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April 1, 2011. As promised I wanted you to have a copy of this Chandra Namaskar (Moon Salutation) that I taught in class on Friday.  It has such an amazing inward feeling and paired perfectly with our theme of Self-Talk as Self-Study.  Enjoy at home when you need to feel more centered.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

Moon Salutation - Traditional

Moon Salutation (Chandra Namaskar) consists of 20 steps starting and ending with the prayer pose. 

Step 1: Prayer Pose 

Step 2: Half Moon Pose to the Right

Step 3: Half moon Pose to the Left

Step 4: Standing Backward-Bending Pose

Step 5: Transition Pose 1      Exhale as you return to vertical position. Inhale as you sidestep to the right, bringing straight arms down to shoulder level, parallel to the floor. 

Step 6: Standing Legs-Apart Hands-to-Feet Pose     Prasarita Paddatonasana

Step 7: Transition Pose 2     Inhale as you return to a vertical position, with straight arms over your head, palms pressed together, thumbs crossed, at the same time turning your torso & feet to the right (left foot slightly less). 

Step 8: Standing Head-to-Knee Pose to the Right     Pyramid

Step 9: Standing Head-to-Knee Pose to the Left 

Exhale as you bend forward and down, right knee locked, directing your forehead toward your left knee. At the same time, try to touch the floor with your fingertips as far ahead of your left foot as you can. Gradually straighten your left leg, keeping your arms and fingers extended. Feel the stretch in your legs, back, shoulders, and arms. 

Note: If this is too difficult, you might support yourself with your fingertips resting on the ground on either side of your foot.

Step 10: Standing Hands-to-Feet Pose        Forward Bend

Step 11: Crescent Moon Pose on Right Leg – Lunge Knee Down

Inhale as you place your fingertips or palms on the floor beside your feet. At the same time take a big step back with your right, raising your torso and head, briefly assuming the Lunge Pose. Still inhaling, if you wish bring your hands over head 

Step 12: Squatting Pose with Forward Bending    Inhale as you place your fingertips or palms on the floor and bring your right leg forward equal with your left. Your weight is supported by your toes and fingertips. Your thighs are parallel to the floor. Exhale as you bend forward, bringing your chest as close to your thighs as possible, fully stretching your back. 

Step 13: Crescent Moon Pose on Left Leg 

Step 14: Downward Dog Pose

Step 15: Downward Dog Pose with Right-Leg Raise      Inhale-exhale as you raise your right leg as high as you can, keeping your knee locked and pointing your foot. Inhale-exhale as you lower your leg & resume the Downward Dog Pose.

Step 16: Downward Dog Pose with Left-Leg Raise 

Step 17: Cobra Pose     Inhale as you roll forward, supporting yourself on your legs, belly and palms.

Step 18: Squatting Pose   Inhale as you roll back onto your toes with help from your arms. Exhale as you lift your knees from the ground, still supporting yourself with your fingertips. 

Step 19: Squatting Pose with Arms over the Head    

Inhale-exhale as you raise your arms over your head, palms together, thumbs crossed. Your back straight, and your thighs parallel to the floor. Feel the stretch in your torso, shoulders, and arms. 

Step 20: Prayer Pose    Inhale as you stand up, simultaneously bringing your hands to your chest resuming Prayer Pose. 

NOVEMBER 19, 2010.  Yoga has without a doubt made me more patient.  Don't get me wrong sometimes it's still hard but for sure I'm better at it.  What's changed? Well I don't want to feel that TUG-O-WAR with myself or with anyone else.  Impatience doesn't feel good and yoga teaches the antidote to impatience is, yes you can guess, patience.  Patience feels good.  It feels like a return to center no matter the chaos or what other people do or don't do. It feels like compassion, peacefulness and a constant return to balance. When I am patient I feel like I can attempt anything and be my most funky self without attachment to the result.  Yoga always teaches that detaching from the outcome through patience will bring peace of mind.

So rather than procrastinating what we really want to try we just do it accepting that the trying is the yummy fun part.  Patience feels like unconditional love and acceptance.  There are no ego issues when we are patient. You know what I mean, that feeling that if something doesn't happen right now in just the way we want it then it's not good enough. When Patient our minds stop playing the old games of pushing, pulling, creating anxiety, distrust, stress or simple heavy expectations.

Gosh if we could just take a lesson from the Moon.  Do you know that that moon's trajectory follows the Sun's trajectory, only 6 months later;  the full moon in winter comes as high as the Sun in the Summer.  And it takes the Moon 18.6 YEARS TO FULFILL ONE COMPLETE ORBIT! I love this!  If it takes the moon 18.6 years to complete 1 cycle well then in downward facing dog we really have 18.6 years to attempt it completely for one full time don't you think?  If the moon requires 18.6 years to process its orbit then we can try anything new we want to and give ourselves 18.6 years to really refine it.  

Yoga is NOT a quick fix.  Yoga is like the cycle of the moon.  It takes a long time, consistent practice and a whole lot of patience is developed while trying.  So today through infinite patience may we all demonstrate unconditional love and excitement for life! Be your FUNKY Self! No need to pressure ourselves, give yourself at least 18.6 years on attempting any one thing.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia 

PS would love to work with you while on retreat through active life coaching and inspiration. Join me with Alchemy Tours visit my website at www.silviamordini.com

April 28, 2010 Today is a full moon! The moon as you know is a reflection of the sun. The moon's trajectory is very complicated. It follows the Sun's trajectory, only 6 months later; the full moon in winter comes as high as the Sun in the summer. And it takes the Moon 18.6 YEARS TO FULFILL ONE COMPLETE ORBIT!  

Gosh if we were only so patient with ourselves.   

We all have stuff hidden inside us.  Who are we to think we are going to reveal this all in one yoga class or two or 10 or even 100. Heck the moon takes 18.6 years!  But yet often we come to the mat as the quick fix. It's not going to work like that. Heed the words of Tantric scholar Christopher Tompkins, "Don't try to fix shit during yoga, just try to be with how you are now."  

There is plenty of stuff to uncover by the time we start yoga.  There is stuff of the past we need to heal and let go of, there are the future plans or goals we are afraid to actually speak out loud, there is actually being yourself as you are today.  There is so much that I strongly encourage you to take your time.  Allow what is embedded or hidden to be reflected as you feel comfortable doing. And believe me if you stay with this practice it will come out...it just takes time my friends.  Quite frankly, let's all agree right now to give it 18.6 years at least.  

Love and light, Silvia  

Dear Friends on the Path,

This Friday, September 4th is the Full Moon. This is the time when the moon's energy is the strongest. It is considered an ideal time to start up a new endeavor, to begin again our most honest spiritual adventure. To make space for what comes next I've been working on letting go. Two key areas the practice points out that I need to focus on are: (1) offering forgiveness and (2) letting go of wanting to rewrite the past.  Now I understand the teachings: that forgiveness is a form of self-compassion and by forgiving we are making the decision to be happy. Forgiveness helps the ego stop over-exaggerating the pain or tiredness of the past. As Robert Holden says, "Happiness is letting go. Forgiveness is letting go. When you choose one you choose the other."

What makes it hard for me is that I get stuck in wanting to rewrite the past instead of just letting it go.  I waste time wishing things had been different which pulls me out of the present. Partly I do this so my legacy looks better on paper, but that's about what everyone else thinks instead of about how I am actually experiencing joy in my life. 

"Sometimes in order to be happy in the present moment you have to be willing to give up all hope for a better past."

So this full moon I dedicate to a happy today and a happy future. Yoga teaches us that happiness is our true nature so I am realigning my heart to change the way I think about the past. I am trying to forgive more and make happiness more important today. What's done is done.

Basically this comes down to whether or not we choose the past or the present, the upset or happiness, fear or love.  And with immense gratitude for my yoga practice I find the strength to say to myself each day, I CHOOSE LOVE.  I choose to be present and enjoy each moment so as of now I don't miss a thing.  With lovingkindess, Silvia   

MAY 9, 2009:  Today is the New Moon. Energetically it is a day of contemplation, inward focus and meditation.   This is the perfect experience of renewal and hope. Giving time to thinking about the bad habits we want to let go of, the qualities that are not part of the person we want to be. 

And we begin with a sense of NEWNESS to make positive changes in our lives.  So join me today for a series of shoulder openers and forward folds to give time and make space to let out the old and welcome the good!  Love your day and the next chapter of your life! Silvia

FEBRUARY 10TH, 2009:  It is interesting that we just had the full moon yesterday and on December 31st of this year it will also be a full moon.  Is this the year that you no longer sleep walk through life and just make it ok?  Do we commit to waking up and being present, taking back our thoughts and owning our life?

YES!  Even Winston Churchill speaks to this when he said, "The price of greatness is responsibility over each of our thoughts."  Everyday yoga tells us that we move our mind state from one of "nidra" sleep to "Buddhana" awakening.  The practice encourages us to be MORE than aware, but really awake.  So you have from today until December 31st, same full moon to do something more than just using 20% of your mind as a rest station of awareness but instead really engaging 60-80% of your mind to wake up to the blessings of life.  Remember:  Your I CAN is more important than your IQ.

So what is your intention, what makes you wake up and roar?  Go inside and figure it out. Take time right now for five minutes.  Follow the advice of Carl Jung, "your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.  Who looks outside: dreams; Who looks inside: awakens."

Or as Pantanjali says in the Yoga Sutras, "When you are inspired by some great purpose all of your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world!"  Be the cause of your own future my firends. Wake up and start living!  Love, Silvia

FEBRUARY 9, 2009:  Today is the full moon. The moon reflects the sun.  As BKS Iyengar says in Light on Life, “The meaning of Hatha Yoga is Sun (Ha) and Moon (tha), Yoga is which Sun is the Soul and Moon is Consciousness. Consciousness can be compared to a lens.  Its inner surface faces the soul itself, and its outer surface comes into contact with the world.  Inevitably a degree of grime attaches itself to that outer surface and obscures our vision.  In fact prevents us from seeing clearly what is outside, and it equally prevents the light of our soul from shining out.  If our house is gloomy because the windows are dirty, we don’t say there is a problem with the sun; we clean the windows.  Therefore yoga cleans the lens of consciousness in order to admin the sun (soul).”   

We all form habits as we go through life. Yoga teaches us that even our good habits keep us from growing spiritually. This is because habits are by definition an attachment to a pattern of behavior, or a form of dependence.  So a key principle of yoga is to break our attachments. This includes not just our attachments to material objects (like needing a hamburger and fries to be happy), but also attachments to only seeing things our way rather than being open and accepting of other’s opinions.

Our time on the mat is important because it gives us a chance to examine our behavioral patterns or habits. When we realize that we are creatures of habit and that those very habits, even the good ones, keep us stuck in patterns and we begin to break those habits and to try different things, then true spiritual growth begins.  Alex Levin puts it like this, “habits allow us to not think about what we’re doing . . . giving us the illusion of ease.” When we are under the illusion of ease, not thinking about what we’re doing. Breathing the same old way, moving the same old way, thinking the same old way we check out of the present, out of happiness itself.

I invite myself all the time to step (think) outside the box.  For example:  I emptied my bedroom of furniture and rearranged everything.  I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Friday for the first time in years, I am going to a movie tonight at 9:30pm instead of during the day.  Even my trip to Colorado instead of a beach was out of the ordinary. I wore red the last two days instead of earth colors.  Try it and see for yourself!  As final inspiration a favorite writing by Portia Nelson titled Sidewalk of Life. I first heard this from Dr Wayne Dyer a personal hero of mine.  Enjoy and wake up! Love, Silvia

Chapter One
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost .... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

  Chapter Two
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend that I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in this same place.
But, it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

  Chapter Three
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit ... but, my eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

  Chapter Four
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter Five
I walk down another street.