Trainer Troy Yoga

The Search Troy Alan Cox After my brother was unexpectedly killed in a motorcycle accident, I began searching for answers. Like most people who have experienced a sudden and unexpected trauma, I questioned everything I thought was important before the accident. I look at my life as before Todd died and after Todd died. I first began with a bootleg collection of 1960s talks by Ram Dass that my brother's martial arts teacher gave me. It was the first time I had heard religion mixed with spirituality, humor, adventure, and someone questioning established belief systems. I listened to those cassette tapes so many times that I had some of them memorized. I ask myself questions every day... but I had never thought about whether I was asking the right ones. Once I realized my parents and I were not going to be much help to each other during this horrible time, I did what spiritual seekers have done for centuries. I ran and hid. First to the forest and then to the Florida Keys....

  Tragedy Is Not the Teacher Todd E. Cox 1994 Troy Alan Cox 6/27/2026 I had an experience that I will always remember as a radio D.J. on air.  It was the time I lost my voice during a live broadcast.  I was not ill.  I could no longer control my vocal cords.   People often say that tragedy is life's greatest teacher.  I understand why they say it. Looking back, however, I no longer believe it is true. Trauma is not the teacher. Trauma simply interrupts the life you thought you were living. The worse the trauma, the more devastating the interruption to ones life.   The lessons come much later, if they come at all.  The harder the lesson is the least likely it is that your life before will look anything like the life you have after the tragedy. For me, everything changed on January 31, 1994. At the time, I was a young radio personality in Kansas City. After spending nearly two years working the overnight shift on an AM oldies station, I ha...

  Why Do We Keep Ending Up in the Same Place? While cleaning out old teacher training manuals recently, I came across an exercise that I have taught in one form or another for over twenty years. Looking through the pages brought back memories of students sitting quietly with a pencil in their hand, convinced they had a relationship problem, a job problem, a money problem, or a confidence problem. More often than not, twenty minutes later they were looking at the paper in front of them with a completely different understanding of what was actually happening. One of the things that has fascinated me throughout my life is how often we repeat the same patterns without realizing it. We change jobs and somehow find ourselves having the same frustrations. We move across the country and bring the same unhappiness with us. We swear we will never date another person like the last one and somehow wind up sitting across from the same person wearing different clothes. Over the years I noticed t...

First Father's Day  What Is a Father?  First Father's Day What Is a Father? Written by Troy Alan Cox 6/21/2026 Where Is My Father? It wasn't actually an official Father's Day, but to a little five-year-old boy it was a special Father's Day. The earliest memory I have of my father is my mom sewing. My mom was a seamstress, and an excellent one at that. She didn't do it for a living. She did it for fun. I so wish I had kept her little pink Singer sewing machine, although I did not inherit the skill. I have these big, fat, clumsy fingers that are not designed for detail work or little needles. In 1970s San Diego, my mom would take the little-boy version of me with her everywhere. It was just her and me. I was lucky in that I had all the time I wanted with my mom when my dad was away at sea.  My dad began his career in the Navy aboard ships. It wasn't until much later in life that he would talk about the U.S.S. Bayfield. The USS Bayfield was a 1940s ...

Monastic Sites and Garden Getaways Glendalough, via Wikimedia Commons. Used under the license listed on the file page. Troy Alan Cox Marinating in the Morose It has been almost two months since my father passed here at the house. Since then, I have completely rearranged everything in the house and begun stripping his room of carpet ruined from flooding. It is amazing the emotions that come out from simply removing carpeting. Each strip that I cut and roll up causes a deluge of tears. My nervous system is equating the removal of terrible carpet with the removal of memories. Although I know the two are unrelated, the feelings that are coming up are almost unbearable. While I wait on getting a mold assessment for the drywall, everything my father owned or brought with him from Kansas is piled in boxes in the office and adjoining spaces. It has to be done, but it is almost too hard to handle. It has been apparent to me since one time in Southern California when a young man who ...

Green Design, Human Sensitivity, and the Next Step Toward Safe Spaces By Troy Alan Cox There is a lot of talk now about green building design. What defines a green building? A green building is generally understood as an energy-efficient and environmentally aware structure, designed with consideration for its footprint, energy use, materials, sustainability, and impact on its surroundings. It is often part of a thorough certification process by which a building is rated for energy efficiency, environmental responsibility, and overall sustainability. From what I understand, it takes a team of engineers, architects, designers, builders, and other specialists to oversee the design, construction, and completion phase of a building. The process may also consider the potential destruction or removal of the building one day and the impact that would have on its surroundings. It is quite an extensive process, and it is very much a team effort. A green building is designed to be com...