Autobiography of a Naked Yogi

By Yogi Aaron

See how a life spent largely outdoorsin the wilds of northern Canada, the underwater wonderland of the Caribbean, and throughout the untamed Himalayaspresented the challenges that shaped a timid mothers boy into a confident yogi and ambassador for self-transformation. Through humorous and poignant life stories--attending an all-male boarding school, coming out as a gay man, building a successful yoga career--here Yogi Aaron shares lessons in living with empowerment and authenticity.

From the creator of Hot Nude Yoga, a global phenomenon during the early 2000s, a story of struggle and healing found through the practices of Tantric yoga. Today owner and yoga director at Blue Osa Yoga Retreat and Spa in Costa Rica and leader of world-wide retreats through Blue Osa Journeys, Yogi Aaron is known for his humorous yet vastly knowledgeable approach to teaching this centuries-old wisdom.

A must-read for aspiring yogis, yoga teachers, world travelers, nudists, gay men, people wanting to manifest positive change in their lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Oct 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504338424

Yogi Aaron

Yogi Aaron is a yoga teacher and author. In addition to being a New York yoga studio owner and the founder of Blue Osa Yoga Retreat in Costa Rica, he leads retreats and trainings internationally. His unique approach to yoga is rooted both in ancient wisdom and contemporary thought.

Book preview

Autobiography of a

Naked Yogi

Yogi Aaron

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Copyright © 2015 Yogi Aaron.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-3841-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-3843-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-3842-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015912856

Balboa Press rev. date: 10/16/2015

CONTENTS

Author’s note

Foreword

Chapter 1

The Early Years

The Sailor and the Bathing Beauty.

A Childhood Fantasies Are Made Of.

The Painful Reality.

Moving on.

The Stuff Men Are Made Of.

No more hills.

Growing a work ethic.

A New Age.

Chapter 2

Vancouver

Coming Home.

True Colors.

Taking the dive.

The Odyssey.

Healing.

I came by it honest.

My Step-Father.

Sales and marketing.

It’s okay.

My Yogic Path Begins.

Cruising.

Ashtanga.

Chapter 3

New York

Opening Myself To Infinite Possibilities.

It’s everything it says, but nothing like it sounds.

Making Friends.

Tantra Isn’t What You Think It Is.

A Happy Mess.

Opening doors to success.

Getting personal.

The teacher as a student.

Heading for the hills.

Unclad enlightenment.

Hawaii.

Making Space For More.

HNY Around the World.

Going Down Under.

The heart wants what the heart wants.

Choosing The Ocean.

Chapter 4

India

You Never Forget Your First Time.

Surrendering to Kali.

It’s always better the second time—and the third.

Saying Goodbye.

Nepal.

Tibet.

Homecoming.

The Lessons In The Himalayas.

Enjoying the lemons.

I am not my body.

Chapter 5

Costa Rica

It Started in Hawaii.

The bigger the faith.

2009: The year to end all.

Epilogue

Letting go.

Appendix

Suggested Reading by Yogi Aaron

About the Author

Endnotes

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Looking back, I am amazed. Did these things really happen to me?

I remember thinking to myself as a child how ordinary my life was, that there was nothing spectacular about me. I saw myself as a regular kid growing up in a regular home, dreaming of a regular life. I’m not sure when I realized this wasn’t the case, that my existence was not going to be normal. Yet somewhere along the way it dawned on me: my life was to be different.

I believe in my heart and with every fiber of my being that each of us is extraordinary, here on earth to fulfill a unique purpose. All of us experience struggles, pain and sorrow—and hopefully joy in equal measure. What we do with it all—the good and the bad—becomes our story.

This is my unique story.

However, it’s not solely mine; it wouldn’t be the same without the many people who have been a part of my life, some briefly, others for long periods of time. Names have been changed throughout the book to protect people’s privacy—yet the truth of the story remains unaltered.

Here I hope you find inspiration—whether it appears as a whisper or cracks wide open all that is possible in your life. Many have accused me of having good luck, of being at the right place at the right time. But luck had little to do with it. Doors opened; I walked through them.

The possibilities are there for all of us, but often we forget. We forget what we are capable of, how to dream, to have courage to take the next step in our lives. We just forget.

In reading this, I hope you remember all that is possible for you.

I unwittingly began to write this book in 2005. Starting a blog, I began to share stories from my life. By 2008 I was pondering the idea of a book more seriously as the material in my archives accumulated. On further reflection, I realized that I wanted a true documentation of my life to keep for myself, above all. So much had happened; so much was happening.

Around that time, a student of mine, Jonathan Vatner, was writing an article for the Gay Guide titled Celebrating the body: Aaron Star strips yoga down to the bare essentials.

Jonathan (http://www.jonathanvatner.com) did such a great job capturing the essence of Hot Nude Yoga that I asked him to collaborate with me on a book project. He said yes. In 2009 we began a series of weekly Skype meetings and talked about my life, which he recorded and transcribed. For the time Jonathan put into this story, I am forever grateful.

Then, the project came to a near standstill. Occasionally I came back to add content, bits and pieces here and there. I did not make this book a priority again until the beginning of 2014 when I seriously looked for another ghost writer and found Patti O’Donahue. Patti came to Blue Osa and helped me organize the bounty of content I had been amassing over the previous nine years and we began to theme Autobiography of a Naked Yogi. However, Patti would not be the person to finish the project.

With the book still incomplete, I decided to seek someone else to work alongside me. And within moments of asking, Donna Key Wyman came into my life.

Donna, a master wordsmith, was the person who was able to truly help bring my story to life on the pages you will read.

She was also a tough editor. She would often hound me for more information, or ask me to go back and write more. And then slash 80% of what I had written. She was tough, but truly effective.

As mentioned above, this story is meant to motivate you; there are lessons along the way. Two of my favorite books that provided inspiration were Chicken Soup for the Soul by Mark Victor Hansen and Living with the Himalayan Masters by Swami Rama. Living is Swami Rama’s Autobiography told through short life stories that impart life lessons.

Throughout the book you’ll find my own life lessons to sit with and contemplate. And thanks to Donna, there is a pace to the book which keeps moving the story forward.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to my dad. Our relationship has been strained and for some 20 years we were not in contact with each other. In many ways, we still are not. But in my heart I hold so much appreciation and respect for him. Without his foresight, intuition and guidance, I would not be the man I am today; I would not be where I am today. While he wasn’t always the Dad I wanted, somehow the universe in its infinite wisdom knew that he would be the father I needed. I can now say with absolute certainty, he was just that.

FOREWORD

There are moments in our lives that stick—the image, the feeling, the very essence of what happened leaving an indelible imprint on our minds.

What occurred near Tapovan, India, at an altitude of 4463 meters (14,640 feet) in the Himalayas, is one of those moments—and not only because this is one of the most majestic places I’ve visited during a lifetime of travel.

Descending on foot toward Gangotri in 2007, some 24 kilometers (approximately 15 miles) from Tapovan, everything I had practiced as a Tantrik was tested in the instant after I heard my group’s cries, look up! And that was it—a boulder twice the size of a basketball flattened me, my leg in pieces.

My leg was shattered. Genuinely, painfully, dangerously broken.

So many times throughout my life until this very second, I had been beaten down—physically, emotionally. But here in what’s known as the Abode of the Gods, I found myself truly fractured, and realized it would take all I knew about the will, the spirit, the mind and the breath to put the pieces together again.

CHAPTER 1

The Early Years

You cannot force the creative process—life unfolds in its own time, in its own way.

Most kids come from plain old copulation.

I, on the other hand, am the product of a pagan fertility ritual.

The moment I was conceived—in a quaint room above a Cornwall, UK pub on the eve of Beltane, a colorful maypole visible just outside—a series of events was unleashed that inextricably linked me to the great mysteries of the cosmos.

Before I was born, my mother thought I might be a Valentine’s baby—yet, I am no saint, so I made my appearance on earth in my own time, in my own dramatic fashion. It was February 16, 1972 and my Mum was 25 years old.

She had one of those pregnancies that lasts forever—dragging on beyond nine months, her belly mushrooming, false labor taunting her again and again. Finally toxemia forced her to the hospital in Victoria, Canada where her doctor would induce labor. Transferring Mum from bed to stretcher before rolling off to the delivery room, a nurse discovered I was crowning.

I was ready to come at that moment—and was delivered on a gurney, in a hallway—all 9 pounds of me.

I was born an Aquarius, the water bearer. The healing, loving touch of the ocean, of mountain lakes and streams has been a constant throughout my days.

But so has the pull of Mother Earth—whether in the heart of the Indian Himalayas, the Costa Rican jungle, or the seaside playground of my childhood, Cordova Bay. Getting back to nature takes me back to myself. My truest self.

The fury of a Beltane bonfire still smoulders in the deepest recesses of my being. I harness that energy to fuel my strong will. If I think it, it will be.

The more I look at the unfolding of my life experiences, it’s clear that all is connected; conquering the wilds of Canada ultimately led me to the beachfront cabina I now call home.

The Sailor and the Bathing Beauty.

One warm day in 1970, my Mum lay sunbathing on her front lawn, her bikini leaving just a bit to the imagination.

Along came a tall, handsome young man in a naval uniform—a lieutenant in the Canadian Navy—and they struck up a conversation. It must have been some talk—or some bikini; one thing led to another and they began seeing each other.

The young man would soon depart for Plymouth, England, to attend naval engineering school—and he suggested the young woman, Mum, join him for the year.

Always one to dive head-first into life’s opportunities, Mum agreed. My grandparents were elated; their daughter had finally snared a respectable man.

They were to stay with an aunt in England, but she insisted they first marry. They complied on October 17, 1970 in the company of friends from the military college.

In less than a year, on the night of May 1st, 1971, I would be conceived. It’s a night my mother has said she will never forget, an evening of raucous laughter, dancing and merriment that ended in a celebration of love in the bedroom; the ancient Celtic ritual Beltane, dedicated to optimism and fertility, proved an epically synchronous time for my parents to