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NOVEMBER 15, 2009: “After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it?” – Richard Dawkins

So here's the theme: how Yoga is the practice of revealing yourself to yourself. The whole thing is about self-exploration. Hope you can rock with me with great music and fun flow to feel for yourself how “Exploration really is the essence of the human spirit.” Here are some favorite quotes that inspired this practice. I also emailed out the actual class plan that I hope you have enjoyed! Love in all ways, Silvia


Whenever there is a reaching down into innermost experience, into the nucleus of personality, most people are overcome by fear and many run away. . . The risk of inner experience, the adventure of the spirit, is in any case alien to most human beings. The possibility that such experience might have psychic reality is anathema to them. – Carl Jung

Creative people who can't help but explore other mental territories are at greater risk, just as someone who climbs a mountain is more at risk than someone who just walks along a village lane. – RD Laing

Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do. It's a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do. - Neale Donald Walsch

If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative. - Woody Allen

FEBRUARY 10TH, 2009:  It is interesting that we just had the full moon yesterday and on December 31st of this year it will also be a full moon.  Is this the year that you no longer sleep walk through life and just make it ok?  Do we commit to waking up and being present, taking back our thoughts and owning our life?

YES!  Even Winston Churchill speaks to this when he said, "The price of greatness is responsibility over each of our thoughts."  Everyday yoga tells us that we move our mind state from one of "nidra" sleep to "Buddhana" awakening.  The practice encourages us to be MORE than aware, but really awake.  So you have from today until December 31st, same full moon to do something more than just using 20% of your mind as a rest station of awareness but instead really engaging 60-80% of your mind to wake up to the blessings of life.  Remember:  Your I CAN is more important than your IQ.

So what is your intention, what makes you wake up and roar?  Go inside and figure it out. Take time right now for five minutes.  Follow the advice of Carl Jung, "your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.  Who looks outside: dreams; Who looks inside: awakens."

Or as Pantanjali says in the Yoga Sutras, "When you are inspired by some great purpose all of your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world!"  Be the cause of your own future my firends. Wake up and start living!  Love, Silvia

SEPTEMBER 6TH, 2008:  Well it’s that time again to clean out the closet and prepare to move the summer things and bring out Fall/Winter stuff, right?  You can feel the shift taking place:  the crisp feeling to the air, the lengthening of our nights, kids back to school.  Yoga can help us reflect on where we’ve been and help us make time to design our vision for this last quarter of the year (and beyond!)  Focus this vision on the kind of person you want to be by taking time to revisit your emotional, material, physical and spiritual goals.

 

So if you’ve been away from the mat let’s begin again this Fall without apology.

 

STEP 1:  REFLECT

Express gratitude for all you’ve learned up to this point. Every event of this year has offered us lessons.  So whether we’ve had a challenging 8 months or not we can all grow from these experiences. Then say thank you, let it go and say good bye to what is past.  It’s like cleaning the closet we have to make room for what comes next.  This will help us stop being a prisoner of our past.

 

Instead let’s become architects of our future!

 

STEP 2:  FALL VISION

Carl Jung once said that ‘your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. 

Who looks outside: dreams;

Who looks inside: awakens.

 

REMEMBER:  YOUR I CAN IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR IQ.

 

Exercise your mind muscle by saying I CAN.  Don’t accept no or maybe.  Take back your thoughts and own your life. Winston Churchill speaks to this when he said ‘the price of greatness is responsibility over each of our thoughts.”  I believe you can do this!

 

So take time on the mat to get clear about who you want to be and what you want your life to feel like.  Through this practice you can awaken to your highest potential!  Or as Pantanjali in the Yoga Sutras writes:  “When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world.  Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”