Former NTC instructor Motorcycling Yogi Greg Ormson writes ‘Yoga Song’ (wausaudailyherald.com)
Yoga Song: Dr. Gregory Ormson: 9788182539594: Amazon.com: Books
Our world is in need . . . people are distracted, fractured, and busy.
Our world is in need. People are distracted, fractured, busy, angry and vulnerable to emotional hijacking. When this happens, its hard to experience the joy of being alive because we lose touch with ourselves and others.
Yoga meets this need by offering time for the busy to rest for a few moments, connect to our battered selves, and learn to breathe again which brings us into wholeness and gives us permission to focus in on the moment and the experience.
In yoga, we put-away the agenda for just a few minutes to remember who we are as people imbued with a divine spark that need not be named, claimed, or tamed.
Tune in at 7:05 pm tonight when I read sections from Yoga Song. Live Facebook feed from Salt Motion and Meditation in Wausau, Wisconsin. Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1382068342295624/… 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 in two weeks on International Yoga Day. Small sample from “Transforming the Emotional Body,” chapter 7
In yoga, we respond to the yoga song that our body is singing, and since we occupy the best position to define and transform our emotions, we use this knowledge – when getting in touch with our emotional bodies – to rewire our lives and release negatives.
Yoga teachers rightly say your yoga song might bring some emotions out of you that you were not yet ready to receive. But this is how the growth curve works, we may not be quite ready but are pushed by the emotion and physicality of yoga into the next bend on our journey.
Recently a friend went to a Carlos Santana concert. He wrote that it was “a spiritual experience.” I asked what he meant by that, and he responded: “Music always moves me, but his words were filled with grace and love; with a mixture of children’s photos throughout the world smiling and dancing. He issued a call to ‘rise up’ above the hatred. The music just echoed the experience. It went deep with me!” It’s no surprise to hear that music does this; it’s also what the yoga song of your body does in practice.
Yoga, like music, is a visual, emotional, acoustic, vibrational, and feeling based experience in the moment. It goes deep, and when the yogi listens to the yoga song of their own body, yoga takes them to work on transforming the emotional body and vice versa. It may lead to engaging a professional therapist because through yoga many emotions arise from the deep well of biological and cerebral memory.… read more...
From the Epilogue to YOGA SONG
Years ago, and far from the waters of Hawaii where yoga first tumbl
ed me, I set out on a solo three-day vision quest in a barren land that Wyoming residents call the Red Desert. Before my quest began, I spent two days training in the Lakota way. Once I walked into the desert I would not eat or see anyone for three days. My instructions were simple and focused: drink water and pay attention.
For yoga, I’d give the same instruction today, only adding an admonition to breathe. I expected my vision quest would challenge me but also help me connect to that which I had not yet connected.
I didn’t know it, but at the time I was doing the work of yoga. At dawn on the scheduled day, I walked into the desert to seek a new vision. My intention was to strip away all distraction in my experiment with truth and give it my full attention with all my being.
This is what yoga is to me now. It’s a stripping away of distraction, which takes preparation and intention. It is the time and place to build my satyagraha or force of truth.
But in the Red Desert I learned from the birds that if I had a song to sing I had to sing it. It was not about how well I sang, but that I did. This is why I’ve written Yoga Song; it is not about how well I write or sing my yoga song, but that I do.
Sale links available soon.… read more...
YOGA SONG: a lyric narrative of transformation and redemption, coming this summer from Rochak Publishing
When born-to-be-wild biker Gregory Ormson (#motorcyclingyogig) moved to Hawaii, he was sidelined by debilitating back pain and couldn’t enjoy paradise. Dipping a toe into yoga, he discovered a healing road that reformed his mind and fixed his spine. Ormson’s yoga writing and publishing (#yogainspirationals) led to Yoga Song.
From YOGA SONG
Yoga equips us to meet a stressful world and greet it with equanimity; it’s why we practice, study, and seek to discover who we are as we fall back into the fullness of Self. We breathe deeply to inherit yoga’s spiritual science, and with that breath, release and enter the realm of Om, the universal vibration of creation animating all life.
Yoga sings a song of connection to the ground of our being that his holy at its core; and it offers a redemption song for our mistakes and failures. We meditate, practice asana, or follow yoga’s inner path to the eternal Om and experience how yoga expands the dimensions in which we live and move even as the cultural spaces we inhabit are pressured and restricted.
Yoga’s melodies come to us in soothing voice, chant, or in the spirited sound of a group together in deep exhale. It leads us to deepen our range of motion, expand our lungs with full breath, increase our stretch of spine, and extend our energy body into space.
Formed from the crucible of scholarship and exercise, yoga empties and then fills the thinking reed that is hu-man and teaches us to inherit new dimensions. In time, yoga levels our judgments and brings us to the healing ground of calm detachment while simultaneously counseling us through the yamas and niyamas to do the right things.… read more...
Thanks OM Yoga Magazine (UK) March issue, for publishing the 101st of my YogaInspirationals
A couple paragrphs from the full text (below) written originally as: “Endowed With Longing for Connection.”
Perfection in yoga may have been an ancient goal, and to achieve that goal many yogis spent time alone and in isolation; but I don’t know anyone with perfection on their bucket list. I’ve not heard anyone say, “Yea, I want to become the perfect yogi, to levitate, reach santosha, and become one with God.
. . . The myth of rugged individualism, a notion that’s driven the ethic of individualism and ambition in my country really is a myth. We all need connections with others; and that need is so powerful that people will change their identities, alter their most treasured beliefs, or explore far and wide to find a niche or group from which to draw comfort.
Yoga communities around the world continue to be deeply affected by an invisible virus called COVID-19. Starting in 2020, our community in-person gatherings have been stunted and its intensified the challenge to make important new social connections.
Now for the third time, I’ve scaled back my regular yoga attendance at a studio and I’m bummed about it. But with a worldwide pandemic still happening, and my aversion to sickness, I’m on pause.
All of us in the yoga community have responded the best we can, and we’ve learned to use social media tools to stay in contact with others. But we also noticed that while communities established through the World Wide Web were important, they were different.
I taught online for six years, but it never felt natural to me.… read more...
Writer Portfolio (selected pieces)
From The Empty Mirror on writing, “With Crooked Legs of Hackberry”
From Eastern Iowa Review, “Midwest Intimations”
From The Twin Bill on Baseball, “And the Diamond Speaks in Runes”
From Cut Bank Literary Magazine, literature and Walt Whitman, “Long Way From, Long Time Since: Letter to an Admirer of Whitman”
From Asana Journal, “Injury as Wise Teacher“
From OM Yoga Magazine, “Yoga as a Life-Altering gift: from freediving to chess, how a yoga practice can enhance every aspect of your life”
From Sivana East, yoga as a new shape and symbol, “Embraced by Joy and Bliss”
https://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/publishing/with-crooked-legs-of-hackberry
http://www.portyonderpress.com/gregory-ormson—midwest-intimations.html/
And the Diamond Speaks in Runes – The Twin Bill
Injury As Wise Teacher | Asana – International Yoga Journal (asanajournal.com)
#Yogainspirationals number 99, OM Yoga Magazine, May 2021 (gregoryormson.com)
#Yogainspirationals number 99, OM Yoga Magazine, May 2021
OM YOGA MAGAZINE
Yoga as a life-altering gift: From freediving to chess: how a yoga practice can enhance every aspect of your life. By Gregory Ormson
Shortly after starting yoga I realised its life enhancements could be applied to any activity of mind or body. Nobody was teaching yoga specifically for motorcyclists and as a rider and former motorcycle rider coach for the State of Hawaii, I realised I could serve bikers in a direct way.
While teaching motorcycle riding, I saw how people tightened up and held their breath when the riding range was wet, when they were evaluated, and when they were asked to do ‘figure eight’ moves in a tight space. If yoga classes could help people with stress and challenges during yoga, I thought asana poses targeted specifically to bikers’ needs could help bikers in many ways.
Yoga for bikers targets poses for: hips, back, neck, shoulders, arms, wrists and hands. Preparing to teach an unusual yoga group, I searched and discovered many stories of yoga’s effects on performance in unusual places; the most unexpected were the worlds of freediving and competitive chess.
Freediving and yoga
In Hawaii, one of the first things my freediving instructor asked me was: “Do you practice yoga?” He said yoga people do better in freediving because they’ve learned how to breathe and relax when in stress.
For most people, there is nothing more stressful on both body and mind than holding their breath while swimming underwater and it’s even more true in a deep-water underwater situation. To deal with the stress of water pressure and low oxygen, free divers focus on deliberate breath training and meditation before going in the water.
Story of Yoga for Bikers – OM Yoga Magazine, May, 2021
YOGATECTURE: building your house of truth
OM Yoga Magazine has just released their March issue including the 85th of my #yogainspirationals. Thank you OM Yoga Mag.In the Phoenix east valley, this magazine arrives two weeks after publication in the UK. In each issue you'll find yoga insights in these areas: OM Body, OM For Men, OM Fashion, OM Mind, OM Spirit, OM Living, OM Family, OM Actions, OM Teacher Zone, OM Travel. Check it out.… read more...
MEN: Yoga’s Outliers
Check out my 83rd published yoga article, “Yoga’s Outliers,” in the January, 2020, Om Yoga and Lifestyle magazine. Better yet, get the mag.
“Men are still the minority when it comes to yoga in the West. They are yoga’s outliers,” says Gregory Ormson.
Read MORE below …
“Yoga’s Outliers” is a featured story along with an interview of London based international yoga teacher Sarah Highfield (#yogagise), Ibiza detox retreats on the Balearic islands off the Spanish east coast, and special coverage of vegan recipes and much more for the learning yogi. Thank you #OmYogaMagazine #yogainspirationals 83.
Silence and Slow Time
The December 2019 Om Yoga Magazine has published “Silence and Slow Time,” the 82nd of my published yoga articles under (#yogainspirationals). Thank you OM. Also see in this fine 114 page issue features on yoga at home and office, aromatherapy, meditation, breath work (pranayama), body positivity, and many more necessary reads for your yoga practice. In addition, as an end of year bonus OM Yoga Magazine has included a 2020 calendar and a 50 page insert on “incredible yoga retreats from around the world.” I’m honored to be a regular contibutor for OM Yoga and Lifestyle Magazine.
