Tag: charity

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Excellent teaching moments

You may already know that my charity, The Boulevard Zen Foundation, teaches yoga to kids and moms living in domestic violence shelters (www.BoulevardZen.com).  I was inspired to start the nonprofit after visiting a shelter upon completion of my film, Boulevard Zen.   My experience with domestic violence comes via the domino affect abuse has on families as my father was a victim of child abuse until the age of 12 when his father left for good.  I have also befriended women in my lifetime that have experienced some of the most heinous crimes imaginable.  Domestic violence and child abuse unjustly robs its victims of self-confidence and oftentimes prevents kids from experiencing what we at the foundation call excellent teaching moments.  So when our yoga teachers find a unique opportunity during class to go beyond an actual yoga pose and teach meaningful life lessons, we all succeed.  And the kids remember those lessons and bring that knowledge into their lives while impacting the lives of everyone around them.  Which is why I get excited every time one of our teachers writes to me about an excellent teaching moment. Like today from Carolyn in our San Diego shelter.  It’s what we strive for and are committed to doing:  to be more than just yoga teachers and to impact lives forever. Because those lives are the future of our Nation and of our World.  Namaste – R

 

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Peaceful pool of water

My yoga teacher used that phrase today in Savasana at the end of class. For those who’ve never taken a yoga class, Savasana is the final resting pose when you totally let go and experience the sensations from your practice.  It’s awesome!  It’s also that quiet surrender to your feelings and affects of the physical and mental challenges you just endured. Yoga truly helps you achieve that peaceful pool of water while wringing the body of all sorts of negative things.  Even if it’s practicing Warrior II for 5 minutes a day, pushing the body to limits that challenge your focus and your mind.  So do some yoga and get a little more peaceful.  And staying with that peaceful theme, check out my friend Molly’s Peaceful Offering – she’s amazing!  PS – she’s the beautiful blond at the beginning and the end

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Ode to my sister

I spoke with my sister yesterday after I received her beautiful pictures of my nieces and nephews, including my brother’s children. This holiday season my family is 3,000 miles away, but for sure I’m there in spirit.  And keeping with that holiday spirit, my sister told me she just started my fat burning workouts and intends to lose 12 pounds.  The key word here – intends – as opposed to hopes.  Because with anything you do that requires action, it’s better to set your intentions and make it happen than to hope for something good to happen.  She also told me the first two days her legs were so tired she couldn’t go for her 2 mile walk – which she also just started.  I told her after a week or so that muscle fatigue will get better and she’ll be jogging those miles in no time.  This Ode’s for you sis…

Burn Fat Burn

Sometimes the path seems filled with pain,
but the only thing that hurts is your ego in vain.
Who says you’ll find success by pushing yourself daily,
when the results seem as far as the comet Halley.
But wait, you say, there’s a simple solution,
because reasons and excuses are just an illusion.
So keep on trucking with that positive attitude,
with fat burning workouts there’s no room for platitude.
Always set your intentions and just let’em fly,
no judgment, no worries, to your old ways goodbye!

Merry Christmas Everyone – R

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No judgment

In my opinion, this is the most important lifestyle and yoga principle that everyone should embrace.  And I truly dislike that word should because it implies that one is projecting their personal standards and opinions upon another.  But in this case it applies.  Because whether or not you did or didn’t do something, like shirking a responsibility, or not working out, or partying too much, or being mean to your parents or your dog, well, forget about it and don’t judge yourself for doing it.  It’s in the past and every new moment gives you a new beginning.  No reason to waste energy, effort and feelings on something you can’t change.  Especially when it comes to other people.  Because for sure we can’t change what others do or say.  And why should we or even want to?  That’s what makes life interesting.  The uniqueness of people we meet who impact our lives and help us evolve in whatever subtle or major way.  All this coming from a guy who was once the life of the party who also judged.  Believe me, anyone can change at any given moment, if you really want to.  Or like my father used to say to me in baseball, “you gotta wanna bunt”.  So let go of any judgment you may have for anything you did today or this holiday season.  And I’ll see you tomorrow.  R

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A little above the weather

Monday's Fat Burning Workout

Everyone knows the feeling when the weather’s got you down and you’re ‘a little under the weather’ right?  Well how about turning the tables on today’s bad weather and telling yourself exactly the opposite – that you’re a little above the weather!  Because that weather malaise is just a temporary mindset you can enthusiastically change.  I know for most of you Mother Nature has been rather frigid and snowy and all around nasty, but for those of us in LA it feels like we should be boarding Noah’s Arc right about now.  And since we’re relatively spoiled with our clear blue sunny skies – well, who says you can’t move to LA – it’s especially easy to feel under the weather and fall off your daily routine.  Don’t do it.  Or if you do, just make it one day only, not two or three in a row.  Because while everyone else around you feels a bit more weather-like with each passing day, you’ll be the bright a cheerful one who got your workout in.  For sure you’ll feel better and for sure your positive energy will radiantly affect everyone around you.  And maybe you’ll even motivate your loved ones to do the same, so they can bask in the sunshine of their own positive energy.  So get your 15 Minute Fat Burning Workout in today.  And I’ll see you tomorrow.  R

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Sore in a good way

Saturday's Fat Burning Workout

After my workout this morning I ran into a friend who just started doing my 15 Minute Fat Burning Workouts.  I would describe this twenty-something gal as rather solid, with about 25 pounds excess weight.  She told me she started with Tuesday’s Workout – which happens to be one of the more challenging ones – and that she was “sore in a good way”.  For someone who doesn’t workout much – or at all – being sore was certainly a good thing.  It means the workouts are affecting her muscles in a fatiguingly positive way, opening them up to receive new energy and nutrients, thus making them stronger and firmer.  It’s the sore in a good way feeling that burns fat and conditions the muscles for future workouts, allowing that soreness to diminish over time.  Because that soreness does go away folks.  Although it may return from time to time based on where your body is on any given day – a topic for a future blog – your muscles become accustomed to the workouts and respond more amicably, i.e., no soreness.  So don’t get worried or discouraged, and certainly don’t stop working out just because of a little discomfort.   Always remember: pain is bad, soreness is good.  Enjoy the good with the bad and get your workout in today.  And I’ll see you tomorrow.  R

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Look, you don’t understand

Thursday's Fat Burning Workout

Everybody knows what comes next, right?  I mean, how many times have you heard your best friend or someone you just met say, “Look, you don’t understand”, immediately followed by some reason or another why they’re in that predicament or why they can’t do something.  More importantly, when was the last time you said this? Because whatever reason that follows, and I’m sure it’s a good one, is totally irrelevant.  If you just change your mindset and start thinking of solutions and not reasons for the problems, you’ll be much better off. And soon you’ll be in a much better place.  Case in point:  Last night I met this thirty-something gal who said she lived with her boyfriend for the past 3 years and was not going to marry him because he was the wrong guy.  I asked, why don’t you just be honest with yourself – and with him – and separate amicably so you can both move on? Because with relationships, I said, 3 years becomes 5, then 5 becomes 7, then 7 becomes 10.  And who wants to spend TEN years with the wrong guy.  Pretty stupid if you ask me.  So what does she say, look, you don’t understand.  We have a house and two cats together”.  And I said, well, why not have him buy you out of the house, or you buy him out with an investment partner, let’s say, and you each get a cat.  She just looked at me with a blank stare.  Then I smiled and left thinking, it takes courage to make what anyone might consider as bold and risky moves, but they’re really not.  Keep it simple and honest and stay in the present.  And don’t forget to get your workout in.  Because who doesn’t have 15 minutes a day to respect themselves?  R

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Break the cycle

The cycle of domestic violence occurs when abuse or victimization is passed down from one generation to the next.  More specifically, it’s when children learn destructive behaviors from their parents, and then carry these acceptable behaviors with them into their lives. It must be broken.  Case in point:  Last night a friend called me to talk about his 22 year-old neighbor who was being verbally accosted by her drunken boyfriend.  He said the screaming and shouting from the jackass was so bad that he was concerned for her safety and wasn’t sure what to do.  And this wasn’t the first time this has happened.  In fact, he said it was a regular event.  He also said that when he passes the young gal in the hallway, he feels her insecurity and lack of self-confidence as she always looks away, avoiding any type of eye contact or conversation.  Why does she put up with that crap, and what can he do to help her gain the self-confidence to get rid of the bum, my friend asks?  Breaking the cycle of violence begins with re-building one’s self-worth and turning acceptable behaviors into non-acceptable behaviors.  Like choosing to respect oneself everyday by making healthy choices and by constantly strengthening your body and your mind.  Because it’s all about the choices we make.  And each good choice leads to another good choice, and so on and so on.  So respect yourself and make the healthy choice.  Because anything is possible…if you believe you can.

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Get “Zen in ’10”

Tuesday's Fat Burning Workout

I recently read the average American gains 10-15 pounds during the holiday months.  As crazy as that sounds, people who gain weight around the holidays seem to rationalize it with a New Year’s resolution to lose the weight well before those bikini months.  But why not get “Zen in 10” and start now, two weeks ahead of time, by consciously choosing to eat and drink healthier and beginning a new daily fitness program today – one you can do from the comforts of your own home?  Especially anyone living in the Midwest and on the East Coast – I certainly feel for you! So stop futurizing, as I often say, and keep your thoughts and intentions in the present.  It’s much simpler that way, plus you won’t feel the pressure to perform in the future because of what you did to yourself today.  And when I say get Zen it’s about finding your own personal enlightenment through your thoughts and actions – today.  Not tomorrow because who knows what that will bring.  I should know.  I spent my 20s and 30s futurizing about a life that’s completely different than the one I enjoy today.  So forget about getting back to your workouts and losing that weight in January.  Respect yourself.  And I’ll see you today (and tomorrow) – R

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Yesterday’s Press Release & Anniversary

FAT BURNING WORKOUTS TO BENEFIT WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. – December 9, 2010 – Little did Rich Tola know exactly one year ago today he would premiere a film, start a foundation to help women and children of domestic violence, make a video encyclopedia of yoga poses throughout the streets of Hollywood, and release Rich Tola’s 15 Minute Fat Burning Workouts.   And if you ask Tola, he’ll tell you that his fat burning workouts are fit for a King.  Or a Queen.  Or anyone else in the world, for that matter.  “Anyone can do them.  Whether you’re in shape or 50 pounds overweight”, states Tola. “Each 15 minute full body workout is filled with low-impact, core strengthening, fat burning exercises that are based on yoga principles and really easy to follow.”

10% of proceeds from Rich Tola’s 15 Minute Fat Burning Workouts are donated to his charity, The Boulevard Zen Foundation (www.BoulevardZen.com), teaching yoga to women and children living in domestic violence shelters. “Our teachers empower the kids and moms by using yoga principles to strengthen their bodies and self-esteem,” Tola said.

His movie, Boulevard Zen, the inspiration for the foundation, premiered at Hollywood’s Silent Movie Theatre a year ago today.  Tola wrote, directed and starred in the one-hour drama about one man inspiring the lives of many while overcoming his own challenges.  His video encyclopedia of 100 yoga poses, Rich Tola’s Yoga Survival Guide, was released in September and entertains audiences with Tola teaching yoga in the shower, stuck in traffic, at the LA Zoo, baking cookies, waiting for a bus, and watching “The Ellen Show”.

“15 minutes a day is all you need to establish a daily fitness routine that helps preserve your body and clear your mind,” states Tola.  His motto, Strong Body-Clear Mind, permeates in his work and persona. And the proof is in the pudding:  Tola has worked out daily for more than 30 years, the past five years practicing yoga and teaching 15,000 students. “There’s no question that everyone in the world who’s capable should be doing some form of physical fitness activity every single day,” says Tola.  “Respect yourself.  Especially around the holidays.”  And for only $1.99 per workout, who can’t afford not to?