As you might have guessed, I am a big-picture-first kind of learner. It is hard for me devote energy towards a future path or a current activity for which I cannot answer the question, “Why?” As a yogi, that is often one of the first questions we ask to help ourselves choose how to live more in harmony with our truest nature, asking, “Who am I? Why am I here?”
Why do I do what I do?
For the last three decades, I had a clear answer: having a wife and kids gave me a clear answer anytime there was a question as to how to proceed in my life.
In 1997, I resigned from a partnership in a consulting engineering firm in New York to marry Jo and become a step-father to Alex and Natalie.
In 2003, I resigned from my role as a manager in the Mount Snow Ski and Ride School when the kids needed schooling that was no longer available in their local community. We eventually moved here to Manchester exclusively for the kids’ schooling.
In 2007, I resigned from my role as a branch manager of a Burlington-based engineering company so that I could devote more time to Jo’s care.
Again and again, I resigned from leadership positions at ski areas (Adaptive Sports Foundation, Stratton) so that I could support Jo’s health and wellness needs.
From 2013 -2023, I also focused on my mother’s care.
It was always family-first… do whatever I needed to do to support the needs of my family. I have no regrets; these times were quite remarkable and enlightening. I learned so much. I had the time of my life, learning from living a full life.
There was always a clear answer to the question, “Why?”
Nowadays, without family priorities anymore, the “Why?” is less clear. For the first time perhaps in my whole life, my focus has been on asking this question over and over, and listening deeply. I am allowing the time to let my intuition guide me. And, as we know, we need to give ourselves quietude in order to hear the quiet guidance of our intuition. So, I have given myself time to focus on me and my own needs, whatever they might be. It’s a whole new paradigm for me.
I love what I do. I am so fortunate that our private lives led Jo and me to the healing powers of yoga. I am so fortunate to have found my natural gifts to teach, to coach, to heal, and to help guide others towards a more heart-centered, stronger, and more meaningful way of being. I am so blessed to be able to look at my life now with a perspective of newness and creative freedom, even as I have been blessed with an inspiring, long-standing clientele to build upon.
For my students, the “Why?” is usually about getting stronger so that they can perform longer and more effectively in life, more pain-free, or with a healthier and happier life perspective. It is about integrating the stretching aspects of yoga, the strengthening aspects of physical training, and the life-enhancing aspects of shared life experience, modern science, and ancient wisdom.
For me, the “Why?” is evolving as I listen more deeply to my own intuition and to the guidance of all that is sacred around me, but there is definitely a heart-centered aspect of my being that longs to be expressed more freely and more powerfully, and a deep desire to move this world towards a more compassionate and conscious existence. I am a teacher, yes. But I am also a healer, a visionary, and a warrior at heart. And this warrior needs a new, or at least re-invigorated, mission!
My gift is to provide a safe, stable, and compassionate place for people to freely be themselves, to learn to heal, and to feel empowered in heartfelt ways to live a stronger, more responsible, and more meaningfully intentional lives. It is about seeking our higher potential together by maintaining a positive perspective towards possibility. And it is about having long-term, experientially-educational relationships with my students… relationships that are mutually inspiring, relationships that allow me to express my caring nature through my presence and my elder-wisdom, relationships that offer a kinder, more cooperative way forward for our world. For me, there is definitely a more worldly component to the, “Why?”
Moving forward, and in order to allow the “Why?” to keep evolving, I’d like to expand my work and the scope of my reach in the following ways:
(1) Write a weekly educational journal article, focusing on the different paths and practices of bringing yoga to life in heart-centered, insightful, and powerful ways. Or, simply, integrating practices which help ourselves open up, let go, get stronger, and live longer, more satisfying lives.
(2) Lead group-circles of wisdom-seekers and way-finders, online and in-person, perhaps on a donation-basis, to continue to challenge and expand our perspectives and elevate our consciousness. I’d also like to include more Bhakti into my emotionally heart-opening yoga teachings.
(3) Lead classes and workshops for those with athletic bodies, especially those with mountain sports backgrounds, that are designed to introduce the benefits of yoga to their performance and longevity training programs. These workshops would build upon my “The Way of The Humble Warrior” programs which integrate: indigenous teachings of the Four-Directions; elemental and energetic principles; yoga philosophy and practices (energizing and restorative in nature), and functional strength training.
(4) Continue to lead transformational retreats outside in nature, and prioritize long-term personal coaching clients, online and in-person. It is my hope that the first 3 priorities will feed the personal coaching work.
(5) I will also be looking for ways to re-engage in service work and perhaps also mountain sports work.
What do you think? Do you have suggestions for me? For you, Why am I here? Please feel free to contact me with your comments. I’d appreciate hearing from you. Sometimes, your comments and reflections help me see myself more clearly! Thanks!