Surf Cat

Jaimal Yogis is the award-winning author of three books — Saltwater Buddha, All Our Waves Are Water, and The Fear Project. This month, he releases his first children’s book, Mop Rides the Waves of Life. Mop is a young boy who can stay calm riding gnarly waves but keeps getting into trouble at school due to his big temper. Eventually he learns to “surf” his emotions mindfully, enjoying the good waves (joy, gratitude, etc.) and letting the bad ones cruise by – or at least trying not to freak out when he wipes out.

Like Mop, Yogis was teased for having big, puffy hair when he was a kid. He wrote the book in the hopes of giving his three boys (ages four, six, and eight) the emotional tools he needed as a youngster but didn’t have. What he didn’t expect is that Mop would end up helping the whole family navigate the storm waves of coronavirus-driven lockdown and schooling from home, work emergencies, and even depression.  

Yogis’ wife, Amy DuRoss, is the CEO of a healthcare start-up called Vineti, which has about 120 employees. As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, DuRoss was on emergency phone meetings 12-hours per day. Meanwhile, Yogis was in the middle of multiple deadlines and planning a national book tour to schools and bookstores – all of which eventually had to be canceled or turned virtual.

“During the first few weeks of quarantine with three young children at home and crazy work stress, every day felt like a new low,” Yogis says. “I teach mindfulness and I wrote a book on the science of dealing with fear. But even with all this preparation, we felt at our breaking point. The boys were fighting constantly. Amy and I were arguing. We had friends and family suffering from COVID-19. We weren’t getting any work done. We knew how incredibly fortunate we were to have our jobs and our health, but this was a new low-point for our family.”

Feeling desperate for anything that didn’t involve handing the kids another screen, Yogis printed out Mop Rides the Waves of Life as a coloring book. The entire family started coloring the pages during home school hours. In a couple of images, Mop is facing storm waves that say, “Sadness, Fear, Anger.” In the image, Mop is diving under those waves, a serene look on his face. Yogis and DuRoss hung these images, which the boys had colored, all over the house, in every room. To their surprise, they noticed things shifting almost right away. Anywhere they went in the house, the image of Mop letting the bad waves go became a steady reminder: Breathe! All these waves will pass.

“When the kids started screaming or going at each other, I would point to Mop and say, ‘take a breath, you’re in the middle of a bad wave,’” Yogis laughs. “It worked way better than me scolding them because it was Mop’s advice – and Mop is a lot cooler than Dad. Of course, then the kids started doing it to us. Kaifas would be like, ‘Dad, you’re caught in an angry wave.’ Or, ‘Mom, you’re getting held down by a set. Relax. Breathe. Come back later!’”

Seeing how helpful the coloring book was, Yogis and illustrator Matt Allen released free coloring samples online for kids out of school. The book’s publisher, Parallax Press, also allowed the author to post a free reading of the book on YouTube. The video has received over 10,000 views.

In the Yogis household, every day is still a challenge. But every day seems to be getting a little better now rather than worse. Mop helps the family remember to really appreciate those good waves and focus on one thing they’re grateful for each day, Yogis says.

A bright spot for Yogis has been working on a sequel to the first Mop book, called Mop Rides the Waves of Change. In this one, Mop and his friends decide to help out their community by cleaning up the beach. “It felt like Mop saved our family from drowning in our own emotions,” says Yogis. “So, the least I could do was send him out to help others in the next book.”

Yogis published his first memoir, Saltwater Buddha, at age 29. The coming-of-age story about his escape from the banality of high school to the joys of surfing and meditation has since been turned into a film. Yogis went on to write a non-fiction book exploring the neuroscience and practical experience of overcoming dread, The Fear Project, and a second memoir, All Our Waves Are Water: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment and the Perfect Ride.

With his diverse interests, Yogis sees himself as a mutt. “I love novelty,” he explains. When he works freelance on journalism pieces, he serves as an investigative reporter or travel writer. When writing a memoir, he dives into the art of crafting sentences. When teaching a meditation retreat, he remembers his days at a Zen monastery. When dreaming up a screenplay or documentary idea, he pretends to be in the director’s chair. And when surfing, he imagines he is the pro he wanted to be at age 12. “But what I’ve learned from writing about neuroscience is that novelty is where the brain is stretched and forced to grow. So, when I feel like I’m scattered, I fall back on the hope that I’m really growing my brain,” he says.

Broadly speaking, Yogis sees his life purpose as alleviating suffering for others and himself. “But discovering how that plays out, the nuts and bolts of purpose and passion, is like the path to enlightenment: it’s not an end game,” he explains. “It’s a constant process, an unfolding and opening. We’re all on a treasure hunt, looking for that final gem, that aha moment, but it turns out the clues along the way are the real treasures. My mantra is: Keep your compass on compassion and you’ll always end up on the best island.”