator.  I'm now an assistant principal at an Alternative/Evening High School.  I still work during the day as a special educator. 

I think sometimes that I'd like to move to administration on a more permanent basis, but there are also times when I just love being a special educator so much that I will do it till I die. 

As you know, I'm a student of Diamond Dallas Page, former TV Wrestler and now serious power yogi.  He created the style of yoga called YRG (Yoga for Regular Guys)  It would be an incredible understatement to say that this has helped me.  It has quite literally saved my life. 

For more info on my progress with YRG, check this page in DDP's website.

At his recommendation, I attended a yoga teacher's training (RYT200) course.  I am almost finished with the course.  I am actually considering the 500 hour course that's being offered in the spring. 

I do a lot of yoga (mostly hot vinyasa) at a studio in Baltimore MD called Charm City Yoga.

The teacher training was a lot of work.  It was a lot of studying and reading, as well as a lot of practice and a lot of yoga.  I learned a lot of stuff.  Some of it was 'crunchy granola,' but a lot of it was very useful stuff.

We had a residential weekend.  It was a wonderful experience.  I've been on a good number of Buddhist retreats.  They were all very regimented.  This was different.  Far less structure, but more time for introspection, private prayer and 'noble silence.' 

It was a great time.

One more thing - I've beren asked to be in a documentary,  it's not a big deal, but I'm very proud of it.  Here's the link to the trailer.  Here's the link to the website.

So, I've been pretty busy lately.  I'll try to be better about posting more often.

STAY STRONG!!

Sangey Dorje

1.  A silent Vinyasa

2.  a 19 second headstand
I WILL WALK AGAIN
 - - AND SOON!!!

Be compassionate and be well

Sangey Dorje

Here are the results for my 5th month of YRG:

 

	Feb 9 2007	Mar 9	Apr 8	May 5	June 5	July 8	Total Change
Waist	50.5 inches	46.5	45	43.5	41.5	39	11.5
Chest	51.5 inches	49.5	48	44.5	45	44	5.5
Shoulders	55 inches	55	53	52	51.5	50	5
Neck	17.5 inches	17	16.25	15.5	15.5	15.25	2.25
Biceps	19 inches	18	17	16.5	16	15.5	3.5.
Wrist	7.5 inches	7.25	7	7.25	7	7	0.5
Hips	56 inches	54	51	48	48	46	10
Thighs	31 inches	30	29	28.25	27.5	27	4
Knees	20 inches	18	18.5	17/18	17	17.5	---
Calves	18 inches	17.5	17	16/17	17	17.5/18	---
Weight (pounds)	297	263	248	234	222	211	86

  Total inches lost:  42.25 inches

Most of the time, I just put in pictures of  the same positions.  Here are some of the ones I'm working on right now . . .

This is hard for me.  Many positions that involve balance are still hard for me.  I think it is a combination of core strength and balance.  This one lookis like it's about power, but actually, it's all about balance and grace.  Needs work on those parts, huh?

This one, like most of the others in this entry, are still in the category of "works in progress."
It's worthwhile to show these, because then progress becomes meaningful. 

Another chapter in my ongoing attempt to master Warrior III.  It's coming.

This is an attempt at Lord of the Dance position.  Obviously, I need to keep working on this one  too . . . . .

Even Twinkie the Cat  knows this is in need of a lot of work.  It's supposed to be a one-legged king pigeon (Eka Raja Kapotanasana), but it looks more like do-it-yourself traction.

This one's not too bad, but it's not right yet. 


I actually like this asana.  A lot of times I'll feel my back adjust when I'm doing it. 


Still needs work, but I found that there are different ways of entering this posture, and that makes a lot of difference in how deep I can get with it.  This one's coming along, but it's a matter of both alignment and correct technique as well as effort. 

I am down to lighter braces, and I am only using one cane most of the time right now. 
Every day, with every practice, I am feeling stronger, more stable and more balanced.

I WILL WALK AGAIN - AND SOON

be compassionate and be well

Sangey Dorje