Letter to my younger self: Eddie Stern

If you could write a letter to your younger self what would it say? We asked some amazing people in our community to write letters, and were blown away by the love, compassion and humor they shared in our Celebrating Age issue.

Dear Eddie,

I have only a few suggestions for you. Looking back on your life, well, ours, I guess, you’ve done some cool things, and had a few missteps. Since you are 18 and just getting started, watch out for these things:

1. Listen to your conscience and gut a little more than
I did. If something doesn’t feel right, turn the other way. I didn’t listen as well as I should have and ended up in situations that caused a lot of pain for myself and others. Sometimes things can’t be avoided, but I wonder where we would have ended up if we had listened more closely to my intuition in the moment.

2. Don’t start teaching yoga right away, like I did.
It’s true, you were asked to teach, but you also could have said no. Try saying no. Practice for a good 10 years or so, learn a little more, struggle a little more, and then after you’ve put in the inner work, start teaching. It will help with the troubles that arose in point 1.

3. Learn a second language right away,
Preferably an Indian language, since you are about to spend a lot of time in India. Don’t delay, and don’t lapse. Sanskrit doesn’t count, since we kept that up.

4. Not going to college was a great idea.
You’ll get a degree after 54, and there isn’t really anything between 18 and 54 that is going to demand that you need to have gone to college. All good.

5. Prioritize friends and family more than I did.
I got too caught up in work, and still am, to be honest. Don’t wait ‘til you’re almost 60 to do that. It’s time wasted. If you are diligent about a work schedule, work doesn’t ever need to become all-consuming.

6. Keep a journal.
You did for a while, then stopped. They are fun to look back on.

7. You’ve been great about physical health.
All good on food and exercise. But you ignore your emotions a little too much—get a therapist and figure some stuff out early on. We’ll be better for it when we get to my age.

8. If it hasn’t happened already, you’re going to have an apartment on Cornelia Street.
One night you’ll be lying in bed with your girlfriend, and she’s going to be challenging you on your looks—you had just dyed your hair black and green—and she said, “There’s no way you’re going to be dressing like this and doing your hair like this when you are 50.” And you are going to say, “Probably not, but that doesn’t matter. When I am 50, I am going to be the same, exact person I am right now; I might dress different, have different (or no, as it were) hair, but my awareness is going to be the same, and knowing who I am is going to be exactly the same as it is now. Only my appearance is going to change, but that is not me.” Guess what? This thought, one of our early, direct perceptions of witness consciousness, was 100% accurate. We are past 50. But the awareness of observer consciousness, the awareness that things change externally, but the inner being is constant, was the end of your yoga journey before we started actually doing yoga. When we did start to practice, it was just to learn things to remind us of that direct perception.

9. You’re not going to do this, but I’m going to tell you anyway:
never stop listening to punk rock, never let music not be your muse, and always let your heart be blown wide open by beauty and pain and sorrow in all of its forms.

10. When David Bowie tells you he’d like to do yoga with you, please follow up with him.
It’s going to happen, and you totally let fear get the best of you. Don’t!

11. Last but not least, please don’t use so much hairspray.
It’s bad for the environment, and it’s most likely (along with the hair bleach) going to make you go bald. Save the environment, save your hair. It’s not a vanity thing—you are actually going to be a lot warmer in the winter and conserve heat.

Love you, homie,

Eddie