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March 20, 2011.  I often ask myself what is the true test of my Spiritual Growth? Or more simply put I meditate on the question "Am I still growing?"  When I was little my Mom measured us (me and my brother) against the door in our house and marked the little lines proving I was actually growing physically.  You did that too, right? Well, I loved that.  I was sad the day she stopped doing it and I stopped growing.

Well that's speaking to physical growth.  I am as tall as I'm going to be (although to be honest by practicing yoga I've gotten a little taller, just a quarter inch but that's pretty cool).

However what I'm speaking about is emotional and spiritual growth.  My aspiration continues to be that I grow into the BEST version of myself.  And that's what I hope for you too. 

Or as True Nobility is defined: it is not about being better than anyone else, it is about being better than you used to be, much better.  This is the barometer of our ability to raise our spiritual energy. Are you better than you used to be?  Are you growing?

"The only difference between a flower that is alive and one that is dead is that the live flower is still growing."  - Dr Wayne Dyer

For me I received so much nourishment, like a flower, from my daily yoga practice that I wanted more. That's when I started taking yoga workshops: first they were the 2 hour kind, then the half day, then the full day, finally entire weekends both locally and eventually I started traveling all over the U.S to attend 2-3 day trainings and workshops until I went all the way by signing up for a one week yoga retreat in Italy with Sadie Nardini.  Well that did it for me. I could experience for myself that to keep growing I had to keep investing in myself and more time dedicated to evolving my consciousness was required to do that.  And traveling to new places and exploring new territories externally matched the growth I was making internally.  They went hand in hand.

And that's when I made the commitment to start leading yoga retreats combined with other ways to express one's yoga and vitality like cycling and hiking. I want to give everyone a chance to really invest in your own growth and raise your energy by visiting places that support your evolution.

You see, until the last breath, I don't buy into wellness as defined by the AMA as the "absence of illness". I believe in the potential for radiant health (shakti) as the World Health Organization defines wellness.  I am growing! And I am learning. And the higher my vibration the softer I get on the outside. I am kinder, more patient, nicer and easily more loving.  I think we all are when we're growing.  So make that commitment to yourself keep affirming your life! Love yourself, love your day, love your life, Silvia

 

In the words of Lao Tzu, 

"At birth all people are soft and yielding

At death they are hard and stiff

All green plants are tender and yielding

At death they are brittle and dry

When hard and rigid we consort with death

When soft and flexible we Affirm Greater Life."

February 7, 2011.  Carlos Casteneda in his book The Teachings of Don Juan offers a great suggestion for considering what choices to make. To me this is speaking to the heart of the yogic definition of HAPPINESS.  “You must always keep in mind that a PATH is only a path; if you feel you must not follow it, you must not stay with it under any circumstances…any path is only a path, there is not affront to yourself or others in dropping it if that is what your head tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition.  Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and you alone, One question…it is this…DOES THIS PATH HAVE A HEART?  Does this path have a heart is the question. If it does, then the path is GOOD; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere, but one has heart and the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it you will be one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong, the other weakens you.” 

Each individual can judge for himself which path has heart for him and invite happiness every step of the way.  Today I am thinking of Yoga as the Science of Happiness. This has me thinking about ancient Yogic writings like that of the Bhagavad Ghita where it talks about  “the only real happiness in life is living with an open, loving heart.”  “It explains the nature of happiness, emphasizing that all those things that are obtained in the world are transitory and if we define success by material stuff we limit ourselves and miss out on life because there is not substitute for peace, love and happiness. At the same time it’s not the stuff that’s the problem the problem is the belief that stuff is the solution to the aching soul.” (Judith Lasater, Living Your Yoga)

This science of happiness we call yoga makes space so we can  is let go of what is negative and stay tuned in to our own contentment.  And the person responsible for being happy is YOU.  Yoga teaches self-responsibilty, non-judgment and seriously radical self-acceptance by accepting the full spectrum of who we are (anger, worry, fear).   The mat is a truth serum that helps us realize the truth and allows us to clear the space for living a more joyful life.  

"Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing" — W. B. Yeats

Yoga moves us on only those paths with heart and then we can't help but grow and evolve.  And we leave the mat remembering how happy we really are and even more joy is yet come.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

 

OCTOBER 15TH, 2010  In simple words, Yoga is the science of happiness.  We walk in stressed out, upset, negative and we leave the practice lighter, refreshed, more positive, in a nutshell, happier!  I can't say that even after all these years, over 7,500 hours of teaching, and gosh who knows how many hours of practice that I fully understand the alchemy.  It's like magic.  

What I do get on some level both intellectual and emotional is that walking in we are like the decorator crab: collecting all these issues, stories, dramas and if we don't let something go we will literally suffocate under the weight of it all.  Maybe we'll still be walking around but we certainly won't be happily human which is our birthright.  The decorator crab does that: it collects all the stuff it finds and keeps putting it on its back until it can no longer swim to the surface and dies under the weight.  The work we do on the mat is about personal growth.  It is making space so we can  is let go of what is negative.

 Every day we have a chance to either have our lives serve as a WARNING or an EXAMPLE to others.  The decorator crab is our warning.  Let's learn something from it.  The opinions or judgments we have of external stuff are just that - they do not impede our ability to remain happy. Happiness is an inside job.  And the person responsible for being happy is YOU.  Yoga teaches self-responsibilty, non-judgment and seriously radical self-acceptance by accepting the full spectrum of who we are (anger, worry, fear).   The mat is a truth serum that helps us realize the truth and allows us to clear the space for living a more joyful life.  And that life is moving forward, with us or without us.  

 "Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing" — W. B. Yeats

Yoga gets us UNSTUCK and then we can't help but grow and evolve. We not longer hold ourselves back from those things that crash our internal hard drive.  And we leave the mat remembering how happy we really are.  We start to celebrate the best parts of ourselves.  And that, is why yoga is the science of happiness.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

"I am so happy, I cannot be contained in the world; If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me;But like a spirit, I am hidden from the eyes of the world.  For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens." RUMI as translated by Keshavarz

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010.  More than ever I aspire to this feeling of spirit day in and day out. I've tried looking outside myself for this experience, and through my yoga practice I've made time to look within.   As you know, this last month I took it to a new level.  I've had regular yoga teachers that took a month out for their own development every year whether it meant traveling to Thailand to be with their teacher or going on month long silent retreat or just taking a time out from teaching to more deeply commit themselves to the Yoga of Relationship.  So I did all of that this last 31 days.  And I am so happy I did!  I attended an awesome yoga teacher training and practiced many styles of yoga with many, many teachers, I spent time in quiet contemplation/meditation in nature and most importantly I consistently practiced unconditional love for my best friend. I learned how to expand my capacity to be more fearless in loving someone and allowing myself to be loved in return.  This is the trinurti (3-fold) nature of yogic practice like a tripod that needs all three legs to remain standing: study, practice, teach.

I have blossomed so much.

I went into this personal sabbatical with many questions and in some way as a spiritual seeker I was looking for answers.  I return with more questions than I did when I took time off.   What I do know is "I am so happy"!  Making ourselves important and setting aside time to design our intentions is not easy.  It is hard work to still the mind in order to get to that point of asking the questions, it is what Elizabeth Gilbert writes about in her book Eat, Pray, Love, "You cannot see your reflection in running water, only still water."  I can see better who I am, what I want in my life and I am asking better harder questions of myself. 

Why would I put myself through this? Because I want to keep evolving my happiness. A little happiness is not enough for me, I want a lot of happiness and I deserve that today be the best day of my life and I take this to a new edge tomorrow, just like we do in bending our knee in a warrior pose.  And I realized my happiness would remain stunted if I kept repeating old patterns or ignoring what those patterns in my mind or actions are.  As Miss Gilbert writes, "Take care of the problems now, or else you'll just have to suffer again later when you scew everything up the next time.  And that repetition of suffering - that's hell.  Moving out of that endless repetition to a new level of understand - there's where you'll find heaven."  Fundamentally this is where Yoga holds our hands and encourages us to be happier than we ever thought we could be by quieting our minds, helping us see the old problems and moving beyond them to our best lives ever.  So thank you dear students, friends, teachers for understanding my desire for personal growth and evolution and as you support me, please know with great passion and simple love I support you in your journey's as well.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life!  Silvia

If you need a break consider joining me on Yoga Retreat in Tuscany October 24-30 or Moab November 4-7, or in December either Pagosa Springs or Hawaii

MARCH 10, 2010:  As you know I just put my house on the market. As part of this process the experts encourage you to simply, streamline, neutralize and otherwise declutter your living space. So I had this big indoor plant that got moved into the garage, then a week later I felt bad so moved it into the basement from the garage (mostly because you know plants do like light) well then I forgot to water it because it was now in the basement. This all went on for a month, just last night with the help a dear friend finally moved it outside in our 60 degree temperatures today. It finally got light, water and is not forgotten. 

This plant had a strong intention and desire to LIVE! After all I put it through and changed about its surroundings it kept steadfast to the intention of surviving and thriving.  I have to believe that if a plant can stay single minded in its intention we can too. So today ask yourself:  HOW DOES THIS CLASS INSPIRE YOU TO BE MOVING TOWARDS MEETING YOUR EXPECTATIONS? 

When we begin class and take our hands together at our hearts we create SANKALPA MUDRA a Mudra of internal commitment, a gesture of commitment in outer form and everything that goes into it is our intention.  Intention is defined as setting an expectation for yourself, an expectation to your OWN GROWTH AND EVOLUTION.  

Take a moment to think about deepening your breath into the commitment you've made to grow.   The breath expands our connection to this promise we have made ourselves.  And what I wish someone had told me a long time ago was to expect that there will be times that will be a little challenging – this is part of the growth process.  Spiritual maturity comes as a result of using our expectations as little markers demonstrating our progress.  And we have all COME A LONG WAY ALREADY.  So on the mat we keep breathing to deepen our commitment and our intention whether the poses are easy or hard or whether we hold them a breath or a long time.  We stay focused on experiencing ourselves. 

The power of our intention is that focus on one clear thing. Not 50 things at the same time. It is like the Buddhist parable of how to dig for water: it is not fruitful to dig 100 holes when instead we should focus and dig 100 times in the same place and then for sure we'll strike water.  So we took time to think about one pose from this practice that we woudl want to develop mastery of and promised to do it for 1-2 minutes per day for 28 days, a minimum of 28 minutes total to see if we could develop mastery in this pose and stay with one intention for this period of time.

So today, refocus your promise to yourself and the kind of life you want for yourself. And with Spring approaching let's really grow in our lives what is most important to us, to our health, to our hearts, to our peace of mind.  Love the day! Silvia

PS - My plant is doing great!

OCTOBER 21, 2009:  Just like you my every day provides endless opportunities to make healthy choices.  Recently I have been trying to decide whether I should sell my house or not and I could see myself weigh out the options in a growing dualistic way of “This or That”.  My thoughts started to overdramatize my reaction to this potential change.  I was seeing the change as an All or Nothing scenario where selling my house was going to mean something was taken away from me and I’d end up with nothing. 

 

Well as a result of my yoga practice I came to the realization that LIFE IS ABOUT ADDITION, NOT ABOUT SUBTRACTION.

 

Every change we encounter whether difficult or easy ADDS to what we already know and we get progressively smarter. Thank goodness for our humanness whereby each day, each moment adds to our life’s blessings and our story gets richer.  We see this in class in how we grow our knowledge of a pose, even something as fundamental as Downward Facing Dog.  Yes Dog pose is challenging yes it does get easier but the real blessing is how precious the learning is as we evolve our consciousness in this pose.  And to think every pose is like that.

 

You see I was getting stuck thinking I have to keep subtracting stuff from my life when making decisions and the concept of “All or Nothing” was weighing heavy on me. But every experience every choice we make just adds to the All.  So in reality, it is not All or Nothing….in a nondualistic way it is always ALL or ALL.

 

I shared this epiphany this increased awareness with a friend and they said this to me in response, “I think you are making progress in your thinking regarding adding things to life...I mean, it is not about complicating so much as enabling more growth.”  It is about having the courage to face our lives directly and not make it all this or that but embrace more.  That practice of saying to ourselves I will be 10% kinder today or 10% more peaceful or 10% more loving or 10% better Downward Dog.  As my friend reminded me “at some point, one would think that you would hit the maximum limitation for kindness, but no, you can keep expanding, growing, increasing.”

 

So today with warrior spirit face your choices, make your decisions seeing that they will only ADD to your life. Even our pains, our limitations and those things that scare us are opening us up to more possibilities.  So keep adding, keeping living, keep breathing bigger! Big love in ALL ways, Silvia

 

JULY 6, 2009:  In life change is constant.  There is a beginning, middle and end to everything.  We see this as we enter every breath, each new day.  Things are always dissolving, dying, being born.  And if we are lucky enough to wake up sooner rather than later we can stop taking even a single day for granted.  

 

We have the power to make ourselves.

 

So for your contemplation - Q:  If you were dying, what would you wish you had done that you are not doing now? Why aren't you doing it?

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 happiness! 

And please know the universe loves you, nature loves you, your friends and family love you no matter what.  This is unconditional.  And you don't have to apply for the "job" of living your life.  You have the job so you have nothing to prove to anyone but to be true to your own heart.

 

Changes in relationship with our jobs, homes, partners can be progress for all involved, regardless of the outcome.  As author Brian Tracy writes, "resolve to be a master of change rather than a victim of change."  We may not be able to control the situations which force us to think differently about the way we do things, or to respond differently but we can continue to stay involved in the process to make sure good comes of it all.  Take to heart the words of Mary Engelbreit, "If you don't like something, change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it"

 

You see life is constantly evolving in the direction of happiness.  What this means is that we are always changing. Sometimes we change in the same way as those we love and sometimes the hurt happens when we don't change in the same direction. There are no bad people, no bad experiences just constant evolution. Have faith that whatever changes are taking place in your life are for the best for all involved.  Allow this quiet time on the mat to help you connect with you’re your truest essence, in yoga philosophy your soul is known as Atman. That way no matter what changes in your life you will always remain truthful, steadfast and real.  Love yourself, Love your day! Silvia

 

"Only as high as I reach can I grow,
Only as far as I seek can I go,
Only as deep as I look can I see,
Only as much as I dream can I be."
-Karen Ravn

JUNE 5TH, 2009: How’s this for a cool sign "Change is inevitable...growth is optional."

Most folks when they think of yoga think flexibility. I would agree there is that but not just the physical flexibility that develops but more importantly the emotional flexibility that grows if you let it (all of this held in quiet strength too). You see the thing is we can’t always control the situations that arise in our lives but we do have in our power the way we respond or adapt to these changes. We can learn to think differently even perhaps positively about the circumstances of our lives. We can look for the good in every situation. I’m not talking about in a Pollyannaish way because that’s inauthentic, so more along the lines of ok there’s that, now what can I do to find a learning here. "But personally to me the most important part is that we STAY INVOLVED in the process. It’s too easy to check out and engage in a victim mentality. Brian Tracy puts it like this, "Resolve to be a master of change rather than a victim of change "Resolve to be a master of change rather than a victim of change".

So we learn from Mary Engelbreit, "if you don't like something, change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it". We gain new perspective from the changes that flow our way maybe stretching our emotional muscles in a way that mirrors our physical stretching. For sure the mind muscle is the most difficult one to tone but worth the effort. It is certainly a lot more productive than resisting or letting tension consume us. So today come to the mat, let the flow of the poses encourage you and inspire the changes you want from your life. May we all find together that change really does bring about new opportunities for spiritual evolution. So bring it on! Let happiness flow!

Love the day, Silvia

SEPTEMBER 28TH, 2008: My inspiration today is a favorite author, role model: Sharon Salzberg.

The first step on the journey of faith is to recognize that everything is moving onward to something else, inside us and outside. Seeing this truth is the foundation of faith.
—Sharon Salzberg, from Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

 

“Life is transition, movement, and growth. However solid things may appear on the surface, everything in life is changing, without exception. Even Mount Everest—the perfect symbol of indomitable, unyielding, massively solid reality—is “growing” a quarter of an inch a year, as the landmass of India pushes under Asia. People come and go in our lives; possessions break or change; governments and whole systems of government are established or disintegrate. Eager anticipation precedes a meal, which soon ends. A relationship is difficult and disappointing, then transforms into a bond we trust. We might feel frightened in the morning, reassured in the afternoon, and uneasy at night. We know that at the end of our lives we die. There is change, breath, oscillation, and rhythm everywhere.

 

No matter what is happening, whenever we see the inevitability of change, the ordinary, or even oppressive, facts of our lives can become alive with prospect. We see that a self-image we’ve been holding doesn’t need to define us forever, the next step is not the last step, what life was is not what it is now, and certainly not what it might yet be.”