First Class Free

By Laura Mills

Twice a year I try to wash my windows, at least the ones most spotted with water marks, dirt, cat nose prints or anything else. And afterwards, I am always amazed at the difference a newly-cleaned window makes to my view.

I've heard several teachers mention it, but I agree that cleaning is a powerful metaphor for yoga as well as many other positive methods we employ to release inner build-up. We accumulate grime all the time: emotions, stress, attachments, and other residues of life. And in order to restore our optimal views, we require elbow grease in the form of a physical practice that focuses our minds. We practice asana on a yoga mat, compose words on a page, play music on an instrument, run miles on a trail, or any of a million combinations of those and many other pursuits. And our ultimate goal in pursuing any of them, I believe, is clarity.

But like windows, we accumulate grime again and again. It's humanly normal, and it calls us back to our practices over and over yogis to their mats, writers to the page, artists to the easel, and so on. The scenery changes with the seasons, of course, but any time we see clearly the view is spectacular and definitely worth the effort.

February 5, 2011. Just a year ago I used GPS for the first time. I get the idea. You plug in where you want to go and it helps guide you there. The key point being you KNOW where you want to go. Yoga to me has been that which helps us ask the question “who am I” and eventually we get to the “why am I here” and even further down the path “WHERE THE HELL AM I GOING?” So this concept of GPS is pretty vibrant.

If you can get to the point that you know where you want to go then you know your spiritual maturity is evolving in the right direction. Until I finally decide to go to Tuscany on a Yoga Retreat one year I just played at entering a real GPS for my life. Then from that point forward I got clear. I want that for you. Get on the mat, do the practice, get your destination in gear and watch what happens. Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

PART OF MY PLAYLIST TODAY 2/5/11

Hard Sun (Main), Eddie Vedder
Nogo, Issa Bagayogo
Break Your Heart, Taio Cruz Feat. Ludacris
Vamos A Bailar, Gipsy Kings
Tighten Up ,The Black Keys
Express Yourself, Mocean Worker Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street
Mr Big Stuff, Jean Knight
Dedication, Kirby Shelstad
AMAZING GRACE

Join us on an amazing spiritual adventure www.alchemytours.com or come take class with me www.silviamordini.com

May 16, 2010 Finally after 3-4 years of procrastinating I set out to finish up a project yesterday and I did! It took all of an hour. Yup. That’s right. I spent years worrying about, putting it off, debating it, starting and stopping it but when all was said and done it took one hour. Spiritual practice has taught me that procrastinating is a perfectionist tendancy. And as one psychologist I read years ago put it, “perfectionism is the worst form of self-abuse.” So I am back on track and went back to basics asking myself “what are my goals: personal, professional and health related”? What are your’s? In class we wrote them out for ourselves. I would love for you to do this now in 5 minutes. 

Then consider what is it that prevents you from going for your goals more fully and making them and keeping them important enough to check in on week to week? I would hazard to guess that the traitors of self-doubt and fear influence us to procrastinate.  The antidote is to stay actively involved in your life yet slowing down enough to remember to wake up to what improves the quality of your life.  What if everything you ever wanted came true? Yogic practice stands up to say of course that is not only possible it is your birthright to co-create with the universe the life of your deepest dreams, to tap into your greatest potential. So why not start today? 

To help us take a moment to write in your Accomplishment Journal about all the things you’ve accomplished this week. Use this in tandem with your goals and intentions to see how far you’ve already come and to provide yourself the validation you need to know you can do this! Don’t put anything off a moment longer that holds meaning to you.  Heed the words of Danna Falds and FALL AWAKE to your life!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

Soul Prayer by Danna Falds

“Lord, grant that I may fall awake, and not miss a moment of the mystery.

Dancing with the dawn, may I draw this day to my breast like a lover.

Rocked with laughter, let me lay waste the fields of doubt and fear,

finding there nor more substance than dandelion seeds flying weightless on the breeze.”

May 3, 2010:  At all times you have the potential for great joy in your life.  You just need to find it within yourself and bring it into consciousness.  This understanding is the first step.  If you don't buy into this then what happens for many of us is that we convince ourselves we have to EARN our happiness. And we place all sorts of conditions and prerequisites on ourselves before we can be happy.  

I know about living with conditional happiness.  

I was really good at this from childhood. I would demand that I earned certain grades before I could be happy, or went to a particular college or in college got pinned, engaged, bought a small house, bought a big house, got a great job got promoted to a better job...it never stops.  In the meantime life is just going by. 

Happiness is not a paycheck you have to earn. There are no prerequisites to happiness just like going to yoga class requires nothing more than showing up.  

Once you let this reality set in everything in your life gets easier.  Happiness is the goal of all other goals. It is our birthright and here right now.  Happiness is the purpose of my life!  The universe wants this for us unconditionally.  So go on, be as happy as you want to be...Love in all ways, Silvia

SEPTEMBER 5TH, 2008: By coming to class today you made a choice, you did something on PURPOSE – what does that mean to you?  And the bigger question is WHY did you make this choice? 

How do you figure out the WHY?  In other words, how do we know our own minds?  An easy answer is to sit in meditation and find out. There is power in silence and stillness.  This reminds us that our minds can hold only one thought at a time.  My Father liked to show slides for fun on a Saturday night at our house so we still to this day have multiple old fashion slide projectors.  They are brilliant!  What I like most is that they can only show one slide at a time.  In these days of picture in picture, scrolling news and 5 things going on in the same screen this is pretty refreshing.  Now think of your mind as a giant slide projector with every thought in your mind being a slide. Whenever a negative slide comes up on the screen, take immediate action to replace it with a positive one.  DO THIS ON PURPOSE.

“Self knowledge is the stepping stone to self mastery.” Buddhist philosophy

In practice we have the opportunity to learn about ourselves and really do things ON PURPOSE.  So we step forward on purpose, breath on purpose, think on purpose (how many times do you let gloomy thoughts enter? Replace them with cheerful thoughts).  Ask yourself right now why are you breathing the way you are?  What insights are you gaining?

Robin Sharma writes, “People who study others are wise but those who study themselves are enlightened.  Those we are truly enlightened know what they want out of life, emotionally, materially, physically and spiritually.  Clearly defined priorities and goals for every aspect of your life gives you direction.  Lasting happiness comes from steadily working to accomplish your goals and advancing confidently in the direction of your life’s purpose. So may you all use this practice to discover your purpose, Dharma, and work towards it! Take to heart the words of Playwright George Bernard Shaw

“Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid

Torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want

To make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it

On to future generations.” 

REMEMBER:  THE PURPOSE OF LIFE IS A LIFE OF PURPOSE