I applaud and respect your efforts and dedication to improve yourself as I am fully aware of how difficult it can be, wether it's to lose weight, gain flexibility or strength, minimize stress and tension, get your life back on track, deepen the relationship with yourself or better understand your life in general OR the endless other reasons we all choose the yoga practice! 

It's not always easy and can be very frustrating if your body doesn't respond the way you hope or feel it should. Be patient yet fully dedicated and devoted to consistency in showing up as you are AND doing your absolute best with a positive attitude. Your thoughts and attitude play a huge role in how you progress and evolve in your practice, be mindful of how you treat or speak to yourself, sometimes we can be pretty rough on ourselves. 

If you want to gauge your yoga progress or see how you might be 'getting better', be in the practice of paying attention to your life 'off of the mat', how you respond and react in situations that are stressful or that bring up anger or frustration. How are your relationships? How do you spend your days? What you choose to put in your body? Your thoughts and overall mindset? And of course, how does your body feel and move in day to day living? Is your back feeling better? Less injuries from the activities you love to do? More strength in the yard work or around the house? These are the areas the yoga really matters, we don't live on the mat, we practice there. So I look forward to practicing with you on the mat and maybe even meeting you live and in person off the mat someday! 

Namaste and all my best to you, with gratitude and respect, 

Robert

How do you bring yoga in your day to day life? 

'Yoga is life', it is every aspect of you/us. It is the relationship you have with yourself, your thoughts, your body. It is how you treat, speak and act with others who share this planet with you. A lot of the time yoga is thought of as only movements and shapes on a yoga mat. But where the yoga really matters is 'off the mat'. How you respond to daily stresses caused by work, your relationships, your kids, neighbors and so on, we all have these stressful moments in our daily lives. A quote I live my life by goes like this ... "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom". Viktor Frankl If you take time to respond to things that may get you angry or stressed, maybe see it with different eyes or through a new lens so to speak, you may prevent further tension or anger to arise or the situation to grow, most likely if you take time to pause to think about it for a sec, you can respond differently than if you hadn't waited. These are 'yoga' moments in real life for me :) 

How do you think can yoga help our world?

Well if more people practiced yoga and worked toward practicing the 'yamas and niyamas', lived their lives by those 'commandments', there sure would be a lot less harm and violence being done to one another, possibly less obesity and poor health, less theft or no longer taking what is not ours (sexually, material items, peoples time etc) and all of the other principles within the yamas and niyamas. If you are a yoga practitioner and looking to deepen or understand the science of yoga, look into Ashtanga 8 Limbs of Yoga as a guide, it's worth your time. Just very good and healthy reminders to live our lives by thus making the world a better place one practitioner at a time:)

What are some other passions in your life, things, activities, or practices that give you purpose and benefit your well-being?

There are so many! My main passion for the last 16 years has been my wonderful son Miles! Being a father has been the biggest gift of my life, and it continues to keep on giving! My relationships with all of the people nearest and dearest to me, as well as the people from all over (including internet) who I meet via my work with yoga give me purpose in a way also. It's very important to me to give as much as I can to all relationships I am in, close and casual, it just feels right to me. There is a quote, it goes "The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency in the world". This quote sits with me daily as I move through the world, wether it's leading a yoga class (live or online), traveling, sitting at dinner with my girlfriend/son/friends etc, playing sports or just any basic life transaction .. what kind of effect or impact do you have or make? Doesn't have to be or seem big, a simple genuine smile could be a game changer for someone if they're having a bad day and they see you smiling at them :) 

I am addicted and very passionate to all body movement (still learning to love dancing). From yoga, fitness, sports or wrestling with my son! I grew up playing just about every sport and feel so happy and content while doing it, whatever IT is! I rarely take it for granted, always try to take a moment to take a deep breath and take it all in because it just feels awesome and one day I won't be able to, so I'm going to love every second of that game, sport, asana, wave while I can! 

I have to mention traveling! Traveling to me is necessary, critical or very much needed FOR ME to feel like I'm living a fulfilling life. 

Seeing and meeting people from around the world, getting a glimpse into their lives, what their struggles may be or how they seem to live such a fulfilling and happy life with so little. Traveling is not for everyone and I don't expect some people to be as drawn to it as I am and others are. The more I've seen and visited now, the world seems smaller and smaller every time, reminds me that we really are all in this together! 

PRACTICE ONE OF ROBERT'S AMAZING CLASSES, HERE, RIGHT NOW!