YM: What sparked your interest in the study of meditation, yoga and psychotherapy? Which one came first?
RA:First came Meditation, then Yoga, then Psychotherapy
When I first moved to Amherst Massachusetts to attend the University I had anxiety and panic attacks, when I went to the mental health center a young psychologist  had just returned from a world trip to India and South east Asia and he asked me if I wanted Medication to reduce my anxiety or did I want to learn Meditation and Yoga.  I said I would try the meditation and began to practice 2 hours a day and then eventually I was sitting up to four hours a day and attending yoga classes and minoring in Buddhist studies at Smith College and majoring in Psychology at the University.  I changed from Business administration to a joint major. Within two years I started studying Kundalini Yoga and moved to California to complete my graduate degrees in Psychology and became one of the early certified teachers of kundalini yoga.  Since I was a young scientist studying meditation and yoga and doing research Yogi Bhajan asked me to co found the Kundalini  Research Institute in Pomona California.  For five years I practiced both yoga and attended Buddhist meditation retreats.
After I moved on from Kundalini Yoga I studied these last 30 years, Hatha, Iyengar, Ashtanga and Vinyasa flow yoga.  My yoga teachers who have influenced my practice the most are Shiva Rea, Saul David Raye, Chuck Miller, Maty Eraty and last but not least the wonderful Eric Shiffman.

 


YM: What is the Art of Mindfulness Meditation?
RA:Mindful Meditation is the ancient art and practice dating back to 2500 B.C. the time of the Buddha who through his own awakening and enlightenment gave his first discourse in the deer park in Sarnath, India.  The core of mindfulness practice involves applying right effort with concentration as a method to view moment by moment the unfolding aspects of our endless stream of mind body mind moments.   These mind moments can be categorized as wholesome ( positive), neutral and Unwholesome ( negative or afflictive).  The task in the Art of Mindfulness meditation is to view without judgement all aspects of our mind body experience and to wholesomely bring awareness and attention to the process of noting and simply being with all that is unfolding in order to become more present in the here and now.  To eventually experience spaciousness, freedom and unbounded pure awareness.



YM: What is Somatic Psychotherapy? 
RA:This is the newest field in  Mind Body Psychology that has evolved really out of yogic and meditative practices.  In somatic psychology we focus on using the breath as a tool of awareness and often position our clients in yoga postures while they are talking about problems, issues, pain or blockage,  There is a phrase in somatic psychology that we need to leave our minds and come into our sensations.  The real core work of somatic psychotherapy combines both mindfulness mediation along with yogic postues and the power of the breath to assist clients to break free of negative conditioning and old traumatic blocks.

YM: What is  the  Open Mind Training ®?
RA: The Open Mind Training ® is a system of mind body healing and consciousness awakening that I have developed over the last 35 years that integrates the wisdom teachings of the east along with contemporary somatic psychotherapy.  We directly learn to access our unconscious and the creative resources for healing that reside inside and clear it through the body. Posture,  awareness, breathing and mindfulness are the cornerstones or this work.

YM: How do you integrate all of your teachings?
RA: I use all of the paths and methods as really one path that has like the ganga river many tributaries but eventually they all lead to the vast ocean of awareness, healing and transformative change.

YM: What advice can you give people looking to start a meditation practice?
RA:My best advice is to start out with five minutes a day with a timer and add a minute each day until you reach twenty minutes.  If you are content there then stop but if you desire to deepen your practice then build up to 30 then 45 mintues a day.  Also meditate after a good yoga practice asanas are designed to open you up and relax you deeply.  Meditation comes easier after some stretching.

YM: What are the biggest challenges you face in teaching?
RA: Helping  people to overcome the harsh and difficult periods we call in Buddhist meditation the Hindrances of the mind. In my book due out in the fall of 2009 Wise Mind Open Mind: Mindfulness and the Art of Creative Transformation has an entire chapter just on how to overcome the many varied hindrances of the mind.  During this initial phase one can get discouraged by having so many wandering and distracting thoughts and become critical and judgemental of the self for having trouble focusing.  If I can motivate my students through this difficult and temporary zone of discomfort there is so much pleasure, equanimity and bliss available on the other sides.  Patabi jois often says "Just do your practice and everything will follow" and one of my Zen influences Zuzuki Roshi the author of Zen Mind Beginners Mind says the mind is like a tile the more you polish it with awareness the brighter it becomes.

 


YM:  Tell us something you do that makes your teaching style unique.
RA:I find out what people have been doing that is working for them and have them do more of that to build on the positive and accent the healing.  I find out what they are doing that is not working and have them stop those practices and try out new mehods that often lead to opening up and opening to the inside with more ease and less effort.

YM; What is your favorite part of your job?
RA: I thrive on watching people transform before my eyes and seeing that with hard work, effort and self acceptance that people have everything inside already to heal, grow and transform.

YM: What does your yoga/mediation practice look like?
RA: I usually during the week get up at 5 am and sit for 30 minutes and also during the mid day sit for another 30 minutes.  I try to make Shiva's class once a week when she is in town and then alternate with Saul Raye or Anne Marie Solo on the weekends.

YM: Thank you for joining us! Where can we find out more about you and your teaching schedule?

Visit my website www.openmindtraining.com

I teach in USA, Australia, Canada, Ireland and Europe

I taught wokshops for Yoga Works for ten years and now teach workshops at Exhale Center for Sacred Movement in Venice, NYC, Boston etc.