My name is Brian

I am not going to pretend that I am better than I am, I am not going to fool you about how great everything is, and I won’t tell you how to embrace the possibility of abundance in your life.

As a person, I do yoga as much as I can, which sometimes is not as much as I’d like. I have bad balance from a previous accident and have been known to fall when provoked. I can be purposely oblivious to certain people. I can also be selective and have tunnel vision, but it’s mainly because I am aware of what I am passionate about.

In the four years that I worked at Yoga Journal magazine, I learned many things about the “Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability“ demographic.

As a occupation, I handled the largest number of small business advertisers within Yoga Journal:

1. Yoga Journal Directory
2. Vegetarian Times Directory
3. Yoga Classifieds
4. Online Marketplace
5. Living Well Section
6. Conference Advertising

These sales arenas allowed an extremely close view of Yoga Journal and the yoga industry as a whole. I literally know hundreds of studio owners world wide, I managed to developed the yoga studio directory into a more lucrative position for the magazine, wrote the business model for the video podcasting and made it profitable.

I am a natural and Independent business thinker and I think that Yoga Journal benefited a great deal.

Because of my direct demeanor and ability to talk realistically with small business advertisers, I was embraced with warm and positive feedback. From that point on, as the times of the recession kept getting worse, any success I had with my section came from them, but for many, the economy took it’s toll on them. All of the small business owners, the sole proprietors or the Limited Liability businesses, live in todays world and in the very real economy. For many people, they can feel the effects of the economy as it is changing.

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I was born on December 17th, 1973, in Decatur, Georgia, at 11:35am.  Adopted at two weeks of age by my loving parents, Edward and Hazel Castellani, one adopted brother, David Castellani and one half-birth sister, Vera Anne Stover.

Currently each of my family members live on complete opposite spectrum’s of the United States.  My Parents are in Florida, brother in Washington State, my half sister lives in Texas.

The reason why I find yoga useful is for the medical benefit and personal growth I have experienced though doing yoga.

On December 4, 1993, I was in an altercation where I suffered a head injury with brain damage.  I was in a four day coma and when I came to, my eyes had crossed, I had trouble speaking, I lost all equilibrium and mobility on primarily my left side, and could not walk unassisted.

I was at Harborview Hospital in Seattle for a month doing physical therapy and speech therapy.  I eventually left the hospital in a wheelchair, later graduated to a walker, and then for some time after, I used a cane.  The doctors prognosis of my injury upset my parents and friends a great deal, and it is probably one of the lowest points of my life.  I also feel it is 100% responsible for my tenacity, resilience and ability to have courage when there is absolutly no reason to.

Doctors conveyed that physical rehabilitation would be a life long process, and that people with traumatic brain injuries have little to no hope of significantly changing.

In retrospect, the information was sparse and fragmented and the negative “sentences” that the doctors gave was more of a poor legal disclaimer. Even though there are effects today, it wasn’t an accurate hypothetical of my situation.  Life deals tough breaks, and in many head injury cases the situation is much worse.  How was I to know what would happen in the future?  How is anyone supposed to know, for that matter?  They didn’t, and no one can foretell the future.

I had never been in a position where my reality had been so altered.  There was nothing I could do but accept and adapt.  My eyes were crossed and my left foot would not “sync” with a regular pattern of walking. There was nothing I could do about it. I had to focus on what I could do mostly because I couldn’t understand half of what was said to me for years to come.  For 8 years I found myself off balance, quite literally. I practiced my pronouncing words in a mirror for over a year and a half.  Even today, I will stop mid sentence  and re-start a sentence if I feel as though I am saying it improperly.  Some people think I write this for understanding or a need for compassion, but don’t let that fool you, I just want to move on.  The incident itself has altered my life enough.  I have accepted it as being a part of who I am and I have moved on.  I have carried so much rage over the circumstances of December 4th and it effected me to such an extent, that they have shadowed the entire decade of my twenties.

In 2008, I made the discovery that I had a younger half-sister Vera Anne and also confirmed that my roots are Greek, Cherokee and slightly Welsh.

Regrettably, my birth mother Mary Jo Stover passed away April 22nd, 2005.

Today I have close relationships with my adopted family and close relationship with my birth sister.   My conclusion?  We don’t choose our family, they choose us.

I remember many things about my mostly loving childhood, but above all, the reoccurring theme that stands out to me is in the 7th grade, when I first noticed a world beckoning to me.

I am not a theoretical person, I am quite literally a creative “take your time, but hurry up,” kind of person.  Some believe that life is about suffering silently, and that by remaining silent a person can remain cozy in their safe suffering… and one day they will graduate to the new society of real martyrdom.   Skeptical bosses and skeptical employees are two vehicle of the same sad little fat diseased pigeons in the park.  Being a nay-sayer makes you incredibly constipated, negative and manipulative person who lives only by limited definitions and known variables. Your silence will not save you.

I started yoga in 2006, when I first started working at Yoga Journal Magazine as a temporary employee. I was then hired on permanently, and my practice continued to flourish.  Today, with regular and consistent practice, I have seen huge improvements in my physical, mental and emotional abilities, in every area – but, particularly my left side.

I am now doing things that I seriously never thought I would be able to do again…like regaining range of motion in my left leg, getting better with balance and (oddly enough, because I don’t wear my glasses when I practice) my depth perception. Yoga humbles me on a regular basis and I am constantly amazed by how my life continues to change. With the best of intentions, I would encourage anyone to start today.

I have since left Yoga Journal to start Yoganomics, continuing to work in fields related to yoga. I am currently more engaged with individual studio’s and individual teachers, than I ever have been.

Yoga has opened up the world to me in so many different ways and now is it my intention is to give back to the community that I now call home.

In November 2009, I started Yoganomics.  I spend a great deal of time alone because I am in the most unknown territory that I have yet to experience.   Sometimes I am completely terrified and other times I think I just might make it.

I try to practice yoga 4-5 days a week.  Feel free to drop me a line if you’re in town and want to go to a class.  Yoga has given me a worldwide community of people I love being around, and each person I get to meet, I always walk away feeling blessed.

namaste -

castellani is a sober reality of yoga & small business, old 1956 – 1964 Mercedes Pontons of any model, side show circus carnivals, traveling & doing yoga around the world, utilizing “manufactured recycling” for the development of useful eco products, real contortionists (vs the emotional sort), all white clothing, Media Broadcasting, investing in the future of Africa, Orphans, all black clothing, disability rights, eradicating the corporate plague of unaccountability, ending dependence on OIL, jeans and a black t-shirt and reducing the number of endangered species.

© 2006 – 2011 Yoganomics® Design & Production by Brian Castellani. All rights reserved.