Lessons From Yoga: Gadgets and Gasoline (by Joe)

DISCLAIMER:

Reader be warned, the following was NOT written by Kristin, it was written by Joe. Kristin bases her writing on sound research and thoughtful reading. Joe does not. Kristin is smarter, better-looking, and now, faster than Joe. Take the following ideas with a grain of salt.

Gadgets and Gasoline

Step on the gas, crank the throttle, feel the train rock on the track, make sure your tray-tables and seats are in the upright position, download the Uber app, change the channel, Google the name of that actress, put the chairlift bar down, don’t get sucked into the escalator, put on your seatbelt, don’t walk if you can drive, don’t drive if you can fly, don’t fly commercial if you can buy yourself a private jet.

I have the following conversation annually with one or more students:

“Wait, Mr. B, you rode your bike to work?”

“Yeah”.

They don’t say it, but their expression asks, “why would you ride a bike when you’re old enough to drive a car?”

Middle School 1994

I started running competitively during middle school. I was 12 years old and cross country running was the first activity of the year. I was fast. I didn’t know I would be a good runner, but I was. I won races. Although I remember parts of those middle school races clearly, the lasting lesson was something unexpected.

When our bodies begin to work at high intensities, our vital organs are put under duress. Our heart rates increase and our cardiovascular system struggles to keep up with the demand for oxygen. Breathing hard for an extended period was a revelation for my 12 year old self. I had competed in other sporting activities, but most were fairly idle affairs, with punctuated bursts of energy and adrenaline.

Running for 25-30 minutes at my quickest speed blew all other concepts of ‘exercise’ away. And it was in this state of euphoria that I first began connecting my movements with my breath. Two steps to every inhale, two steps to every exhale. A rhythm was formed and I would drift along with its beat, forgetting superfluous thoughts, meditating on the task at hand.

What did I learn in Middle School? The connection between breathing and movement. Also, how to awkwardly express my sense of fashion, what it feels like to get hit in the mouth when you have braces, and how to sneak out of your friend’s house in the middle of the night to meet up with girls, only to get lost because you never knew in the first place where the girls actually lived.

For some reason (probably something to do with girls), I stopped running competitively in high school. I returned to those zero-sum sporting events (baseball) and even tried my hand at football, the American version, where the ball is hardly touched by the feet of the athletes. Luckily, during my final year in high school I joined the cross country running team. It was a great experience for many reasons, but mainly because I returned to a movement that reinforced awareness of my breathing. I never again made the mistake of giving up running, and this single activity, in hindsight, has driven the psychological and geographical direction of my life.

Exercise doesn’t make you happy, seriously.

Did you know that the Aboriginal Australians walk hundreds, sometimes thousands of kilometers on spiritual and rite of passage quests? The Australian landscape affords isolation, and it was into this isolation that my friend Matt Church and I entered by way of the Bibbulmun Track.

The ‘Bib’ track, or trail, runs roughly 1000 kilometers (600-700 miles), from the city of Perth to the town of Albany, crossing rainy forests, snake-filled swamps, beautiful beaches, and plenty of farming land. Although the details of this journey are hilarious, they are not the focus. Rather the question I want to ask is how and why did I end up on this very long walkabout?

The same questions can be asked about the time I spent in Africa on a mountain bike riding 100 kilometers a day, for three days. Or the trip to Nepal to ski the Himalayas (refer to earlier blog post). Why do I enjoy living in a place where we have 7 months of winter? Who would want to endure a footrace covering 10,000 feet of climbing and 15 miles, in four-and-a-half hours, and still finish behind his wife? Why ride a bike to work? Why get onto my yoga mat? Why climb so many hillsides, ridges, and mountains in summer heat and winter snow? What is the point?

Well, it’s not to lose weight or to ‘stay fit’, although those benefits come with the territory. It is not about exercise after all, it’s about movement.

Am I smarter than a middle school student?

The human body is designed to move, but we as a culture are doing less movement than ever before. Step on an accelerator, thumb the throttle, visit dozens of websites, call a cab, but don’t, for crying out loud, employ your body’s natural predisposition to movement. Why would you when you don’t have to?

When grandpa was a boy he walked to school, five miles one way, rain, snow, or shine. The way I see it, this cliche is not about toughness, it’s about satisfaction. Grandpa was happier for his movement.

A moving body is a healthy mind. As a 12 year old, I only caught a glimpse of this concept. Now, in my 40th year, I realize this mantra has guided my life choices, sometimes on purpose, but most times inadvertently. So yeah, I am smarter than my middle school-self because now I am fully aware that physical movement slows down my mind. You know that incessant chatter? The voice inside your head, and my head? Physical movement allows us to calm that voice, observe it in stillness, and cut the irrationality and fear from it.

Use Technology at your Own Risk

I don’t want to seem like an antiquated old man bent on telling everybody how things should be. Heck, I have circumnavigated the globe riding a jet plane, and it was awesome. Planes, trains and automobiles have afforded me access to physical endeavors that otherwise would permanently remain beyond my grasp. I am no different than anyone else in the 21st century in my appreciation for our technologically advanced modes of transportation.

I am however, weary of the breakneck speed at which we are collectively moving. I can drive to work for weeks at a time, never noticing the smell of the flowers growing along the roadside. While riding my bike down the Parks Highway this summer I saw a black bear wandering through a meadow. I waved my arms and pointed at the bear when a car approached, but they looked at me funny and continued on their way at 80 miles an hour. What else are we missing by moving at such high speeds?

I don’t think I am going to start yelling at everybody to “slow down!”, although I am tempted to, which means I must be getting old. It seems easier to smile and wave at the passing cars. What they don’t know can’t hurt them right? Anyway, a word of warning might suffice. Maybe some more subjective road signs. Instead of “35 miles per hour”, perhaps the sign should say “Stop and Smell the Roses, please”.

Our obsession with all types of technological advancement does have drawbacks. Example:

While watching Tik Tak videos I miss the hummingbird at the hanging flower basket right outside my window. So what? It’s just a hummingbird, I tell myself. The appreciation is lost for the 5000 mile migration that little animal just completed, only to end up 10 feet from my face. What did the hummingbird see in its journey? How difficult it must have been. But there is no time for that contemplation because the infinity scroll draws me back in. Shoot, it never let me go. I didn’t even notice the hummingbird in the first place.

Be weary of technology. It can cast shadows on the wall that seem so real. A bit of a double-edged sword, considering the source of transmission for this blog. I like to think Ray Bradbury would agree. With so much information available at our fingertips, and such high speeds of travel occurring with such ease, it is difficult to distinguish between what is real and what isn’t. Without the right knowledge, our minds get flooded with thoughts that may be irrelevant, untrue, and unreliable. It’s a challenge to see the forest through the trees. So what can be done to remedy our ignorance?

Try This Sometime

I like backpacking because it forces me to slow down my pace of living and simplify my focus. If you have never tried walking somewhere and then camping, I think you should. This form of human movement might be one of the oldest and like a fine single-malt scotch, it has only gotten better with age. When I return from one of these trips I find that the 24-hour-news-cycle is still pumping out information, but nothing groundbreaking has actually happened.

Camping in the woods with bears not your thing? That’s fine. Take a walk and leave your phone or Apple watch at home. Bring the dog. Look out for fast moving vehicles, maybe wave and smile, and take this time to observe your thoughts as well. What’s relevant? What can be cut? What’s growing by the road at this time of year?

If dodging fast-moving, aggressive pick-up trucks is not your cup of tea, get onto a yoga mat, or the floor, and move through some stretches. Can’t remember the last time you tried to touch your toes? That’s okay, just focus on your breathing while your hamstrings and lower back are feeling the pain.

Generally speaking, try to move under your own power, focus on your breathing while you do so, and observe where your mind wanders too. Slow down the need for speed and information. Go back to basics, I guarantee you will enjoy the experience, eventually. Keep in mind that we as a culture have been finely conditioned to avoid moving under our own power. I constantly fight the urge to stay on my couch and visit beaches in faraway places via Youtube. Movement is a practice, which is good, because the pressure is off. Just show up, tie your shoes, grease the chain, wax your skis, unroll your mat, and allow your body to do what it was designed to do.

Gold Top Guitar and a Stripper Girlfriend

Ray Wylie Hubbard wrote a song called “Mother Blues”. Here’s the link, you should listen to it; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IigSuEgi3y8. Anyways, Ray Wylie says “the days that I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, Ah! Well, I have really good days”.

I heard this song probably 10 years ago and that lyric has stuck with me since. The best way to show gratitude for our body is to use it, and by using our bodies we remind ourselves to be grateful. But this isn’t a ‘hashtag-grateful’ moment, speeding by on a screen, next to a picture of me with skis on. This is 10 years of reminding myself to check my expectations, and 28 years of running, skiing, biking, and hiking, and it’s all still ‘under construction’.

There is no quick remedy for mental apprehension. There is no speedy way to eliminate anxiety or depression. A fast-fix for feeling inadequate? It doesn’t exist. If someone suggests taking a pill, don’t trust them. We are a culture obsessed with speed of information and transportation, but for all our busyness we seem only to be getting angrier and more unsatisfied.

I can only offer my limited advice, take it or leave it; slow down by moving under your own power. Leave the gadgets and the gasoline out of it. Like I said, this method takes time. If you have the patience, you probably already benefit from a similar philosophy.

Thanks for taking the time to read Kristin’s Blog “A Love of Yoga”. Please leave a comment below and let her know what you think about the Blog!