First Class Free

NOVEMBER 21, 2009 This time of year before our first major holiday for the season its easy to get ungrounded and hurried. We can feel the anxiety mounting with each day closer to thanksgiving whether its from excitement for time off or nervousness to get stuff done. Either way we tend to get thrown off our center. This is a perfect time for yoga, from now until the end of the year.

So we devoted today’s practice grounding. Grounding serves us as a simplifying force one which helps us plug back into ourselves and allows us to be fully present. This empowers us to find clarity through stability whereby forming a strong foundation for our lives. We feel in the flow of grace. We used standing poses and props to help us achieve the security that comes from connecting our nervous system to the earth and we all left the practice with our inner stillness intact once more. Ready to be the rooted influence in our families and friends. May you stay grounded and at home in your heart. This week of gratitude through our grounding may we bring harmony to the earth, where we are all in this together. Love and light, Silvia (PS see cool utube clip on my person facebook page)

APRIL 1, 2009:  Ok the answer to relaxation is being present.  But how do we do it?  How can we connect to a quiet grounded sense of peace when our lives are filled with stress and messiness?  Good news is that relaxation is a skill and art we can learn.  Relaxation takes practice.  Time on the yoga mat is the classroom in which we can practice.  We have the entire curriculum of our lives with us already so we don’t need anything more.  Once we take time to practice our yoga can support us in our real life. It can help us stay grounded and present in even the most stressful times we can maintain clarity and mental balance.  From a physical perspective we used a series of hip openers and standing poses to further the energetic grounding into the present during class today.  So be present to all of it.  Love your day, Silvia

Some suggestions we talked about include: (They come from an article I found years ago and can’t recall the source, blessings to who shared this with me)

Exhale. One of the best ways to bring yourself back down to earth is to lengthen your exhalations. This form of breathing-encourages the nervous system to become calm and quiet, moving the body into a more restful state of being.

Focus your mind. Sometimes when the world sends us spinning, we want to do nothing more than drop into an easy chair and stare into space. But this approach often gives the brain free rein to continue its obsessive and agitated thinking. Instead, try focusing your mind in a constructive and engaging way by practicing poses and breathing techniques.

Substitute positive thoughts for negative ones. Yoga teaches that when we are disturbed by negative thought patterns, we can recover our balance by inviting peaceful thoughts into our minds. So the next time you find yourself reeling with an agonizing fear or a depressing thought, notice the negative habit, toss it out, and replace it to develop a more positive outlook .

Practice, practice, practice. Like fine wine, relaxation improves over time. Even if you don't happen to feel completely blissed-out in Savasana today, you are priming the body for quiet and ease tomorrow. Repeatedly practicing restful postures greases the wheel of relaxation, so you will be able to quickly and easily drop into a deep state of ease someday in the future

 

  

SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2008:  So this weekend from Netflix I was watching the movie Step Up 2 (The Streets).  Good stuff!  Amazing dancing and not a single curse word. I loved it! The kids in the movie really had to make the commitment to achieve their goal of participating fully in a dance competition.  They had to figure out where the time was going to be spent and then maintain the discipline to show up and do it everyday. 

 

Yoga asks that we Step Up when we come to the mat.  That we be there fully.  All we have to do is turn to our breath and feel how alive we are.  It is no accident that we are breathing, we’ve been chosen because we are vitally important to the universe.  Breathing is a celebration a way of saying YES, I WILL STEP UP to my greatest potential!  Now for the kids in this movie it wasn’t all easy.  I feel that.  I consider myself an underdog and have had to step up time and again in the face of adversity, discrimination, illness and a myriad of other challenges.  That’s the hard part to keep stepping up and believing in our own innate goodness and the good within our world even when things are not okay. 

 

After we heat and move the body to release agitation, confusion or distress we can have greater clarity on that feeling that we are going to be okay, even when things are not okay.  Equally as important to stepping up is our ability to STEP BACK and let the pose support us.  Surround yourself in friendships that are life affirming.  Beware those folks that want to gossip, speak in ugly ways about others for they will destroy your energy.  There is a give and take here but trust yourself to step back in safety.  It's written God helps those who help themselves, yup we step up and love life and in return life loves us back even more.  Allow yourself time to step back and feel that sense of grounding that comes from being supported by the goodness in the universe!

 

 

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008:   My personal philosophy formed from these last 15 years of yoga practice is “LOVE EVERYONE AND TELL THE TRUTH.”

To me these things go together and if you tell the truth you not only have fewer conflicts but those that do arise are more easily able to be resolved.  

When we tell the truth we want to love more. 

When we love more we find it easier to tell the truth

So today we dedicated our practice to TRUTH.  Acknowledging this asks that we try to be ourselves: that we breath honestly, we do the poses truthfully and we start peeling back the layers of truth in our lives.  So right now bring all your attention to yourself and let your body be calm as you go into your own heart where truth is always waiting.  Know the universe is on your side and that you are doing your BEST!

 

So we start with what is UNTRUTH.  When we aren’t honest we feel unsteady, anxious, uprooted.  Who wants that?  Instead truth influences us in amazing ways:

 

1. One of the most beautiful qualities of the truth is that it is very grounding.  A sense of calm enters our life.

2.  The truth reveals, there is something that is uncovered, a place of freedom, something is discovered (we have nothing to hide).

3.  Truth transforms, once you move into the calm, it begins to reveal the beauty based in your heart then you shift to your best life ever!