• Bio

Lance Griffin

Lance’s passion for yoga sparked at age thirteen, in response to chronic depression. A love for personal fitness and a thirst for spiritual truth found their synthesis on the mat, where he discovered physical and mental well-being. He continued to explore the tradition under various teachers and trainings for the following ten years. Currently, Lance teaches and writes regularly in addition to pursuing a doctoral degree in exercise science. His scientific focus is on the benefit of yoga for athletes both physically and psychologically.

                There
is one assumption I can make about a person that has a 95% accuracy rate: You
are suffering from stress. The reason is because stress has become a defining
feature of adult life, at least in the US. No one really sits down and says, “Gee,
I’d love to live my life in stress and anxiety all the time.” So why do we do
it?

                It’s our
idea of success. For us, success is a carrot that dangles on a pole above our
noses throughout life, because we define it as more: More this, more that, becoming bigger and better at all
times. It’s externally-based, like an athlete only playing for the trophy or promotion. This is a lot of chasing, and our emotional life becomes glued to the ups and downs of the outside world.
For the average person, it’s a bigger salary, a new car, a trophy partner. What
we are forgetting is the love of the game.

                Imagine
if your paradigm of success was to be joyful. That’s it- as long as you feel joy,
you are a success in life. You would choose the work you love and surround
yourself with people who add to your happiness. The energy you currently use to
struggle would be allocated towards
enjoyment of the moment. There wouldn’t be a reason to step on anyone in your
climb towards success, because success would be a intrinsic and inclusive
state. You’d rub off on everybody and the little details that you used to fret
would take care of themselves. An athlete who truly loves the game and has fun
while playing it will win but it won’t even matter. And she brings the whole team up.

                Do an
inventory: Write down the 3 words that come to mind when you think of success.
Then write down 3 things that you would want for yourself over the course of
your lifetime.  Do they match up? If not, you’re actually very unsuccessful,
regardless of your income or status. What can you do to start climbing the
stairwell towards true success?