Ben Ralston

Take responsibility – don’t hand over your power to others.

Somebody told me about a friend who is obsessed with the world ending in 2012.
Guess what – the world won’t end this year in 2012. It probably won’t end for a very, very long time.
Until it does, please don’t give away your power to anyone that would have you relinquish your responsibility. Whether they be conspiracy theorists, psychics, healers, spiritual teachers, yoga ‘guru’s… anyone.
Right now, there is important work to be done – for yourself, for those around you, for the planet, for future generations.
Let’s do that work, and stop worrying about an uncertain future. Focus on the present – be real, stay grounded, and do what you need to do to cultivate more joy.
Be more free.
Spread more love.

Thanks for listening – if it’s of value, please share.

Why I don’t train Yoga teachers.

Swami Vishnu – he flew over war zones in this plane throwing flowers out the window. A true hero.
As a child my heroes were the khaki-clad men and women who gave their lives in WW2 (for a cause greater than themselves). I was completely in awe of anyone who put their own comfort and safety aside in order to ‘fight the good fight’. I believed there was no greater life to be lived.
Many years later I travelled to India for an intensive Yoga Teachers Training course. It was the most challenging thing I’d ever done – physically, emotionally, mentally, and above all, spiritually. I wrote about it here.

On that course, I found new heroes.

The ochre-clad men and women who gave their lives, day after day, for a cause greater than themselves.
The Swamis are the people we may thank for the access that we now enjoy to the ancient wisdom of Yoga. For thousands of years they have taken vows of brahmacharya – mastery of the senses, and renunciation of the fruits of the senses  – as they put their personal comfort and ego safety to one side in order to transform the world. There is no greater sacrifice.
Towards the end of my time in India I resolved that I would one day be a Swami. 5 years later I did indeed give away all my ‘stuff’: my old man got my ipod. My brother got my Raybans. A recent TTC graduate got my small yoga business including 20 yoga mats, my classes, students and mailing list… and with just a small bag of clothes I entered an Ashram and began training. Why am I not there today? The fist person I met in the Ashram that day was the beautiful Goddess who is now my wife. But that’s another story…
Altogether I taught Yoga full time for almost a decade.
I taught Yoga in exclusive hotels and gyms, hostels, schools, and festivals, to Hollywood celebrities and millionaires and old age pensioners. I once taught a guy who’d (to coin the wonderful Ram Dass expression) ‘been stroked’. The whole left side of his body was paralyzed. So in Sun Salutations he would grab his left leg with his right hand, and put it into position. It took a long time, but he did them, and he loved every minute of it. I’ve never met a more smiley and determined person in my life, and it was a great privilege teaching him. The classes he was in were some of the most memorable I’ve ever taught.
I must have taught many thousands of people during those 10 years.

I never had a single student get injured. Not one.

And my style of Asana teaching is dynamic and physical! So how is it that some people believe Yoga to be ‘dangerous’?! Many times over the years I’ve been asked this question:
“Why don’t you run your own Yoga Teacher Training Course?”
In our materialistic society it seems to be a real no-brainer! After all, that’s where the money is in Yoga! We all know that. So why not do it? I’ll tell you why:

I won’t pee in the well.

The well of pristine ancient wisdom kept by countless generations of Swamis.

Swami Sivananda – a Hero
Swami Vishnu-Devananda had a vision in meditation of the world in flames. It was that vision that led him to create the Sivananda Yoga Teachers Training Course (the oldest TTC in the West – around 15,000 graduates over 40 years). His main intention was not so much to create yoga teachers – rather, he intended to create world leaders with integrity. He wanted to create a generation of yogis who would be able to steer the world away from its current crisis with integrity, compassion, and service.
In India, before I realized I wanted to one day be a Swami, I knew without a doubt that I would try to honor Swami Vishnu’s intention – I would do my best to repay the debt I owed him.
So when I’m asked why I don’t run TTC’s what I say is this: there are places I can send my Yoga students to become Yoga teachers. Places run by people who are completely dedicated to doing just that. People who haven’t got kids, aren’t in relationships, and don’t go on vacation. They just train Yoga teachers. Day in, day out, all year round. Total heroes.
So how could I take it upon myself to train other people to be yoga teachers, when I know that I would be depriving them of the best training available? I would feel that I was cheating my students, and betraying the lineage that I am honored to be a tiny part of.
That lineage comes from a land whose entire culture is founded on spirituality.
Our entire culture is founded upon materialism.

Different worlds.

So I understand completely what has gone wrong – people who lack a profound understanding of the spiritual essence of Yoga are running TTC’s.
So the graduates of those TTC’s are even further removed from the lineage. The pond is polluted further and further.
No wonder there is endless controversy in the Yoga ‘blogosphere’. No wonder there are articles suggesting that Yoga may be dangerous. No wonder people really are injuring themselves!
I’ve seen many suggestions that the reason yoga has become dangerous is that not enough attention is paid to anatomy.
That’s a side issue. It’s also something that householder Yoga teachers who run TTC’s will say to justify what they do (“I teach good anatomy so that my student teachers are safe”). But in reality, to teach Yoga properly only a basic understanding of anatomy is required. You don’t need a degree in anatomy to teach yoga, because

Yoga is not gymnastics.

Yogasana is intended primarily to prepare the body to be comfortable sitting for meditation. If it’s taught as such, with emphasis on breath and inner awareness rather than physical ‘shape’ and external competition then it’s totally, 100% ‘safe’. Actually, it’s more than safe, it’s healing.
It is also, of course, a wonderful physical exercise – but that is a secondary benefit.

Yoga is a spiritual practice.

There are true heroes on this planet.
Find them.
Because the world  needs one more.
If you feel it, share it. Please leave a comment. Spread the love!

Heal yourself; heal the world

This article is a continuation of my series on healing. Healing to me is the same thing as personal development and spirituality: it means to bring balance to the self in order to live one’s highest potential. It must embrace every aspect of the person in order to be successful and lasting: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
Today I had an email from a client that I worked with last month. I had two sessions with her over skype, and… well, I’m going to let these emails speak for themselves!
Subject
Healing
Sender
Recipient
Date
12.11.2010 16:28
“Hello Ben,
… I really struggle with stomach/digestive issues and have
been struggling for at least 15 plus years… as well as eating disorders (binge/overeating to be specific current day).
I have severe constipation (have tried almost every natural remedy to help but no relief).
I have been to numerous healers and therapists in attempt to heal myself.
I have completely changed my way of eating for the better within the past few years (still have major digestive issues).
I need your help. Many healers have told me that I hold most of my issues in my stomach/gut/intestines, which happens to be where the physical symptoms present themselves. It just seems that I have tried so many things and spent so much time and money and still do not feel as good as I believe I should or can.
I am striving for complete healing and feel that it is possible. I struggle with feeling hopeless because nothing seems to be working.
My stomach issues affect me on so many levels… emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually etc and I feel so desperate to get better…”
So, to summarize: this client, who I will call M, had a 15-year history of eating disorders, digestive problems, severe constipation, and the consequent feelings of hopelessness.
Compare the above email to this one, which I received from M today (note: my second and last session with her was 20th December, a month ago):
Subject
Hi Ben
Sender
Recipient
Date
Today 03:51
Hi Ben,
… I have been doing so well. Feeling better than I ever have. I am hesitant to even speak about it but at the same time so thankful and want to be aware and keep recognizing the positive changes that have occurred so far. I often find myself saying I can’t believe I feel as good as I do…
For the first time I feel hopeful and not stuck (like we talked about). I actually feel freer than I ever have. I haven’t had out of control cravings; I have been eating balanced meals… making better choices. I feel that I have been way calmer, balanced and am handling things better lately than I have in the past. I go to bed satisfied … and I wake up in no pain!
I have been going to the bathroom pretty regularly for me (maybe not for someone else but great for me!). Overall, I feel so so so much better and am still in shock about it all. So hard to believe I feel good, I am trying to trust that this is the way it is supposed to be and will be. I am trying to also remember that I am allowed to feel this good and it is my God given right to feel this way. I have had days where things have not been so great (my mood mostly or over eating) but I am able to work through those days and episodes a lot differently than I had before. I have a ways to go with what goes through my head and my eating/body issues but I am progressing! I feel that the work that we did has left me much more balanced and is helping me live rather than exist. I feel happier, I am allowing myself to feel.
Thank you again…”
I don’t know what to add!
This is the perfect example of a person who had problems (don’t we all?) but also had a sincere desire to take responsibility for those problems, and do something about it. In that situation, I can help, and it’s my great pleasure to do so!
I love to do this work because I know from my own experience that when we heal ourselves, we also heal our children: we make the world a better place for the generations to come.


Humanity is like a tree. If you want to take care of a plant, you nourish its roots. We, here and now, are the roots. The branches, flowers, and fruits will come later. We must take care of the roots now, so that the tree can grow beautiful and healthy and strong. That’s the intention behind this work.
It’s worth noting that M’s problems were both physical and emotional. Reference Point Therapy is a technique that works with consciousness itself: since our emotions and body are both simply expressions of our underlying consciousness, this work can help any problem.
What do you think – is it possible that an alternative healing modality can be so powerful? Do you have any experience of RPT yourself? Please share your opinion / experience by leaving a comment… and also give a facebook ‘like’, or share the article. Spread the love!
With love
Ben

ARE YOU A SHEEP? Or are you being YOURSELF?!

Don’t get me wrong – I love sheep. But not when they are pretending to be humans!!  


It was brought to my attention again very recently how un-human many humans are! I came off my bike, and was lying by the side of the road, wondering if I had broken anything. It was here in the hills where I live, and there was no-one around to help me – until a car came along… and passed… the passenger, a metre away, looking through the window, pointing at me, and laughing!


I would say that “I couldn’t believe it”, but the fact is, I wasn’t all that surprised…. something very similar happened to me years ago in London – but that time I was in a busy street, surrounded by literally hundreds of people, and again, not a single person so much as asked if I was ok…



Why is it that people are so uncaring about each other?
I believe that there are many reasons – for example, sometimes people are really in a hurry, caught up in their problems, stressed. But I think that the main reason is that many people are afraid. Afraid of being seen – of being visible. Afraid of being heard. Afraid of what might happen in this unexpected, unusual, extra-ordinary encounter with a stranger. The fact is that many people have become like sheep. Fearful, and ready to do only what they are told.

At the Nuremberg trials, as we all know, the German officers and soldiers responsible for mass murder and genocide stated that they were simply
“following orders”.


I see that many people today are still perfectly happy to follow orders, even if those orders are apparently against what they believe in. For example, recently on French television, an experiment was carried out:
In the documentary, contestants thought they were in a ‘reality t.v. show’. They were told by the T.V. presenter (played by an actor) to electrocute someone for giving wrong answers. The person being ‘electrocuted’ was also an actor, but the ‘contestants’ didn’t know this. And guess what? They were prepared to follow these directions, even to the point where the person being electrocuted could be killed. Actually, this experiment was a replica of a famous scientific research conducted by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s – in which the results were the same.


The times have changed, but human behaviour has not. To me, this shows the extent to which we allow others to take our power from us – if someone is in a position of apparent authority – whether they are a politician, a doctor, or a television presenter! – we are often all too happy to give our power to them.


But there is another side to this. We are not only prepared to follow orders. We are UNPREPARED to act on our own initiative. So many people are so brainwashed by television; advertising; and our education system ( which really educates people how not to think for themselves ) that they actually don’t know how to think for themselves. If they are not told what to do, they tend to do nothing. The great philosopher Bertrand Russell once said:
“Most people would rather die than think. In fact, they do so!”


Of course, we all go through the normal day to day activities, but anything out of the ordinary presents many people with a difficult challenge. So when they come across the unusual situation, for example, of a man at the side of the road underneath a bicycle, they simply point and laugh nervously! I wrote recently about FREEDOM, and how we are often unable to react spontaneously because we are so conditioned by our prejudices, fears, and ideas about the world around us. But I have realised that there is something else which limits people’s freedom in a more fundamental way: this inability to act without being encouraged; given permission; or even being ordered, to do so.


If you came across a person at the side of the road, under a bicycle, would you stop to help? If you were on a carefully organised t.v. show, with a charismatic and powerful presenter who gradually told you to increase the amount of electricity with which you were torturing another fellow contestant, would you?  


Do you have your own voice, with which you are free and unafraid to share your thoughts, opinions, and feelings with other like-minded people? If the answer is YES to any or all of these questions then leave a comment, and let us all know!