A Quote by Andrew Mason

I'm appalled that an industry has grown around teaching a practice as wholesome and spiritual as yoga, so I decided to create my own free video to help people get started. — © Andrew Mason
I'm appalled that an industry has grown around teaching a practice as wholesome and spiritual as yoga, so I decided to create my own free video to help people get started.
I started doing yoga in my 20s. I did teacher training, that was what I was going to do if acting didn't work out. I started teaching other actors right at the beginning of the yoga craze - people still thought it was a little weird, but a lot of actors I knew were getting into it and didn't want to look foolish in class. So I started teaching them!
When I found yoga, I realized that I can direct my own mind through my yoga practice and meditation. I can actually create my own mood. That was a huge awakening for me.
Ninety percent of what most yoga teachers do is teach asana practice. While asana discharges stress and so forth, it was never intended to be a standalone practice. The true intent of yoga is personal transformation. What we get out of the privilege of teaching prisoners is the opportunity to focus on our own personal development. You can be of service, and, while helping others transform their lives, you have the deeper opportunity to transform your own. What we teach in prison is how we live our lives.
Yoga means to bind back, unite. To bring the body and the soul together. For this reason the practice of yoga is a holy endeavor and the teaching of it to our people a very high calling.
Teaching a practice can also be a hindrance if it becomes one's identity. To be a spiritual teacher is a temporary function. I'm a spiritual teacher when somebody comes to me and some teaching happens, but the moment they leave I'm no longer a spiritual teacher. If I carry the identity of spiritual teacher, it will cause suffering.
Yoga is 'so hum,' spiritual and all that, and I get it, and I respect that, but that's not what I do. What I do with DDP Yoga, we have changed the face of how it's represented. The spiritual stuff for us is about the power of positivity along with giving people that inner confidence.
People on a spiritual path - personal growth, spiritual practice, recovery, yoga and so forth - are the last people who should be sitting out the social and political issues of our day.
I engaged - started engaging in yoga as a physical practice, but very quickly found out there was something broader to it, and that it was actually helpful for my pain, and started to get into meditation, started to study the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita and a lot of the scriptures associated with yoga, the Yoga Sutras, and very quickly came to this conclusion that this had a huge impact on my ability to lead, but, more importantly, the ability to control my sympathetic nervous system, which had a direct tie to the pain in my arm.
My yoga practice was and will always be a spiritual experience. I can honestly say, "Yoga delivered me back to GOD!"
The study of yoga makes me inspired. And then the teaching of yoga makes it that much more real. The sense that this practice and this tool helps other people be centered, be present, and helps them really [be] embodied and [have] a life.
When I go to a web video meeting and look around, at least half the show runners are women. And a lot are actors-cum-writers who are frustrated with the situation of being a woman actor in Hollywood and have decided to create their own show.
A lot of people have questioned how yoga and their own spiritual beliefs can come together. Yoga actually pre-dates religion.
The deeper you get into Yoga you realize it is a spiritual practice. It's a journey I'm making. I'm heading that way.
So I went off on my own and started the process of spiritual teaching.
When you learn about the teaching and the practice of another tradition, you always have a chance to understand your own teaching and practice.
I think the advantage I have with yoga is that it is something I can do on my own and can't make excuses that I don't have a place or the time. One can practice yoga anywhere, anytime. You don't have to worry about what you're wearing. For all of these reasons, yoga works for me.
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