I’m a mechanical engineer. Crazy good in math and science. So my view of things is a bit different. I don’t think things are necessarily good or bad like we tend to label them. Just energy in one expression or another. I think everything, EVERYTHING, gets recycled. Mountains and volcanoes. Rain, clouds, lakes, ice and oceans. Laughs and tears, smiles and frowns. Words and actions. Thoughts and dreams.
In college I studied the bigger thoughts about science. And it’s totally CRAZY interesting how…10 years later, here I am, an employed yoga teacher using my engineering degree more than I ever have. WOOT!!!! And revisiting all the thoughts presented to me in those crazy classes. Just crazy awesome. Anyway. (I might type “crazy” just a couple more times before I’m done.)
This has been on my mind for awhile. When I rested on “YES, I’m training for a 1/2 Ironman“, I asked myself MANY MANY MANY times…WHY WHY WHY? So the rest of this is why. If you get it… I hope so.
I want to be powerful. I want softness. I want wisdom. I want to find the balance that I CAN ACHIEVE. I believe all of these things fit into the equation of personal power.
So for me…those limits are different than others, I push myself in different ways. Learning the same things. I want to move through this challenge from the heart. To travel through consciously and always having fun. Finding lessons along the way. Learning to honor myself, love myself, take care of myself, learning to keep the ego at bay. It’s yogic.
I can’t help but get back to this “power” idea. This poor word… power. It’s inherited some bad flack. (EGO + POWER = ???)
Power: without it, NOTHING HAPPENS. It’s just want it is. The ability to do something, with a couple of systems to define it. Electrical, mechanical…It’s what gets you off the couch. Gets that car moving when you push the gas pedal down. Gets you into that situation that that isn’t all that great. Takes power to have courage. Power to get to you to the next crossroad. Overcome the obstacle. Takes power to push through to the next cycle.
Definition of power
1. Capacity to do something: the ability, strength, and capacity to do something
2. In physics, power is the rate at which energy is transferred, used, or transformed.
3. 
So what are we learning?????
The ability to turn on the power, keep it on as needed, then to shut it down. To be fully charged…full of power. A FULLY charged battery without much crust. Able to use what you got to do…X, Y or Z.
We learn this on the yoga mat, on the track, etc. The difficulty lies when we let the EGO add too much pooh and mess things up. We push too hard. Forget what in the world we are doing. Start competing with the…instructor, teacher, neighbor, magazine cover. We lose ourselves. That’s not uncommon. We do it all the time. It’s a habit. To lose ourselves. (fyi, it’s the power that gets us back to center.)
We center ourselves. Turn on the power. Start driving down the road we feel drawn to.
Sometimes you just got to throw it down! Bad ass style. Sometimes with more finesse. Sometimes you let it go by you with just a bit of a nod. Learning to deal with the power, it’s important. Like learning to race a super fast race horse. Where do we practice that? On the mat, the track, in the pool, in the meeting room, at the kitchen table. It’s everywhere. It’s just the words you put to it.
It’s like breathing. If things move, there is power. You want more more of it, learn to use it. If you want to be more efficient, learn to use it well.
Live It OUT LOUD. Anything else is…not human. 🙂
FYI, starting a power yoga class. This is what we will be learning.
