First Class Free

February 11, 2011. 

Set your life on fire.

Seek those who fan your flames. - RUMI

I read somewhere that “no one is born with healthy self-esteem” we must learn this quality as we face our challenges.  In the energy system this is the work of the 3^rdchakra, the solar plexus, or Manipura.  The energies of this chakra have at their heart the intention to help us mature in our self-understanding like how we feel and take care of ourselves. This spiritual quality is about self-respect.  How we feel about ourselves, whether we have a strong sense of self-esteem determines our quality of life, our capacity to succeed in relationships, and our overall vitality.  

The spiritual truth here is that if we don’t like ourselves our energy sags.  And the lower our energy the less able we are to attract healthy relationships and job situations. To know if your 3^rd Chakra is in balance take a moment and honestly ask yourself: are you choosing situations, people, & things that drain your energy or grow your energy? 

For meditation ask yourself these questions:

·         Where were you last February 2010?

·         Where are you now?

·         Do you have more energy today?

·         Where do you see yourself February 2012?

From this practice of yoga I want us all to keep stoking the fire! I want for you to feel energized and excited about your life. And if you aren't feeling that way then the time is now to set an expectation for yourself – to your own growth and evolution – and surround yourself with those that seek to fan your flames. You are all amazing and as we continue paying attention to the health of our 3^rdchakra please know you have all come a very long way already and let's take it to that next level.  SET YOUR LIFE ON FIRE!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life!  Silvia

*Join me with Alchemy Tours www.alchemytours.com to set the fire ablaze full blast!

Hatha yoga increases energy by aligning our phsycial and subtle energy bodies, through physical poses (asana) and enhancing our life force through breath practices (pranayama) and encouraging our sense inward through deep relaxation. (Pratyahara).  The word Hatha means Ha (sun, solar qualities, doing) and Tha (moon, lunar qualities, being).  We need both and they come together in our center.

Chapter 2.46 in the yoga sutras talks about sthira and sukha this balance between effort and letting go, doing and being, stability and freedom, steadiness and sweetness.  To find our center we need to move otherwise we remain distracted when it comes time to rest.  As a result we use rhythmic breathing coordinated with movement to help release blockages and allow our life energy to flow.

If you take one thing away from this practice it is to breath into and from your center on purpose.  Holding the breath gives our nervous system a distress signal. Allowing our breath to flow evenly makes us more relaxed.  Yoga teaches that our mental state effects our breathing but breathing can impact our mental state.  So today practice Alternate Nostril Breathing like we’ve been doing in class to promote a return to your center to live in grace with improved coordination and life balance.  Love the day! Silvia

Let go of it all. Just remain in the center

Watching, and then forget you are there.” 

-Baba Hari Dass

I’ve been meditating on what it means to be “centered” and as much as I often think about this in terms of finding one’s center for me its become more a matter of keeping to my center.  When I first started yoga I didn’t quite know what it meant to be centered quite frankly I hadn’t ever even thought about it. I just got on the treadmill of life and just kept pushing myself to achieve and move on from stage one to stage two, excellence in High School, transferred into excellence in College and then trying to keep this going in the corporate world as well.  I was just going going going, almost like I was running around center but never pausing long enough to really be there.  Asleep or working a million hours per week (or playing hard) were the only two speeds I knew. 

Then through yoga and quiet time of self observation (svadhaya) on the mat I started “To Know Thyself” as Socrates put it.

It started as all spiritual practice does, not looking for answers but simply trying to ask better questions.  So I ask you take 3 minutes write down what does CENTERED mean to you?  To me it means balance, peace, happiness, a oneness with others instead of a tug of war, compassion, patience and most of all BEING PRESENT.

It is that “isness” of now that Echkart Tolle writes of in A New Earth.  Or in the Yoga Sutras the hope for all beings to find and hold happiness knowing this is only possible in the moment.  So meditate on the words of Jack Kerouac:

Not with thoughts of your mind, but in the believing

sweetness of your heart, you snap the link and open the

golden door and disappear into the bright room, the

Everlasting ecstasy, eternal Now.” 

Take time on the mat to be here now, to find and hold onto your center that place of sweetness where we feel the sacredness of living in oneness, one family, one heart, one love, one soul all in the light of center.  Hold fast my friends and keep making those sensitive adjustments to keep returning to center moment by moment.  Love you all! Silvia

The spiritual truth here is that if we don’t like ourselves we won’t make healthy decisions about our lives.  People with low self-esteem attract relationships and job situations that mirror and reinforce this.  So if you don’t like YOU others will walk all over you, taking advantage and bullying.  Your physical and emotional strength to set healthy boundaries are from this chakra, your personal power center.  To know if your 3^rd Chakra is in balance take a moment and honestly ask yourself: are you choosing situations, people, & things that drain you or empower you? 

During class we used poses to build physical strength and core awareness to help all of us strengthen our Third Chakra.

The other aspect that we spoke about in class was how a balanced third chakra aids our ability to feel more centered. When our 3^rd chakra is out of balance our thoughts are all over the place.  And if our thoughts are unfocused then it is more difficult to handle the crisis that life might put in our path.  We used the centering breath to return our minds to that place of peaceful balance, sama breathing, no matter what pose or discomfort we faced in a hip opening sequence.  We also learned the solar plexus Mudra called Rudra Mudra with the tips of our thumb and index finger and ring fingers together while extending the other fingers out in a relaxed way.  Our mantra was “I rest at my center and draw joy from my center, I love myself.”

For meditation we asked ourselves these questions as part of our practice:

·         Where were you last June 2008?

·         Where are you now?

·         Are you able to see how much you’ve grown and give yourself credit?

·         Are you on the right path?

·         Where do you see yourself June 2010?

I promise I will check in with everyone June 29, 2010 and hold everyone accountable for deepening their commitment to give birth to the life they really want. That this practice reminded us to set an expectation for ourselves – to our own growth and evolution – and remain centered enough to meet our ambitions.  You are all amazing and as we continue paying attention to the health of our 3^rd chakra please know you have all come a very long way already and with a courageous sense of self-respect and self-esteem little by little we will travel very far by this time next year! May your thoughts, feelings and actions find alignment.

Love yourself, love your life!  Silvia