Gregory Ormson

Writer, musician, yoga-loving motorcyclist.

 WHY I RIDE IN THE DGR = the backstory

I’ve paid attention to stylish clothing since my first job at K-Bliss Men’s Store in Menomonie when I was 16 and took a job arranged by my high school’s distributive education class. I learned from three experienced associates how to match a tie to a dress shirt, how to measure pant legs for tailoring, how to choose the correct size for suits and sport coats, and how to casually suggest accessories like cufflinks, cologne, a second tie, a new belt, or a pocket square.

I enjoyed the job and discovered the sales tactics they taught worked, and I became a good men’s clothing salesman. From the time of that job in high school, I paid some attention to my clothing style and occasionally read men’s fashion magazines at the library.

Many years later, my stylistic sensibilities were piqued when a friend commented about my motorcycle. “Greg, I’ve noticed that bikes are a lot like their owners,” I asked what she meant. “Your bike is sharp, clean, smart like you.” Her compliment charged my ego, and I began studying motorcycle and rider combinations. I realized her observation was accurate.

With an enthusiasm for motorcycling and voguish dress, it’s no surprise that I felt drawn to The Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride (DGR), a motorcycle charity and awareness event with an eye on riding dapper. The DGR was founded in 2012 by Mark Hawwa in Sydney, Australia and has taken place around the world every year since then. Hawwa prefers not to take credit for the ride’s success but turns the focus back to its mission.… read more...

WHY I’m riding in the 13th annual Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride happening worldwide on May 18, 2025. Pledge my ride if you’d like to participate

See link to contribute on my ride-page below.

This will be the 5th year I’m riding in the DGR. With its fundraising focus on men’s health through a partnership with the MOVEMBER FOUNDATION, the DGR has raised over 50 million to support men’s research and treatment of men’s health issues, with a focus on two critically important issues in men’s health: prostate cancer and mental health (particularly suicide prevention).

This year’s event (happening on Sunday) has already registered 172 riders. Last year, Phoenix DGR participants raised over $20,000

Below I include a personal story on how I got started in this ride AND why it’s important to me. But for now, enjoy a few photos from around the world where the DGR will be happening in 121 major cities with dapper riders raising money for men’s health and having fun doing it. And again, if you are inclined, go to my link and drop a dime.

WHY THIS RIDE IS IMPORTANT TO ME AND WHY I RIDE IN THE DGR

I’ve paid attention to stylish clothing since my first job at K-Bliss Men’s fashion store when I was 16 and took a job set up by my high school’s distributive education class. I learned from three experienced associates how to match a tie to a dress shirt, how to measure pant legs for tailoring, how to choose the correct size for suits and sport coats, and how to casually suggest accessories like cufflinks, cologne, a second tie, a new belt, or a pocket square. I enjoyed the job and discovered the sales tactics they taught worked, and I became a good men’s clothing salesman.… read more...

A Short Clip of Fantuzzi’s UNIVERSAL LOVER

At BhaktiFest in Joshua Tree, I watched Fantuzzi play his song, Universal Lover and thought I’d try it. Played here in DADGAD guitar tuning on my Taylor 414ce. I have to be careful with this instrument; it spent four years with me in Hawaii where it was soaked in humidity. The last eight years its been drying in the Arizona desert. Not good for an instrument. But this guitar has a deep resonance I love.… read more...

Hawaii, Yoga, and the Afterword

Ω  Thirteen years ago my yoga song began on the island of Hawaii, the newest and southernmost rock in the Hawaiian archipelago. I watched Pele pour her passion in hand-to-hand combat with ocean waves in a torrent that rocked my reach and stretched my learning. My heated engagement with truth force took place in a salty mist on a luminous cloud where a sea rose & circled back in three steps: breath in purach-ah, breath hold kumbach-ah, and breath out rechakh-ah.

Midwest born & raised; I saw the ocean but didn’t recognize it. The ocean’s blue tabla rasa didn’t reflect my gaze or provide a visible boundry. Sans boundaries or witnesses to corroborate my existence, I wondered if I lived or passed and I found myself gazing to the ocean in steadfast longing, the way everyone sits on a Hawaiian beach. Day and night in Hawaii, tide after tide, a rising moon and setting sun animated dormant memories of the deep & charged life with a persistent, wavy exchange. If wolves lived in Hawaii, they would howl at each tide & sing songs while clawing black rocks to raise a fire and flow.

The Hawaiian Islands were born when elemental opposites met in a forceful, earthly dance: fire and water, soft and hard, sand and foam. Yogis call this a dance of sthira and sukha, steadiness balanced in ease. This balance in the energy of opposites meets in practice & steadfastly holds every yogi through serenity or tsunami. Hatha (competing force) speaks an open sesame to the divine comedy of life prompting an exploration of how we are at once stones and flesh, sphinx, cobra, a warrior, then evolving back to a child in repose.… read more...

Melody of Mass Inspiration in Audiobook form, Yoga Song

AUDIO BOOK FOR YOUR YOGI: read what others are saying about Yoga Song

Yoga Song is a melody of mass inspiration proclaiming to every yogi that their breath is their sacred song and the soundtrack to their journey of transformation. The 21 vignettes in Yoga Song speak to both the skeptic and the true believer. To those who believe yoga’s therapeutic power, they confirm what they already know, that yoga is an augury of transformation and change. To the skeptic, these vignettes hold out a vision of what could happen to you when yoga turns ordinary moments into extraordinary and aligns each yogi with their breathcentric home.

Ormson narrates his story from insights born in the depths of self-discovery, sharing knowledge, understanding, and experience to inspire listeners. Every yoga song unfolds in the yogi as they become instruments of mind, spirit, emotion, energy, and consciousness. In chapters like, “Transforming the Emotional Body,” “Ritual Process and the Yogi’s New Song,” “Armor On, Armor Off: The Psychology of Yin Yoga,” and “Yogatecture: Blueprint of Transformation,” Ormson’s Yoga Song meets you in grace and opens the way for more grace.
Available in 30 platforms worldwide. Listen to your Audible copy by going here: https://www.audible.com/pd/Yoga-Song-Audiobook/B0C3JB7JK1…
What others say about Yoga Song
“I just read much of your book and I appreciate the connections you make and the questions you ask and there is much wisdom there. I appreciate all that you are bringing to your reader’s awareness, and I wish you all the very best with the book and with your continued yoga practice.” Renee Schettler, Editor in Chief, Yoga Journal.
… read more...

A Lightening Strike into Evermore Renewal

IT’S THE CHINESE YEAR OF THE WOOD SNAKE AND I HAVE A SNAKE TALE TO TELL  #690 on the way to 700

While studying at the Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Delhi, I took a day trip to see The Red Fort, a 265-acre complex built in 1546 for the fifth Mughal Emperor of India. Afterward, I stopped at a roadside market to buy fresh mangoes or pineapples. Suddenly, a man with a wicker basket was in front of me. He lifted it to my face, removed the cover, and said, “You want?” as a cobra slowly rose and flexed its hood eight inches from my face.

I bent backward so fast that I thought I’d broken my back as the cobra rose slowly and subtly from the basket as if seeking opportunity, but it was also ready to strike at lightning speed had I posed a threat. A snake is vigilant and alert to opportunity or danger. Since then, I’ve thought about how that cobra moved to position itself right in front of my face.

A snake is a profound example of graceful subtlety as it converts the friction from sideways-to-sideways movement into energy that pushes their body forward, or upward. When the time is right, and after the snake grows, a wrinkled skin peels away making room for new growth.

There are frictions in all our lives, but the snake teaches how to convert friction into movement. Yoga tells us much the same, reminding us to move not in disease or stress or fast herky-jerky movements – like I did bending away from the snake – but with ease while remaining alert.

… read more...

Yoga Song, the audiobook for your yogi

AUDIO BOOK FOR YOUR YOGI:

Yoga Song is a melody of mass inspiration proclaiming to every yogi that their breath is their sacred song and the soundtrack to their journey of transformation. The 21 vignettes in Yoga Song speak to both the skeptic and the true believer. To those who believe yoga’s therapeutic power, they confirm what they already know, that yoga is an augury of transformation and change. To the skeptic, these vignettes hold out a vision of what could happen to you when yoga turns ordinary moments into extraordinary and aligns each yogi with their breathcentric home.
Ormson narrates his story from insights born in the depths of self-discovery, sharing knowledge, understanding, and experience to inspire listeners. Every yoga song unfolds in the yogi as they become instruments of mind, spirit, emotion, energy, and consciousness. In chapters like, “Transforming the Emotional Body,” “Ritual Process and the Yogi’s New Song,” “Armor On, Armor Off: The Psychology of Yin Yoga,” and “Yogatecture: Blueprint of Transformation,” Ormson's Yoga Song meets you in grace and opens the way for more grace.



Available in 30 platforms worldwide. Listen to your Audible copy by going here: https://www.audible.com/pd/Yoga-Song-Audiobook/B0C3JB7JK1...



What others say about Yoga Song:



“I just read much of your book and I appreciate the connections you make and the questions you ask and there is much wisdom there. I appreciate all that you are bringing to your reader’s awareness, and I wish you all the very best with the book and with your continued yoga practice.” Renee Schettler, Editor in Chief, Yoga Journal.
“Your writing is very good and would be ideal if you ever fancy contributing on any regular basis, especially in our OM spirit section.”
… read more...

The Black Box of America, a poem by Gregory Ormson

This poem and image was originally published November 20, 2024 by Oddball Magazine. Editors calling it “a monster piece.”

The Black Box of America

Few people called a spade a spade
before the country went up in flames.
-Anon

No one missed that country
Men were soft, angry, and violent
Life was brutal and unforgiving
Pretentious and vacuous

Decisions and mutations were cut
in candle-lit back rooms, women were victims
They grabbed what they wanted
Fooled by the same illusion driving men, CONTROL

In apocalyptic bunkers
Dark physicians sang Odes to depression
Men were sheep and folded quickly
Not crying, but telling

Terrifying stories of bad things
Children were frightened and dogs were wild
No one cared about their neighbor
Everyone pretended at everything

The winner’s faces were tan, they lifted weights
Arenas were filled with men and women
Fighting women and men
Everything broke except the glass ceiling

Yuppies kept on building, kept sailing
Went on painting their ceilings
White, of course,
Ignorantly marched toward the future

They cheered the New Year
Hell, everyone cheered the New Year
And drove ATV’s and big boats
Rednecks toasted Monster Trucks as they mashed tiny Japanese cars

Christians decorated Christmas trees in suburban homes
To shots of Irish Crème or Asti
They drank while listening to strains of Bing Crosby’s
White Christmas on their stereo

They made yellow popcorn strings and dutifully attached them to the Green branches.
A ritual ‘round a tree,’ but nobody knew why
There were no ritual elders, there was no ritual wisdom
There was no embodiment of grace

After New Year’s celebrations and narcissistic resolutions
And the dark, wasted days of another empty year,
They awoke bored, helpless, angry at mothers and fathers
Sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, children and in-laws

The population chugged bourbon in the afternoon
And on vacation, they counted numbers in their bankbooks
Children were confused, scared, frozen
Occasionally they trusted a teacher

Once they trusted a priest, just once
But in time, their trust was betrayed
Their faces, tight and alarmed
They suffered daily with headaches and stomachaches

Kids starved for attention
But they got dollar bills
Parents screamed at them
Hurt and eating hot dogs

A 21st Century Recipe For Disaster:
Take a young man and put him in a high-powered car.… read more...

America’s Most Famous Bike: shown in 5 magazines, 4 newspapers, 2 alumni publications and several blogs. You can rent it through Riders Share . . . read on

American Classic

Here is America’s Most Famous Bike – Priscilla –  in the November 2024 issue of American Rider Magazine. She is also in stories written for Thunder Press, OM Yoga Magazine, The Taj Mahal Review, and AZ Rider News; find Priscilla in newspaper stories for: The Green Bay Press Gazette, The Wausau Daily Herald, The Mesa Tribune, and The Mining Journal; stories for University Alumni Publications (University of Wisconsin La Crosse, and Northern Michigan University), and three online publications: Yahoo.com, The Phoenix Indian Center, and the Riders’ Share Blog.

 

Photo in Thunder Press (now American Rider)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video link from my friend Ram Hernandez.

QR DISCOUNT Code to rent Priscilla through Riders Share.

HARLEY-DAVIDSON TOURING ROAD KING (TWO TONE) for rent near Mesa, AZ – Riders Share (riders-share.com

You can rent Priscilla too but be good to her.

… read more...

Pyramid Scheme: a date with Arizona’s mysterious pyramid tombs.

 

Hello Motorcycle friends. American Rider Magazine, the journal of the International Big Twin community, has published my story and many photos of an incredible mototour to Arizona’s three pyramid-tombs.  These pyramid-tombs, like the people inside, are mysterious, memorable, majestic, and located in Quartzsite, Florence, and Papago Park in Phoenix. The digital version of American Rider is available at American Rider (dot) com; you’ll see great stops along the way: Dateland Travel Oasis off I-8, The Readers’ Oasis Bookstore in Quartzsite, and The River Bottom Grill on why 79 between Phoenix and Tucson.

 

The specter of pyramids rising from the desert seems more Egyptian than Arizonan, yet for more than 100 years, three pyramids holding the bones of Arizona leaders, explorers, and visionaries have dotted the desert spaces of Arizona.  And even though the desert is a place fitter for camels than people, I jumped on my Harley Davidson to visit these pyramid tombs which for Arizona’s first Governor, George P. Hunt in Phoenix, Hi Jolly the camel herder in Quartzite, and Charles D. Poston (Arizona’s first Congressional Representative) in Florence.

 

Riders yearning to see tilted Americana or cruise the roads less traveled will find unique memorials in these structures of masonry, quartz, fieldstone, basalt, petrified wood, and mortar, and in Poston, fragments from an early Indigenous American structure. Visiting all three will take about 8 hours of riding time, but if you giddy-up on the fast track, the trip can be done with one overnight stay. Since I live in the Phoenix area, my pyramid trifecta began on Interstate 10 by going west into Arizona’s Outback.… read more...

The Ghosts Are Full Here As The Hungry Half Moon Rises

 

And so am I, full with the imprints of time and memory. I am rich in soul, yet I’m hungry for more. It’s not a feast I want, I keep my appetite for all things in moderation, but I want what singer Sam Garrett wants, “More life, more blessings; more peace, more unity.” It’s easy to find in the solitude I am offered here at a cabin in the north, but peace and unity exist on flimsy ground, like whisps of smoke dispersing at the slightest wind.

 

Through the years, I’ve discovered ghosts here in the souls of people whose ashes have been spread on the lake shore. By here, I mean “The Old-Style Place,” a cabin that has been in the family for 50 years. Rustic, well-built, no running water, no bathroom, just an outhouse. Honoring the remnants of life’s past is part of my yearly visit here, just as it was for those who left their relatives on the shore.

 

In the Spring, one chore involves cleaning the outhouse; this means removing snake skins, sweeping away mounds of spider webs, and mopping up dust. Many people would not like this place. Tonight, I note the silence and half full Buck Moon, a cipher in the sky hiding behind branches of the large pines.

 

Imprints remain from those who sat on the dock while watching the western sun set over the lake. Many of them have passed on: my parents, a childhood friend, an uncle, a few aunts, grandparents, and other friends and family.
They’re all here.… read more...

Two-part Video and Written Review of KEMIMOTO’S Windshield Extender on a Honda Rebel and a Harley-Davidson Road King

(Discount code included) at the end of this post as KEMIMOTO is celebrating their 13th anniversary. Use AFF17 for 17% off no threshold discount on this $79 product.

KEMIMOTO’S Windshield Extender is a fantastic buy to reduce the wind blast to their forehead, stop the rain before it gets to your neck and chest, and keep the desert heat off your forehead. In these two videos, I show this product mounted on a narrow and small windshield for a Honda Rebel. Part II, completed in Arizona, shows the same extender on my Harley Davidson Road King.

Good things about this product – and a recommendation for improvement:

  1. It absolutely cuts down on wind blast. This was important for my daughter who sits above the current windshield and the blast landed in her face. Even better, in Arizona where we ride in over 100 degrees nearly every day, it diminishes hot air to the face.
  2. The hardware on this extender is very solid, I do not see it wearing out for a long time. This includes the connection to the windshield itself which is key. I will show you in the second video, and photos here, how the rubber pieces protect the windshield and hold the extender in place. I was traveling at 70mph, and they held solidly; the extender attached to the bike windshield without scratching it, and without shifting around when riding.
  3. I love the ease and speed of installation and removal.  Right out of the box I set it up in about 10 minutes with the two small hex wrenches included in the shipping package.
… read more...

Sunburst Amber Fractions and A Hat Full of Rain

A magnetic north of the heart draws me back again. It’s all rain and wind in my beloved Midwest where dusk is augmented by a beautiful amber-orange sunset. It means fires are raging in the west and people are getting hurt.




I’m reading, Let It Be Told In A Single Breath, by Michigan poet Russell Thorburn. He prods me to take a slow, big breath before speaking. My yoga training opened the wisdom of this act, and now, I'll tell it in a single breath and in my northern tongue where the Ojibwe have influenced my wild outlook.


But my telling will be, as Emily Dickinson counseled, slant or in burnished red angle.


This slant tells of coffee and root beer, motorcycles, music, and slow-motion videos of grandchildren appearing ever so resilient in ligament and laughter. We’re all on a journey, delicate and mysterious, held in place perhaps by rubbery ligaments only.

This trip north has placed me back on sidewalks I traversed in my youth when a long-haired, three-piece rock band from Flint, Michigan sang of the Grand Funky Railroad Closer to Home. Aging in slow motion, I grow closer to home and deeply grateful as the years go by.








For a long time now, I’ve used music and prose to navigate my life: guitars, drums, banjos, fiddles, mandolins, and lyrics, like this favorite by Tom Waits, an important anthem to someone like me who sucks at Capitalism.

“Money’s just something you throw off the back of a train. Got a head full of lightning. A hat full of rain.
… read more... 
RESPLENDENT PASSAGES: Motorcycling to a Yoga Festival, Diaries in Soul Craft




Motorcycling many miles is one way to participate in a mythic American grand narrative. It looks like a story of freedom and independence, but that is not real. If you think freedom and independence is real, then try being truly free and independent and see what happens.




The grander narrative, one animating dreamers everywhere, is change, and the will to leave a better world for our children and children’s children. I’ll embody that mantle anytime and do my part to create that story. I choose to bear this weight even if my shoulders are heavy and draped with an old story of Stoll and yoke.


On my bike, handlebars into the wind, riding above the suck, bang, and blow of explosions under me, I’ve searched out places of vision and intent.


Riding to Wyoming’s Red Desert — from Upper Michigan — for a three-day vision quest, my guide explained how and why I had to cleanse myself for unseen encounters. He did not say it, but I learned that if I were not truly prepared and if my ego was not set aside and my aggression diminished, the crows would pick me apart and drive me far away from their land. Wyoming’s Red Desert is like Hawaii that way. “If you are a prick,” a guy in Hawaii told me, “The island will kick you off.”


Without preparation and a willingness to listen and learn from a guide; without training and preparation to lay down an honest oath and true intention, I would not have heard an ancient ocean singing its song beneath the hardened desert sand in Wyoming; I would not have learned how I was to hold the bowl; I would not have learned that in Hawaii, gardens and graves grow up through lava and bend toward the ocean; I would not have learned from a geologist in Upper Michigan — based on gouges in the dark rock — which way the glacier went; I would not have learned where, in the far north, dragon and damselflies emerge, crawl, hatch and take flight for their brief, acrobatic life.
… read more... 
Yoga Song, the audiobook – an instrument of mass inspiration and soundtrack to your yoga journey






Coming up on gift giving season, here’s an audiobook for your yogi so they can listen while driving to class. Yoga Song is an instrument of mass inspiration in 21 vignettes and five original songs. 




Hear my integrative description of the humble warrior pose in “Yogi, Heal Thyself,” or the excavation of emotion rising up during the heart-lifting arc of a camel pose in “Making Heroes,” and the affirming mystery of yoga’s therapy falling upon your ears in “Yoga, A Breathcentric Community.” There is more, just follow this link for LANTERN audio presentation of Yoga Song. Sample included below:













Yoga Song available on LANTERN Audiobooks, Audible, Kindle, Apple Books, Bookbeat, audioboo


ks.com, audiobooksnow.com, downpour.com, Findaway, Google Play, Biblioteha LLC, Baker & Taylor, Follett Library Services, and 10 others, Hoopla, Kindle, Macklin Educational Resources, Overdrive, Kobo, Libro.FM, Nook Audio, Scribd, and Odilo and more.




While you listen, yoga’s song will fall upon your heart, register in your body, and spark new life in your mind and spirit. I narrate this book with my conviction that breath is yoga’s song, and when you breathe doing yoga, you are singing your sacred song, a yoga song of renewal for your body, mind, and spirit.


Hear Yoga Song on your way to yoga class, traveling this summer, or when resting in your comfortable place. Thank you, and please tell your friends about Yoga Song as a LANTERN Audiobook available NOW at $8.99 through Lantern as your 2 hour and 32 minute inspirational yoga companion in music and narration.


… read more... 
 Utah’s Old Skool Motorcycle Rally in Panguitch, UT. See my preview in June’s American Rider Magazine


Not long ago, a guy from Alaska called and said he wanted to rent my Harley Davidson Road King, asking about my “famous” bike “Priscilla.” I said it was available and he was in. She is pictured in this month’s issue of American Rider accompanying the rally preview


BIKERS, all I can say is that you ought to go up to Panguitch, Utah to do the rally. You won’t regret it, cause it’s hot and it’s cool. . . .   back to Priscilla.


Priscilla has been pictured in magazine stories I’ve written for Thunder Press, American Rider, OM Yoga Magazine, The Taj Mahal Review, and AZ Rider News; Priscilla has also been in newspaper stories for: The Green Bay Press Gazette, The Wausau Daily Herald, The Mesa Tribune, and The Mining Journal; two University Alumni Publications (University of Wisconsin La Crosse, and Northern Michigan University), three online publications: Yahoo.com, The Phoenix Indian Center, and the Riders’ Share Blog.


Check out her latest pose here in June’s American Rider from a photo I took by the red rocks of the Grand Canyon’s North entrance.


See link below to rent this bike on the RIDERS SHARE platform (the Airbnb of motorcycling).


AND keep


scrolling for photos from the 2023 rally




 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


Yoga Magazine, UK




Thunder Press (at the time) now American Rider




The Mining Journal, Marquette, Michigan


 


OM Yoga Magazine, UK


 




The Taj Mahal Review, Allahabad, India




Northern Michigan University Alumni Magazine




Yoga Magazine, UK






 


 


 


 


 


 




UW La Crosse, Alumni Magazine The Lantern




 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


American Rider Magazine




The MESA Tribune, Mesa, AZ






 


 


 


 


 


 








And a cool video link from my friend Ram Hernandez riding this bike









Here is my link to rent this bike through Riders Share


HARLEY-DAVIDSON TOURING ROAD KING (TWO TONE) for rent near Mesa, AZ – Riders Share (riders-share.com)… read more... 
Six Gears and a Mountain Ride –   Mechanical Breakdown and Communication Rescue


A Riders Share Owner’s Story


Nobody wants a mechanical breakdown – ever! But think of your bike out with a renter and he is a thousand miles out on the ride. Worse, the nearest repair facility is over 100 miles away; and your bike and renter are stranded on a remote mountain road. You don’t want a breakdown then, but that’s what happened to Jose, my Riders Share client.




Jose rented my bike for a nine-day trip and was joined for a Southwest U.S. tour by his group of longtime friends. They had created their own bikers club and had taken group trips before. As they took off from the Phoenix east valley, I watched their social media posts and adventured out through Arizona, New Mexico, and into Colorado, logging miles and smiles. Jose was posting maps on Instagram, and on one I saw bikers in leather lay down on their backs to carve snow angels high in the Rockies – something people in Guadalajara, Mexico don’t do.


On the sixth day, my phone lit up with a call from Mexico. It was Jose, stranded in mid-Colorado, deep in a canyon. Through a crackling and intermittent connection, I understood Jose to say there was a problem with the shifter. He was going to call Rider’s Share as the bike was inoperable. An engineer by trade, he accepted that mechanical problems do happen, metal parts give out, and he was gracious about the situation. The most important thing is that he and his wife were okay. From then on, we kept in contact by text.… read more... 
Thank you India for International Yoga Day and sharing yoga with the world


On International Yoga Day last year, Rochak Press of India Published Yoga Song. For sale on Amazon India at 1,417.92 rupees it looks odd and sounds expensive for people in the Earth’s most populated country, but a rupee is 0.012 U.S. dollars (India’s population recently passed China at 1.42 billion).


Even with a robber baron-sounding price, Yoga Song has generated interest from publicity in The Taj Mahal Review, Cyberwit, and the powerhouse book sellers Shree Hanumanth of India. Om Yoga Magazine (UK) Asana International Yoga Journal (India), and American Rider Magazine have also alerted their reading audiences to this book and I thank them.




I’ve been grateful for reviews, comments, and exposure from individuals who’ve written on Amazon or directly to me. And I’m grateful for opportunities to offer Yoga Song for sale here in the U.S.


My thanks to all who helped me with these two big undertakings: editors and book-format people for the paper version, and audio executives and sound engineers at Lantern Audiobooks. My friend Charlie Harvin, living in Bulgaria, designed the cover. People have complimented its look.


This year I recorded Yoga Song through Lantern Audiobooks, and it is now available on Lantern and 30 other worldwide distribution networks. On some it’s free with a trial and on others, less than five bucks.


Listen in to Yoga Song, an instrument of mass inspiration in 21 vignettes and five original songs. let the songs fall upon your heart, register in your body, and spark new life in your mind and spirit. Breath is yoga’s song, and when you breathe doing yoga, you are singing your love song to yourself.… read more... 
Yoga Song – listen in for free


With your Barnes and Noble trial subscription you can now get Yoga Song as an audiobook for free. Driving this summer, listen in to this high quality Lantern audiobook in five songs and 21 chapters for an integrative description of the Humble Warrior Pose in “Yogi, Heal Thyself,” an excavation of emotions rising up during the heart-lifting arc of a camel pose in “Making Heroes,” and the affirming mystery of yoga’s therapy falling upon you in “Yoga, A Breathcentric Community,” and much more.


… read more... 
Pyramid Tomb Tour of Arizona: mysterious, memorable, and majestic


Hello Motorcycle friends. American Rider Magazine (journal of the International Big Twin community) will soon publish my story and many photos of an incredible mototour to Arizona’s three pyramid-tombs. They’re mysterious, memorable, and majestic – like the people buried inside – and they’re located in Quartzsite, Florence, and Papago Park in Phoenix. You can check out the digital version of American Rider coming up in November where you’ll also find a bonus Youtube video of the “Naked Bookseller,” in Quartzsite, or better yet, get a subscription to the magazine to read about my tour and great stops along the way: Dateland, The Readers’ Oasis Bookstore, and The River Bottom Biker Grill).


More information coming soon in American Rider.




 


 


 


 


 


 


 … read more... 
“Playing in Space: a yogic way of being,” the 102nd of my #yogainspirationals in March, 2023 Om Yoga Magazine


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 




Her comment had me think about yoga as play in space. Playing doesn’t eliminate effort and the physical work of asana, but I think it can lighten the mental aspect and open a sense of joy in us that may be a timely renewal point.


In the book, Work, Play, and Worship in a Leisure-Oriented Society, Author Gordon Dahl issued a stern critique of American culture when he wrote, “We work at our play, worship our work, and play at our worship.” Dahl maintained that we miss the point of all three if our intentions are misaligned with our actions.


From the age of 16, and through college, I had to work part-time at my father’s grocery store, and since I had to spend a lot of time there, I never liked going into the grocery store as an adult. We are required to work for our living, and work is satisfying when it’s something aligned with who and what we are, but at 16 I was just doing it from necessity, and it wasn’t my intended career.


In time, I started thinking about my avoidance of grocery stores and realized the problem was me, so I set out to change my perception (an important aspect of yoga life according to Patanjali). I tried to make grocery store visits fun by putting a smile on my face and offering random comments to people. Occasionally, I stopped to juggle oranges or avocados. Now when I go to a grocery market, I tend to frame it as play.… read more... 
Excerpt, A Motorcycle Ride in Mexico


Dust eats away at my skin. The leather I wear makes every minute an inferno on the motorcycle. Heat explodes up my ass, creeping past crack and sack to pillage my spine and overburden my shoulders. But I am an adult, I am in Mexico, I have documents and a clean record; I can drink, buy drugs, or pay to make fantasies come true. I can also do none of that, or get a ticket to take the pirate ship and sail into the mystic with tourists, eating as much shrimp and drinking as much Dos Equis XX lager as I can handle while daydreaming in the Zen of a blue sea.


Deeper and deeper in a broken territory I’m riding a two-wheeled track called risk. It’s as if reality stalls and the motorcycle dances in time with the dazzling sun of Mexico. With eyes to see, anyone looking around would swear Salvador Dali painted the street where bar balconies, groaning under the weight of heavy bikers, bows like snow-covered branches. On the third floor of the Iguana Banana, above the balcony facing the Malecon, a band is kicking out a version of Bowie’s “Five Years.” Inside the Iguana, I sing along with them, “A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest, and a queer threw up at the sight of that.”


In tune or out of tune, nobody cared, as the thump-thump of Evolutions announced the schedules be damned ‘cause the party’s on, and ripe are the two-legged coyotes primed for this biker party happening everywhere. One, in fringed buckskin and patches, says he’s from the land of Geronimo.… read more... 
Rocky Point Rally – Motorcycling in Mexico as reported in American Rider Magazine January, 2022


It’s almost as if reality stalls and the motorcycle dances in time with the dazzling sun of Mexico. With eyes to see, anyone looking around would swear Salvador Dali painted the street where bar balconies, groaning under the weight of heavy bikers, hang low like winter branches and the thump-thump of Big Twins announce ‘schedules be damned’ the party is on.


 


Get your issue of American Rider Magazine where you can learn: the technical aspects of motorcycles and motorcycling, racing and race events, homages to motorcycling and its history, insight on the bike-building profession, riding equipment, and a lot more. Reading any article over the last year, I’ve wanted to get out and do it. Isn’t that the purpose of writing about motorcycling? 


Click on these photos below for my article in American Rider on the November 2022 Rocky Point Rally in Mexico.
















All photos by Oliver Touron. Big kudos to American Rider Ed. Kevin Duke


Rocky Point Rally next year anyone?… read more... 
See you at The Foundry Yoga in Tempe, AZ, on Saturday morning. Copies of YOGA SONG are available.


Four reviewers from Canada, the UK, Ohio, and Wisconsin have published their review on Amazon.  Here’s a quick sampling: “This is a must-read for anyone who loves yoga, or is simply interested in what it feels like to be completely present and fully connected.” Sara Highfield, yoga teacher, International Yoga Model, and regular columnist for OM Yoga Magazine, UK.


“A beautiful book inside the journey of the soul. One of my favorite chapters is “Seeking Treasure.” It’s a must read, and I really enjoyed it. Probably in the top ten books I’ve read in my whole life.” Pamela WB, poet, yogi, and psychologist from Canada.


“Dr. Ormson’s languid language, sonorous sounds, and poetic prose invites us to sit on a yoga mat under the Bodhi trees of our lives. His brave brilliance and sage-like invitation to the initiation of yoga . . . will help you to find the yoga mats of your existence. Rev. Bob Ahern, Ph.D., Zen practitioner and professor of the year at the Ohio State University.


“Dr. Ormson explains how and why yoga can help us to heal emotionally, physically, and spiritually, which is very comforting in these troubling and broken times. Highly recommend!” Mary Pulvermacher, light worker and student in Wisconsin.


From YOGA SONG  


As we do yoga in motion with attention, or sit in stillness, we come to embody the counsel of its ethics. As we do yoga, we take its wisdom into our bodies and minds where sacred self and ordinary human meet in the depths of our nature . . .


This breath is yoga’s song, arising within a body electric that is both unique and universal.… read more... 
The Song of the Harley and Yoga’s Song. Listen in to Amanda Kingsmith’s podcast episode this week on Mastering the Business of Yoga as we discuss motorcycling, yoga, stress, and more




Mastering the Business of Yoga #mbom is an entrepreneurial podcast created by Amanda Kingsmith, a yogi-businesswoman who’s conducted interviews with yoga practitioners and business owners for over five years now. Great tips from yogi business owners big and small are curated by Amanda and broadcast on M. B. OM, her podcast. This week, I am Amanda’s guest, so tune in to hear about teaching at the interlap between motorcycling and yoga. At the end, I read a few paragraphs from my book, YOGA SONG.


FROM AMANDA: This week on the podcast, I am joined by Gregory Ormson. Gregory is a yoga teacher, an author, and a passionate biker. His yoga writing is published in 23 national and international magazines, journals, and online sites with over 5 million dedicated readers. Some of his articles have logged nearly 400,000 views and have been shared over 7000 times.




Known as #motorcyclingyogig, Gregory has taught yoga for bikers since 2017 at Superstition Harley Davidson, the only dealership in the country to hold yoga classes in its facility. Gregory first came on the podcast back in 2017 to share his business and unique niche with listeners, and he is back today to share how things have been going, what he’s learned through his career, as well as a little bit about his new book, Yoga Song. Enjoy!


Discussed in this episode:


    

  • Offering yoga for bikers in a Harley Davidson store for over five years
    • 

  • How Gregory markets his classes to other people
    • 

  • Aiming for an inspirational teaching strategy in yoga
    • 

  • Learning to relax in the midst of stressful situations
    • 

  • Important business lessons Gregory has learned over the years
    • 

  • Having a genuine desire to get to know people and understand them
    • 

  • Learning more about Gregory’s book, Yoga Song
    • 

  • And much more… Here is the episode!
… read more... 
Of Gardens and Graves, a story from Hawaii




Gathering with friends to celebrate my birthday in Hawaii, my good fortune tricked me into thinking I had earned such leisure. Ocean waves crashed up on the island and giant palm leaves swayed in the wind. Hawaiian music playing from a house next door accompanied the party as we talked our way through the euphoria that comes from the first sips of alcohol.


That afternoon I started playing, for probably the 300th time, “The Last Nail” a song by Dan Fogelberg. It’s not a love song or a song with a happy romantic arc, but a song I had turned to when I was a long way from home or in a time of introspection – like a birthday.


Its about the final nail which closed the coffin of a relationship. Realizing it had ended, he delivers a poignant and deep-diving lyric.


“I hear you’ve taken on a husband and child and live somewhere in Pennsylvania


I never thought you’d ever sever the string, but I can’t blame you none.”


I continued and played The Last Nail’s lyrical sarcophagus to the end.


 


“We walked together through the gardens and graves


I watched you grow to be a woman


living on promises that nobody gave to no one


they were given to no one.”


For years, the song was a catharsis and helped me accept the reality of a gradual goodbye. She wasn’t in Pennsylvania, but she lived close to Pennsylvania, and a long way from where I was.


On the beach, the sun moved from a bright white to a muted orange as my party day crawled toward dusk.… read more... 
YOGA SONG review Amazon




The first review of YOGA SONG by Mary is now published on Amazon. Thank you, Mary! If you have read YOGA SONG, please go to Amazon and add your review.
















From Chapter 7 “A Child Leads,” in YOGA SONG








A toddler’s openness and enthusiasm mean they don’t distinguish between yoga or weightlifting, and they don’t compartmentalize yoga as either fitness or enlightenment; they simply see it as something adults are doing and they join because it looks fun and natural. The example of children will benefit yogis to do what they do:


1. embody the song this is fun.’


2. practice when they want and quit when they want


3. receive a gift more profound than they can imagine


4. relieve self from the punishing drive for perfection or correctness


5. practice and let yoga flow, allowing it to bloom when the conditions are right


6. learn by copying what others do and enjoy, doing so to the best of our ability


7. forget about evaluation or comparison, rather be fully present to enjoy the moment






More where this came from by going to Amazon or Barnes and Noble to order YOGA songs.


… read more... 
A Rider, a Monster Truck, and a Friends Last Ride


In May, before leaving Arizona on a 6000 mile summer trip, I bought a toy “monster truck.” I planned to use it in  commemoration for a deceased friend when a few of us would meet near Lake Superior.


Our friend loathed monster trucks and saw them as an American hyper-egoistic association with vehicles and a nutty obsession for more and more engine power and size. He thought of monster trucks as the perfect symbols of aggression, senseless destruction, and waste.


A lot of our travel this summer was on the Interstate system. I realize I didn’t enjoy it. The Interstate is no longer a gateway to the great American road adventure; it’s more like the great American road nightmare where games of bravado are played out by aggressive drivers with big rigs that come dangerously close to disaster on a regular basis.


In our commemoration for P.R., we talked about his love for travel and decided that I should take him for a final ride back to Arizona in the green toy monster truck. There were no hard and fast rules about what I was to do with P’s spirit riding along, but a loose suggestion that I might leave him (and the monster truck) in some public place where anyone could pick him up and take him on a continuing journey.


I thought I’d leave it (him) somewhere along Route 66, a road symbolizing the lost optimism of a wide-open American dream; a route marked by a faded joy in scenic adventure-travel, meals in friendly small-town highway café’s, and nostalgia for the history of an open road and open people.… read more... 
Yoga Song


Available Tuesday on International Yoga Day from Rochak Press




https://rochakpublishing.com/book-details.php?bid=574&isbn=9788182539594… read more... 
Read what others say about Gregory Ormson’s songs of redemption and transformation in Yoga Song.    


“Your writing is very good and would be ideal if you ever fancy contributing on any regular basis, especially in our OM spirit section.” Martin Clark, ed., Om Yoga Magazine UK


“Gregory eloquently expresses from a place of depth and authenticity, inviting his readers to fully partake in the journeys he shares.” Cassandra Bright, Gilbert, Arizona


“Greg, you are a remarkable writer!  I found it really interesting because so often we think about what yoga gives to us or what we get but very rarely do we think about what we give to the practice.  I think what you wrote was thought provoking and absolutely beautiful expression. Leley Pelkey, Phoenix, Arizona


The book has been beautifully written and its words are well crafted. It will undoubtedly inspire students of yoga.  Dr. Yogananth Andiappan, Hong Kong, Asana Journal, ed.,


“Your description of yoga as martial art of the soul, I love it, awesome.” Christen Tanner, Mesa, Arizona


“You are a very talented writer and storyteller, Greg. Congratulations on being published in Om Yoga Magazine and for sharing your path to self-discovery. You are an inspiration.” Bobbie Schmidt, Marana, Arizona


“This writing is really interesting and deserves to be in top 5 Google Search Results.”  Sergio E (via Webpage email).


“Your articles interest our readers and that’s why we allocate pages every month in our magazine. Your view – and writing – of yoga practice is amazing.” Joe (sub-editor) Asana Journal


Yogi G! I feel so honored to have met Gregory while leading music and yoga . . . we have collaborated several times for Sound Meditations and Kirtan Cacao Ceremonies .… read more... 
YOGA SONG arriving on the 8th International Yoga Day, June 21, 2022


Yoga Song is a story of transformation and redemption in 23 lyric vignettes from Dr. Gregory Ormson. Yoga Song’s author states there’s a song at the center of all time, being, and structure, and there’s a song in the center of yoga. 


The instrument of a yoga song is the yogi’s body which includes: mind, spirit, emotion, energy, and consciousness. In a breathcentric yoga practice, yogis experience its transforming and therapeutic power where ordinary moments stretch into extraordinary.


Rochak Publishing ISBN: 978-93-88125-90-1 INR 200 US $ 15 — 109 pages. Available International Yoga Day June 21, 2022 www.cyberwit.net and on Amazon


ENDORSEMENTS FOR YOGA SONG: 


“I am planning on taking 200 hour teacher training, and seeing your article yesterday, I was inspired to keep following my heart. I need to buy the book!” Pamela WB, Edmonton, Alberta


“I have been thinking of branching out and writing about my yoga practice so this is a big inspiration.” Dr. Chad Faries, Savannah , Georgia


“I am very glad to see you doing yoga Gregory. It is so good for the body and mind.” Sam Paul Raj, Chennai, India


“Thank you for a wonderful story.” Tee Daly, Austin, Texas


From chapter 3


Yoga’s song doesn’t just make a song with us, it opens us and makes us ready to receive a new song. This is the way of yoga’s song composition in, of, and through every asana in motion and stillness.


In a melody of motion, balanced by stillness, I open to gravity’s shaping no matter how I fail. I do yoga linked to breath in the moment.… read more... 
OM YOGA MAGAZINE, Yoga, the Sailing Forth


A day after moving into my apartment in Hawaii, I was on the floor with back pain. I had endured many injuries: at 10, I bounced off a trampoline and landed on the ground, a second back injury I endured while weightlifting, and yet again in my 40’s when I fell from a high roof.


In Hawaii, I noticed signs for yoga studios everywhere and I started thinking about claims I had heard regarding yoga and healing for back pain. One day, in a desperate attempt to fix my damaged back and with no background or knowledge of yoga, I decided to try it and hoped to find something to make me strong in my broken places. I feared collapsing in the hot yoga room, but was also confident that if my back held up I would too.


I planned to try yoga for 30 days and then decide if I would continue. I made it through 24 classes that month. My resolve was galvanized and my hope for healing ignited. In my journal entry I wrote, Yoga is the way to go for healing back pain. It’s so simple, why don’t more people do it?  But my transformation from injury to healing went beyond my back as yoga steered me into deep waters.


“Sail forth – steer for the deep waters only


Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee and thou with me”


American poet Walt Whitman in, “Passage to India,” from Leaves of Grass


I continued with yoga and wrote about my experience because I thought my practice in a heated room would also benefit me in other ways.… read more... 
Out-of-Body Yoga: get in on the last two sessions at Superstition Harley Davidson in April (at the most beautiful setting for yoga in Arizona)


















It’s no longer surprising when a first-timer says “This is the best thing ever. I feel like I had an out-of-body experience.”


It’s not surprising because yoga fully anchors the physical body in the moment. If someone has not really been present in their body, but focused on what they are doing while forgetting about themselves, yoga and grounding in the present moment through breath and movement will feel foreign . . . . almost like an out of body experience. But in fact it’s just the opposite.


The yogis have told us for centuries that the body is not just the physical self: they believed what we see is a layer over four other layers which they called koshas. Koshas consist of the biological body — the one we see — but unseen layers are breath or the ethereal (which gives life); consciousness; spirituality, and the mental body.


When we get into the physical body, we also get into the spiritual body, the mental body, the ethereal body, and the consciousness body. This may be what some people feel for the first time doing yoga.


Spirituality is in our body even if most spirituality doesn’t honor this fact. Humans are spiritual by nature. This (spirituality) is not the same as holding a particular religion or belief system; rather, spirituality and the nature of being is not based on creed or belief for it is truly beyond definition.


Can anyone sufficiently package a multifaceted human being into into a summary or belief system? I’d say no, because mystery is at the center of human experience and being.… read more... 
Stepping to a New Parade led by an Old Song


Yoga teaches us to be still and live in a way formed by new dimensions from an old script. It levels our judgments and brings us to the healing ground of calm detachment while simultaneously counseling us through yamas and niyamas to say and do the right things.


In the pressured spaces of post-Modernism and its perilous stress, yoga moves us to meet a difficult world and greet it with equanimity. Yoga’s song teaches us to expand the being out of which we live and move as we practice, study, and seek to discover who we are as we lean into the fullness of Self.


In that center, lessons of motion and stillness teach us to extend our range of motion, deepen our breath and fill our lungs, lengthen the stretch of our spine, and grow the reach of our limbs in space.


To fully inherit yoga’s spiritual science we breathe deeply, only to release and enter the realm of OM. Yoga formed in the crucible of scholarship and exercise will empty and then fill the thinking reed that is the human-being. It redeems scapegoats and embraces the full panorama of humanity in all its races, colors, and identities.


Yogis then join a long line of grateful beings stepping into a parade made by kings and queens where many are yoked together as one in yuj (union), cleansed and restored into a new creation by the old song of an eternal melody.… read more... 
Love me two Times: coyote and The Doors in a dark desert valley


I’m camping, and the desert divot nearby is a scar of prickly pear, cacti, and sharp-edged boulders. Tonight it’s dark, stars are twinkling, and its filled with coyotes singing, rapping, and yipping a song of their own. I think it could be their version of “Party and Bullshit” by the Notorious BIG.


(Photo: desert-bleached coyote jaw)  


Indigenous people revered and feared coyote. Like its design, coyote is mixed bag. On one hand the mighty trickster stood for folly, comedy, or good luck. But coyote could also bring humiliating failure, misfortune, or disaster. American Indian lore bubbles with tales of coyote’s mystique and lessons of its big appetite, small vision, and aimlessness.


If you’ve been to the American Southwest you’ve seen coyote trotting, trotting . . . always trotting. Coyote is the scruffy, desert-worn, slinky one; the raggle-taggle gypsy of the plains and scarred, scrubby deserts.


Coyote is the product of compromise or committee; no single artist would fashion such a sad, unmatched composite of fur and bone: snout too long, ears too big, legs too skinny, fur too matted and messy, eyes and face the bemused markings of vexation and confusion . . . perhaps its coyote smiling.


Even so, some creation stories sing high praises of coyote for he tricked monster, the world-destroyer, to save himself and all of us. Lobos disparatado (absurd, goofy, wild, coyote) is the back-room ally of the two-legged ones able to disembody and send its spirit to carry out pranks or offer gifts.


Some creation stories tell of coyote bringing the gift of fire for two-legged ones, or coyote who out schemed his enemies, and how the wily coyote detached his penis and sent it upriver to have a party only to return and reattach to his body.… read more... 
January BREATH & MOVEMENT FOR BIKERS OUTDOORS (formerly yoga for bikers)


Yoga outdoors happening for year 5 at Superstition Harley Davidson. Short read below about yoga for bikers (breath and movement) the how and why. Two January classes on the outdoor deck – facing north to the Goldfield Mountains in the east valley – open for anyone. January 11 at 5:00 pm, and January 25 at 5:00 pm. Each session is approximately 50 minutes. Donations welcome.


Motorcycling and life are improved when we learn how to breathe with ease in the midst of stress. This calms the nervous system and makes it easier to concentrate on what’s important.


When we’re riding motorcycles, being at ease and focused are not just good ideas, they are life-saving skills. To that end, a deliberate and conscious linking of breath with movement.


Two times this month you can take advantage of breath and movement for bikers (formerly yoga for bikers) at Superstition Harley Davidson.


WHAT IS IT?


    

  • A 50-minute session of breath and movement with yoga like moves focusing on breath, flexibility, and motorcycle performance improvement.
    • 

  • The purpose is to provide an experience of movement and conscious breath connection for stress management leading to life and health benefits.
    • 

  • I’ll provide encouragement and integrity of movement and breath to both motorcycling and yoga.
    • 

  • The sessions become a positive event – offered with a voice of reassurance, sincerity, and encouragement – to motorcyclists and non-motorcyclists.
    • 

  • DATES:  Tuesday Jan. 11, 5:00 pm at Superstition Harley Davidson, outdoor deck; and Tuesday, Jan. 25, 5:00 pm at Superstition Harley Davidson, outdoor deck.
    • 

… read more... 
Desert Bent Angles: thoughts on playing sitar


My sitar flows in 19 bands of light called baaj, chikari, and tarab. Its journey to my hand is a mystery, but its music-medicine landed on my doorstep from an old land, gripped me from the eons, and pulled my soul into a note-bending journey unlike any other.


On sitar and its emotional gravity – something beyond definition – a musician friend and professor said, “It’s all angles.”


I first heard the sitar’s otherworldly drone years ago and felt it in my chest. Now when my sitar strings bend to raise a siren-song from the fathoms, Saraswati dances to an ascent and descent on every note. This sacred dance is a never-ending river shepherding me to a place close and yet far away.


My teacher speaks in common tones and offers up clusters of daring: “Consistency, consistency, consistency,” she says.


Her words, the wisdom of learning and teaching, and the kernel in every guru’s curriculum. I’ve walked the rivers of India, but today can’t put myself and my sitar on their banks. But once at dusk, on a hot July night in Arizona, I made my way with this gourd, rosewood, string & steel riddle to the banks of the Salt River in east Phoenix. Sitar did not accompany me alone. Looking to the Salt, I could see a funeral pyre, a desert-inspired mirage bobbing with the current like a lazy raft ablaze in flames, scented smoke, grief trailing behind.


At river’s edge, my sitar smelled like burning incense and the hymnody it raised came from an earlier time. I followed the current but can not understand.… read more... 
Breath and Movement for Longevity in the Saddle (Nov. 10 and 24) @ SUPERSTITION HARLEY-DAVIDSON




Come on up to the eagle’s nest (outdoor patio) at Superstition Harley-Davidson (2910 W. Apache Trail), for breath and movement for bikers a week from today (November 10 at 5:00 pm). It’s the fourth year of breath and movement designed to keep bikers at ease and in the saddle long term.


Teaching riders for the state of Hawaii as a MSF rider/coach, I watched how new motorcycle riders held their breath when making difficult figure 8 moves on the riding range. Holding one’s breath tightens the entire system. When holding our breath, it’s nearly impossible to be relaxed and at ease. If we are not relaxed and at ease when riding a motorcycle our riding ability is diminished. To be at ease in the midst of stress is a critical factor in athletic performance.


In a 1977 book titled, The Centered Skier, author Denise McCluggage presents 12 chapters of Zen goodness on the mental aspects of skiing. She quoted Jean-Claude Killy, the world and Olympic alpine ski champion at the time. Killy said, “You cannot win if you are not relaxed.”


Maybe you say to yourself, so what, I’m not competing. No you may not be competing and maybe the stakes aren’t at the level of an Olympic medal, but in reality the stakes are higher. You are on two-wheels, or three-wheels, and the stakes are about your life. Breath and movement in ease is for bikers because being relaxed in the saddle happens when we learn to be at ease in stress.


This is the therapy of yoga and it is the design of breath and movement.… read more... 
Got 5 (koshas) On It


“I got dreams that are too big for mass.”   #thisbeinghuman


When dreams meet Self, descriptions abate and prophesies grow into fullness, while the wisdom of silence and balance of polarities root and branch in the 5 koshas.


When dreams meet self, every yogi is shattered and burned. Forgetting everything they thought they knew, they are steeped in the new identities of sojourners on sacred paths, beggars in great need, and apprentices to humble sages.


When dreams meet self, yogis standing on the shoulders of gurus are transformed by echoes of the past. Trusting yoga while being remade by deeper awareness, growing surrender, and firmer resolve, the yogi becomes new and draws from a spiritual blueprint steeped in time.


When dreams meet self, yogis resign worry to the trash bin; they relinquish what can’t be changed and take up residence in the room of ho’oponopono (Hawaiian for the practice of reconciliation and forgiveness), where encounters with I and Thou teach a larger trust. They respond gratitude and present themselves for service – and dreams – not found in mass.


Asana Journal articles link to 21 yoga articles #yogainspirationals


https://www.asanajournal.com/author/gregorygregoryormsonormson/
… read more... 
THE MEDICINE WHEEL RIDE: shedding light on an invisible crisis


I’m pleased to have this article in Thunder Press featuring a strong group of Indigenous Women Motorcycle Riders and Leaders.


Thanks Kevin (ed). All photos by Oliver Touron, rider and photomotojournalist extraordinaire. click on photos to enlarge text or go to thunderpress(dot)net for the digital copy.


Read the Medicine Wheel Ride story by going to the digital Thunder Press site, along with the reasons for the Medicine Wheel and coverage of the Sturgis Medicine Wheel Ride. Very recently, the national press has caught on to the facts of Indigenous women and children gone missing and/or murdered with little or no effort to find them. A recent episode of Big Sky (on Hulu) mentioned this, as did a major television network recently during all the press for the missing Floridan woman, Gabby Petito.


The Medicine Wheel Ride and riders are making statements with bikes and voices so that the crisis of missing will be silent no more. Read the full story click each photo below, and/or other motorcycle oriented writing on ThunderPress(dot)net










… read more... 
Yoga and Leather by Keith Uhlig, Wausau Daily Herald


Thank you Keith Uhlig at the Wausau Daily Herald for this story; and also to Pookie, Scott, and all the folks at Bull Falls Harley Davidson for allowing me to offer this important class. Come out Saturday, 10:00 am to Bull Falls HD, Yoga for Bikers happening to keep you in the saddle long-term. #bullfallshd, @bigcheese107.9, @UligK #wausaudailyherald, #superstitionhd, #motorcyclingyogig, #randyanagnostis, #bribri1119, #randyanagnostis




Yoga Class Poster (2)


https://www.wausaudailyherald.com/story/news/2021/08/18/motorcycling-yogi-teach-yoga-moves-bull-falls-harley-davidson/5416236001/?fbclid=IwAR2pLbVrdx5DzvWU_-jLYCSTnHXiLswxaOTH70nn6rYUSlT4_Zvh9wzBc0E… read more... 
Arizona Water Greed, Shortages, and Predictions of Violence






 




Arizona has a severe water crisis and we are headed for big problems. Desert water is precious, especially in the midst of a 26 year dry spell now called a “mega-drought.” Remember fist-fights taking place over masks? That will look like child play when water rationing starts.




When we are finally forced to ration water, Americans will react badly and I can see fist fights on lawns over sprinklers. Violence is likely when we can’t wash our cars, when we are required to curtail their daily showers, when we can’t water our golf courses and sports fields, and when we can’t do what we want.








If you think doing whatever you want is freedom, you’ll likely have an enlarged sense of self-importance and entitlement. But that’s not freedom, its the indulgence of pre-adolescence and displays that level of maturity.








Lake Mead, the reservoir which feeds the Colorado River, providing 39 percent of Arizona’s water, is at its lowest level since it was first built and filled in the 1930’s. READ THAT AGAIN. And the Upper Colorado Basin Snowpack fell below normal for the second year in a row according to NOAA snowpack winter data. Spring snowpack levles are 11 inches below normal, which contributes to low spring water levels.








We have a serious water crisis, but rather than meeting this with information, strategy, or communication about how citizens could help, Arizona politicians and officials stay silent and pretend nothing is wrong. It amounts to burying their heads in the sand.








Parts of New Mexico are observing a Stage I Water Shortage Emergency.
… read more... 
WE STILL STAND




 


“We still stand.” An Agnostis/Ormson collaboration dedicated to ongoing and growing movement for change driven, in part, by the activism of #MMIWRiders and #mmiwg #rideformmiw #NoMoreStolenSisters keyboard, composition, photos and video randy anagnostis. lyric, background sounds, and vocal gregory ormson Original song, “Indigenous Souls.”… read more... 


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