All of those achievements left me exhausted, though. I remember being at my 40th birthday and my friend said to me, ‘What are you good at now?’ I realised I had been DOING life rather than BEING it! Two years later and I’m enjoying life much more, having taken my foot off the pedal – more yin and less yang!
What do you most value in others? I admire ‘presence’ in a person. That to me is true connection, true yoga off the mat. Please put your iPhone/iPad/laptop down before you talk to me. I will give you my full attention if you give me yours.
What would make you skip practice? If the All Blacks are playing, I’m out. I’m in front of my mate’s big screen, losing my voice, yelling the house down – shameless!
What advice would you give to someone stepping onto the mat for the first time? Breathe and drop the judgement. We land on our mat with so many expectations – of ourselves, of the teacher. Once we drop the judgement, we are able to be completely in the body and breath.
Which pose do you really hate? Gomukhasana (Cow Face pose). Trying to wrap these big Māori Rugby legs into that posture is not ideal.
People think that, as a guy, I’ll be less interested in the traditional philosophies and prefer doing handstands. When I speak about the Gita or Patanjali’s Sutras or teach a Yin class, people lean in to listen to what I have to say. There’s more to this guy than my tattoos, muscles, handstands and splits.
@warriorjase
Read more at boysofyoga.com @boysofyoga
MEET THE BOYS
LES LEVENTHAL
CALIFORNIA
PAIN IN THE ASS. CHURRO EATER. SPORTS JUNKIE. YOGI.
What’s your story? I’m officially a gypsy nomad – I’m American and I taught in San Francisco for a decade and then Bali for over three years, and now I’m teaching all over this amazing world, from Australia to Europe to the Middle East – places that have small communities and need the yoga as well as those crazy, large festivals.
What did you want to be growing up? A gold-medal-winning Olympic swimmer because I was good at it and I was raised to believe that winning equals happiness.
What do you value most in others? The truth – it doesn’t waste anyone’s time.
What does a male yogi look like? Like every man that walks this earth. Guys don’t do yoga because they think it’s light and fairy. Not with me. We’re gonna dig deeper. That’s what we come for, to journey to those places.
What are the biggest stereotypes about guys who do yoga? That they’re only good if the man bun looks just right. Yoga relaxes all those external expectations about what I should look like or sound like as a man doing yoga.
What was the biggest challenge when you started the practice? I was smoking again. I didn’t like who I was. I was back out drinking and using when I found yoga. My negative body image and self-consciousness were raging. So, my biggest challenge was just to stay alive and not do further harm to myself. I’ve had some brushes with suicide and this was not a happy time in my life, and the gift and the challenge was that there was no one for me to lay blame on.
There is hope. Transformation is possible. But I can’t just pray for God to do that for me. I have to put in the work.
@lesleventhalyoga
Read more at boysofyoga.com @boysofyoga
Ude Okoye
You’re One Breath Away From Calm
Did you know that the average person takes between 12 and 20 breaths a minute? Over the course of a day, that’s 17,000– 30,000 breaths. That’s a lot.
We breathe when we sleep and when we eat. We breathe when we’re on the bus and we breathe more when we’re chasing it. As long as we are alive we are always breathing. But how often are we really thinking about it?
‘ONE DEEP BREATH CAN HELP ALLEVIATE A WHOLE WORLD OF CHAOS’
How often are we giving our breath the attention it deserves?
Breathing is automatic. It just happens. Sure, it’s keeping you alive, but that’s no big deal, right?
The amazing thing about breathing is that when you choose to focus on it and take the time to notice it, you get so much more out of it. So maybe it’s time to start paying more attention to the breath.
We can all relate to times in our lives when things have gotten a bit messy or out of control, and these are the times when the breath is our biggest asset. One deep breath can help alleviate a whole world of chaos.
When I was 18, I was living in Los Angeles and I had asked my friend Brandon to teach me how to drive a manual car. Driving manual wasn’t a common thing in LA when I was growing up, so I wanted to learn. From the moment I got in, it felt like there was way too much going on: three pedals for my feet; one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand on the gear stick. I had to look with my eyes, listen with my ears and deal with about a hundred and one other things going on around me on the road. It was complete chaos.
But in one of those first lessons, Brandon simply said, ‘If you put your foot on the brake, no matter what else is happening, the car will slow down and everything will be ok. Then you can decide what’s best from there.’ Fifteen years later and I’ve never forgotten this.
And that’s how the breath works. No matter the chaos that’s around you, just remember that if you stop and take a deep breath, everything will slow down. Then you can decide what’s best from there.
The Breath Is Life. Respect It.
When used with the right approach, the breath has the power to calm our minds, ease our anxiety and appease our anger. The breath is transformational, and the best thing about it is that it’s always there (and it’s free!).
The breath gives us the support to do the things we want to do in our lives and it will never let you down if you give it the respect it deserves.
I’ve been lucky (or unlucky) enough to know the value of the breath since I was very young. I’m asthmatic and I carry around a little blue inhaler that helps relieve my airways when I have an attack. I’ve had trouble breathing since I was very young, and there are times, even today, when I literally can’t get the