I’m so enjoying my duration here in South Carolina. I always find changing up the pace of life to be refreshing. And for some odd reason, I always get the best business ideas when I’m down here. I guess dropping my routine makes for fertile brainstorming ground. The change of scenery/pace/routine has a major affect on my yoga practice. I’m still practicing, but not always first thing in the dawn (which is what I normally do). I’ve had to adapt some of my practices for the evening hours.

In addition to my own practices, I brought some yoga DVDs with me. And there’s always the Net. The wonder of technology can bring a yoga practice right into your home. The latest addition to the yoga podcast scene is Yoga Journal. They offer weekly podcasts with yogi Jason Crandell. Not only are the podcasts excellent (Jason is wonderful), but they’re easily accessible — you can either listen online, download to iTunes, or save them onto your desktop. Even though I did my practice for the day, I may just indulge in practicing along to that week’s practice, which focuses on hip openers.

I’ve been trying to keep up with my e mail while I’m away. whether possible, I’d like to avoid the over-crammed newsletter inbox that usually greets me upon my return from a trip. So far, so good. Just the other day I received an mail from a friend of mine from a recent training. He extended his training program considering life and a number of other things cropped up and made finishing on schedule a bit difficult. As I read his newsletter, I started thinking about my experience with the training and the notion of enjoying the journey rather than focusing solely on the destination.

I’ve seen that over-emphasis on the destination in a lot

of training programs, and it makes me a bit sad. It’s as though the folks in the training only care about getting the certification (and adding another notch in their credibility belt) with little regard for what they’re learning about. I definitely believe that you get out what you put in, so whether you put in a rushed effort with a focus on a piece of paper, soon after you’re not going to have much skill to show for it.

I live my life focused on the journey. For me it’s about the experience with the results coming in a distant second. One of my favorite articles on that comes from Vipassana teacher Philip Moffitt — Paying the Boatman. The question Phillip poses is an excellent one — why would you choose to measure your life by endings when all the experience, the felt sense of being alive, is in the journey? Why, indeed.

A few other sights/sounds of interest that I’d like to pass along include:

1. The wisdom of the Buddha is energetic stuff. whether you’d like a daily dose, you can get it here. 
2. If you’d like to indulge in oral teachings of the Sutras, check out that site.
3. My friend Patricia Moreno got some press coverage recently (yeah Patricia!) for her wonderful mind-body workout, IntenSati. The name sounds interesting, doesn’t it? whether you want to learn more, you can see the news story, along with video footage of Patricia teaching a class, here.

I’m enjoying the different sights and sounds of my new surroundings. I hope you enjoy the ones I recommended above. Now, I’m off to open up my hips with Jason Crandell.

Namaste!