A. We are assuming that they are not going to have any relationship with their energy configurations whatsoever. The program is built from the ground up. Pretty much the entire first month is targeted toward feeling what they are feeling but from a new perspective – the feelings that they are having, the sensation, is energy moving. Emotion is energy in motion. People who have studied yoga or meditation will have it a bit easier but we are coming at it from a new direction, a concise foundational approach that interweaves energy into everything that they do in their lives; their relationships, exercise, career, creativity, the basics of their personality. They will develop an understanding of how everything is connected and how they can direct and enliven their actions to keep themselves centered, balanced and vital.

A. Yoga in this country is done as primarily a physical practice and as a way to relieve stress. That is a generalization, but generally true. Our program takes movement and stress relief and makes conscious movement something they will do as a way of being instead of just for the 60 or 90 minutes, two or three times a week that they are in yoga class. The tools we offer will become the way they live their life. It will be a place where they will consciously metabolize the energy in their environment and no longer take things on as stress, overwhelm or frustration. They will learn to use energy as fuel to get stuff done.

Q. So this is a complement to your yoga practice?

A. Yeah, this program will completely change your relationship with your yoga practice. If you are doing yoga because you are so stressed out and you have so much stress in your job, and then you do yoga and then you feel better and then you go back to work and get stressed again, so you go back to yoga to maintain an equalibrium. That is a very short cycle. This program will help put you on a growth trajectory. You will get to yoga feeling great and your yoga practice will become an opportunity to expand and grow. It will become a place to increase the momentum. Yoga will also become an opportunity to experience the energetics of the movements. You will feel your yoga practice internally instead of just mirroring a teacher or trying to achieve some physical or postural ideal. It is not about the pose or the posture, it is really about your way of being. In the later layers we get into the idea of fluidity. This program will bring a huge amount of fluidity into your life which will translate into your yoga practice as grace, effortlessness and passion.

A. This will be accessible to everyone that is willing to endure some healthy discomfort and who is determined to change, grow and succeed. There are a lot of physical challenges but the challenges will be based on where individuals are, not some detailed model. It will be about finding and moving at their current edges. The program will give tons of opportunity to explore and play with healthy edges. If you are comfortable; you are not growing. To grow, you have to be in the healthy discomfort zone. You will feel your edges not only in the physical but also in  the mental and emotional ranges. We will challenge your patterns, your beliefs and those aspects of your personality that limit you.

A. Yeah, and that’s probably the other underlying part of our foundation; you’re going to become your own guru because your cues for your actions, intentions and trajectories are going to be internal and not external. You are going to be active instead of reactive. You are going to gradually devalue the opinion of everyone and everything in your environment and move from a very centered place of what is really, really important to you.

Q. Also known as the place of true power!

A. Yes! And that’s Fluidity. If we are being completely fluid, it doesn’t matter what’s going on in our environment, what people think, who is sick, how we are feeling, whether or not we are tired. We have an intention and determination and we are going to happily move forward, loving what we are doing and nothing else matters. And it will be incredibly easy to get rid of, 86, all of the things in our lives that don’t serve us.

A. It can be likened to the surge we feel at a major sports event, concert or even watching a great movie in a packed theatre. The energy of the group compounds and has a much greater effect/affect than what we would feel solo. The group healings will help us to help create a mutually beneficial shared intention and a stronger foundation for the entire group. They will help us to build and sustain momentum, to improve our lives and our way of being.

Q. Is this something the participants will feel? Will they know you are working on them?

A. Eventually. This program will increase their subtle awarenesss; the ability to feel their energy, the energy of their environment and the people in it. As they build that “muscle,” they will absolutely, positively, feel it.

A. The growth that will come from this will come from having a playful curiosity, exploring, being passionately curious and introspective. All of it is going to bring about fluidity. It is going to loosen tension, help them let go of their overwhelm and they will have a completely different relationship with stress. They will become less goal oriented and focus more on trajectories which will help eliminate the ceiling they create for themselves with their limiting beliefs and patterns. For some people, this can easily be a “Personality-ectomy.” A way for them to drastically change their way of being and become someone that they love, admire and have affection for.

Q. Another question I have and I’m going to go back to the serious vs. playful question because I’ve seen it in the personal development and coaching world, “This is serious business and we people that do this work are serious and we don’t joke about it” and one of the things I know is that you are are pretty playful. Tell me about playfulness and the value of play in the realm of self-growth.

A. I think anytime we are not playful or completely playful we are some level of fearful, defended or resistant. If we are completely playful, there is not really any room to be fearful, worrisome or tense. Maintaining a playful intention, atmosphere and trajectory ensures that we are open for growth, open for new ideas, paradigm shifts and new ways of being. Every workshop, retreat or seminar that I have ever been to that doesn’t have that atmosphere of playfulness ends up having a sense of fearfulness; ”Am I good enough, am I doing this right, am I in over my head, will this work for me?“ Playfulness gives us a license to be ourselves, to exist comfortably where we are. By making this a movement based system, we have made the movement, physical and energetic, the center and if you do the movement your life will change from the inside out. Playfulness removes the resistance to move, to try something new, to have new and different experiences. You can’t get there without letting go. Playful movement works better than anything I have ever tried or experienced to help metabolize change and stimulate growth. And not just grow but grow in leaps and bounds.

Challenging yourself and being determined don’t have to be serious. When I am out doing something challenging physically, I am grateful for the opportunity to test myself. I am celebrating and joyful the entire time. You notice I haven’t said anything about relaxation because the model society has given us is to do nothing or to do something at a reduced effort. For me, its much more about being big, being playful and I want to be loud, all of the time, even when I am sitting quietly in meditation. I am seeing how much energy I can move. I am alwyas feeling for ways to charge and rejuvenate my system.

And honestly, I really can’t think of anything where I have to be serious to be effective. I beleive that is a fallacy put forward by martyrs and passively aggressive people too afraid to be playful.