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Dear Beautiful Friends,

Today is my birthday!  And just this week my friend Steve and I were reminiscing about the lovely birthday party my friend Diana offered me last year.  The point of the conversation was looking back at the past year at how much things had changed.
This is a powerful yogic lesson.  Change is an inherent part of life.  The less we fight this truth and align with it, the easier it is to "Be the Change We Want to See in the World" (Ghandi)

Our birthday's really serve as our personal New Year's.  They remind us to look back at how far we've come appreciate it and endeavor to be clear about our intentions for where we are going.  Join me today in taking 5 minutes to reflect on all you've accomplished since this day a year ago and write down 3 things you want to experience in a year from now.  Then every year on my birthday I will remember to think of not only my own reflections and intentions but yours as well.  This will remind us all to keep tapping into our most unlimited potentiality for the best life ever!  Love yourself, love your day, love your LIFE!  With immense gratitude and love, Silvia

Dear Beautiful Friends,

Today is my birthday!  And just this week my friend Steve and I were reminiscing about the lovely birthday party my friend Diana offered me last year.  The point of the conversation was looking back at the past year at how much things had changed.
This is a powerful yogic lesson.  Change is an inherent part of life.  The less we fight this truth and align with it, the easier it is to "Be the Change We Want to See in the World" (Ghandi)

Our birthday's really serve as our personal New Year's.  They remind us to look back at how far we've come appreciate it and endeavor to be clear about our intentions for where we are going.  Join me today in taking 5 minutes to reflect on all you've accomplished since this day a year ago and write down 3 things you want to experience in a year from now.  Then every year on my birthday I will remember to think of not only my own reflections and intentions but yours as well.  This will remind us all to keep tapping into our most unlimited potentiality for the best life ever!  Love yourself, love your day, love your LIFE!  With immense gratitude and love, Silvia

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.”

 

NOVEMBER 13, 2009: The Yoga and Journaling workshop was wonderful thanks to all who attended and Lucy Activewear, our sponsor. Our focus, different than earlier in the year, was 4th – 7th chakras, building upon the lower chakras. We took to heart the words of Joseph Campbell who said, “Life is not about the meaning. It’s about the feeling.” But the question is how do we promote healthy relationships between ourselves and others? The story of the Porcupine Fable by Arthur Schopenhauer served as further inspiration. "A troop of porcupines is milling about on a cold winter's day. In order to keep from freezing, the animals move closer together. Just as they are close enough to huddle, however, they start to poke each other with their quills. In order to stop the pain, they spread out , lose the advantage of commingling, and again begin to shiver. This sends them back in search of one and other, and the cycle repeats as they struggle to find a comfortable distance between entanglement and freezing." Also here below are the Affirmations Per Chakra and other details of these particular chakras.

CHAKRA LOCATION ELEMENT COLOR BACKGROUND

4. ANAHATA HEART AIR GREEN Balance, comfort, joy, enthusiasm for life, vitality. Cultivation of love and universal heart qualities: compassion, resonance, peace
AFFIRMATION: May I be free to feel my true feelings, desires, passions and be at home in my heart

5.VISHUDDHA THROAT SOUND TURQUOISE Freedom & openness in self-expression, Communication: both inner speech & outward, balance between heart & mind
AFFIRMATION: May I be able to express my feelings with ease and be balanced between heart and mind

6. AJNA BROW LIGHT INDIGO BLUE Intuition, capacity for universal vision, self purpose, global awareness, insights, meditation, empowerment, dreaming, imagination, visualization, clairvoyance
AFFIRMATION: May I see and perceive clearly on every level and seek only the truth.

7. SAHASRARA CROWN THOUGHT DEEP VIOLET OR WHITE Inspiration, selflessness, devotion, spiritual understanding, calm, awareness
AFFIRMATION: May I have a clear and open connection with source energy (spirit) and live in the present moment

SEPTEMBER 2ND, 2009:   I wake up in the morning and I journal in my mind or on paper. Either way I think about what is important to me on that day.  Then recently in the book Be Happy by Robert Holden I found a metaphor that best describes what I’ve been doing.  In the book he talks about a great daily spiritual practice to help us focus on what is most important to our happiness.  He describes, “The Spiritual Front Page”.  The idea is that each morning you visualize the front page headlines of what is truly most meaningful to you to living the most joyful day ever. This helps us figure out and articulate our Truth.  It gives positive intention to our actions. 

Instead of focusing on what is unimportant (our headlines would not read Do Laundry, Dishes Put Away) we’d share the real important stuff with not just ourselves but these front page headlines would like a newspaper be easier to distribute to our friends, colleagues and family members so they know our big news.  How often do you major in the minor stuff?  How much of your time is spent hiding the big headlines (focusing on what really matters) until the very end of the day when tired and out of juice?  I know I’ve been there.

 

So for me this time on the mat in yoga class helps me to make sure that the Spiritual Headlines I’ve chosen reflect the TRUE me. And once I’ve written them for the day I stick to them.  It’s too easy with technology these days to keep changing it up or giving up. Instead we maintain the discipline that once its in writing we will do our best on this day to follow through.

 

Equally, once the day is done, the newspaper gets recycled.  What’s done is done.  And tomorrow we have another “24 brand new hours” to live in JOY!  Love your day, Silvia

 

*Reference to Thich Nhat Hahn