I extend my thanks to my editor Ann Treistman for her belief in this book and help improving it through the editing process.
Tony Lyons for his support.
The team at Skyhorse.
Andrea Barzvi at ICM for her steadfast and positive work.
Liz Delaney and Lori Snyder for their editing insights early on.
Also, thanks to my friends Carl Wright, James Courtney, and Ken Heitz for their encouragement to walk the path of my destiny so many years ago.
A special thanks to my friend Chris Silbermann for his encouragement and deep belief that this book would become a reality, and his help in making it so.
And my deepest gratitude to my wife, Stephanie Cate Strom, for her invaluable and wise insights, patience, and love.
About The Author
Innovator, teacher, and author Max Strom is known for inspiring and impacting the lives of his students and has become one of the most respected teachers of personal transformation and yoga worldwide. Due to an ever-increasing demand for his teachings, Mr. Strom travels extensively teaching and lecturing on transformation, spirituality, and yoga.
His teachings are a culmination of his life experience and many years of study. His methods reach beyond the boundaries of simply a practice of yoga postures, and addresses the internal, emotional, and spiritual aspects of our life.
Strom has a unique connection with his students that stems from his own personal journey, his gregarious nature, and distinct integrity. He offers his unique system of transformation as a Way of Life , which includes a philosophy of living, self-inquiry, breathing exercises, yoga postures, and meditation, guiding his students to grow into happier, healthier, and empowered human beings.
Born a twelve-pound baby with clubfeet, Max Strom spent much of the first 6 years of his life with his legs confined in plaster casts and braces. After several painful corrective surgeries, he was able to walk fairly well but would always have abnormally shaped feet. This would create physical and emotional challenges for him in many ways. Because he had to learn to endure partial confinement and for a time complete immobility at a very young age, he developed patience, determination and a high tolerance to pain in order to cope with his condition. At fourteen years of age, a personal mystical experience ignited a sudden and ardent desire in him to understand the human condition. Finding little support or guidance in his atheistic household, Maxs own passion and intellect guided him and he took it upon himself to read with spiritual voracity any sacred text he could find. By the time he was nineteen, Max had studied Taoism, modern and esoteric Christianity, Sufism, and was practicing meditation and Chi Gong diligently.
After discovering Hatha Yoga he experienced a profound life-change through his practice, and yoga ultimately became for him a system of embodiment that integrated all of his previous physio-theological studies.
Max has now been teaching since 1995 and is recognized by the Yoga Alliance, at their Advanced Teacher Level (ERYT). He has taught tens of thousands of students and trained several hundred teachers. You can see more of his work on his DVDs, Learn to Breathe, to heal yourself and your relationships, and, Max Strom Yoga - Strength, Grace, Healing. He also maintains the Website www.maxstrom.com .
Epilogue
The knowledge we need to transform ourselves and our world is available to you. And whether you feel ready or not, the time is now; we have no more time to waste. So hesitate no more. Act now as if God were watching. You will not find a spiritual master that will suggest you play it safe, or a sacred text that advises you to avoid pain at all costs. It is never too late to fulfill your destiny.
At age forty-four, Gandhi was an obscure lawyer. At age thirty-six, Mother Teresa was an unknown nun. Life here is short, so be sure it is not spent, but lived. Do not hesitate. Do not wait to find the perfect mate ... Do not wait for the perfect time... Do not wait for wealth. Act now. Express yourself fully; there is no time to waste.
Take care of your bodykeep it vital and nurture it until it expiresbut always remember: The last thing our body will be is fertilizer. We are more like fireflies than flesh and bone. What if this was your last year in this body? How many loved ones have you already outlived? Dont you think they believed, like you, that they would live to be very old? Live! Look over your life. What things do you remember? Wonderful meals? Television shows? Endless conversations about relationships? No. All of these are forgotten. We remember when we have taken risksno matter what the outcome.
As a person takes his final breath, he does not regret so much his actions as his inactionsthe missed opportunities. Taking risks defines who we are. Risk breathes life into mere existence. All wisdom resides within; you only need to breathe deeply and listen.
The kingdom of God is within you.
Jesus of Nazareth
Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.
Buddha
Be spiritual and realize truth for yourself.
Sri Ramakrishna
ONE
The Yoga Revolution
W e live in a unique time in history, both promising and ominous. As technologies continue to develop at an unbelievably increasing speed, it seems mankind is not maturing nearly fast enough to adapt. And so we find ourselves in a global crisis. Billions of people now covet the industrial worlds wealth and are replicating its system of modern consumerism as rapidly as possible. But what they are ignoring, perilously so, is the fact that as materially well off as the West is, we are also chronically living what Henry David Thoreau coined a life of quiet desperation. In America alone, over 40 million people, rich by the rest of the worlds standards, exist on antidepressants and antianxiety drugs, while over 80 million people use sleep aid drugs. And if the emerging nations obtain the wealth and technology they desire, it is likely they will discover the same shocking revelation that Americans have discovered: They are still not happy.
In the Western world we have more time-saving devices than any other culture in history, yet how many of us have any extra time to show for it? In America, we try to make sense of life where it is considered acceptable behavior to watch TV for four hours a day. (The average American watches four hours of television per day, which equals two months of nonstop TV watching per year.) So, then what has become of our collective nervous system? We dont have to look far to see the answer. Americans are depressed and stressed out. How could this be in the most materially rich country on earth?
What can be deduced from this is that our careers, cars, computers, and even our flat-screen TVs will not ultimately make us happy, healthy, or safe.
In contrast to our forward surge in technology, the direction of religion worldwide continues to careen backward to the Dark Ages, more tribal than transformative. From holy wars over holy lands to holy wars in our own minds, each religious camp is flying their gang colors. Each has determined that their own Messiah of love or Prophet of peace should be pronounced the absolute. And if you dont submit, these gangs will destroy you, despite clear instructions from their Prophet or Messiah to the contrary. Democracy and Christianity delivered in so-called smart bombs; Islam delivered in car bombs. As the world unifies economically, it is fragmenting and dividing culturally.