Super skipper extraordinaire Ashirta Furman recently told me that Guiness has approved his request to establish a 5 K (3.1 mile) skipping category! Ashrita, who skipped an entire marathon a couple years ago, is training to set the record now!

As you might know, Ashrita has set a record number of records....127 in all in his lifetime! Wowsa! Categories include fun things like: Hula hooping with the largest hula hoop - 16 feet in diameter, pushing an orange with his nose for a mile in 24 minutes 36 seconds, somersaulting 12 miles, and pogo stick jumping 11.5 miles up and down the foothills of Mt. Fuji.

It's a real treat to have such a multi-faceted and amazing person representing the skippers of the world! Skip on Ashrita! Here are a few questions from the lengthy interview I did with him that you can read in its entirety on iskip.com

How does skipping make you feel? What does it do for you physically? Spiritually? Mentally?

For me, skipping is pure joy. I just try to abandon all thought and simply glide along without a care in the world, centered within. It becomes a type of meditation, and sometimes I really feel as if I’m floating on air. Unfortunately, since I train on the streets of New York City , this feeling is usually interrupted by an angry motorist trying to bring me back down to Earth so he or she doesn’t run me over!

Besides the tremendous peace and joy I get from skipping, I have also discovered that it is a fantastic workout. It obviously strengthens all of the leg muscles, but it also works the arms, shoulders and neck. And there is another important benefit of it skipping—it is a great core-strengthening exercise (abs and back) as well. What more could you want—a sport that strengthens and tones the entire body and is fun as well!

Do you have any words of wisdom for people who are too embarrassed to skip?

Life is too short to worry about what other people think about you. The opinion of others is not going to add one iota to your happiness. You have to be brave and follow your heart. That is the first step on the path to happiness. As Sri Chinmoy, my meditation teacher, so eloquently says:

“Never allow anyone
To clip the silver wings
Of your golden dreams.”

SKIP ON ASHRITA!

Ho! Ho! Ho! And happy holidays...

Thought I'd share this great and hopeful article from the Boston Globe I was recently interviewed for....

The favorite thing he wrote about our interview was...

"But today, she contends, skipping can be an act of defiance in the face of geopolitical gloom and doom."

Although I can say with almost complete certainty that the word geopolitical has never come out of my mouth!!! :-) That's definitely the reporter's word, not mine. (It wasn't a direct quote.) I literally couldn't have said it better myself.

I also found this quote from naysayer P.J. O'Rourke interesting...

All this sweetness and light is enough to give a certified curmudgeon like P.J. O’Rourke a toothache. ‘‘I seem to remember we tried all this in the summer of 1967,’’ growls O’Rourke, a humorist and author who lives in New Hampshire. ‘‘My memory is foggy, but somehow I think it all ended in tears.’’

Aaaah! This frustrates me so....Tears and seemingly insurmountable roadblocks are a natural part of birthing any dream! I so wish the disenchanted ex-hippies would re-open their hearts and their minds to the possibility of creating real change on this planet...This time perhaps it would help if it wasn't completely drug induced....The worst thing we can do when we run into a wall with our dreams and good intentions is to become jaded and cynical...Even though it seems to be human nature to do so! All that does is ensure that the dream will never be realized. All I want for Christmas this year is for all of the ex-hippies of the world to believe again....and to help inspire and harness the energy and idealism of the young people to create the positive change on this planet I know is possible.

And, finally, just in case you don't have time in the midst of the holiday hubbub to make it to the very end of the article, here's another "keeper" of a quote..

"Corbin, too, chooses to see silver linings and rosy scenarios. Paradoxically enough, she suggests that nice draws its strength from nasty. ‘‘It is in direct correlation with the amount of fear,’’ she says. ‘‘As the fear gets more intense, there’s this countermovement of rising above it. Because otherwise, it looks pretty dreadful.’’

Here's to skipping on despite terrorism, wars, questionabile polticians, and all of the negative stuff that stands between us and who were were born to be and what we were born to do. Skip on!