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To Plan or Not To Plan

  By Laura Mills

  This Labor Day weekend I tested the effects of spontaneity on stress. I usually plan my days in great detail, sometimes an entire week in advance, believing for some unproven reason that planning keeps me organized. My extra-calm husband, Jamie, has long encouraged me to schedule less and flow more; when we discussed this particular weekend’s agenda, he suggested we “just see” what happened.
  I awoke Saturday morning already jittery. My first thought was, “I have to do laundry, and I can’t forget to buy cat litter.” But Jamie suggested the 7:45 yoga class first thing, so we left behind laundry piles and litter boxes and set out. We followed yoga with an on-a-whim breakfast stop, then kayaked on a local lake. Sometime during the day I did throw in laundry and stop at the pet store, but by dinnertime (for which we decided to order pizza and save the intended grilling for Sunday) I hardly remembered a Saturday that I had enjoyed so much. And by the end of the weekend—the rest of which we passed the same way—we had finished the really necessary chores anyway, virtually stress-free.    
  Planning surely has its place, and I’m far from ready to abandon planning and start flowing freely every day. But this weekend I reminded myself that shuffling my to-do list need not be an obstacle. On the contrary, occasional spontaneity, moments when I agree to “just see” what happens, might wind up the best moments of any given day, the moments really worth remembering.

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

Greetings Friends! 

January 1, 2011  Yesterday I posted my last blog of 2010. I have included it at the bottom of this final newsletter of the year in hopes it inspires your own dreams. And really that is my invitation to you: "dream a dream with me." Time on the mat helps us stay connected to what inspires us.  So here are some of my favorite quotes from a book given to me by my sweet friend Anne titled Dream by Susan Bosak.  May they connect you to spirit so you can awaken your greatest dreams ever in 2011!

 Love yourself, love your day, love your life, Silvia    

 "Whoever would one day learn to fly must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying." - Nietzsche

 "The Possible's slow fuse is lit by the Imagination." - Emily Dickinson

"A hundred million miracles are happening every day." - Oscar Hammerstein

"The difficulty in life is the choice." - George Moore

"Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." -Langston Hughes

"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity." - Marie Curie

New Years Day Schedule:

5am-7am Sadhana Kundalini (FREE)

10am Level 1 with Wendy

11:30am Level 1-2 with Wendy

1:30pm Restorative Yoga with Samantha

PS - Join me January 14-15 Living Your Yoga Workshops

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December 31, 2010 Blog by Silvia Mordini: Adventure, Remembrance, Victory!

As I reflect on this past year, which was one of intense personal change one of the things I am most proud of is making a pilgrimage to Moab, Utah twice.  Both times to help nourish my spirit and connect to the quiet sense of adventure that exists for all that visit Moab.  For a while I forgot what it was like to make adventure.  This was the year I remembered again.

And that is really at the heart of yoga.  This practice helps us remember to remember.  We all sometimes experience spiritual amnesia.  Getting on the mat is that reminder of celebrating life and enjoying this time in this body on this earth right now. 

Edward Abbey writes in one of my favorite books about Moab titled Desert Solitaire "Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards." 

I will never again put my heart in a safe deposit box, I'd rather take chances in love, in life, in traveling and even in my poses so I can be a more active participant in driving my best life forward rather than sitting in the backseat waiting for it to happen.  I will until my last breath run and cycle and yoga and explore and discover the small victories that exist in taking pleasure in life! And I hope if you have learned anything from your yoga that you will find this true for yourself as well.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life!  Happy New Year, Silvia

PS Join me on an adventure with Alchemy Tours www.alchemytours.com or visit my website to keep up with upcoming retreats www.silviamordini.com

My Tribe

By Julia Jonson Cohn

10/17/10

I hugged them, said goodbye and actually got misty-eyed at the thought of not seeing them again for ten days. Thing is, I only met them last week! My new tribe, as our leader calls us. My fellow yoga teacher trainees, who I will be learning and growing with for the next several months, made an imprint on my heart.

We are a diverse bunch. Our ages span 50 years. Our occupations range from dog groomer to doctor and the tribe has an array of talents and interests -- we have musicians and runners, one who has a green thumb and another who has studied to be a monk.  Some of us are parents and there are group members who were born in other countries and we all share a love of yoga. Over the course of 4 days we shared what makes us awesome, finessed each other’s poses and literally sat on each other’s lap (while tweaking Utkatasana or chair pose). We laughed a ton and some of us even cried a little, but mostly we grew.

Each training session began with taking a yoga class. Then we’d come back to our classroom, sit in a circle and talk about our practice.  The bulk of early learning for our tribe, as teacher Silvia calls it, came in the form of self-work. Silvia told us she wanted to build us up and she did. 

She taught us that yoga and meditation will help us clear away the chitti vritta, or chatter in the mind.  We were encouraged to feel deeply, live fully and love completely. Our foundation is one of self-love and how you are the lover of yourself as well as the beloved.  Silvia used tons of humor and amazing analogies to drive home the point that the more open and seeking you are the more potential you have to recognize your greatness (because we are already great she told us!).

 I witnessed myself and my tribe transforming -- we went from being a group of acquaintances to trusted comrades sharing a common mission in life… the desire to help humanity through yoga. Author Jane Howard says “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.”

Ultimately, the most profound lesson I learned in my first four days of training is that I am already perfect and whole and that my path as both a teacher and student will be more joyful and fulfilling if I am kind to myself and others. I think my tribe would agree.

Namaste!

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

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010.  As I sit here sweating and itching discovering new mosquito bites by the minute, I cannot help but slip away to the idea of the snow.  Don't be fooled - I adore the summer.  But something about the winter, the glittering snow on the trees, sitting in warm hot springs on a cold night, the mountain peaks, and snowboarding with friends pulls at my heartstrings.

I love snowboarding equally as much as I love yoga (and that is a whole lotta love).  This is my story of snowboarding, a practice that is now one of my greatest forms of meditation and prayer.  A friend of mine likes to say, "Snowboarding is my prayer and the mountains are my chapel".  This I wholeheartedly agree with. This has not always been the case, not even close.  Just like when you first tried handstand perhaps you were extremely afraid to go upside down, couldn't get your legs up or just all over the place and toppled over in a big pile.  I was like that when it came to snowboarding.  Years ago, I decided to go with my brother and his friends to Upper Michigan to learn to board-I figured I was with a bunch of guys with no fear who knew what they were doing.  They would help me out and it would be awesome.  Wrong!  The first time I did not get it at all.   I'd go an inch and then crash, go another inch and then crash again and best of all my brother's friend (on accident) hit me in the head with the snowboard edge which resulted in a lovely gash on my forehead to bring home as my souvenir (I still have the scar - ask me about it and I'll be glad to show you).

Do not be deterred by this story.   With practice I was finally able to link turns.  And the feeling was like nothing I had ever experienced.  It changed my perspective and I was hooked. It was not until I truly made the commitment, relaxed, slowed down, checked my ego at the chair lift that II was able to connect with the board and surf the mountains.  Or in yoga terms that I was able to do that handstand with grace, ease and control.  Believe me I have put my whole heart and soul into this love of mine but not until I surrendered did I find the pure joy of this meditation.  Frederick Lenz in his book Snowboarding to Nirvana puts it like this:  "When you snowboard...your thoughts stop and you rise above time.  You enter into a timeless dimension where you experience great joy.  When you rise above ego, you experience the pure joy and ecstasy of the web of life."

I have many other stories like the first time I learned to board but I have even more stories of the true awesomeness snowboarding allows.  I've come a long way since that first day.   I've lived the dream in Aspen, CO; I've competed; I've trained; I've done ski patrol on a snowboard; I've traveled the world; I've taught; I've visualized; I've taken gnarly falls and gotten back up again; I've ridden backcountry; I've connected with mountains; I’ve driven for hours all night long to be able to ride; I’ve ridden powder and ice and the list goes on and on.   But above all, the mountains and the board continue to teach and humble me, and it’s with great respect for both that I write this.  

Yoga has truly enhanced my snowboarding and life as it yokes my mind, body and spirit.  How you may be wondering?  Yoga conditions your body to be strong and flexible allowing better form and technique so you can ski or board with grace and flow with the mountain rather than resist and attack it.   It can be scary out on the snow covered mountains when you are first learning or if you’re a veteran when you are pushing the edge.  The breathing techniques you learn in yoga allow you to relax the muscles and mind when you face a situation where you need to be calm.  And one of my personal favorites, yoga lessens the risk of injury and quickens your recovery time.  This means you can get out on the mountain day after day feeling good each time.  So as I sit here on this hot summer day I am quietly preparing full of excitement for the snowboarding season that lies ahead.

Keep exploring and living your dreams,
Kendra Charts

If you have always wanted to learn to snowboard or ski or already know from experience what I am talking about please consider these amazing adventure Yoga and Snowboarding retreats with Silvia, Jacob and myself.  We’ll combine yoga, hot springs and boarding/skiing in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, December 9 - 12, 2010 or Banff, Canada, February 23 - 27, 2011.  Visit www.alchemytours.com for more information.  And if you can’t wait until then please join me for the pre-season Yoga for Snowboarding and Skiing workshop at Total Body Yoga, October 24, 2010.  You may contact me at kendra.charts@gmail.com.  

May 10, 2010 Nischala Joy Devi puts it like this, “We miss life if we allow others to dictate the direction of our thoughts and feelings.  But when our heart guides the focus of our consciousness, love is ever present in our life.” So whatever the question you are struggling with is in your life the answer yoga teaches us is simple. LOVE IS THE ANSWER. 

If you can accept and embrace that our true nature is joy beyond the ups and downs and complexities of our humanity we are meant to live in love.  In yoga Bhakti means love.  Bhakti is love in ACTION.  Love is active. 

Right now you could be living more in love with your life.  There is no reason to wait for your life to be better when it can be better right now. So why delay? Well what often happens is we start to identify with our grumpy selves or sad or angry or critical selves and even come to believe that it us.  It is not us.  Those are just some fluctuations. To get back to our true nature we have to do something. Love is active.  (Chapter 1 Verse 4)

The Yoga Sutra this is based on is Chapter 1 Verse 3 United in the heart, consciousness is steadied, then we abide in our true nature, joy. The expansion of this joy is infinite LOVE, which encompasses and then transforms everything it touches.  Everywhere we look, we see the reflection of our joyful nature.

Make the practice of Bhakti of actively living in love your experience this week and see what happens, I know what happens…for that’s how I’ve chosen to live every day I have in this earthly body. I don’t want to waste a moment and hope you won’t any longer either. Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

May 10, 2010, Gosh when you think about the biggest obstacle to feeling happy is letting our minds get all dirty with worry, stress, fear (basically all the unhappy thoughts).  If you think of your mind like a load of laundry and yoga is the washing machine we come into the practice to engage our breath which is like the detergent that cleans us on the inside.  Today, how big a load of laundry do you have to do?

Start there.

Then we have a better idea of how much work we have to do in order to Yoga citta vritti nirodhah, to calm the disturbances or dirtiness of our minds.  This is Yoga Sutra chapter 1 verse 2.  If you can engage in mindful movement connected to your breath you slow down and help your mind from being so agitated.  Otherwise, the mind stays in this cycle of obsessive churning and never actually let’s you get clean and easeful in your thoughts. And our thoughts are the predecesors to all our actions as Einstein says.

The biggest obstacle to a happier life is our own busy mind.  Once we access that contented, peaceful state that yoga brings where we no longer struggle in our thoughts then we can actually remember we have the key to our happiness and joy.  Or as Danna Faulds puts it so poetically,

“Within us lie the answers to our deepest questions and the antidote for all our fears.

The divine is not an abstraction – it’s as clear and intimate as a heartbeat or a whisper.

No matter how identified we’ve become with mind and body,

we can release the thoughts that blind us to the truth. 

Seek the still point where the words “you” and “I” lose meaning,

where we meet and merge as One.” 

I can't say this enough: Yoga is not boring!  This practice is inspiring us to make each day memorable.  It is as my teacher Shiva Rea says, "Celebrating being alive is the essence of a spiritual experience." 

When we practice on the mat we are really cultivating the ability to see the sun inside ourselves.  Especially as we practice Namaskars (Salutations).  "One is offering salutation to the divine represented by the sun, as a source of light removing the darkness of a clouded mind and as a source of vitality removing the diseases of the body. (Mohan)  Or as an unknown author writes, "Darkness isn't the absence of light... it's the absence of you."   Yoga helps us to find ourselves in spite of the darkness of challenges and hardships in life.  With every breath we remove the kleshas, which are like 5 lampshades covering up our inner brightness.  This brings us back to LIFE!  With every breath linked movement we allow our mind and hearts to integrate this basic quality of celebration or joy into our very being.  By the time we leave the mat we feel joy infused into every single cell!  So please join me, keep making time to stoke the flame of celebration, make your own mini olympics for yourself each practice! Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

OCTOBER 9, 2009:  Do you want to be in love with your life?  What kind of life do you deserve?  The answer of how much love we think deserve comes from us and us only.  Yogic teachings tell us that to think another person is the source of all your joy is the greatest delusion.  To find love you must follow it backwards to you. It’s like the little card that sits on my desk that I see everyday says “Most of all love yourself!”  So we use the practice time on the mat to go inside to seek that inside us, following sensations like bread crumbs as in the story of Hansel and Gretel. 

There is a force within that gives you life---

            Seek That.

In your body there lies a priceless jewel---

            Seek That.

If you want to find the greatest treasure,

           Don't look outside,

Look within,

and seek That.

 — Rumi

What I found most interesting is that we attract to us the kind of relationships that reflect the one we are having with ourselves.  If we can’t go inside ourselves and experience self-love then no one else can do that for us.  We must follow love backwards and from there once we KNOW love then we become the love that we think we deserve to receive from others.  So today, move of all LOVE YOURSELF! All love all ways, Silvia

Coming Home to Yourself

May all that is unforgiven in you

Be released

May your fears yield

Their deepest tranquilities.

May all that is unlived in you

Blossom into a future

Graced with love.

OCTOBER 7, 2009:  We start with a sweet exercise called “The 10 Blessings” by Dr William Holden.  It goes like this, look over the last week of your life and write down 10 blessings you experienced in the last seven days.  It’s not much to ask because all we need to do is find one blessing per 16.8 hours of life.  And if you think about 10 ways you blessed others lives that’s consciously thinking of goodness every 8.4 hours. Now do the math and consider if you could somehow multiply that by 2 so you think of 40 things every week: 20 blessings received and 20 blessings offered that’s something every 2.1 hours. 

This helps us keep the focus on the important questions like:  How can you enjoy the miracle of existence today?  How can I enjoy this moment more? 

The more you are willing to enjoy the moment the more beautiful each moment of your life will be.  Essentially it means you are choosing life. And life only happens one moment at a time.  The more you give yourself to each moment, the more each moment gives something back to you! Please starting now don’t miss a thing! Think about waking up to your life and start naming your day something beautiful!  Love and light, Silvia

 Blessing For Presence by John O’Donohue (To Bless the Space Between Us)

“Awaken to the mystery of being here

And eneter the quiet immensity of your own presence.

Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.

Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon.

Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to

follow it’s path.

May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.

May anxiety never linger about you.

May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of

Soul.

Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek

No attention.

May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven

Around the heart of wonder.”

Navajo prayer to enjoy

“Happily may I walk.

May it be beautiful before me.

May it be beautiful behind me.

May it be beautiful below me.

May it be beautiful above me.

May it be beautiful all around me.

It beauty, it is finished.”

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

YOGA SUTRAS FOR TODAY:  1.3 United in the heart, consciousness is steadied, then we abide in our true nature, joy.  The expansion of this joy is infinite LOVE, which encompasses and then transforms everything it touches.  Everywhere we look, we see the reflection of our Divine and joyful nature.

1.4 Sometimes we identify with the rays of consciousness which fluctuates and encourages our perceived suffering

This means that as we come to understand that our nature is joy and love suffering can’t take over our lives as easily.  Now we will in our humanness continue to experience some fluctuations (ebb and flow, up and down). What this sutra is saying is that if we “identify with grumpy, negative, fearful, angry thoughts the mind BEAMS them outward to the universe and those same thoughts and grumpy, negative, fearful, angry people are attracted to us like a magnet.”  (Translation from Secret Power of Yoga) 

What is the answer?

Love is the answer. 

Bhakti is love.  Bhakti is love in action.

Love is active.

Yoga is active, yoga is love in action. Yoga is bhakti.

Ask yourself are you living from your heart?  Are you actively living from love?  Are you waiting before you listen to your heart?  Well, there is no reason to wait when your life can be better right now.  This is not a rehearsal.  This is your life and each day we only ever get to do just once!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

I was at the Chicago Art Institute yesterday and so inspired by the beauty of the art, the people looking at the art, the kindness and respect of folks enjoying this sharing together.  Just amazing.  But what touched me most was outside the art institute in Millenium Park the tons of folks with an old blanket, bread, cheese, drinks just kicking back and making their experience a feast!  That to me speaks to this sutra that we all have the magic wand to free ourselves from suffering by changing the way we think about what is being presented to us in each moment.  Hmmm I can change the way I think about something? Yes, that’s it.

No different than invoking “wonder twin powers” to change the form of yourself into something else but in this case the change is mentally how we think about a person, situation or thing. You wave your wand and presto!! The way you think about it changes your response, your emotions and your reality.  The sutra reads formally “when understood as illusory (Maya), nature (seen) and her attributes the gunas exist to serve the Divine Self (seer) with both enjoyment and liberation.”  Our nature in other words is to be happy.  This is our way of being. The illusion is to delude ourselves into believing that we want things to be different all the time and are in this state of stuckness.  Nope, no need to preoccupy ourselves like that. Instead be with what is and wave your wand turn all things into joy. Turn some bread and cheese into a party!  See that beauty is everywhere inside you, outside you and in all things (difficult or sweet).  Love your day! Silvia

Now I clearly remember the first time I heard this teaching.  I didn’t understand it.  I thought happiness was based on getting good grades, getting engaged, getting married, getting promoted, getting more money, getting new house, bigger house, etc.  I was in a constant state of acquisition that felt like I was treading water using up all my energy to get more stuff rather than celebrating life in the moment. 

Another way to think about this is what the yogis called bliss-counsciousness.  That when we wake up and start celebrating our lives we find that inside each of us exists unlimited potential for love, truth, compassion, joy and courage.  We create our own reality and all we have to do is celebrate life! 

 “The mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”  John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost

Time on the mat is where we have the opportunity to recognize our capacity for happiness. This is really the first step in yoga. It reminds us that the universe intended for us to have a joyous experience on this earth right now, no waiting and without any prerequisites to be met. So today may you feel the shakti power of being present to the happiness inside you that is then reflected in being awake to the many blessings in your life in your external world. Or as Rumi says, "hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you." 

And what if you aren’t feeling this inner ecstasy?  Then practice Gratitude.  For gratitude is the antidote to negative emotions a neutralizer of envy, hostility, worry and irritation.  The world’s most prominent researcher and writer about gratitude Robert Emmons, defines it as “a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness and appreciation for life.”  He’s saying celebrate your life regardless of what challenges you face.  Sally Kempton puts it like this, “It is actually possible to feel happy regardless of how the world is treating you, or how horrible your childhood was or the fact that all your friends are more successful than you are, you can even be happy when you’re failing something or when you’re sick.” 

So join me on the mat to awaken and illuminate the joy within your heart.  Celebrate and heal your life and you change the world!  Love the day! Silvia

HAPPINESS MEDITATION:

Close your eyes and remember a time when you felt really happy. Then take yourself into that moment, see if you can get a feeling sense of yourself in the situation. Stick with it until you actually feel happiness, then remove the details or memory of the scene and just keep the feeling. Find the place in your body where the feeling is centered then let it fill you up.  Sit with this feeling of happiness. See if you can hold it. See if for this moment you can let the happiness beocme your primary feeling. This is a glimpse, however small of your TRUE reality.   (This meditation is from old issue of Yoga Journal Magazine)

JULY 18TH, 2009:  Good morning!  So today I passed out a handout with the suggested foot alignment for all standing poses.  We started by really talking about the detail and precision as well as precise modifications for all fundamental standing poses like Pyramid, Lunge, Warrior B, Triangle pose and Wide Standing Pose.  With that said I wanted to make the point that if we only emphasize technical precision we can get overly self-critical, perfectionistic and even downright militant.  The yoga practice can be used in an unhealthy way becoming way too constrictive and goal-oriented.  So as we focus on the elegant principles of alignment we also emphasize gentleness.  Otherwise the yoga can be a means to create more stress in our already stressful lives.

Our physical focus today was the psychological triggers of back pain.  In the book The Mind Body Connection by Dr John Sarno he argues the cause of back pain is usually entirely psychological.  He says back muscles go into spasm and cause pain because of mental tension and that if you can get to the root cause of the tension the pain will disappear. With yoga we can heal back pain by calming down our overactive stress response system.  The greatest tool we have to do this is the breath which is why we link breath with movement leading to muscle relaxation and mental quiet. A personal favorite breathing mantra to practice in and out of class is this:

Breathing in, I am aware I am breathing in

Breathing out, I am aware I am breathing out

Breathing in, I calm my body.

Breathing out, I calm my mind.

Practicing slow deep breaths triggers the "relaxation response" the antidote to flight or flight response. The focus on all three parts of the lungs (especially deep abdominal focus on exhalations) helps bring in more oxygen.  And the wave like undulation of deep inhales and exhales gently massage the spinal column which brings nutrients to our spinal disks.

The poses we practice today were specific to stretch all major muscle groups around the hip joints including adductors, quads, rotators, and hamstrings. What happens is that when our Hip rotators are tight they hold the pelvis too much and the force of movement transfers up to the low back putting strain from there on up the spine.  It hurts!  We held poses working on precision but then we also put a simple routine together you could practice at home for 5 minutes per day at a one breath per movement ratio, letting go of perfection.  This way we improved overall circulation that brings nutrients to the intervertebral disks while removing toxins.  The thing is that disks don't have an independent blood supply therefore they depend on movement of the surrounding structure to aid in the delivery of nutrients.  Movement causes the disks to be compressed which squeezes out stale disk fluid and then to expand bringing in fresh supply.  Judith Lasater says, “In the majority of cases back pain can be prevented.  The majority have to do with how we use our bodies."  We don’t hurt anymore!

Altogether we used this practice to learn how to manage addressing our mental and physical tensions so we could find stillness and gentleness by the end. The whole class intended to help us get to the final pose of Savasana where in the words of Eckhart Tolle in his power Practicing the Power of Now we experienced a feeling of letting go.  I hope you find this background on healing back pain helpful and healing. Love the day! Silvia

When you surrender to what is

and so become fully present,

the past ceases to have any power.

Suddenly, a great stillness arises within you,

An unfathomable sense of peace.

And within that peace, there is great joy.

And within that joy, there is love.

JULY 14, 2009:  As Gratitude is something which none of us can give too much I wanted to tell you how thankful I am for you sharing your time with me by coming to class.  Your support encourages me to work even harder at serving you better.  I really want to offer you the most beautiful, caring environment and inspiring classes possible so at the end of when you have a tough day you can regain clarity. 

Is Your Soul Asleep?  I REMEMBER WHEN MINE WAS.  THIS PRACTICE OF YOGA WOKE ME UP.  IT WOKE ME UP TO MAKING GRATITUDE A HABIT.

When your soul is in charge your life becomes a LOVE STORY. 

A love story between you and yourself, between you and everybody else, between you and the divine…...I’d love to seduce you into wondering about your soul; the way it moves, how it smells, feels, tastes, speaks, acts, even what it wears.  And most Importantly how it is part of you that makes you a fascinating, mysterious individual.  (By Gabrielle Roth – Sweat your Prayers)

A healthy Gratitude Habit can in the words of Melody Beattie "unlock the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."  Sometimes all it takes to reconnect to our Gratitude Habit is coming back to the mat and reigniting that inner light through gentle reminder of how lucky we really are.  "Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light." (Albert Schweitzer)  So this week join me in taking the gratitude habit from the mat into the world. How?  Try this:

·         Reverse any tendency you have to make comparisons.

·         Quit talking about what you don't have compared to what you have;

·         Stop complaining about how you are doing career-wise, relationship-wise, or any other-wise.

·         Instead, concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, saying to yourself from morning to night “I am grateful for…”

And I promise you will discover a life filled with gratitude wakes up and nurtures your soul and brings quiet joy!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

“Gratitude is confidence in life itself.

Gratitude gladdens the heart.

As gratitude grows it gives rise to joy.

Like gratitude joy gladdens the heart.

We can be joyful for people we love,

for moments of goodness, for sunlight and trees,

and for the breath within us. 

And as our joy grows

we finally discover a happiness without cause. 

We can rejoice in life itself, in simply being alive!”

—From “The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindess, and Peace” By Jack Kornfield

JUNE 16, 2009:  One of the key observations I had while in Tuscany was how much everyone touched each other.  Whether it was the double kiss or real hugging or walking hand in hand or arm in arm down the street.  The best of humanity was ever present for all the world to see!  I loved it. I come from a family of huggers and kissers (both the Italian side and my Latino side too).  I had forgotten how homesick I was for this visible appreciation of connection, human to human.  Really we are all brothers and sisters, partners and lovers in this world.  There is an interdependence that exists between all things. We need each other to survive.  But not only to survive, to thrive!

We as Americans spend so much time in our “heads” that we could benefit greatly from more touch, more massage, more time being in the body.  That’s why yoga is so healing.  It does that for us.  We walk in fragmented, disconnected, awkward and by the end of class our humpty dumpty self is put back together again. Then whether we want to or not we glide out of the practice room inspired to connect more with other people as we now ourselves feel more connected to our own spirits. 

When I sit on the mat I feel that embrace of the universal love that exists when we breath the universal breath.  To me truly there is nothing more beautiful than people coming together in a compassionate, gentle way.  So thank you to classes last night for opening your hearts and practicing kissing each other with the double kiss, and breathing as partners and accepting massage when I offer it to you. This I can promise you, my teaching experience will only include more and more massage and therapeutic healing touch.  Grow with me and let’s build a community that thrives on more hugging more love!  Jai! Silvia

WITH JOY AND GRATITUDE, MAY I SEE THE BEAUTY OF MYSELF AND OF OTHERS, AS WE REFLECT AND ARE REFLECTED, IN THE RADIANCE OF EACH OTHER - ONE WORLD TOGETHER.

Now you should know my Father was born in Italy so I know firsthand that the Italian people have a deep respect for the philosophy of enjoyment. This is the idea of IL BEL FAI NIENTE which means "the beauty of doing nothing."  Remember this passage from Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love "Generally speaking, Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure.  Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one.  Americans spend billions to keep themselves amused but that's not exactly the same thing as quiet enjoyment.  Americans work harder and longer and more stressful hours than anyone in the world today.  Of course we all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas staring at the TV in a mild coma (which is the opposite of working, yes, but not exactly the same thing as pleasure.) Americans don't really know how to do nothing. 

But against the backdrop of hard work, il bel fai niente, has always been a cherished Italian ideal. The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. You don't necessarily have to be rich in order to experience this, either.  Anyone with a talent for happiness can do this, not only the rich."

So ask yourself how do you define pleasure? Enjoyment? Joy?  Are you living life “self-specific” or still making everyone elses opinions more important than your own?  For when you live life on your terms you find the flow. You step into the currents of grace.  Rumi says, “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”  For many of us Savasana is that first experience of il bel fai niente.  It is as Sarah Powers described her first savasana, “naptime, that she experienced an unusual peace, which she pinpointed to an absence of longing, it was clarity with joy underneath, and she decided she had to come back to yoga, that it would be hard but hard didn’t mean bad.”  So I hope you join me on the mat to find the clarity of heart that will move your spirit to enjoying your life more!  Love in all ways, Silvia

MARCH 20TH, 2009:  On this beautiful first day of Spring I wish you love!  I am deeply inspired by my favorite poet Rumi.  "For Rumi, to be alive is to be a lover" and all great spiritual teachers say this same thing.  (Quoted from Washington Post 2008).  Yeah, that's right.  For me yoga opened the door to living life more fully.

This is that idea that  if you love life, life will love you back!  Rumi puts it like this, "Come to my side I will open the gate to your love."  Living life prior to fifteen years ago I dreamed of peaceful love but it was like I couldn't find the door or window to unlock to really experience it.  My yoga practice showed me that doors, windows, gates are open everywhere welcoming me to love more.  I was feelng like what Rumi writes, "I yearn for happiness, I ask for help."  Yoga helped me as I hope it helps you feel more, LOVE more.

But over the last fifteen years there have still been days where I have to be reminded not to contract but like the buds of Spring expand and grow.  Rumi's words hold great meaning when he writes, "Today, we wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.  Take down a musical instrument. Let the BEAUTY WE LOVE be what we do."  It is easy to face hardship and stop making music, stop making love with life but "we cannot go back to sleep, you must ask for what you really want." (Rumi)

I just wish someone would have told me that being a lover of life takes raw guts and quiet courage.  I know that now and I hope in every single class together I can inspire you to cultivate your greatest inner strength and courage to shine out.  I will tell it how it is, living happy, peaceful and loving will ask you to step in with both feet and make a full blast effort.  The great news is that this is the perfect time right now to fall madly in love with life!  So join me on the path and let's flow together!  BIG LOVE, Silvia

 "Wake up lovers, it is time to start the Journey!
Let us kiss the ground and flow like a river towards the Ocean.
It is best to travel with Companions on this Jouney.
Only love can lead the way."

MARCH 15TH, 2009:  We began with a type of meditation called Japa, repetition of a mantra.  This has three stages and it begins with choosing a mantra.  As the focus of our practice was answering the question for ourselves, ARE YOU HAPPY, we used Anandamaya Namaha. 

However any variety of mantras can be used for meditation in japa meditation.  No matter the mantra its sacred sound can help us move through three stages of japa practice which are:

1.  link the mantra sound with the flow of breath

2.  next let go of the breath and focus your attention on sounds of the mantra alone

3.  as the mind becomes familiar with the sounds of the mantra it will naturally begin to pulse more quickly and effortlessly. This then turns it into ajapa japa as the mantra gains momentum.  It becomes like a pulsation of energy.

We used Anandamaya Namaha as our japa. This translated means "We observe & celebrate the bliss, the state of happiness held within us!"

FEBRUARY 25TH, 2009:  Tonight we talked about how yoga reveals our true nature, which is that of JOY!  We all have the right to be happy, to be loved, to be peaceful.  There are no conditions to meet or pre-requisites.  Do you believe you deserve to be happy?  Most of us come into the practice not really buying this completely, or at least that's been my experience this last 15 years of practice and teaching. 

So how do we move from a state of disbelief to believing the best is possible, joy is here for us?  The role of the teacher mentor is that of someone who wants to facilitate helping you rediscover your fullest potential.  I see in you your greatest capacity for love and peace. I will believe in you until the day you believe it for yourself.  Then we will celebrate this together!

The best explanation of the teacher's role is from Donna Farhi who puts it like this, "the teacher mentor assists the birthing of the student's dreams, visions, and hopes, and most important, what the student has not yet dared to imagine.  A mentor moves the student from disbelief to belief and in the process continually affirms the student's self-worth."  I want to make your learning easier by sharing with you all that I know. Now I can only make part of the journey with you. The deepest places you must discover within yourself are places only you can travel.  In the meantime, I will do my best to make the journey FUN, PLAYFUL, INSPIRING and SAFE.  That is my promise.  I love you all my dear students.  Peace, Silvia

*Reference Yoga Sutra 1.40

FEBRUARY 18TH, 2009: I am a poet, dancer, singer, artist and musician.  I have been since I was a child.  So when I read Thich Nhat Hanh's words, "Each minute of our life is a work of art. Everything we do is an act of poetry or a painting if we do it with mindfulness."  I got it. 

More importantly what this means to me is that as an artist there is pleasure in creating one's life.  You can ask anyone that dances, sings, writes about the joy that comes from their art and they will tell you what great pleasure they get from it.  The thing is that we are all the artists of our own lives. I just hope that you use this practice to find pleasure in experiencing your life. 

I don't want you to worry about doing the poses perfectly or trying to do them like me or a dvd or someone else. There is no pleasure in that. Instead I want this practice to be about being yourself, your most beautiful self and taking pleasure in that.  Why? Because the real yoga is what you CAN'T SEE, IT IS INVISIBLE.  So know that when you join me I am looking for what is most amazing about each and everyone of you, I see your beauty and want to inspire you to dream big!  In the words of Dr Wayne Dyer, "Let no doubt into your dreams and intentions. The dreamers are the saviors of the world. Just as visible world is sustained by the invisible, so too do the manifestations of man find nourishment in the visions of dreamers.  BE ONE OF THOSE DREAMERS!"

Rock on! Love, Silvia

FEBRUARY 13, 2009:  It is really impactful to think that we have been chosen to breath today on purpose. That not everyone got picked to breath and so in a sense we won! the lotto of all lotteries.  The most fundamental cause for gratitude is life itself!  I start every morning with a gratitude meditation that is pretty sijmple:  you say to yourself "I am grateful for...." then fill in the blanks for a few minutes or however long you comfortably can.  Two of my favorite inspirations about gratitude are below for you to enjoy!  Peace out, Silvia

JANUARY 28TH:  I am out of town for four days (1/29-2/1) in Colorado "yogaing" and skiing and taking time towards looking within myself to seek a deeper spiritual meaning in my life.  The Sutra that inspires me is Chapter 1, Verse 3: the the seer abides in his/her own true nature which is JOY.

I am a spiritual person by nature. I seriously felt this even as a little girl and it took until I was 25 years old before I even began spiritual babyhood.  Before then I had not given birth yet to my Spirit.  I was really in a gestation period the first 25 years of my life.  As you know many circumstances that brought me pain took place during that gestation period to help reveal who I really am, that sense of wholeness that yoga teaches is within us if we just remove all the outer crap.  But with that said I want you to know that I have never experienced failure at life because there is no such thing, however I did get stuck many times along the way in a state of suffering.  Yoga tells us pain is part of life, YUP.  But suffering is optional.  REALLY?  Yes. Judith Lasater says, "suffering is caused by the emotional reaction we lay on top of our pain."

So I became a spiritual seeker and it wasn't until I was 30 years old that I started to say that out loud.  Before that I was too embarrassed to admit it for fear of what other people would think of me.  I really was afraid folks would think I was a freak or I'd lose "popularity" from more traditional friends.  Then another event happened in my life which resulted in FINALLY accepting responsibility for myself and I officially entered Spiritual Adolescence and finally Spiritual Adulthood where I've been for a while now. 

This trip as my daily practice does as well helps me stay connected to what is important to living spiritually.  Some mantras I speak to myself from my hero Judith Lasater are:

*I am my own authority

*All the answers are within me.

*Life is practice: practice is life

So this trip is my practice.  Hope to see you upon my return where together we will keep at this work in progress we call life.  Please live in the moment, love life for this is the performance!  Silvia

JANUARY 19TH, 2009:  I was reflecting on what it means to be balanced. So I looked up Balance in the thesaurus and it said:  stable, steady, together, middle, centered.  The opposite is unbalanced, unequal, uneven.  I might say that this describes freedom too. Coming together. 

So today in honor of Martin Luther King let’s honor this balance and freedom to deeply commit ourselves to coming back to our essential nature which the sutras say is JOY.  Now this at first might seem difficult but we must take the first step, or as MLK Says, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.”

FREEDOM IS FOR US NOW. 

In every age and every generation, men have envisioned a promised land. Some may have envisioned it with the wrong ideology, with the wrong philosophical presupposition. But men in every generation thought in terms of some promised land. –Martin Luther King.  This promised land is freedom and yoga teaches us that it is here right now inside us.  All that is necessary to find it is to love peace, to allow yourself to feel more and think less.  Take to heart the words of Joseph Campbell who said, “Life is not about the meaning. It’s about the feeling.”  Even science can measure the infectious nature of positive emotion on ourselves and others.  So on the mat practice feeling the poses.  For when you come from a peaceful and relaxed feeling, you are one step closer to the promised land, to FREEDOM.  And ultimately you regain your joy!  Now will it be easy, not always.  Will we encounter challenge, of course.  But keep on going and heed this advice from George Bernard Shaw who said, “Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.”  Wishing you your best courage!  Peace, Silvia 

JANUARY 19TH, 2009:  Yoga was a kick in the pants for me when I started and even today.  If there are moments of doubt I get on the mat and boy do I remember that I am co-creating with the universe. I am responsible. 

So I start each day with a gratitude meditation as I lay in bed. It's simple, active, present tense:  I INTEND TO BE HAPPY, I CHOOSE PEACE.  Then I make my bed (have since i was a little girl, even when I traveled for corporate job would make my bed in the hotel). It was a ritual where I could meditate and consciously decide I was going to have a great day.  It put my life on the right track from the start.

Anais Ninn puts it like this, "we see the world not as it is but as we are."  You create your own reality.  If we complain we draw to us negative things because we put out negative energy.  So we can learn not to complain. We extinguish negativity with love and joyful thought.  Its the difference between what an author said is waking up and saying, Good morning God! or Good God, it's morning."

But this requires that we show up.  That we move in the direction of our purpose. Even Woody Allen said, 80% of success in life is just showing up."  Yup.  So let's get on with our life from the moment we awaken.  (1) start with meditation, the power of intention (2) create healthy morning rituals to set the tone like making your bed (3) go to where life is happening, get out there and (4) don't be afraid of being creative in how you engage your life.  Start now and see your life blossom!  Peace to you, Silvia

JANUARY 9TH, 2009:    Vinyasa yoga is a great way to flush out some of the tension in our lives so we can transform our minds and improve the loving flow from our hearts. In class we are invited to move smoothly, letting go of the hard edges as we invoke the Water Spirit by moving like water.  When you think about it what is tension but resistance to change.  The water element which is the element of the 2^nd chakra governs all watery things about us: circulation, tears, peeing, congestion, orgasm.  Makes sense, water flows, moves and changes and a healthy second chakra allows us to go with the flow and navigate the changes in life with grace and ease.   

So today I dedicate this practice to a dear friend who is just now really allowing themselves to open up to taste the sweetness of life! You know who you are.  And I want to thank my teacher Shiva Rea for sharing with me the Jala Namaskar that inspired the physical practice.

For those of you not able to join us, when you feel stuck or overally demanding of your body, your life, your relationships (like you want them to be different than what they are) invoke the water element.  Engage fluid vinyasa movement, curving flow, backbends, and mandalas (rotations) of all the major joints to mimic the way water circles and spirals.  I wish for you for me for all of us that this chakra helps us to feel what we’re feeling, that it helps us open to life even when its scary, to lessen our resistance to being happier than ever before and that you feel more sensual in the way you breath, eat, drink, move and touch the world!  A big warm embrace for all of you, Silvia

DECEMBER 28, 2008:  The words to a song a friend sent me included, I am the biggest fan of you (or something like this).  So I thought about it, what am I the biggest fan of?  And I'd have to say I am for sure the biggest fan of FUN!

How do I make fun? Yesterday as many days, I ate dessert first. I tell myself jokes all the time, I died part of my hair violet red for no reason (just makes me giggle), I wear sundresses in the winter (over pants and with a sweater of course), I do what I love, I surround myself with brilliant, funny people, I only watch life affirming tv or movies, I read inspiring books.  The list goes on.

Interesting enough, children laugh 300 times or more per day while adults laugh an avearge of 17 times per day.  We clearly have lots of catching up to do according to Heather King.  When it comes to yoga it is as my idol Judith Lasater says, "yoga practice is important but not serious. Practice is too important to be serious."  RIGHT ON!

So today may you feel the shakti power of being presnt for the many blessings in your life so that you can know greater happiness. Or as Rumi says, "hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you."  Take from this that you can practice life with elegance and joyfulness just like you appear luminous in your poses. Take this brightness into each moment. 

Really recognizing our capacity for happiness through the power of our hearts is the first step in yoga.  We use the practice to go withing the hidden chambers of our hearts to find our most joyful true selves.  It's just like The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.  So join me on the mat to dance like there was no tomorrow!  Keep your spirit burning brightly, learn to take your troubles lightly, count your blessings daily, nightly (Linda Elrod).  Happiness knows no bounds! Love, Silvia

NOVEMBER 30TH, 2008:  When I think about the main message I want to give folks about yoga it's this: JUST HAVE FUN.  Find pleasure in the practice.  ENJOY IT!  I don't want you to get all worked about about what you look like, how you practice and whether you're doing it perfectly.  I really don't want your yoga to be another opportunity to practice the self-abuse of perfectionism.   

Just be YOURSELF. This means if you want to cry or laugh or both at the same time, that's just you being you without conditions.  Just like your breath is unconditional.  It will breath us no matter what.  I remember a time in my life where I was not given permission to breath or to be myself, flaws and all, and it felt like I was a prisoner.  YOGA SET ME FREE.  I want it to do that for you too.

Remember REAL YOGA IS WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE.  IT IS INVISIBLE.

So while I know you will find deep benefits from the practice including  greater clarity and a more peaceful demeanor I hope this is achieved while you are enjoying your time on the mat.  That it becomes for you what it is for me, FREEDOM, LIGHTNESS, RECESS FOR ADULTS.    Let the yoga work for you, takes its lessons to heart but msot of all HAVE FUN!  Wishing you all great joy! Silvia

NOVEMBER 30TH, 2008:  When I think about the main message I want to give folks about yoga it's this: JUST HAVE FUN.  Find pleasure in the practice.  ENJOY IT!  I don't want you to get all worked about about what you look like, how you practice and whether you're doing it perfectly.  I really don't want your yoga to be another opportunity to practice the self-abuse of perfectionism.   

Just be YOURSELF. This means if you want to cry or laugh or both at the same time, that's just you being you without conditions.  Just like your breath is unconditional.  It will breath us no matter what.  I remember a time in my life where I was not given permission to breath or to be myself, flaws and all, and it felt like I was a prisoner.  YOGA SET ME FREE.  I want it to do that for you too.

Remember REAL YOGA IS WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE.  IT IS INVISIBLE.

So while I know you will find deep benefits from the practice including  greater clarity and a more peaceful demeanor I hope this is achieved while you are enjoying your time on the mat.  That it becomes for you what it is for me, FREEDOM, LIGHTNESS, RECESS FOR ADULTS.    Let the yoga work for you, takes its lessons to heart but msot of all HAVE FUN!  Wishing you all great joy! Silvia

NOVEMBER 15TH, 2008:  Last night watching again the movie Indestructible I am deeply touched by Ben's desire to find inner happiness in spite of what is happening to his body that is out of his control. The Yoga Sutras speak to this directly. 

Sutra 1.30 The perception of our true nature which is JOY is often obscured.  AND Sutra 1.24 The divine consciousness is self effulgent like the SUN.  We are self effulgent like the sun!

Now what interests me the most about Happiness is that we aren’t going to run out of it.  There is no HAPPINESS LOTTERY with only an occasional lucky winner.  Yoga teaches us that joy is the true nature of each of us.  So today and moving forward we no longer have to limit our perspective of happiness or decide only some of our family members get to be happy and the rest don’t. Everyone can be joyful.  Here’s the challenge, can you wake up every morning and choose to be happy?  Can you face conflict and choose not to get totally upset.  And if you do get upset, can you choose to feel happy again?  I say YES!  But it takes practice and what we practice we strengthen.  So keep planting positive thoughts at least as often as you refresh your email or check voicemail.  And as an at home practice try this Happiness Meditation:

Close your eyes and notice your breath entering and exiting. Count 10 deep breaths and then relax deeper into your seat. Allow the breath to move freely in and out. Move your awareness to the word "HAPPINESS".  See it printed on the back of your eyelids. Hear it spoken by your inner voice. Feel it connected to your breathing. As you breathe in say "HAPPINESS"; as you breathe out say "WITHIN". Repeat with each breath: "Happiness - Within". Continue this breathing meditation for a few minutes.

Just five minutes into your meditation notice a shift in your attitude. Maybe you can't put your finger on it but it's definitely there. You realize that you feel better, you feel happy just because you chose to. It's within you all the time. So when in doubt: BREATH HAPPINESS – WITHIN.

There are really 2 ways to see life. One would be a darker view...that at any moment something could go wrong, we could get run over. The other would be a brighter view...what amazing miracle might take place today?!  These are spoken about in the Yoga Sutras.

The seer dwells in his own true splendour. (Yoga Sutra 1.3)

At other times, the seer identifies with the fluctuating consciousness. (Yoga Sutra 1.4)

In today’s turbulent times it is important to keep practicing to stay positive and peaceful.  From a peaceful center we can respond instead of react.  Feel as you say these phrases this sense of calm radiate from your center. 

Breathing in, I calm my body

Breathing out, I calm my mind

May I be balanced

May I be at peace

With a peaceful heart whatever happens can be met with wisdom.  It's a choice, we can view ourselves strapped to the whipping post of a "fluctuating consciousness." Or we can practice the art of peaceful perception, the ability to see the eye of the storm, and weave its splendour through the conflict. To find peace we have to let go of our struggles, to stop making war with life.  This is going to require quiet courage and action.  As Sri Baba says, “ “It is only when you have both divine grace and human endeavor that you can experience bliss, just as you can enjoy the breeze of a fan only when you have both a fan and the electrical energy to operate it.”

SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2008:  THE SUN IS SHINING!  BUT REMEMBER IT IS ALWAYS SUNNY ON THE INSIDE 

• Be happy for those who are happy
• Compassion for those who are less fortunate (those who are suffering)
• Joy for the virtuous (those who emobody noble qualities)
• Equanimity for those that hurt us

JULY 14TH, 2008:  Coming to the mat is an opportunity for us to open up space to really feel: sensations, breath, emotions - all of it.  This is the doorway to asking ourselves:

"How do I want to engage my life?"  "Am I aligning with my heart's innermost intentions?"

Once reconnected to your intention the practice of poses and breath allows you time to focus on the details.  You get to ground in your physical body and try out how much you really want your intention to become the reality of your life.  You learn quite quickly how to expand your vision to ever expanding levels of worthiness, happiness and peace!  I hope this practice facilitates the most nurturing, supporting and uplifting relationship with YOURSELF.  Peace to all people everywhere!  Silvia