First Class Free

May 22, 2010, The pressure life brings us gets a bum rap.  It’s not all bad. Actually, that’s the way diamonds are formed.  They become refined through really intense pressure and heat.  The end result is magnificent!  In yoga the same thing takes place with our physical selves and energetic selves as well. This process of cleansing through the letting go old pain brings us back to our most beautiful.  We engage some pressure to create the heat to transform the old heaviness into radiant strength. 

We move from being a diamond in the rough where we are cut up in limited self-belief to a state of being diamond like where we believe in our highest potentiality, we believe in the impossibility of things! This achieved lovingly and safely through the asana and pranayama.  It is known as ORVAJRA DEHA, or “diamond body.”

Every pose, every breath connects us to who we really are. We feel more, understand better and think more clearly. It helps us to be our real selves, our best selves.  The light is shed from the inside out to see that we were limiting our perceptions of who we are by doing things like feeling ashamed, embarrassed, jealous, angry, stressed.  And as each pose progresses to take us deeper we create heat and the old stories drop away and we find ourselves shining out.  Some of the best ways to polish the diamond in the rough that we are is to practice forgiveness and compassion towards ourselves, remembering that at the heart of yoga the highest practice leads to ultimate self-acceptance.

And the more you radiate the brighter you are then the more light you bring into the world to those around you.  Your luminescent quality inspires all others to shine out and discover their best diamond selves too!  Can you imagine a world where we all get to be ourselves and radiate love and happiness?  Well, yoga teaches that day is now, that world is here inside each and every one of us!  May you come to see all your challenges as means to reveal your true beauty.  Love to you, Silvia

 

 

To help us find where we might see ourselves through the eyes of myth rather than reality we used the “Double Basic Vinyasa” inspired by a friend of mine for double the fun. And a whole lot of core cultivation!  But this served to ignite 3^rd chakra more and in the words of Rumi “Set your life on fire.”  So this was about coming home…making the inner form the work of our soul selves the real story and not just the outer form. And as always it is all about LOVE.  So wishing you all the best love, the best lovers, the best life, Silvia

 

"You that love lovers,

This is your home. Welcome.

 

In the midst of making form, 

love made this form that melts form,

with love for the door

and soul for the vestibule.

 

Their dance is our dance.

You are the soul, the universe,

and what animates the universe.

 

Human beings, you have a great value

inside your form, a seed. Be led 

by the rose inside the rose.”

-Rumi

 

Now we have a choice. We can stay in the “comfort” zone a little apathetic or not totally turned on by life. What a friend once had described to him as “flat lining” one’s life.  You know how this feels. Everything is just OK.  Spiritual practice implores us to live life more than OK.  That we need not give up when we meet uncomfortable situations for that’s exactly when we are about to break free.  The author Jaimal Yogis says, “the story you’ve been telling, you know the one, about the way you have to compromise that dream.  Bend that rule. Cut the cornerstone of logic for breakfast. That story is old and tired. Do you see how FREE you are without it?

Please don’t compromise your life, this one life any longer.  Be uncomfortable. Face the fear, the discomfort to live your life heroically.  It is really the only way.  As I wish myself my own best strength I offer you the same.  Let’s all just go for living the adventure of life! Love to you, Silvia

“A man practices the art of adventure when he heroically faces up to life; When he has the daring to open doors to new experiences and to step boldly forth to explore strange horizons. When he is unafraid of new ideas, new theories and new philosophies. When he has the curiosity to experiment--to test and try new ways of living and thinking. When he has the flexibility to adjust and adapt himself to the changing patterns of life. When he refuses to seek safe places and easy tasks and has, instead, the courage to wrestle with the toughest problems. When he has the moral stamina to be steadfast in the support of those men in whom he has faith and those causes in which he believes. When he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints. When he has the nerve to move out of life's shallows and venture forth into the deep. When he keeps his heart young, his expectations high and never allows his dreams to die. When he concludes that a rut is only another name for the grave and that the only way to stay out of the ruts is by living adventurously and staying vitally alive every day of his life.  By Wilfred Peterson. Source: The art of living, Albert W. Daw Collection