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April 17, 2011. Epic day of mountain biking with the most amazing friends.  So many meaningful conversations as we cycled our yoga! Peace in all ways, Silvia

AM MORNING YOGA PRACTICE DAY 2

Shavasana/Deep Relaxation, Shiva Rea

I Know Places, Lykke Li

No Jive, De-Phazz

Lebanese Blonde, Thievery Corporation

Heart Skipped A Beat, Xx

Crystalised, Xx

Dolly Parton Vs Jay Z - Jolene Is Mine (KMT Mix), KMT

Blue Monday, Flunk

Black Eyed Dog, Nick Drake

Infinity, Xx

Afterlife, Glorybox

March 29, 2011.  The practice of yoga is not about doing more or asserting more effort it is actually an experience where we try to make the smartest least effort or effortless effort.  There is this space in a pose where we find that sweet space of "doing nothing." That is something I know well from my Father who was born in Italy and 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. Anyone with a talent for happiness can do this."

"My own ambition, my deepest and truest ambition, is to find within myself someday, somehow, the ability to do likewise, to do NOTHING - and find it enough."  Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

Another way I personally experience this doing of nothing is going to Moab. Utah.  When I am there I understand what Edward Abbey is writing about since that is where he wrote the book Desert Solitaire.  There is a quiet in the desert unlike anything I have found elsewhere in the world.  And the joy of mountain biking or practicing yoga there feels so in the flow of this effortless effort that you come away from any excursion with more energy and calm.  I can't wait to return April 16-19 to introduce a new tribe to the beauty of Il Bel Fait Niente!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

*To join us in April or in October in Moab visit www.alchemytours.com or www.silviamordini.com or facebook Alchemy Tours

JANUARY 31, 2011.  MORE YES! Here we are in the beginning of the year. Eleven months more to go which means there is still plenty of time to set the foundation of YES in your life in 2011.  Let's start by saying YES to a little quiz. First question to ask yourself is (1) are you conscious and alert to your Yes choices?  (2) Do you say Yes more than you say No?  (3) What do you say YES to? 

In Tantric philosophy we start with "yes".  It is our first choice.  We say yes to opening, softening, receiving and lay the way in understanding that YES IS DOING! Or as is written in the Alchemist, "There is only one way to learn, it's through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey." You see Yoga is learning to align with nature rather than resisting it or trying to over control it by saying No all the time.  This spiritual practice is about saying YES as the immediate response to life.  Wayne Gretzky is so right on "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."  Yes means taking the chance, risking it all for love, for a happier life, for a happier YOU.  Will you get hurt? Maybe. Is it worth it? YES! So join me in aligning 11 INTENTIONS to 2011, in these eleven remaining months of the year.

So here are 11 things to say YES to in 2011 

1. Yoga, Cycling, Culture and Wine in Tuscany, Italy June 19-26, 2011 or October 16-22, 2011
2. 10 minutes of meditation 5 in the morning and 5 in the evening
3. Practicing patience with the one person you love 
4. Walk or ride a bike for 15 min a day
5. Yoga, Mountain Biking and Adventure in Moab, Utah April 16-19, 2011 or Oct 27-30, 2011
6. Take a Private Yoga Session 
7. Taking a few deep breaths before sending an email, text, or phone call. What is your intention for communication and does it come from love?
8. Start reading the Yoga Sutras (Secret Power of Yoga is one of my favorites!)
9. Get some Beach Therapy. Yoga in Xinalani Mexico Feb 26-March 5, 2011 or Big Island Hawaii Dec 18-23, 2011
10. Practice gratitude daily. Write or think of 3 things you are grateful for each morning or before bed.
11. SMILE more!

Take to heart that doing something is the Yes. And when you decide you are clear on what you say YES to, then everything is there to support you.  It is as is written in the Alchemist "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." At the end of the day what you say YES to isn't even as important as just doing it!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life, Silvia 

PS - Join me on retreat www.alchemytours.com or www.silviamordini.com

JANUARY 15, 2011. Would love to have you join me on a Yoga Retreat in one of my favorite places in the world. Lots of great early bird pricing. And still time to get out of the cold and into the Sunshines of Puerto Vallarta, Xinalani Resort! As little as $699 for 7 nights/8 days all food, luxury lodging, 14 yoga classes included.  See you on the mat, near or far! Love, Silvia

ALCHEMY TOURS SCHEDULE 2011

Feb 26-March 5, 2011 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Yoga at Xinalani Eco-chic-spa Resort

April 2-5, 2011 Pagosa Springs, Colorado - Yoga, Skiing and Snowboarding

April 16, -19, 2011 Moab, Utah - Arches National Park Yoga and Mountain Biking 

June 19-25, 2011 Tuscany, Italy - Yoga, Cycling and Cultural Adventure

July 2-9, 2011 Dolomites, Italy (Sellaronda Bike Day is 7/3/2011) Yoga, Hiking and Cycling

August 4-7, 2011 Seattle, Washington Wallace Lodge - Yoga, Beers and Bike 

Oct 16-22, 2011 Tuscany, Italy - Yoga, Cycling and Cultural Adventure

Oct 28-31, 2011 Moab, Utah -  Canyonland National Park Yoga and Mountain Biking

Sept 2-5, 2011 Sonoma, California - Yoga, Wine & Cycling 

Nov 23-28, 2011 Sayulita, Mexico Yoga & Surfing Retreat at Haramara Resort

Dec 18-23, 2011 Big Island, Hawaii, Yoga, Kayaking and Cycling 

ABOUT US

Alchemy Tours are specialized small-group adventures designed for no more than 10-16 participants, including your two guides, and venues are selected to result in a very personal and unique experience of the places visited. We choose where we stay based on charm, design and location, so they are never large international style hotels. All food is carefully picked for the best quality of culinary experience. And our itineraries are planned for the authenticity of the experience offered. Some of the "not-to be missed" well known sites are included, of course, but special lesser known venues are always selected as well. Register today at www.alchemytours.com and make a trip of a lifetime a dream come true!

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

NOVEMBER 8, 2010.  As I returned from Moab Sunday evening with Carol and Rich we left behind the undistracted energy of the rocks and desert and mountains and as soon as we got off the plane in Denver were hit with the reality of distraction once again.  The lights! The noise! The volume of people! The buzz in the air!  It hit me with such force I felt a little sick to my stomach for a moment.  And a lot confused.  I thought hmmmm so that's what we live in day in and day out?  

Sometimes we don't know what we don't know until we know something different.  To be in Moab on a Yoga retreat with Alchemy Tours (www.alchemytours.com) mountain biking, hiking, bouldering is to be in a new world devoid of all distractions apart from our little tribe.  The spiritual progress we make in this situation far surpasses what is allowable on most "normal" days when surrounded by noise, people, business, worry, speed, and anxiety.  There in Moab on the rocks, there is quiet and we can all finish the conversations we start with ourselves but never seem to finish while at home because something comes up and distracts us.

"I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment." --Hilaire Belloc

Going on a yoga retreat is an experience of fulfillment.  It is done with purpose and the guidance we offer is focused whether on a mountain bike or hike or practicing yoga.  Whereas distraction is that feeling of being lost.  And we've all felt lost before.  Using this practice to help concentrate allows us to organize the energies around us, inside us and turn them into undistracted energy which is quite powerful.  We need that laser like focus to accomplish our intentions.  On the mat we take one part, one stage (krama) at a time to help achieve amazing experiences.  We place our hands, lay our foundation in a downward dog, direct our energy from the focal point of our hearts to our legs and arms, feet and hands.  It is bringing the macro of our life into the micro of full detailed attention. 

While in Moab Geology Joel, our personal friend and ranger, guided us in Arches National Park Fiery Furnace.  He had us at the end stop and look at the vista of beauty before us and passionately implored us to not just see the bigness but to get down there and touch feel be part of the detail. And that in and of itself will help us be less distracted or overwhelmed.

Today, do something that draws your energy back to you. Take time to calm the chaos and move from distraction to center. And in that center is love.  So love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia 

FOR FUTURE TRIPS TO MOAB WITH ALCHEMY TOURS PLEASE VISIT www.alchemytours.com or www.silviamordini.com save the date of April 16-19 2011 Moab, Mountain Biking, Hiking, Yoga Adventure or Oct 27-30, 2011 Moab Mountain Biking, Hiking, Yoga Adventure

OCTOBER 8, 2010.Yes we are in the season of Change.&amp;nbsp; Everthing around is us evolving from one thing to another and yoga philosophy reminds us that change is an inherant part of life. Life will move forward nonetheless so for us it is a choice as to how we align with that forward momentum or fight what is here now.&amp;nbsp; This transition, as all transitions in life, is more challenging than actually arriving at one's destination. And during times of transition a more easeful yoga practice is helpful.&amp;nbsp; This is when amadhurya, the "sweetness" of universal intelligence, is calling to us to take our experiences and churn them in the beehive of our hearts.&amp;nbsp; While your heart and mind churn the honey in the beehive you can be more gentle with yourself, allowing the practice to nourish you as things change around you and within you.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</p>
<p>&lt;p&gt;I hope to see you return to your yoga practice to nourish the parched places inside and to help you be as elegant as you are in navigating the currents of grace and change herself! Please bring a friend and they will &lt;strong&gt;receive 30 days UNLIMITED yoga for $30 &lt;/strong&gt;and YOU get entered to win 2 months UNLIMITED yoga.&amp;nbsp; The more friends you bring, the more lives you change, and the more times you get entered to win!&amp;nbsp; Help us share more yoga this month.&amp;nbsp; Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia&lt;/p&gt;</p>
<p>&lt;p&gt;*And don't forget $350 off trip to Moab November 4-7, 2010, Alchemy Tours&lt;/p&gt;</p>

OCTOBER 1, 2010

The resistance to the disturbance IS THE disturbance.  ~ Siddiqui Ray

We all have that feeling of living inside a snow globe and having it shaken up resulting in utter chaos, stuff flying everywhere!  Yeah.  That happens.  Yoga philosophy helps us to see that the stuff flying around is not the problem.  The resistance to the disturbance IS THE disturbance.  We may not be able to control situations or people but we are responsible for how we think about the situation, person or thing.  And if our minds choose to fight which is resistance then we are in effect creating the disturbance.  Does that make sense?

So how do we know if we are resisting life?  Just ask yourself a real, simple question:  “Are you happier today than you were yesterday, last week, last month?” Well, are you? And if you're not then you are producing resistance in your life because the Yoga Sutras say that our lives are constantly evolving towards greater experiences of happiness (if we get out of our own way).  Let me put it like this.  In Seattle in August I was driving my best friends stick shift Element on hilly, steep streets. I was so afraid at times I was going to roll backwards into the person behind me that once I got going I'd be driving around wondering why I wasn't going faster or smoother and then realize I was driving with my brakes on.  (Ok don't tell him ok?)

But the question of resistance is one of whether or not WE ARE LIVING LIFE WITH OUR BRAKES ON.  I know at times I have found this to be the case for me.  Instead of a full blast effort something less because of fear, worry about what others might think or some other equally old story.  And then this practice of yoga wakes me up and I realize that I am holding back and only making it harder.  At that point everything changes and the flow returns and I feel grace carrying me once more on her easy current rather than fighting my way upstream.  So today, take a good look at yourself, where are you living with the brakes on?  And get out of your own way and try easier. It is what you think about your life that either creates the disturbance or lets you move forward gently.  Love yourself, Love your day, Love your life! Silvia

The resistance to the disturbance IS THE disturbance.  ~ Siddiqui Ray

*Spaces still left for Moab Nov 4-7, $250 OFF, hope you can join me and Alchemy Tours now or on one of our 10 retreats next year! Friend us on facebook and learn more.

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010.  As we began class on our backs, breathing, quieting and just coming to be present I offered the story of the lotus blossom and how it grows in murky, dark, hard-to-grow waters, and has to reach for the light and rise above challenges in order to grow.  WE are the lotus blossom; always reaching and rising through the difficulties and challenges of our lives to get to the light, which is our true happiness.  

And the driver of what moves us in spite of the challenges to grow towards the light is our hearts. But our hearts get dirtied up with all our mental clutter.  On Friday's it seems to often be at its worst.  Our minds are just overly polluted with the worries of the week.  So to practice on Friday gives us that opportunity to free our minds and clean the clutter.

When you think about it our hearts are like a diamond, and the light is happiness, shining through the diamond/our hearts.  The diamond is like our own potential, multi-faceted, shiny, so the light shines through it.    And just like a diamond, this practice is meant to restore our real brilliance. The diamond equals our happiness, and if we can get clean the polluted mind light can shine through us, just like a diamond.   So today, give your heart a break and allow it to let go of whatever you are facing for even just a little bit.  Restore your brilliance and the clarity you need to make better decisions will be revealed!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life, Silvia

PS If you feel like you need more time to devote to cleaning the  mental clutter then join me in Moab November 4-7, 2010 or in 2011 on a Yoga retreat in Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Italy and more! Like Alchemy Tours to keep up to date on great trips!

SEPTEMBER 19, 2010.   

Losing the Past Opens the Future.  It is such a simple statement and rolls up yogic philosophy so easily....and yet not always that easy to put into practice.  Our humanness boasts to us in little mental self talk that of course we can rewrite the past! Why wouldn't we be able to?  But we intellectually know we cannot.  And until we surrender to our own letting go known as vairagya we cannot fully welcome the best future of ourselves.

The past and the future energies cannot fully occupy the same exact space.  How or what happened yesterday is done.  All we have now is this moment and the intentions for the next moments.  Replaying things past only clutters our minds, leaks our energies and prevents us from engaging life right now.  Through physical practice we let go of the old stories stored in the tissues of hurts, frustrations, disappointments and clear the way for our best experiences.  And yoga works all day long mentally and emotionally to help remind us to lose the past, whether pleasant or unpleasant, so the world opens us up to the most magnificent future.

it is up to us not to hold ourselves back, to not remain stuck, but to create the space by letting go that opens the future.

I work on this everyday and I've experienced amazing results. it is still often very hard and sometimes easier but nevertheless always really powerful in letting grace and love flow towards my open heart.  I wish for all us to find the courage to lose the past, and open to your future.  Your best life.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

PS If you feel like you would benefit from more dedicated time to do the serious work of letting go then join me on an upcoming yoga retreat in Moab, Italy, Oregon, California, Colorado, and more!   www.alchemytours.com or www.silviamordini.com

SEPTEMBER 11, 2010 NEWSLETTER

Salutations Friends on the Path!

This week the hot yoga topic in some circles has been about the marketing of yoga to make you slim and sexy. My first concern as a yoga instructor is not so much about sexiness as it is teaching folks that yoga is really about the Science of Happiness. I know that with consistent, regular practice you will reconnect with what you're feeling, learn healthy stress-reducing techniques (like breathing on purpose), appreciate your life more and generally engage the world in a kinder way. 

As yoga teacher Donna Farhi says, "What the world needs are kinder, more compassionate, generous people." The time on the mat is our opportunity to cleanse the mind of all its distractions that make us less attractive.  And as I often say in class, the biggest obstacle to a happier life is our own busy mind, and yoga is for the mind (which we access through the vehicle of the body). 

Does yoga make you sexy?  Well I guess so.  When we are feeling peaceful and centered our faces do look prettier.  And when we are kinder and move more fluidly we are more attractive.  And the yoga does slow us down to make more heartfelt connections to other people. So if you come to yoga for the mental or physical reasons it doesn't matter you are a complete package as a human being and you will receive ALL the benefits: happiness, sexiness, calm.  And most importantly you will naturally engage more unconditional love into your life!  So love yourself, love your day, love your life, Silvia   

PS Don't forget sign up now for Moab Nov 4-7th, get $500 OFF and next person who registers gets FREE Private with me1

"I am so happy, I cannot be contained in the world; If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me;But like a spirit, I am hidden from the eyes of the world.  For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens." RUMI as translated by Keshavarz

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010.  More than ever I aspire to this feeling of spirit day in and day out. I've tried looking outside myself for this experience, and through my yoga practice I've made time to look within.   As you know, this last month I took it to a new level.  I've had regular yoga teachers that took a month out for their own development every year whether it meant traveling to Thailand to be with their teacher or going on month long silent retreat or just taking a time out from teaching to more deeply commit themselves to the Yoga of Relationship.  So I did all of that this last 31 days.  And I am so happy I did!  I attended an awesome yoga teacher training and practiced many styles of yoga with many, many teachers, I spent time in quiet contemplation/meditation in nature and most importantly I consistently practiced unconditional love for my best friend. I learned how to expand my capacity to be more fearless in loving someone and allowing myself to be loved in return.  This is the trinurti (3-fold) nature of yogic practice like a tripod that needs all three legs to remain standing: study, practice, teach.

I have blossomed so much.

I went into this personal sabbatical with many questions and in some way as a spiritual seeker I was looking for answers.  I return with more questions than I did when I took time off.   What I do know is "I am so happy"!  Making ourselves important and setting aside time to design our intentions is not easy.  It is hard work to still the mind in order to get to that point of asking the questions, it is what Elizabeth Gilbert writes about in her book Eat, Pray, Love, "You cannot see your reflection in running water, only still water."  I can see better who I am, what I want in my life and I am asking better harder questions of myself. 

Why would I put myself through this? Because I want to keep evolving my happiness. A little happiness is not enough for me, I want a lot of happiness and I deserve that today be the best day of my life and I take this to a new edge tomorrow, just like we do in bending our knee in a warrior pose.  And I realized my happiness would remain stunted if I kept repeating old patterns or ignoring what those patterns in my mind or actions are.  As Miss Gilbert writes, "Take care of the problems now, or else you'll just have to suffer again later when you scew everything up the next time.  And that repetition of suffering - that's hell.  Moving out of that endless repetition to a new level of understand - there's where you'll find heaven."  Fundamentally this is where Yoga holds our hands and encourages us to be happier than we ever thought we could be by quieting our minds, helping us see the old problems and moving beyond them to our best lives ever.  So thank you dear students, friends, teachers for understanding my desire for personal growth and evolution and as you support me, please know with great passion and simple love I support you in your journey's as well.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life!  Silvia

If you need a break consider joining me on Yoga Retreat in Tuscany October 24-30 or Moab November 4-7, or in December either Pagosa Springs or Hawaii

"Whilst on a lonely beach in Tasmania, three days hike away from any form of civilization, alone,Brent Morton had an epiphany: “No matter where I travel, however far away I get from civilization, how high of mountains I climb, one thing always remains the same: Me.” This began a 180 degree shift from exploring the physical world to a deep systematic journey into the inner world, which has continued intensively to the present day." - Brent Morton

AUGUST 8TH, 2010.  These are the words of a lovely teacher I have just met.  It speaks to so much of what I hope this practice brings to light for you sooner rather than later.  However, the difficult part of exploring the inner world and taking this inward journey of self-exploration is making time.  And when we are in our day to day world of grocery shopping, laundry, working, oil changes it's hard to make that time.  Yes, it is hard.  So for me the catalyst for inner change has often come as a result of traveling somewhere (maybe not as far as Tasmania!) but someplace where I could feel time as BIG.  And in that space, the changes in my outer world would almost force me, encourage me to go inside.  So here I am writing this from far away as each day I have my ecology of mind refreshed and look at ME.  No excuses, nothing more to do but see who I am and why I am.  

The longer my days, the more I find myself wanting to help others to do this too.  To facilitate inner healing and self knowledge by traveling away from the old paradigms even if for just 4 days or a week.  Join me in Tuscany October 24-30 or Moab November 4-7 or Pagosa Springs or Hawaii in December.  Love yourself, Know thyself.  

Peace out, Silvia  (Facebook Alchemy Tours or visit www.silviamordini.com)