Category Archives: Yoga

Diabetes, Metaphysical/Spiritual, Yoga

Veterans’ Day

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So…..Today is Veterans’ Day. I appreciate all of you who have served, are serving now, and will serve. My sense of appreciation encompasses your husbands, your wives, your mom, your dad, your children, your extended family, your friends. This weekend is UFC 205. It is a stacked card with 3 title fights. Conor Mcgregor is fighting Alvarez. Big fight with the most bombastic fighter in the “game.” Whether or not you feel you lost or whether you won what is needed right now is to find the athlete within you. For all my friends who have played a sport you know what it is to lose a big game and you know what it feels like to win one too. Politics is a game. I know this because I had the opportunity to study political science and philosophy and religion at the University of Rochester and have continued my inquiry throughout my life. This week is my 40th anniversary of being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. This has been my fight. We all have something….right? Look….we live in a world of duality, at a minimum. You may think you are right and those who disagree with you are wrong. WRONG. It is so ironic that those who embrace relativism are so absolute in their views. The Bhagavad Gita says that humility is the foundational condition necessary to enter the path of enlightenment. Be humble in your confidence, righteousness, judgements, perspective. Inject all of these things with Mercy. If you lose then pick yourself up, allow yourself to be embraced. Make a game plan. If you won then care for your opponent. While it may appear that these fighters are trying to hurt each other just like the fight for the presidency appears like people were destroying each other…..you are right. They want to “submit”, knockout or win a decision. This is the objective of the “game.” But once it happens…….Once the fight is over then it’s over and what is needed is humility, caring, compassion, respect. The Decision has been made. Don’t be a bad winner. If you do that you are an asshole. Don’t be a sore loser. If you do that then you are a victim. The yoga path starts with the Yamas. The first Yama is Ahisma – Non Violence. At a deep level this means to not put distress on another. You might be distressed over the decision. That’s Life! The “isness” of life is that you win some and you lose some. Both the Democratic Party and The Republican Party are now divided. We have just undergone the last stage of a double mitosis in the political landscape in our country, and for that matter, on this planet. It really doesn’t matter what you believe or you don’t believe. Belief is not what is needed right now. The visionaries of today are those who can suspend their disbelief. Watch the video and understand that the UFC is a metaphor for fighting the good fight. I predict the UFC is going to expand and go through a huge growth in the next few years. I am not a huge fan of the sport although I recognize that they are truly the most refined athletes in the world. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a metaphor for how to engage in the game of life. They all have great respect for the Art and each other. There are rules. It is one of the few sports that puts emphasis on following the rules. Those who disregard them are shunned. Golf is the epitome of an integral sport. Other sports encourage stretching the rules or trying to get away with breaking them. The recent political fight was not very integral. Anyone can see that. But, nevertheless, the decision has been made. Our only free will is to either see this moment as a threat or an opportunity. Choose opportunity…….Please. If you stay in fear and feel threatened you will shrink and then strike out in fear. Diabetes is a difficult dis-ease. It is 24/7 and it is dangerous. The root of the word Diabetes is Diablo. The game of life is, ultimately, a spiritual war between The Light and The Dark. The paradox is that one cannot be revealed without the other. It’s a Brave New World. Don’t run away from it or try and abort it. Embrace it. Love it. See it as an opportunity.

Moments of pure sportsmanship between fighters
Beautiful moment of sportsmanship & respect between fighters MMA T-shirts – http://www.frenkel7.com/search?q=MMA
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Diabetes, Metaphysical/Spiritual, Yoga

Now….That is A Yoga Pose!

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I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in November of 1976 at the age of 14.   My biggest desire in life has been and remains to find the root cause and correct it.  Seventeen years ago I was introduced to yoga.

My first yoga class was at a Bikram Yoga Studio in Boca Raton, Florida in November of 1999.  The room is heated to 110 degrees and there are 26 postures that are repeated each class.  I sweated so much I lost 4 lbs during the class.  The postures are designed to “squeeze” the toxins from every aspect of your being; physical, mental and emotional.  Class is over and the 90 degree heat in Boca feels like a cool breeze.  I would go to Bikram yoga classes almost every day for the next 6 years.  Sometimes I would do two classes; “A double.”  In 2002 I had the opportunity to take three months off from work.  I would wake up, go to the 7am class.  Come home, go for a 3 mile run around 1pm and then go to the 4pm class.  I literally, transformed myself.  Bikram began to get old.  The same routine, the heat, the stink….

I decided I wanted to deepen my practice so, in September of 2006, I went to a 200 hour yoga teacher training course at Kripalu in Massachusetts in the Berkshire Mountains.  While Bikram had systemized yoga into a 90 minute “torture chamber” that had tremendous benefit, it was very narrow in its exploration of the “map” of yoga.  Kripalu enlightened me to a much deeper understanding of what yoga is.  The yoga postures; poses; Asana’s are but one aspect of many in the map of yoga.  When I told one of the senior teachers at Kripalu that I had been living with type 1 diabetes since age 14, she said, “Now that is a yoga pose.”  Since 2006 I have continued to practice yoga and even guide some others in the inquiry of yoga.  Yoga is, ultimately, not something you do…….It is, instead a path of inquiry.  As such, it has accelerated my quest to understanding and correcting diabetes.

Metaphysical/Spiritual, Yoga

The Spiritual Path (Part 2); “The Big Picture”

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We have all heard it…the quote that sums it up; the “zen” perspective of how it is; the assumption that brings us to the present moment……”It’s not the destination.  It’s the journey.”  Really?  Life is all about the journey?

Deciding to enter into serious spiritual study is to inquire into the big questions.  How did we get here?  Where did we come from?  Where are we going?  What is the destination?  What is meaningful?  Is there objective truth and morality?  There is no more important path to get on than the spiritual path.  Deciding to enter onto the “path” in search of “The Way” in itself provides direction and becomes the journey.

So what is the big picture?  Is there a main theme or plot to this whole existence thing?  Seeking out, discovering, inquiring into and studying the ancient metaphysical maps one begins to see a common theme…almost like a story where the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning and everything in the middle is the journey.  One understands that the “beginning” or the creation is critical to getting a glimpse of the big picture.

If you have thrown up your hands or you have given up on the concept of Creation…Don’t.  Within the Creation Story is a key ingredient to seeing “The Big Picture.”  Of course, all of this is a bit nebulous and those of you who are yearning for a more concrete discussion here hang in there.  Spiritual inquiry is, by it’s nature, obtuse and can be murky.  It’s kind of like the quantum physics’ concept of changing what is observed simply by observing.

The foundation of the Big Picture has a lot to do with the 3 steps of the path……namely….Beginning – Middle – End.  Now, within that construct we can inquire by using different words and ways of looking.  The “journey” is defined by where we came from and where we are going.  This is one way to look at it.

Here is another way.  Life is an elaborate interplay of Yin and Yang,  Desire and Fulfillment, Receiving and Sharing, Good and evil or, should I say evil and good, negative and positive, Dark and Light.    Where they  meet, where the dance occurs is the middle or the experience of journey.

And here is a third way……..Birth-Growth-Death.   Or, Immaculate Conception – Miracle/Illusion – Resurrection.

The Kabbalists tell us that the reason for the creation of our universe was/is to absolve Bread of Shame.  Bread of Shame is the feeling of unworthiness that emerges when one receives something that he feels is unearned.  This implies that there was something going on prior to the creation of this universe we find ourselves in.  This place, this existence is called “The Endless World.”  The Endless was/is an existence where the interplay or dance between Desire and Fulfillment was/is perfectly orchestrated and immediate.  There was no time or space dimension.  Cause and Effect occurred at the same “time”.  But a problem surfaced that needed attention.  Desire began to feel Bread of Shame.  Desire began to feel that it had not earned its fulfillment and wanted some space and time to do that.  BOOM!  Big Bang and a whole bunch of planets and stars and all that.  Eventually we appear and we seem to have evolved to a consciousness where we can consider all of this.  We came from a perfect connection with “The Light” of Fulfillment (Sound familiar to some of you?  Hint: garden of…) and we are going back to to that perfect connection.  The journey is all about awakening to this “Big Picture” perspective and doing the spiritual work.  And there is a lot to it.  It is not easy.  The more you delve into it the more you realize how much you do not know.  The Spiritual path and spiritual work is all about speeding up the process.  It is not about the journey.  It is about the destination and the creation.  Once this is seen the journey is re-calculated  and the work of unification and peace begins anew.

Part 3 in the works…

Metaphysical/Spiritual, Yoga

Healing

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This is an email I sent to my yoga clients and others:
If you are getting this email then you are on my “yoga” list or I, have or am working with you on a related subject.  I came across this video and I would like to share it with you.  The link is pasted toward the end. Allow me to create some context.
Yoga, from the Sanskrit root “Yuj” gives us our word “union.”  Returning to wholeness, therefore, is the essential meaning of Yoga.  The heart of Yoga lives in realizing the path by which we unite our finite self with Infinite Being.  The vision of Yoga is an unbroken (unceasing) awareness of our oneness with Spirit.  This new level of consciousness evolves through yogic practices aimed at developing an ever-increasing awareness of the various levels of our experience : physical, energetic, emotional, spiritual, and so forth.
Keeping us from experiencing ourselves as truth, bliss and consciousness are obstructions, both obvious and subtle.  These obstructions create disharmony within us and is considered the root cause of our dis-eases.    In response to this alienation from Self, the practice of Yoga assists us in holding these unconscious patterns of obstruction and disturbance up to the light of our awareness.  This is the healing journey; the path to wholeness.
Swami Kripalu described it this way………
“The purpose of Yoga is the attainment of happiness, peace and bliss.  The meaning of
Yoga is the union of individual consciousness with Shiva consciousness; with
God (Source, Creator).  Yoga is the meeting of the drop and the ocean.
The ultimate result of all Yoga is purity of mind and body.”
Ok, with that said, most of you know that I acquired Type 1 Diabetes at age 14.  This dis-ease has been my “cross to bear.”  My deepest desire is to heal it.  It is a very challenging and uncomfortable obstruction to deal with albeit all the medical advancements.  Prior to the invention of injectable insulin in 1922 a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes ended quickly (not quickly enough).  Without insulin the body is not capable of metabolizing food.  Without insulin the body starves and is drained of all water.  My awareness that this life was a path of healing hit my square between the eyes in November of 1976.
I teach Yoga in the context of understanding that we are inquiring into how to become whole; how to heal.  This attitude is the foundation of my passion.  Yoga is but one map that I have studied and engaged in.  Some of the other maps are Vipassana Meditation, Kabbalah, Mystical Christianity, Spiral Dynamics, Integral Theory, Cranio – Sacral Therapy, Light Therapy, Bio-feedback, Acupuncture, Chakra balancing and others similar.  I love having Yoga as the backbone because it is such a dynamic map.
This video is one of the most comprehensive processes I have experienced.  It is 24 minutes. When you have a 1/2 hour find a comfortable place to be. lower the lights, maybe light a candle, wear comfortable clothes. make a cup of tea, put your headphones on, click play and enlarge the screen so you are in full screen mode.  One of my facebook friends posted this and then I checked it out.  The internet and advancements in technology are both mirroring and making possible the evolution in human consciousness that all of us can tap into now.
I teach the yoga classes not so much to teach yoga but rather to find and walk the path of healing.  I think we are about ready to quicken the pace.  As one of my personal mentors often said…..”Let’s gitty up.  Feel free to forward this email to any friends or family that are in need of healing energy.
Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7iLX14ua6k
Michael Mahanger
Coach, Trainer, Meditation Guide & Certified Yoga Teacher
www.choicetimes.com
Diabetes, Yoga

Type 1 Diabetes. “Now that’s a yoga pose.”

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I have been living with Type 1 diabetes since 1976.  I was 14 when diagnosed.

I will spare you the whole story for now.

About five years ago I completed my initial yoga teacher training at Kripalu Yoga Center in the Berkshire Mountains.  After a very profound session with one of the senior yoga teachers, I had the opportunity to speak with her.   I told her I had Type 1 diabetes since I was a kid.  Her verbal response was….”Now that’s a yoga pose.”  Her emotional response was dripping with compassion.  I was immersed in one of the most profound training experiences of my life and being introduced to the deeper aspects of yoga.  I had been practicing yoga for six years prior to going to Kripalu for the month long teacher training course.  My yoga practice had transformed my body and mind.  I saw yoga as a metaphor for what I am tasked to do as a Type 1 Diabetic.  Both yoga and living with diabetes involves issues of restriction, alignment, balance, attention, focus, letting be and manifestation of life force energy (prana).  I did not want so much to be a yoga teacher, instead, I was seeking to deepen my understanding and practice.

Now that’s a yoga pose.