Translator: Tanya Cushman
Reviewer: Peter van de Ven Aah. So, find yourself coming
into a comfortable, seated position. Feel your feet on the ground
if you're sitting in a chair. And then sit up nice and tall, draw the shoulder blades back, let the crown of the head
reach up towards the sky. You may want to close
your eyes for a moment or take the attention inward. And just begin to notice
the natural rhythm of your breath, the flow of the inhale and the exhale. And then take a deep, cleansing breath
in through the nose, (Inhale) and then exhale -
let it go with a big sigh. Aah. Let's do that one more time. Take a deep breath in through the nose (Inhale) and then let it all go. Aah. What if something as simple
as taking a deep, cleansing breath could be the one thing
that could change your entire life, could be the one thing that could change
the world that we live in together? Some might say that the world is shifting,
that the world is changing. Some would even say
that the world is falling apart. But what if that
was actually the good news? And what if, in this single breath, we could create the world
that we want to live in together. I spend most of my time
teaching about living yoga - rather than doing yoga - and leadership and the relationship between the two. That yoga is so much more
than downward-facing dog, but as my teachers say, it's about skillful participation
and engagement with life, and that leadership is more than a job
or a position that you hold, but about taking responsibility for every moment of every breath
of every second of every day. And each and every one of us is being called to both
living yoga and leadership, that we're being called to say
what is our greatest potential. There's a big difference
between philosophy and transformation. I love to philosophize; I will do it
till the wee hours of the night. But philosophy tends
to just be a good idea, and transformation is actually
doing something about that idea. Now, how many of you know that compassion and forgiveness
are good ideas, right? And how many of you forget to practice compassion
and forgiveness on a regular basis? So again, transformation is this idea. But what do we do
with these things that we know, that we inherently know inside
are good for us? Now, imagine that we
were on a boat together, and we were setting course
for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years together. So take a moment and look around. I hope that you like
the company you're keeping because we're going
on this boat ride together. And we were setting course
in this direction, and we were to change course one degree, what would happen over that time period? We'd end up in a totally different place. So transformation doesn't mean
that you need to quit your job, go gluten, sugar, dairy-free, have a gratitude journal,
meditate every day, become a yoga-teacher trainer, travel the world, write a book. It simply means committing
to your one-degree shift, and that if enough of us
are daring and courageous enough to say, "Yes, what is
my one-degree shift?" I think that we'll end up in that place
that most of us are longing for, that place of collaboration, of cooperation, of celebration. Each and every one of us
is being called to something. Often, people will say, "Well, how do I know
what my one-degree shift is? What is it that I'm supposed to do?" And this is when
we come back to the breath. So take another breath in right now, (Inhale) and exhale, aah. In this breath, in this moment,
you're being called to something. There's something that's been trying
to get your attention, there's something
that's been calling you forth, that it's your time to do this thing. And it might be the place where you're committing
what we call "crimes against wisdom." Think of a crime against wisdom
that you might be creating. That could be your one-degree shift. Or it could be the thing
that breaks your heart, or the thing that you care enough about that you want to bind
yourself to that thing, that you want to do that thing. What is it that's calling? And usually life shows up like this, and it's usually a gentle nudge at first, or a gentle knock,
where it's knock, knock, knock - trying to get your attention. And then it's a little louder
if we don't listen: oh, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. Oh, you're still not listening. And it becomes the cosmic two-by-four -
wabam, wabam, wabam - where we get knocked over the head. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? So the cosmic two-by-four
shows up and says, "We're trying to get your attention, to give you clues about
what your one-degree shift is, about the ways in which
you could be headed." So what is it that's calling you? What is it that's trying
to get your attention? And what are you prepared to do about it? One of the most powerful
one-degree shifts that I can think of is being daring and courageous enough
to celebrate your authentic self, the part of you that is whole, that is complete, that is perfect. The part of you that was here
before your grandparents were born, the part of you that will be here
after you take your final exhale. The part of you that is here right now. I have an amazing family. I have a mother and a father that love me,
and brothers that love me, and - I have two older brothers - and as much as my mother
definitely loves my brothers, she definitely wanted a little girl. When she was pregnant,
the doctors kept telling her, "Looks like you're going
to have another boy. Looks like another boy. We think you're going
to have another boy." And had I turned out to be a boy,
I know that she would have loved him; however, some would say
that the day that I was born, my mother was beyond excited
to have a little girl. So I decided to do
an experiment a few years ago, where I was going
to look at myself in the mirror and see if I could see myself the same way that my mother
saw me on the day that I was born. I figured, "This should be easy. I've spent a lifetime of teaching
other people to love themselves, to skillfully engage in the world. Not a problem." So I go and stand in front of the mirror,
and I look at myself, and all of a sudden, every seemingly horrible thing
I'd ever done in my entire life decided to reveal itself in that moment. It was like, "Remember in 7th grade,
cheating on that English test? Remember in 10th grade
when you did that thing?" And I was like,
"I'm a horrible human being." So I'm standing there, and I'm going back-and-forth,
back-and-forth, back-and-forth. How many of you have ever seen
an Olympic ping-pong match? Back-and-forth, back-and-forth. That was my inner world. At one point, I thought
I was going insane. And I was like, "No, you are whole
and perfect and complete." And then, "You're terrible;
you're terrible." Back-and-forth. And I finally, about
an hour-and-a-half later, got to a point where I was just weeping,
standing in front of the mirror, when I realized what compassion
and forgiveness truly is. That there actually comes a moment
where we need to forgive ourselves for all the hurts that we've caused
ourselves and other people, and there comes a time to say that this moment
is a chance to show up again and to fully engage with life. Now, I have a dear friend
that went through a traumatic experience. She's what's known as a "cutter." You might know someone
that also does this; you might be someone
that experiences this yourself. And if that's the case,
I certainly hope that you're getting help. So she went through this experience, and her way of coping is she
literally cuts herself with razor blades. The truth of the matter is that most of us
don't cut ourselves externally - we're not doing this - but what we do do
is we cut ourselves internally. We're saying a horrible thing
about ourselves; we're comparing ourselves to other people. How many of you compare
yourself to other people? And how do you usually feel? Right? Some of you are like, "I'm looking
around; I'm doing pretty good." But most of the time,
we compare ourselves to other people, and we feel terrible about ourselves. Comparison is an epidemic. One of the most powerful one-degree shifts
is to stop comparing yourself to others, to celebrate that you are a gift, that never again will you exist, and we are creating something together; we are weaving and looming this beautiful
experience of life together. It's a grand experiment. Now, one of the beliefs that I have is that yoga is a path that provides
zero - count them - zero answers. And again, this is my belief system. But I actually think
that that's the good news again because if it provides zero answers, what it does do is it provides
infinite inquiries and experiments. We can keep putting ourselves
in this experiment and say, "What's my best guess? What's calling me forth? What's wanting my attention? What am I ready to do? Can I be daring and courageous enough
to put myself in the experiment for the sake of what's on the other side?" May you cause yourself no harm. Stop harming yourself internally, and not only for the sake of yourself but to be the source of inspiration
for other people to do the same thing. Because like it or not,
we're in this together. And may we be a beautiful
reflection for one another. Most of us agree that we're not
100% authentic 100% of the time. Which means we need to be accountable, we need to take responsibility
for when we're out of alignment, when what we say, think,
feel and do aren't aligned. I once took this workshop,
and there was this woman in the program, and we'll call her my greatest teacher, but she was also the person
that got under my skin the most. Know what I mean?
Anyone in your life like that? Yeah. So we'll call her my teacher. And I remember talking
to my personal mentor and just being like, "Can't people just be annoying,
and it has nothing to do with me?" And he was like, "No,
it has everything to do with you." And I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get
how other people - it could be about me, but if you met her, you would realize
she's the most annoying person ever." (Laughter) So we call this "the octopus on the face." It's the thing that you
can see that I can't. It's my personal blind spot. So, maybe we can all do this for a moment. Most of us don't want to think
that we have this blind spot, but there's something that we can't see
that other people can. And for many of us, learning
about our own octopus on our face becomes our one-degree shift; it becomes the work
that we have to do in this lifetime; it becomes the direction
that we need to go in. Where are you pointing
the finger at other people? Where are you saying things like,
"Hey, Obama, you should be doing this"; "Hey, Mom and Dad,
you should have done this"; "Hey, school systems,
you should be doing this"? Rather than saying, "What am I doing? How do I need to show up? What's my responsibility
in this breath, in this moment?" Because like it or not, most of us
are actually doing the best that we can. And when we're called
to our one-degree shift, and we want to be our authentic selves, and we're trying to do the best we can
and take responsibility, we also need to be willing to sit in what I like to call
"the sacred fire of transformation." That anytime we're called
to anything in life, it's almost guaranteed
life is going to show up and say, "Oh, yeah, really? Really?
You want a healthy, loving relationship? Oh, you're all about peace, really?" And we get tested. And so often we do 95% of the work
to get ourselves there, but it's actually,
the last 5% that counts. So where are you sitting
on the edge of the fire? And what actually is your one-degree shift
is to take one more step, to go a little bit further, to get comfortable being uncomfortable for the sake of the nectar
on the other side. Right? We're all being called
into this transformation. I'll tell you a little story. I used to love to go skydiving, and I loved taking people
for their first time ever, and I took one of my dearest friends, who's like a squeaky, loud kind of person. And I was on this small plane -
it was a Cessna - and it was just four of us
and the pilot on the plane. So, if you've never been skydiving before,
this is the way it works: So imagine that this is inside
of the plane where we're sitting; this is outside of the plane
where we want to jump, aaaah, okay? So, I love seeing people jump out
for the first time, so I'm like, "Oh my God, you're going
to have so much fun." So this is my dear friend
standing on the edge of the plane. Remember, this is out, this is in. So it's one, two, three, jump. So her skydive master
is on her back, and it's like this, "One, two," and
she turns around like this, jumps down to the ground;
she's like, "Noooo. I don't want to go." And I see my best friend
get ripped out of the plane, and I'm like, "What have I done? Oh my God, I've killed my best friend." (Laughter) The reason I share this story with you is that we either need to skillfully
engage with the fire of life, or sometimes life is just
going to drag us out, right? So life is calling you,
and sometimes life gets uncomfortable. So, I'm going to give you
a homework assignment for whenever we have a break today. You're going to get a timer, and
you're going to put it on for 60 minutes, and your job is only to do this,
put your arms up in the air. That's all you're going to do. You're going to put your arms in the air
and notice about your inner world. Where do you go when life gets hot? And what do you
need to do to stay in the fire for the sake of what's on the other side? One of my favorite sayings is how you do is anything
is how you do everything. How you do this is probably
how you're doing life and may give you some insight
into your one-degree shift. So on our one-degree shift, we're being called all of the time
to be our authentic selves, to be accountable,
to sit in the fire of transformation, to say, "Yes," to that last five percent. But in that pause,
in that breath, in this moment, we have a chance
to change our entire life. So let's take another breath in. (Inhale) And exhale. So in this moment, we have the ability
to start to see life clearly, without fear, without fantasy,
without distortion. And not fear like a tiger
is going to attack you, but that unnecessary fear that most of us are going through life,
seeing life through that particular lens. So, when I was 12 years old, some would say that I
wasn't the most attractive 12-year-old. Some would even say
that I was quite homely. Do you know what homely means? And my best friend at the time,
she was the hot girl. She was the girl in 8th grade
that was dating a senior in high school. She was that girl. So anytime any older boy,
or any boy ever wanted to talk to me, it was like, "Oh, where's your friend?" And I was like, "Oh, she's over there." So I swore that I was never
going to have a boyfriend; I was never going to have a first kiss; that I was going to die alone. We used to hang out at the Dunkin' Donuts
parking lot where I grew up. Good time. So one time, we were hanging out
at the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot, and this older boy came up to talk to me. I was like, "Oh my God,
this is so exciting. He didn't ask for my best friend.
This is my moment. We're totally going to make out." Sorry, Dad. So he was like, "Hey, I wanted
to talk to you for a second." I was like, "Yeah, here I am." And he said, "Yeah, you know
the story of the ugly duckling?" I was like, "I do. Beautiful swan." He said, "Yeah, I just wanted to let you know
that you're an ugly duckling, and you're never going to be beautiful." (Audience) Ohh. At 12 years old, that was one of
the worst things I could have ever heard. The truth of the matter is I went on
the rest of my life to prove him right. That "How courageous of him
to tell me the truth because no one else
is going to tell me that." So I went on; I'm telling you
this story over 25 years later - clearly, it had an impact. I went through life seeing life that way,
that I'm not beautiful, never will be. And I collected data; I collected evidence that he was right. Now, this whole talk could have been "Turn to the person next to you
and share your story." And the truth is that we
could have just wept for one another, and been like, "That's your story.
I can't believe that's your story." And there's a time
and a place for that, absolutely. But there's also a time and a place,
and it could be in this breath (Inhale) that you no longer need
to be a victim to that story. Because your story isn't going away. Whatever happened to you, happened to you. It's the truth. But at some point, your story
becomes fuel for your calling. Your story becomes fuel
for your one-degree shift. We compost that story. So to me, yoga is simply composting. How do you take the shit in your life
and turn it into something useful? (Laughter) So often when we're called
to our one-degree shift, and we're trying to be our authentic self
and to take responsibility, we're trying to sit in the fire, we're trying to rewrite our story and see life without wearing
somebody else's lenses, without fear, fantasy and distortion. We think because we're working hard
that we're doing something that works, and that is often the myth. Now, I'll end with another story. Some would say that when I was younger,
I was highly competitive. And it was actually more
with myself than other people. I had a handmade sign
in my room that said, "You didn't win the silver;
you lost the gold." A bit much, I know. My dad would always be like,
"Relax, kid. Where did you come from?" So I took this workshop
when I was younger. It was a pretty simple exercise
that we were going to do. We were going to be blindfolded, put into a maze, and all we had to do
was get out of the maze. So I was, like, checking everybody out. I was like, "I've got you. I've got you.
You could be a problem. I've got you." I'm like, "Alright, we got this." So they put the blindfold on us,
and they were like, "Ready, set, go." And I'm like ... And all of a sudden, 20 seconds into it, this woman, Casey we'll call her,
who was my greatest teacher, got out of the maze first. And I was like, "How did Casey
get out of the maze before me? Clearly, I'm in the wrong program.
Maybe they'll give me my money back." I'm like, "What's going on." I was like, "Alright, you didn't win
the gold; don't lose the silver - keep your focus." So we're going, we're going,
and during the whole process, different facilitators are coming up,
going, "How's it going, Coby?" And I'm like, "If you
could get away, I'd be doing great. Thank you very much. Namaste." Now I hear, "Bob is out of the maze. Sarah is out of the maze. Kristin is out of the maze." And I'm like, "What is going on?" Another facilitator comes up. "How's it going, Coby?" And I'm like, "Hi,
please get away from me, I now hate you." So, it's going, it's going, it's going, and I actually don't know
how much time went by. It was 20 minutes, 30 minutes,
40 minutes, 50 minutes, 60 minutes, and on. Now everybody is out of the maze
except for this girl. Still in the maze. Help,
trying to get out, trying to get out. And another facilitator
comes up to me and says to me again, "Hey, Coby, how's it going?" And I was like, "I don't know.
I guess I need help." And in that pause and in that breath, I heard, "Coby is out of the maze." The only way out of the maze
was to ask for help. It was actually a roped-off course;
there was no physical exit. I can't believe I ever got out. (Laughter) So how many of you, how many of you are stuck in the maze, and you're forgetting to ask for help? One of the most courageous
things you could do is to say, "I need help. I'm in the maze." So if we're lucky enough
to wake up again tomorrow or the next day or the next day - because it is a gift to wake up - and we're lucky enough
to take another breath, (Inhale) may you remember that in that moment, you have a chance to get on the boat, to change your course one degree and begin again and trust that there is
always more to come. Thank you. (Applause)
