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Dai Manuel’s Whole Life Fitness Manifesto

motivating than my size 12 shoe connecting with your butt.” Kidding aside, I do understand how a trainer can be moti-vating, especially at the beginning of a new fitness regime. Accountability is a great motivator, and that added sense of camaraderie, or community, makes working out a lot more fun!

The Importance Of Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a bit of a buzzword these days, and for good reason. To me, it is simply a feeling of mental clar-ity. It means cultivating awareness, not only of my body but also of my place in the world. We’re reactionary creatures by nature, and that tendency is compounded by so many stimuli being fired at us at all times, especially from media and the advertising industry.

In an interview with CBS, advertising executive Jay Walker-Smith said that we’re exposed to up to 5,000 ad messages a day, which is a steep hike from the 500 or so we saw daily in the 1970s. While this may seem impos-sibly high, the truth is we are hit with brand impressions from the moment we wake up until we go to bed, thanks in large part to the prevalence of the Internet in our daily lives. Just think of the number of brand messages that bombard you, just on your smartphone alone. Every day, the massive amount of media messages we receive is a huge drain on our mental energy.

I find that my best time for really connecting with where I’m at is right after a hard workout. I’m physically taxed, lying on my back on the ground stretching out into what the yogis call savasana, or the corpse pose. I lie with my eyes closed, feet and knees gently falling open, shoulders relaxed and my arms by my side with the palms facing upwards. My breathing becomes shallower as my mind focuses on the job of relaxation. As each thought comes to me, I acknowledge it before gently pushing it away. It’s in this state that I can really tune into my body and reach a higher state of mental clarity.

Of course there are many other forms of mindfulness practice and meditation (which we’ll get into in Chapter 5), but I love savasana because it’s simple and works for everyone. Just taking that five, 10 or 15 minutes to be still inevitably calms the mind, so that your ideas can flow. In fact, many of my most creative ideas come to me

I think I got savasana figured out, does that make me a yogi?