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I once had the opportunity to take over the nutrition and exercise program for a person who is very successful and famous in his field of work. Our agreement was for a few months, while he came and went to the city where I lived at the time.
I recall that a limo came to pick me up and to transfer me to the specially converted space where he lived and worked accompanied by a special security detail.
When I entered the location for our conference, I was faced with a scene out of a sci-fi movie! In front of me were 17, yes you heard that right, 17 television sets! Now, don’t ask me why they weren’t 18 or 16… Each TV was tuned to a different channel.
Across from me sat a tall, spectacled gentleman. After the introductions, I started to explain how I work, without being able however to finish my sentence because his phone kept on ringing.
It turns out that this man had a problem with his spine, so I decided to show him a few simple yoga exercises. I therefore requested politely that he turn off the TV sets because it would not be possible for us to conduct a session with so many sets on at the same time.
He refused to turn them off, explaining that they were a significant part of his life and work (presumably also his burden…), even though I told him politely that I would not be able to demonstrate yoga exercises in a space with 17 TV sets playing and with a maniac telephone ringing constantly. So what else could I do? I began to demonstrate a few exercises. It was impossible, however, with all the noise and with the telephone buzzing non-stop.
At some point I lost my patience… What I was going through was degrading for the philosophy that I represented but also humiliating for any human being. I was ready to cry and remember swallowing my saliva so forcefully that my throat began to hurt.
Then something changed inside me! I felt my real self suffocating and the truth pounding impatiently inside my chest wanting to leap out with force. I then straightened my body like a “yogi Superhero” and with a steady voice said to him:
“I’m sorry, I can’t do this, it’s wrong! It is degrading to the principles which I represent and, more than anything else, shows a total lack of respect towards you. I cannot take you on as a client. I appreciate your invitation, but I cannot, under these circumstances give you the best that you deserve and live up to the recommendations that brought me here.”
He turned and looked at me with astonishment and, in a low voice as if he himself could not hear what he was saying, said to me: “And what would you like me to do?”
“I’d like you to respect yourself, your choice, and me, and to turn off for all the television sets for an hour. More than anything else, you owe it to yourself!”
He looked at me in terror and whispered: “All of them???”
“All,” I replied decisively!
Before I had even completed my sentence, his mobile phone rang. “That one too” I commanded, laughing by now.
He laughed too and answered: “Honestly, I don’t even remember the last time I did this.”
And so we proceeded to carry out the exercises and concluded with meditation, relaxation and rehabilitation exercises.
All of a sudden, tears started to flow from his eyes and he confessed that he had houses around the world that he rarely ever visited because he was always too busy. He kept on saying to himself that someday, when he’d have more free time from his work he would visit them – he kept on saying it, but it never happened.
“Then why own them?” I asked.
“So that my children and my occasional spouses can visit them,” he answered (I was impressed by the fact that he had the time to get married…). “I very rarely have the time to go and join them myself.”
I explained to him that in life the only real thing is the now. The past has elapsed, the future has not arrived – and we don’t even know what it will be and whether it will exist. It is an illusion for him to wait for some day in the future to relax and to dedicate quality time to his family.
He admitted that our session had been very cathartic and that he had not felt this good since college. I asked him “what is the point of doing all this at work, if you don’t enjoy it?”
He replied that he enjoys the power that his authority in his line of business brings and that this is his reward. More than anything else, however, he felt that by working non-stop, mechanically, like a robot, he offered his children a wonderful life and a secured future.
We had several sessions together after that, always with all the electronic devices off…
I moved and never saw him again after that. Much later, however, I heard that he was involved in a tragic accident where he had survived, but his son was killed…
The power that material goods, work, success, or even a perfect relationship bring, will also carry with them disappointment and pain at some point.
If we let our mind get trapped into future thoughts such as “when I win the lottery, when I find the perfect man, when I buy my dream house, etc.,” we
condition ourselves to care only about external future comforts which, even if we do attain someday, they will only be temporary.
Focus on what you are doing now and only now. The past will not return. Done! For this reason we use it as an experience, as a point of reference, not as a sticking point. As for the future, too much preplanning will only bring stress and disappointment.
Many people waste most of their life waiting for the time to come when they will “live.” Life, however, is what we experience while making other
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