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March 10, 2011.  Dedicated to all those finding their best courage in connecting to each other in a time of serious challenge.  And love to those digging out from the incredible Earthquake in Japan. Einstein said it like this, “A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. But he experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us. Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”

So today as we offer support around the world we also recognize internally how important it is for each of us to feel supported.  It is as Earon Davis says, “It takes community to maintain a human.”  Community, communion, compassion all of these and more that the practice teaches us through the vehicle of ourselves and trying to experience democracy and connection there first before taking it into relationship with others.  One of my personal meditations I use is where I ask myself as much as I reach out to others, “can I be reached?”  

So I ask you, “CAN YOU BE REACHED?”   How easily do you accept support from your breath, from the earth, from your friends, from those that are trying to make your life easier?  If its not so easy then come to the mat even more until you feel it possible within your body and heart and this will ignite the trust to connect with others. 

Quite frankly it's easy to disconnect from ourselves and what we are feeling. Yoga brings us back into a state of connection.On the mat we begin the pose with the mind first and then the breath and body follow.  This is why the sophistication in cuing is so remarkable as a way to "work out" our mind muscle and make it less flabby.  How can we even begin to see the connections between ourselves and the world if our mind muscle isn't strong enough to see the communion or connection within our own body?  And really what are we talking about here?  Why bother at all?  Because a strong mind muscle is what keeps us living lovingly and fully!  It is always about LOVE.  Jack Kornfield says it like this:

"Love creates a communion with life. Love expands us, connects us, sweetens us, ennobles us. Love springs up in tender concern, it blossoms into caring action.  It makes beauty out of all we touch.  In any moment we can step beyond our small self and embrace each other as beloved parts of the whole."

So today, know the more you connect to yourself the more you are able to connect to others. The more you share compassion with yourself, the more you have compassion for others.  And once you find this communion with life then everything becomes about love.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

PS Join me on a yoga retreat www.alchemytours.com and stay in touch www.silviamordini.com

SEPTEMBER 2010.  The theme tonight was LOST & FOUND. Really this gets to the heart of what nondualism means in seeing the world holistically, its challenges, and its ease.  In yoga can we be sthira and sukhum at the same time instead of pitting strength and flexibility, effort and happiness against one another.  We can apply this to all aspects of our lives: for instance how do we forgive when we are hurt, how do we balance strength and flexibility in the poses, how do we stand bravely but with heart? 

It’s as Einstein said:  “The rational mind is a faithful servant. The intuitive mind is a sacred gift. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”  

In this example even Einstein is saying to us that we shouldn't be all or nothing, a dualistic philosophy.  Instead as much as you engage your rational mind stop being mindful of the gift of your own intuition. Tap into both at the same time and realize one is not better than the other and we need not pick only one.  The same then can be applied to what happens we get lost.  And if you're honest with yourself we ALL get lost sometimes.  We lose track of where we are in our lives and why we are doing the things we do.  This is also what Elizabeth Gilbert comes to play out in her book Eat, Pray, Love.  She has everything she could want and is lost within herself.  The difference between those of us practicing yoga, meditation, mindfulness is that we are seekers.  We see we are lost and want to be found.  We don't punish or judge ourselves when we get lost we simply do the work for reconnecting to who we really are.  

You see being lost is not bad in and of itself.  It is just part of the whole spectrum of who we are. Perfectly imperfect and simply amazing human beings!  So take the time on the mat to help you find your own balance - more ease, more playfulness, more discipline, more strength....find both.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

Music tonight 6:15pm Yoga included: Dream Machine by Mark Farina, Ancient People by Nas, Damian Marley, In Another Time by Sade, Outre by M.Ward, Salsoul Nugget, even some Blue Scholars and Trevor Hall. 

NOVEMBER 22, 2009: Yoga is full of lessons for life. Gosh no doubt that the agitations of our lives makes our yoga harder but thank goodness the Yoga makes our lives easier. Just for you here is today’s playlist I put together special to go with our theme of Yoga as Conflict Management. We are using the metaphor of our lives as a washing machine where we use the practice on the mat to churn stuff up, to purposely agitate ourselves so that by the end of the class we experience the spin cycle of Savasana. The intention is that we leave the practice with our minds more clean and clear and hearts more open. It is better to experience friction on the mat than it is to keep carrying around these same old thoughts and habitual actions that are not bringing about the changes we wish for in our lives. To begin real change we have to change the way we ask for change. Love in all ways, Silvia

"You can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it." -- Albert Einstein


PLAYLIST NOVEMBER 22, 2009:
Friend Of The Devil, Jerry Garcia & David Grisman
Pulling On A Line, Great Lake Swimmers
Hey Ya, Obadiah Parker
Hey, Soul Sister, Train
Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part I), Kid Cudi
Heyy Babyy, Loy, Neeraj Sridhar, Pervez Quadir & Raman
Whatever Lola Wants (Gotan Project Remix), Sarah Vaughan & Gotan Project
Rotolando verso sud, Negrita
Hey Hey, Eric Clapton
This is How I Feel, Finley Quaye
You And I, Wilco
One Step Closer to You, Michael Franti & Spearhead
Ganesha, Wah!
Purnamadah, Shantala
Ahimsa, Baird Hersey & Prana

JULY 24TH, 2009: 

 

Relaxing effort and fixing the mind on the infinite (asana is perfected).  Yoga Sutras 2.47

 

To me this sutra is about how we relate to the questions and answers seeking in our lives.  In class it is that opportunity to stop working so hard at finding answers for life (why things happened in the past as well as reassurances for what is going tO happen in the future) and just be in a state of now. Some psychologists call this “easy speed” This is that place of just pure awareness of the questions of our lives instead of the constant striving for the answers.  This is the advanced practice.

 

A right effort an effective effort and why the poses need not be exotic to effective.  I want the poses to be familiar enough that we can find the ease and all the technique becomes effortless so we can be here right now on all levels (emotional, mental, physical, spiritual).  So let the poses be the questions, be the breath and unite your focus to breath and move. This then allows us to love the questions as poet Maria Rilke says in her poem: 

From "Letters to a Young Poet" by Maria Rilke

I want to beg of you much as I can to be patient
toward all that's unsolved in your heart,
and learn to love the questions themselves,
like locked rooms, or like books that are
written in a very foreign tongue.

Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you,
because you would not be able to live them,
and the point is to live everything.

Live the question now,
perhaps you will then, gradually, without noticing it,
live along some distant day into the answer.

 

When we find this infinite state then the unknown becomes less scary.  We are in the isness of now (as Eckhart Tolle puts it so well).  So let yourself feel your emotions around the unknown.  Remember all of us are wondering about the future (it’s a trick and delusion of the human psyche). The thing is none of us know the outcome of any given day, the future is an illusion.  Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious…” The way to avoid suffering is to learn to be present in the isness and be less afraid of the unknown so we can relax our effort and simply enjoy being here and seeing what is real and beautiful!  I love you all, Silvia

 

JULY 17, 2009:  Einstein says that “is there not a certain satisfaction in the fact that natural limits are set to the life of the individual, so that at the conclusion it may appear as a work of art?”  Spiritual practice reminds us that life is very brief.  No matter how many years we have in this body we know that it is impermanent.  Pema Chodran speaks to how impermanence heightens that feeling of preciousness and gratitude.  A fundamental Buddhist teaching says that once you are born, you immediately start dying.

 

Now if that doesn’t put things in perspective I don’t know what will.

 

Mortality is not scary dudes.  The way I look at impermanence is that it reminds us we are all ONE.  There is this yoga uniting all spirits, all nature. Our visit here is vitally important and so why not aspire towards harmony and use this trip we’re on to unite and celebrate one another?  Do we really need to spend any of our time fighting, destroying, rehearsing, dividing?  Is it worthwhile to battle even the difficult people or situations in our life knowing what we know, that life is fleeting?  I’ve spent time fighting against life by working too hard, climbing the corporate ladder too hard, accumulating stuff with almost militant gusto, then my Dad passed when he was only 59 years old.  That changed me forever.  There is no need to push at life. 

 

As I have always said, nature is my best teacher.  And I find great healing in the lessons that trees share with us by their existence.  We live because they live and vice versa.  Trees seem to me the symbol of this synergy of oneness and harmony.   We live in all things, and all things live in us.

 

“I believe in the absolute oneness of God and therefore also of humanity. What though we have many bodies? We have but ONE soul. – Ghandi

 

“We live by the sun

We feel by the moon

We move by the stars

 

We live in all things

All things live in us

 

We eat from the earth

We drink from the rain

We breath of the air

 

We live in all things

All things live in us

 

We call to each other

We listen to each other

Our hearts deepen with love and compassion

 

We live in all things

All things live in us    (By Stephanie Kaza, Earth Prayers)

 

During the course of the practice we get to try different poses. Some we can see as favorites and others as lessons.  The spiritual practice is to embrace all of them as they symbolize difficult and easy people in our lives.  So in the words of Indian philosopher Krishnamurti, “love the whole tree”.  Love your whole life, be grateful for everyone, celebrate each moment for it never comes again.  This is not a rehearsal, the state of harmony we allow ourselves determines the quality of our one life, right now. 

 

 

Love not the shapely branch,

Nor place its image alone in your heart.

It dies away.

 

Love the whole tree;

Then you will love the shapely branch,

The tender and withered leaf,

They shy bud and the full blown flower,

The falling petal and the dancing night,

The splendid shadow of full love.

 

Ah, love life it its fullness.

It knows no decay.    (Jiddu Krishnamurti, India)

 

APRIL 10TH, 2009: There has been a lot written about how yoga can help modulate the stress response.  A great article in Harvard Mental Health April 2009 edition goes into wonderful detail about this. Key points made from this article include "yoga practices can reduce the impact of exaggerated stress responses and may be helpful for both anxiety and depression. By reducing perceived stress and anxiety, yoga appers to modulate stress response. This in turn decreases physiological arousal - for example reduicng the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and easing respiration. For many dealing with stress yoga may be a very appealing way to better manage symptoms. Indeed, the scientifc study of yoga demonstrates that mental and physical health are not just closely allied, but are essentially equivalent."

So what this says, which yogis have known, is that we practice yoga today to help us manage the crisis we might face tomorrow.  It might seem weird to think of ourselves preparing for challenges but it makes sense that the best time to prepare for a crisis is BEFORE it happens.  In class we try out various poses to create sometimes stressful situations (for instance a new pose, a pose with lots of sensation, transitions from pose to pose) and we observe how we respond.  We practice responding to the crisis in other words.  So then we can diagnose ourselves in our own crisis management. How would you do?

Do you lose hope when faced with something new? Do you respond to trying and failing with self criticism, do you give up? Do you get mad at the pose, at the teacher, at God?  It is easy to give up hope.  But the sobering reality is that if we give up, we are mentally and physically impacted.

Einstein says, "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."  The worst thing we can do is lose hope, stop risking living our lives fully become fearful or worse yet apathetic.  Apathy is the enemy of love.  And yet in these sometimes trying times so many of us have lost hope.  So consider this "To lvoe is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing."

I understand, I used to have the false belief that if I "did life right" everything would be smooth sailing and I'd be protected from anything bad or unpleasant.  Then my Dad died suddenly trhough hospital negligence, then other family members became sick, my corporate job was in jeapordy.  And I realized everything we are learning today is preparing us for tomorrow's crisis.  Yoga won't stop stress.  It will help us manage stuff that happens to us.  There lies the difference. And it asks that we have the quiet courage to remain hopeful above all else.

An unknown author writes, "May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trails to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough HOPE to make you happy."  So dudes, breathe HOPE because you know without a doubt that your YOGA practice will prepare you for any difficulty you face!  With humble love and enormous gratitude, Silvia

 

DECEMBER 6^TH, 2008:  My friend Jennifer is in Paris right now.  Like the song goes I love Paris in the Spring time but I also love it in the Summer, Fall. Anytime really.  I like it most because of the feeling of wonder you cultivate looking and feeling part of some place with so much history. Along with the fact the pace of life and even walking are slower.  Being on the right side of the brain is a little like being on the Left Bank in Paris relaxing while watching the passing show, listening to music on the corner, savoring a rich glass of wine. It’s a place to sit around and wonder about it all. And of course most importantly to slow down. 

During yoga class we get to try out the art of being. We sit in wonder of it all in the moment and practice breathing.  Or like Ludwig Wittgenstein says, “That the world is, is the mystical.”  “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science. Whosoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes dimmed.”– Albert Einstein

 

So today put the left brain down, get into your body ruled by the right side of the brain and just sit in awe of the relationship between things.  Live in wonder of your own life! Don’t forget when you love your life, your life will love you back!  Silvia

 

 

AUGUST 20TH, 2008:  I was reading about how bullying and adversity made Michael Phelps, eight time gold medal winner, stronger. People made fun of him, the fact he swam instead of played football, the size of his ears, his height, all of it.  I love that he persevered!  He didn’t give in!  He found a way to meditate - to do yoga, his yoga happened to be swimming.  Instead of getting bogged down or paralyzed by worry about what others thought about him he kept living his life to the fullest.  As a result he is realizing his DREAMS!

 

Take this practice to liberate yourself, how?  Let go of your worries. Patanjali says in the Yoga Sutras, “What you’ve already done, you’ve done – LET IT GO, MOVE ON.”

 

Now in your next breath just do your best, be kind to others, include more and more folks in “others” and be kind to them too.

 

And remember the ultimate key to liberation – “Love will set you free” As Michael Franti sings.

 

ANOTHER EASY WAY TO THINK OF THIS IS:

1. Stop giving energy to the things you don’t want.
2. Everything begins with a thought.  Even Einstein says, “The ancestor to every action is a thought.”
3. Once you understand fully that what you think about is what EXPANDS you start to get very careful about what you think about.

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”