Check Your Ego At The Door/Give Yourself A Base

Check Your Ego At The Door/Give Yourself A Base

 

     During Wednesdays DDP Radio Broadcast, I mentioned that I was going to write a Blog about Ego and how it can get in the way. 

     I was going to make this a light piece on how we can’t rush into things, taking things at the right pace, knowing when you are pushing too hard & when you need to modify.

     Over the past few days, however… this has evolved into something more than that.

     In my opinion, Ego is all about the lack of the right perspective.   This can really be a grey area for a lot of people, depending on where you are at personally.  You can get be so wrapped up in something that you forget to be aware of where you are at.   When that happens, you lose sight of your Goals and what you can actually control. 

     For example, I could say “My goal is to win the Lottery.”  I can go out, read all the books I want on the best ways to choose your numbers, when & where to buy my  tickets, and how many Lucky Items I need to place in the right place in your home.  At the same time, I’m thinking to yourself “This is my time!  I know I’m going to win because I really need to win this right now!  I’ve worked hard and done everything right.  I deserve to win!”  

(Full Disclosure: Yes, I play the Lottery.  Yes, I dream how nice it would be to win the Jackpot and all the people I could help with that money.)

     The problem is that as much effort as I would put into it, I can’t control the numbers that are drawn.  No matter how many times I hop on one foot under a full moon in nothing a feather boa and sparkly tights (which I don’t, just to make that clear!), I can’t affect what numbers are going to come up!

     On the other hand, I can say (and have, by the way) “My goal is to get below 190lbs within a year.”  I can read up on what I need to do, find the best program that works for me (in my case DDP Yoga), change the way I eat, communicate with people that have a similar goal, and challenge myself to make use of this day to get closer to that goal.   If Life takes a turn somewhere along the way, I make the adjustment I need to keep working towards my goal. 

     Some things may come up that I want, but if it doesn’t help accomplish my goal, it’s not high on the my Priority List.   It’s the Goal and what I learn on that journey to get to that goal that’s the most important thing.  That journey may even include times that it looks like I’m competing with other people.  The key word here is “looks like”… because at the end of the day, the only person that I’m really competing with…. is myself.    It’s the same thing as Randori (Free Sparring for Judo & Jujutsu people like me).   When I get on the mat with someone and we start to go at it, I go with the intent to come out on top in the short-term.  However, what I’m really doing is seeing what works and what doesn’t work.  This is not a One Match Fits All sort of thing.  Every situation is going to be different.  Whether I “win” or “lose”  the match, what I gain is the tools to make what I do better.  I can only learn those lessons when you Check My Ego at the Door.  If I get hung up on whether I beat my training partner (notice I didn’t say opponent), I miss my opportunity to learn & grow.

       The other thing to know is that Ego is Bi-Polar.  That is to say, you are either so wrapped up in one detail or lose sight of what your actual goal is, or when you recognize that you mess up, you get so down on yourself that you throw your hands up and walk away.  I see this from people a lot.  Heck, I've been guilty of it myself in lots of things (weight loss, finances, household chores, etc.)  

     The Bottom Line is this:  We are all human.  As such, we are going to fall somewhere along the way.  This goes back to that Emotional Gravity I wrote about earlier.  

    There's another phrase we use in the Dojo: "Stand in Base".  That means when you fall, you lift yourself up, kick your leg out and bring it back to a good strong stance so you don't get knocked down again.  When this happens, there could be many different angles that you have to step to in order to bring yourself back up.  The point here is to get back up so you have good posture & not get knocked back down.    If you already do DDP Yoga, you will recognize the phrase "Give yourself a base" when you're doing Broken Table.  Without having that base, you can't get the posture correct.  

     So... when you fall (and you will), get back up again.  As Dallas has said "I don't care if you fall down 2 or 3 times, 4 or 5 times..... get back up again!"  It is getting back up that is going to make you better, because you are learning how to take control and strengthening the tools you are using to do it!

     This all comes back around to “making it your own”.  No one ever said that this was the Quick Fix or Magic Bullet.  DDP Yoga is not a 30-60-90 program.   As the man himself says “It’s a Lifestyle”.   Page wouldn’t be saying it if he wasn’t living it every day.  I would not be where I am right now if I wasn’t finding something I could do to make myself better.   And guess what… just because I hit my goal weight, doesn’t mean I’m done!  I can still get better.. stronger… more flexible... and more in control.  There’s always someplace to go!  

     If you can Check Your Ego At The Door and Give Yourself A Base (and I know you can!), then you will....

Own This Day!

Trav

101 BANG Salute Observations

101 BANG Salute Observations

                 For the September Warrior in Training Challenge (found in the Groups Section of www.teamddpyoga.com), we had a goal to do 100 BANG Salutes.  For those you that are scratching your head on where to find that on the DDP Yoga DVDs, the short answer is… you won’t.  The BANG Salutes uses a basic set of positions that you know from doing the Diamond Dozen & Energy.  For all of you Traditional Yoga, think of this as a Sun Salutation – DDP Yoga-style!

To break it down, BANG Salutes look something like this:

1.       Ignition

2.       Diamond Cutter

3.       Forward Fold

4.       Down Dog

5.       Plank (or 3-Second Push-Up for the Warrior Modification)

6.       Down Dog

7.       Forward Fold

8.       Diamond Cutter

9.       Repeat at Step 1.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Sounds fairly basic.”  Maybe even too easy, right? 

Well,  you may be right, if it weren’t for a few factors to consider:

1.       Dynamic Resistance:  Everything that we do in DDP Yoga has Dynamic Resistance – making sure that every muscle is engaged.  The longer that you can engage a majority of your muscles, the more your heart rate goes up.  This also means that you are moving deliberately, or as Dallas calls it “like moving through clay”.  With “basic” moves like this, this is an easy thing to do.  The not-so-easy thing is timing the Dynamic Resistance so your heart rate doesn’t go too high. 

2.       Breathing:  Along with Dynamic Resistance and moving deliberately, there is coordinating your breath with each move.  If you’re not taking time to breathe with each movement, you’re not going to get far!

3.       Flow:  Even if you’ve gone through the Basic Workouts, you’ve heard “Keep the Flow going”.  “Flow” means moving from one position to the other.  What you are really looking for here is to have one position set you up for the next one.  If you are not using that Dynamic Resistance to move deliberately and breathing into that position, its tougher to keep the flow going.  (See a pattern here?)

Now… put all of that together, then do 100 of them in a row.  Easy, right?

Sure it is!

The beauty about this series of positions is that they are all easy enough to do, plus they allow to you focus on using these principals and keeping them sustained for a longer period of time.  Overall, they help you make the rest of your DDP Yoga better!

All that being said, here’s how I made this one my own:

1.       This took me 3 attempts to complete.  On the first couple of attempts, I added two positions keep things flowing better.  I added Touchdown in between Ignition and the fist Diamond Cutter.  I also added Up Dog after doing the 3-Second Push-Up.  Both of these, I felt added to the Flow of moving between Positions and maximized their effectiveness.  However, I dropped doing Up Dog on the 3^rd Attempt to make it easier on my arms and to cut down the time.  

2.       I really took advantage of Owning each movement, using as much Dynamic Resistance as I could and focusing on my breath.  Getting my heart rate up to my Fat Burning Zone was easy.  Keeping it from going through the roof was a bit more of a challenge.  My Average Heart Rate for the 2 times I did the BANG Salutes was 142 and 146.  However, according to my Polar Heart Monitor, my Maximum Heart Rate got up to 220.  I don’t know if this was a Monitor issue or my heart was speeding that fast.  None the less, I let my heart rate get back to where it was supposed to before continuing on my merry way. 

3.  According to Sparky (one of the main Moderators in the Warrior in Training group), this whole thing should take around 45 - 50 minutes.  The video that you see above was a little over halfway into it.  The whole thing took 1 Hour 40 Minutes. Now, in case you think my math is off (as the title says 101 BANG Salute), its not.  I did 100, then I did 1 more, but with a 10-Second Push-Up.  I think a lot of that was making sure that (a) everything was in good form & (b) making sure to breathe into and own each position.   The 2nd time I did this (yes, I did 101 BANG Salutes twice) was with Liz Collins over Google Hangout.  That was 1 Hour 49 Minutes (with slight pauses for Tech Adjustments). 

4.  This is not a 1 Towel Workout!  This isn't even a 2 Towel Workout!  Just expect by the time you're done to have 3-4 towels to soak up the pool of sweat around you and to throw your workout clothes in the wash. This workout, as simple as it is, teaches you to leave it all on the mat... which is really the way you should  approach each workout!

The October Challenge is DIY DDP Yoga, where we're "expanding our  library" of workouts  with our own spin.  I would say that this is going to be Black Belt level stuff....

But that's going to be for another Blog!

OWN THIS DAY!

Trav