First Class Free

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 15.0px 15.0px; line-height: 18.0px; font: 13.0px 'Trebuchet MS'; color: #333333}

February 25, 2011:  The second agreement is not to take anything personally.  Don Miguel Ruiz explains this, "Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves.  All people live in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in.  When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world. If someone gives you an opinion don't take it personally, because the truth is that this person is dealing with his or her own feelings, beliefs and opinions.  If you do not take it anything personally, you are immune to it."  

This is one level of understanding so on the mat we let everyone do their own yoga. We don't worry about whether someone next to us can do a deeper variation of a pose, it's not about us. They are practicing their own yoga and we should focus on our own yoga.  Now the other level of this experience is as Ruiz says so well, "even the opinions you have about yourself are not necessarily truth; therefore, you don't need to take whatever you hear in your own mind personally.  We have a CHOICE whether or not to believe the voices we hear within our minds. The mind can also talk and listen to itself." So be careful and choosy about what you listen to in your own mind.  Let go of the old stories that don't serve you that hurt you that keep you from being more of your potential.  

What we experience if we Don't Take Things Personally is, "you avoid many upsets in your life. Your anger, jealousy, and envy will disappear, and even your sadness will simply disappear if you don't take things personally. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering."  

And of course it always comes back to LOVE.  "If you keep this agreement, you can travel around the world with your HEART completely OPEN and no one can hurt you. You can say, "I love you." without fear of being ridiculed or rejected. You can ask for what you need. You can say yes without guilt or self-judgement. You can choose to follow your heart always!"  I love all of you and hope you can embrace this agreement to love yourself, love your day, love your life!  Silvia  

SEPTEMBER 11, 2010 NEWSLETTER

Salutations Friends on the Path!

This week the hot yoga topic in some circles has been about the marketing of yoga to make you slim and sexy. My first concern as a yoga instructor is not so much about sexiness as it is teaching folks that yoga is really about the Science of Happiness. I know that with consistent, regular practice you will reconnect with what you're feeling, learn healthy stress-reducing techniques (like breathing on purpose), appreciate your life more and generally engage the world in a kinder way. 

As yoga teacher Donna Farhi says, "What the world needs are kinder, more compassionate, generous people." The time on the mat is our opportunity to cleanse the mind of all its distractions that make us less attractive.  And as I often say in class, the biggest obstacle to a happier life is our own busy mind, and yoga is for the mind (which we access through the vehicle of the body). 

Does yoga make you sexy?  Well I guess so.  When we are feeling peaceful and centered our faces do look prettier.  And when we are kinder and move more fluidly we are more attractive.  And the yoga does slow us down to make more heartfelt connections to other people. So if you come to yoga for the mental or physical reasons it doesn't matter you are a complete package as a human being and you will receive ALL the benefits: happiness, sexiness, calm.  And most importantly you will naturally engage more unconditional love into your life!  So love yourself, love your day, love your life, Silvia   

PS Don't forget sign up now for Moab Nov 4-7th, get $500 OFF and next person who registers gets FREE Private with me1

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010.  Why do we do the things we do?  Why do you think the things you do?  Why do you feel the way you feel?  All of these most essential human questions.  Yet to be honest, before stepping fully into spiritual practice I had either not thought about these questions or I certainly didn't spend much time thinking about them on a day to day basis.  Through the cognitive behavioural therapy that is Yoga that all changed.  Even if you don't want to at some point while breathing on purpose and practicing the poses these questions get so loud that you have to address them heart first.  

Senior Yoga Teacher and a personal hero of mine Donna Farhi  has said  “In truth, it matters less what we do in practice than how we do it and why we do it. The same posture, the same sequence, the same meditation with a different intention takes on an entirely new meaning and will have entirely different outcomes.”

Whatever habits of the mind, that lead to actions, that establish our feeling state bubble to the surface of our consciousness during yogic practice and only then can we start to be honest with ourselves about why we are doing the things we are doing.  This is what is behind then the idea of INTENTION.  

So right now ask yourself, WHAT IS THE QUALITY OF YOUR INTENT?

It doesn't matter if you are eating, drinking, reading, kissing, working, breathing what is the quality of your intention behind doing what you are doing?

Thurgood Marshall said, "Certain people have a way os saying things that shake us at the core.  Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive, the impact is shattering.  What we could be experiencing is the INTENT behind the words.  When we intend to do good, we do.  When we intend to do harm, it happens.  What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through.  We cannot sugarcoat the feelings in our heart of hearts.  The emotion is the energy that motivates.  We cannot ignore what we really want to create.  We should be honest and do it the way we feel it.  What we owe to ourselves and everyone around is to examine the reasons of our true intent.  My intent will be evident in the results."  Renew your commitment this Fall to pay attention of the quality of your intent (is it honest, is it authentic, how does it feel) and stay mindful of your intent in all you do!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

FEBRUARY 22, 2010:  We focused tonight on the breathing practice of Anapanasati.  This is usually the very first breathing technique we learn in yoga. This ability to watch our breath and practice mindful self observation.  As we watch ourselves we gain insight into whether we are breathing in a way that shows us fearful or peaceful.  We then can link this to how we are living our lives. Are we judging ourselves each moment? Or is it possible simply to be with your life, feel your breath, without needing to change it.  Can you use the practice of mindfulness breathing to create a self-acceptance for yourself and let go of the fears you might have?  Can you ultimately choose to view your thoughts, your breath, your actions through a prism of love without so many labels of good enough or not good enough but just be.  I know you can, this practice if you let it will help you achieve the hardest pose of all, self-love.  Love and courage to you, Silvia       

ANAPANA-SATI

Watch for the judgmental mind that discounts small movements as insignificant or unimportant
or the ambitious mind that jumps in to tell you to make your breath bigger or deeper,
or labels your perceptions as good or bad in order to arrive at a conclusion.
- Donna Farhi

DEFINITION: Anapana means breathing.  The full name of this technique is anapanasati or mindfulness breathing.

PURPOSE: The primary purpose of this breathing concept is to gather more specific information about one's breathing patterns, rhythm, and intelligence. Simply observing the natural breath, do not breathe in a certain way or make your breath imposing. It is helpful to enter this inquiry with curiosity and inquisitiveness rather than a desire to get it right. This technique will calm your mind and keep you in the present preventing thoughts from stimulating stress. Be watchful. Thoughts will sneak up on you. When you catch yourself drifting toward thoughts, you must bring yourself back to natural breathing.

TECHNIQUE: Lay on your back or sit in any comfortable position, place one hand on the belly and the other on the chest or place both hands on the belly with the fingertips below the navel. After observing the location of the breath, you may move the arms to the side with the palms facing up.

Location of the Breath: Where is the movement of the breath most noticeable? In the lower part of my body or in the upper part?

Origin of the Breath: Where does the movement of the breath begin? Just as an earthquake has an epicenter that scientists can locate, your breath has an epicenter.

Frequency of the Breath: Is your breath fast or slow or somewhere in between? Count the number of breaths per minute or if possible have a friend count them for you. Twelve to fourteen breaths per minute is considered a normal rate.

Phrasing of the Breath: Is there a noticeable difference between the length of your inhalation and exhalation? Are they equal?

Texture of the Breath: Is the texture of your breath smooth and even or is it jerky and uneven?

Depth of the Breath: Does the breath feel deep or shallow?

Quality of the Breath: If you could describe the quality of your breath what word or words would you use? Is it pneumatic, labored, billowing?...Let descriptive worlds or images arise without layering them in any way. Do you have any images that you associate with your breathing?

Reference: Donna Farhi, The Breathing Book

Donna Farhi, Master yoga teacher and author says, “In its broadest sense yoga is a return to wholeness. There is an uncompromising belief in yoga philosophy that wholeness is our implicit birthright.  But most of us forget our wholeness, or in yogic terms we forget our true nature, and we live in a kind of illusion that we are alone. 

We suffer from a kind of SPIRITUAL AMNESIA that makes us feel separate from our authentic selves, separate from others, separate from nature. Even as we are taking a breath in, literally taking the world into us, we still think we are the masters of our own separate universe. Yoga is any practice that restores this original wholeness and sense of connection with the world.”

Sianna Sherman, Certified Anusara, with whom I’ve had the pleasure to study and learn from describes yoga as “ an invitation for people to get comfortable being themselves, at ease in their own natural beingness.  The media says we have to be a certain way but with yoga we start to fall in love with being ourselves, breathing and moving in our own body with our own breath.”

So I’d love to hear what yoga is for you please email me or call and I’ll collect more testimonials to share anonymously.  How’s that sound?  A great book of yoga teacher testimonials is called “Yogi Bare”.  Check it out.  Love the day! Silvia

JUNE 21, 2009:  Make yourself comfortable… Let your body weight sink into the seat… Relax your body and close your eyes. As your awareness is interiorized, connect with the Breath of Life gently moving through you… Make all your senses alert to the breath… Enjoy its power and simplicity… Feel the sustaining energy behind the breath... Feel that life force coursing through your cells and thoughts.

On this Father’s Day and Summer Solstice I think of my Father Enrico who encouraged me never to give up.  As the heat of the summer rises we may find ourselves falling more lethargic or tired.  In those times think of the father sky energy that exists everywhere around us supporting us. This the breath itself.  What my Father, Papa, was trying to say is same as what Einstein says Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

Don’t give up.  We all want to be understood, we all want to be loved, remember always you are loved.

Didn't I tell you?
I am an ocean, you are a fish; do not go to the dry land,
it is me, who is your comforting body of water.

Didn't I tell you
not to fall in this trap like a blind bird?
I am your wings, I am the strength in your wings,
I am the wind keeping you in flight.

Didn't I tell you
that they will kidnap you from the path?
They will steal your warmth, and take your devotion away.
I am your fire, I am your heartbeat,
I am the life in your breath.

Didn't I tell you?
They will accuse you of all the wrongdoings, they will call you ugly names,
they will make you forget
it is me, who is the source of your happiness.

Didn't I tell you?
Wonder not, how your life will turn out,
how you will ever get your world in order,
it is me, who is your omnipresent spirit and protector.
If you are a guiding torch of the heart,know the path to that house.
If you are a person of spirit (God), know this,
It is me, who is the chief of the village of your life.
 

So today enjoy these poets words from all those that have served us a father figures, whether they are still of this earth or those that have gone beyond like my Papa. “I see you are a pioneer. You are full of courage and power. You are a transformer of reality. Transform the reality that no longer serves you. As you do, link with others who know Me and recognize the family of Life. When you recognize in someone what you know inside to be true, seek to expand that truth, for as light is shared and love is grown so shall the world change. You are my feet and hands, my eyes and voice. You do not live alone nor shall you die alone. The world is yours to craft as you
choose. Choose freedom. Choose the way that creates the best for all; children; men; women; bodies of water; mountains, the land; and all planetary species. I gift you with Life and the ability to care for it. Embrace the gift.”

MARCH 9TH, 2009:  Today we started by asking ourselves how would we describe our complete selves to someone that didn't know us in just a few words?  We silently told this to the person to our right, then our left.  For some of us this was easy, for others of us this idea of explaining our complete selves posed a difficulty.  We are often really good at describing a part of us, a body part, one aspect of our personality, just our role at work but when asked to describe the sweet WHOLENESS of us we get stumped.

When a hero of mine, Donna Farhi was asked "what is yoga"  she responded "In its broadest sense Yoga is a return to wholeness.  There is an uncomprimising belief in yoga philosophy that wholeness is our implicit birthright.  But most of us forget our wholeness, or in yogic terms we forget our true nature, and we live in a kind of illusion that we are alone.  We suffer from a kind of SPIRITUAL AMNESIA that makes us feel separate from our authentic selves, separate from others, separate from nature."

Now I've never had amnesia but I understand how it works I think.  And forgetting who we are or how our parts go together is like not remembering.  When we are on the mat coordinating the democracy of ourselves together into a pose we regain this connection, we practice remembering to remember wholeness is us.  The experience of wholeness is like a coming home after experiencing a lot of different things like a bee visiting flower to flower, a real sweetness (mudhurya) exists here.  My hope is that through anchoring our selves back into our body we can use the Yoga to restore this feeling of wholeness and ultimately our sense of connection to the world.  Give peace a chance, give your whole life a chance and help me seek to bring a sweet wholeness back to our families, communities and world!  Love to you all, Silvia

FEBRUARY 25TH, 2009:  Tonight we talked about how yoga reveals our true nature, which is that of JOY!  We all have the right to be happy, to be loved, to be peaceful.  There are no conditions to meet or pre-requisites.  Do you believe you deserve to be happy?  Most of us come into the practice not really buying this completely, or at least that's been my experience this last 15 years of practice and teaching. 

So how do we move from a state of disbelief to believing the best is possible, joy is here for us?  The role of the teacher mentor is that of someone who wants to facilitate helping you rediscover your fullest potential.  I see in you your greatest capacity for love and peace. I will believe in you until the day you believe it for yourself.  Then we will celebrate this together!

The best explanation of the teacher's role is from Donna Farhi who puts it like this, "the teacher mentor assists the birthing of the student's dreams, visions, and hopes, and most important, what the student has not yet dared to imagine.  A mentor moves the student from disbelief to belief and in the process continually affirms the student's self-worth."  I want to make your learning easier by sharing with you all that I know. Now I can only make part of the journey with you. The deepest places you must discover within yourself are places only you can travel.  In the meantime, I will do my best to make the journey FUN, PLAYFUL, INSPIRING and SAFE.  That is my promise.  I love you all my dear students.  Peace, Silvia

*Reference Yoga Sutra 1.40

JULY 30TH, 2008:  It never ceases to amaze me how good we all are (and I mean gold medal good) at making the questions of life super complicated.  The good news is that regardless of how complex we make the questions, the answers are simple.  So I pulled together a simple list of 5 of these answers based on my lifetime of yogic readings and experience to share with you.

 1. CHANGE IS CONSTANT – GROOVE WITH THE FLOW

The teachings of yoga include a view called parinamavada, the idea that constant change is an inherent part of life.  Therefore, to proceed skillfully with any action, we must first assess where we are starting from today; we can’t assume we are quite the same person we were yesterday.   Emerson says it like this, “There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid.”
In life, change is constant. Things are always beginning, dissolving, dying.  And we are usually most aware of life’s ever-changing nature in the gut-wrenching moments…loss, death, heartbreak. In a nutshell we can respond to change in 2 ways.

1. One response is to race against time in an effort to accomplish as much as possible. When you realize “life is short” and no marriage, no person, nothing lasts forever, you want to squeeze it all in. This response is fun and exhilarating but ultimately can wear you out. “Time--when pursued like a bandit--will behave like one. Always remaining one county or one room ahead of you…slipping out the back door just as you’re banging thru the lobby with your newest search warrant.” (Elizabeth Gilbert)
2. The yogis prescribe another approach to best ride life’s ever-charging flow. By learning to relax, surrender, and let go, you realize that stillness is a magnet for contentment. As the German author Frank Kafka said, “..be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
    

2.  IT’S OK TO ADMIT WE DON'T KNOW 

In reality, we DON’T KNOW WHAT COMES NEXT.  Just like there are poses in this practice we don’t understand, can’t yet do, may never be able to do or if we can perform have no idea why or how… 

·         When we practice Yoga we are really acknowledging that we are on the ROAD OF LIFE.  The path unfolds in this moment and in every moment while we are alive. And we don’t know what comes next. 

·         This means in part, even at most crucial times, acknowledging that we really have NO IDEA WHERE WE ARE GOING OR EVEN WHERE THE PATH LIES. 

·         We are not meant to understand why all things happen, we may never understand.  All we can do is keep flowing forward…

3. BE PRESENT

"We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow."  -Fulton Oursler

What’s so important about being in the moment? Yoga teaches us that the present moment is the source of healing, love, inspiration, passion, creativity. In fact, the purest form of strength is that which is found in the present moment. The yogis call this power of presence shakti.  But to reap these benefits, one can’t just have fleeting moments of presence. We have to stay long enough in the present moment that we can really soak in its cleansing, healing, loving energy.

4.  LIVE FULLY NOW

“You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted.”  ~Ruth E. Renkl
Steve Ross, LA Yogi and Author puts it like this:  "You are always already happy. The reason you don't experience it is that it's covered up by layers of suppressed emotions and negative thoughts. Shift your attention and your inherent happiness flashes forth."

5.  GET ALONG – SEEK HARMONY

A human being consists of 75 trillion cells each with a very specific task necessary to sustain one's life. Scientists and doctors are likening the 75 trillion cells to musicians in a giant symphony. The conscious human being could never possibly conduct this symphony, but the conscious human being is absolutely responsible for providing a harmonious environment in which the symphony can play without interruption. The paradigm for health is already shifting.  We can see it moving its priority from "fit body" to "open heart." The truly great workout of the future will not be "How far can I run" but "How best can I serve?"

My favorite advice is from Sri Swami Satchidananda

"Whatever you do, let it be a perfect act. What is a perfect act? It harms nobody, it brings at least some benefit to somebody. If you have control, you can use anything and everything to achieve some good purpose. Keep that in mind as your goal. Whatever you think, whatever you say or do, ask yourself: 'Will it harm anybody?' The answer should be, 'Absolutely no.' The next point is, 'Will it at least benefit somebody.' The answer should be 'Yes.' If it is not benefiting anybody, it is a waste. So, no harm to anybody, at least some benefit to somebody."