FULL PARTICIPATION ACTIVE LIVING
NOVEMBER 23, 2009: This practices teaches us that YOU ARE ASKING FOR WHAT YOU WANT THROUGH YOUR DOING. This life we are living right now is NOT as participants. This is not a passive endeavor where life is being done to us. Instead it requires active living where life is being done FOR US.
This is behind the idea in yoga of Tapas. Tapas helps us to take action to fully participate and be awake to our lives. To be active means we must articulate our intentions and practice with a solid determination to hold true to our dreams and visions for ourselves. Through yoga which is a system for mental, physical, and spiritual health we have full, democratic participation. On the mat we don’t even have to push ourselves to excel, all we have to do is show up and do the practice as best we can with full hearted effort. Just take part in your life make it active, keep it active and forget about the over perfecting it.
So where in your life have you been less than active or just plain stuck? I can tell you I came to realize this week for me it is in my extended family Thanksgiving. I am still at the kids table which I never want to leave. I’ve lost two cousins to the grown up table already through the years and don’t want any more to go. At the grown up table a lot more is expected of you. You are required to be more active so I’ve been hanging back. Now I like the kids table with my adult cousins, its cool, its casual. But this year I am thinking I might ask my Aunt and Uncle who host Thanksgiving for the Mordini’s every year about what I can help with. Now don’t get me wrong they will have to take me kicking and screaming away from the kids table when I’m ninety-five and not a moment sooner but I can still take a more active role.
You see this practice readies our bodies, hearts and minds for the deep work of active living. Yoga gives us the energy and clarity we need to create the lives of our dreams. And I’ll tell you as we go into the home stretch of the year and need the yoga the most, that’s exactly when many of us will fall away from active practice. Well that’s not good enough. To receive the benefits you have to keep showing up and doing the work. Living in alignment is not passive. Just like conscious breathing is not passive. We have to breath on purpose. We have to live on purpose. Life is active, Love is active. On the mat when we inhale we prepare, as we exhale we deepen our pose. Off the mat our active living requires we inhale fully and as we exhale we wake up to the best parts of ourselves moment by precious moment. Join me for more yoga, stay active. Big love! Silvia
11/23/2009
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This is behind the idea in yoga of Tapas. Tapas helps us to take action to fully participate and be awake to our lives. To be active means we must articulate our intentions and practice with a solid determination to hold true to our dreams and visions for ourselves. Through yoga which is a system for mental, physical, and spiritual health we have full, democratic participation. On the mat we don’t even have to push ourselves to excel, all we have to do is show up and do the practice as best we can with full hearted effort. Just take part in your life make it active, keep it active and forget about the over perfecting it.
So where in your life have you been less than active or just plain stuck? I can tell you I came to realize this week for me it is in my extended family Thanksgiving. I am still at the kids table which I never want to leave. I’ve lost two cousins to the grown up table already through the years and don’t want any more to go. At the grown up table a lot more is expected of you. You are required to be more active so I’ve been hanging back. Now I like the kids table with my adult cousins, its cool, its casual. But this year I am thinking I might ask my Aunt and Uncle who host Thanksgiving for the Mordini’s every year about what I can help with. Now don’t get me wrong they will have to take me kicking and screaming away from the kids table when I’m ninety-five and not a moment sooner but I can still take a more active role.
You see this practice readies our bodies, hearts and minds for the deep work of active living. Yoga gives us the energy and clarity we need to create the lives of our dreams. And I’ll tell you as we go into the home stretch of the year and need the yoga the most, that’s exactly when many of us will fall away from active practice. Well that’s not good enough. To receive the benefits you have to keep showing up and doing the work. Living in alignment is not passive. Just like conscious breathing is not passive. We have to breath on purpose. We have to live on purpose. Life is active, Love is active. On the mat when we inhale we prepare, as we exhale we deepen our pose. Off the mat our active living requires we inhale fully and as we exhale we wake up to the best parts of ourselves moment by precious moment. Join me for more yoga, stay active. Big love! Silvia