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April 20, 2011 “People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them."  The Alchemist

 I have faced more than my share of fears.  The biggest one is of losing love, of being happy and then losing that happiness. As the Alchemist also goes on to talk about how the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering.  It is NOT about whether or not we are afraid. Of course we are all afraid of something.  But the question is do we allow fear to stop our experiences of life or let it inspire us?  Do you allow things to scare you so much that you ignore them, freeze, run away, fight them?  

Learning how to attempt the impossible to see that our fears are mere opinions nothing more or less is at the heart of the practice. And just as easily we can change that thought to believe in the impossibility of things.  You can by facing your fears learn to talk to yourself differently.  So here below was our playlist I hope you enjoyed the practice and that you see how deserving you are of living life FULL BLAST, inspire of your fear and try for your most important dreams!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

Twin Blue, Millions & Millions

Dreamcatcher, Bahramji And Maneesh De Moor

Those To Come, The Shins

Johnny B Goode, Peter Tosh

Track 11, Keiner+Carl

High Grade, Richie Spice

What a Feeling, Collie Buddz

Track 09, Keiner+Carl

Lively Up Yourself, Bob Marley

Stay Human, Michael Franti

Om Namah Shivaya, Govindas

Incense, Erykah Badu

OCTOBER 17, 2010.  "People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them."  The Alchemist

This is about Fear.  That we limit ourselves mentally, emotionally as a result and unless we can see the fear as illusion, just a mental game we are playing it will paralyze us, stiffen us, make us brittle.  As the Alchemist also goes on to talk about how the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering.  It is NOT about whether or not we are afraid. Of course! We all are afraid of something.  But instead how we either allow this fear to stop our experiences of life or let it fuel the bouncing back.  We try, we experiment, we get a result, maybe not the one we wanted but still a result a karma and we bounce back to try again.

What is your bounce back factor?

Do you allow things to scare you so much that you ignore them, freeze, run away, fight them?  Today the family of poses we used to help us move beyond the illusion of fear was arm balances.  Learning to concentrate regardless of what was physically achievable.  Learning how to attempt the impossible to see that this opinion was only a thought...nothing more or less. And just as easily we can change that thought to believe in the impossibility of things.  You can by facing your fears learn to talk to yourself differently.  So here below was our class plan (not as cleaned up as usual but for sake of time I wanted to share it with you as is).  I hope you enjoyed the practice and that you see how deserving you are of living life FULL BLAST, get past the veil of fear and try for your most important dreams!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

Theme: Solving the "mystery" of arm balances. If this family of asana have you spooked or scared let's face that fear together and see what's really going on.

CLASS PLAN

 WAVE 1

Twist

Supine Bridge to Waterfall abs with brick

Core cultivation:  

Brick in inner thighs

cobbler abs, two bricks

step on brick get the twist

Pigeon abs

(Side 2)

Bridge

WAVE 2

Upward Facing plank, hands on bricks

--- pull backs

Janu sirsana forward, parsva janu sirsana

Vasistasana variation kneeling

Parsva Vasistasana other wise

Marichyasana C

Pascimotanasana

Side 2

Upward facing on bricks

Malasana (move bricks forward)

WAVE 3

Sun Sal A variations hands on bricks (3-4 times)

Half Moon A - different each time

WAVE 4

I leg dog

High Lunge to transverse lunge back foot

Standing splits, baby eagle once

High lunge, lunge push up, up fold in half repeat 3 x's

Revolved Lunge

Transverse lunge: bind, sit inside like parsva janu sirsasana

Face back

Basic vinyasa

Jump forward finish like Sun Sal A all the way to Down Dog

Right leg up again

High Lunge to transverse lunge

Standing Splits

HIgh Lunge, lunge push up to hands to ground standing splits 3's

Last time transition from standing splits

Pyramid

Revolved Triangle

Revolved Prasarita

Jump to prasarita

Exit back to front, right foot

Standing Splits

Crane to 1 leg pigeon chair (hands on bricks - prep for arm balance)

Plank, basic vinyasa with bricks all the way to down dog

Begin mandala side 2

WAVE 5

Frog

Malasana

Bakasana with head on brick, lift head

Downward Dog

I leg dog, hip open

Pigeon - twist and hold back foot for backbend

Swing back leg forward Janu sirsasana

Seated Pigeon

-- twist it

Stand from tip toe balance to Eka Pada Galavasana

Plank, basic vinyasa

Side 2

WAVE 6

Bhujaphidasana

Tittibasana with partner to crow or crow jump back

CLOSING WAVE

Cooling postures

Savasana

Meditation

PS CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW FALL TEACHER TRAINEES WHO ARE FACING FEARS AND CHALLENGING THEMSELVES TO LOOK WITHIN!

JANUARY 28, 2010:  Yoga helps us to believe in the impossibility of things.  That nothing is impossible.  This practices helps us to expand beyond our preconceived limitations into limitless possibility.  We do this every time we meet the sensations in our bodies and the associated emotions. So tonight we focused on inversions (the upside down pose family).  We faced our fears going upside down and if we can do that, gosh we can do anything!

“Don’t worry about making a mistake, you definitely will.  Nothing bad will happen to you.”  -Rimpoche

So the pressure is off.  The upside of facing our fears is that there is nothing left to be afraid of.  Once we dissolve the barriers to ourselves our potential is tuned into forever.  This is written about in Chapter 2 of the Yoga Sutras that speaks to how dissolving the 5 Kleshas or veils brings forth the radiance of our most beautiful self.”

1. Avidya – our forgetting, because we are forgetting we start to identify with things ever changing rather than the stillness of our HEART.  We want stuff and then we get it and these are like snowflakes that melt when they hit the ground instead of finding that inside at our center is stillness and peace always
2. Asmita –our self esteem is based on things outside ourselves and other reactions
3. Raga – excessive fondness for fleeting pleasures
4. Dvesa – excessive avoidance of unpleasant experiences causes disdain
5. Abhinivesah – elusive awareness of immortality – instead live in the now.

Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find
all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it.

--RUMI