The Closer I Get To You
I recently was on a road trip. I love road trips… but I have to be very cautious with how my body responds to them.
Unfortunately, the day I left, I picked up a bug.
Not the kind that sits on your windshield looking in asking for a ride to California… a real one. Nose, chest—the whole deal.
So I asked myself: What would Arun do?
I channeled my Jedi master.
He’d probably say something like:
“Don’t eat the meal if you can’t handle the feel.”
Simple. Practical. Annoyingly accurate.
I kept coming back to that on the trip.
Heavy. Sluggish. I knew I needed lightness. Warmth.
By day two, I’m starting to feel a little better. I check into one of my favorite spots—sauna, pool, the works.
I had just come from cold Oregon into heat…
and for whatever reason, I forgot everything Arun ever taught me.
I jumped straight into the pool.
Instant regret.
My throat locked up like, what are you doing, dude?
So I tried to fix it—hit the sauna.
Now my body’s like:
“Pick a lane. Are we hot or cold?”
And just like that, it felt like I erased the progress from the day before.
Or… did I?
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The best lessons I’ve found are the ones where we make gentle mistakes.
The kind where we feel it immediately.
Where awareness shows up right in the body.
When we’re open—sick, raw, emotional—
the body doesn’t wait.
It says:
“We’re dealing with this now. Not later.”
And that’s a gift.
Because we can move forward with the right actions…
or set ourselves back with the wrong ones.
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Back in my room, I finally picked a lane—the place between hot and cold. Goldilocks was pretty in tune!
I probably suffered a little more than I needed to…
but I also landed a deeper lesson.
Those are the mistakes I want to make.
The ones where I feel it.
Where I learn in real time.
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The body tells the truth.
It has no other option.
It gives us real, tangible feedback.
But the mind…
the mind is a spin doctor.
Beautiful imagination. Incredible storyteller.
Total bullshitter when it wants to be.
I’m sure you’ve felt it—
the body saying, don’t do it…
…and the mind going,
“Trust me man, this could be good.”
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On that trip, I had to skip some of my favorite foods and activities.
Cold plunges. Big sweats. Creamy soup. Temple-made chai.
None of it was right for where I was.
Still… I battled my mind every day.
And after a couple days… I gave in a little.
Of course I did. That’s being human.
I’m only human, flesh and blood, born to make mistakes.
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We start to see just how precise the body really is.
It’s not fragile.
It’s high performance.
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Side note—my beautiful wife…
She’s got a constitution of steel.
She can eat things I wouldn’t even look at.
I tell her I’m like a high-performance Lamborghini—
I need premium fuel - (She would say High Maintenance - Love Her!.)
And she’s a VW Bug.
A very cute one!
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Here’s where it gets tricky.
We override the signals.
We normalize how we feel.
The mind steps in again:
“This is fine. This is normal.”
Have the ice cream.
Stay up late.
Push through.
No need to listen to the body.
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So maybe this week… we pause.
After that second or third cup of coffee—
how do you actually feel?
After that meal—
heavy? clear? sluggish? ready?
The body is always telling the truth of the moment.
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And the deeper we go into this work…
yeah, it can feel like we’re wide open.
Like everything affects us.
Food, people, environment—
push, push, push.
It can feel like weakness.
It’s not.
It’s awareness.
And awareness makes us stronger.
⸻
When we let the body speak…
and use the mind to discern instead of distort…
we start to trust something real.
⸻
Yoga doesn’t promise that life gets easier.
It doesn’t say bad meals or bad situations disappear.
It says:
You’ll know how they feel.
And you’ll gently move away from what doesn’t make you feel alive.
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So symptoms—
a cold, fatigue, anxiety, heaviness—
they’re not failures.
They’re information.
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How about this week… we pay attention.
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The closer I get to you (you being awareness)
The More You Make Me See
Let that be our mantra. (Bonus points to ANYONE that may know the song "The Closer I Get To You".)
ROAR with love,
Danny
The Emotional Driver
“Emotion Is the Note. You Are the Song.”
