First Class Free

Have you ever had a hangnail?  What about a pimple?  A splinter? 

This weekend I broke a nail. Tragic!!  Oooh the pain, the challenge, the distraction! Yeah, I know its not that big a deal. But at the time it hurt.  But to add insult to injury as life has a sense of humor, long past being a teenager I still get pimples.  Terrible stuff. And that too, if I let it, creates a little drama inside my head.  But enough about me, what about you?   Do you lets little things like pimples, broken nails, splinters fully absorb all your attention?

It's funny that way isn't it?  Here are these small inconveniences and yet we can get totally distracted where everything else seems to lose significance. All we think about is that one small thing!

One of my favorite writings puts it like this, "Negative emotions are like splinters. They pierce our consciousness grab hold of our minds and consume our thoughts to the point that we can lose sight of our desire for contentment compassion and deeper awareness. Most of us can recall the times we have felt hurt or angered by harsh words or actions of others and how we have held on to our pain processing it over and over in our minds like a never ending one sided argument.  We often hold on to these emotional splinters for weeks months and even years.  Holding onto negative thoughts always increases our pain, causing us to be distracted, dysfunctional and even depressed."

So what are your emotional broken nails? Do you have emotional splinters overriding your life right now?  I'll tell you day 1 of broken nail my mind kept going back to it, I saw this was a problem and by day 2 I was already able to retrain my mind to be more present, by day 3 I only thought about my broken nail 4 times, by day 4 I only let it absorb my attention twice.  You see yoga is for the mind.  There is an answer to our emotional hangnails.  Just like getting a splinter out of the body, once we decide we don't want to replay the negative or hurtful thoughts over and over can we begin to heal.  

And yoga does heal.  It has healed me, it has healed hundreds of students I've seen through the years, it has healed the teacher trainees I've had the privilege of working with for 9 sessions.  Yoga can offer you healing too.  This philosophy comes from the Yoga Sutras, Chapter 2.33 Pratipaksha Bhavana.  Where when we are faced with something hurtful we cultivate an elevated attitude, we move our mind away from the petty distraction and dramas. In other words WE DO NOT FREAK OUT.  Do not Panic.  All the stuff that is flying around outside us we call life is just external agitation.  Yoga helps us to quiet the mind through concentrated focus on breath, movement, sensation to move away from the external pimples and to the place deep inside our hearts where peace always exists.  Where there is no drama.

This comes as a result in great part simply by bringing awareness to the small stuff and often just laughing at ourselves and our humanness and what silly creatures we are.  We learn to shift from a splinter to the important experiences of loving ourselves, loving others, living honestly and with total commitment to our overall happiness.  

"Any of us in deep hurt know that shifting our feelings is much easier said than done. We actually become pyschologically and nuerologically habituated to sharp toxic emotions to that point we we often find ourselves over-responding making the tiniest splinter of perceived negative experience feel like shrapnel piercing our hearts. As we perpetuate this response it becomes such an ingrained habit that we often feel unable to control our behavior."  So  the firs step to healing your emotional broken nails is to know it is possible to change the habits of your mind.  Every yoga class you experience will help you do that.  And through this process of practice "we can transform our splinters to salve, anger into compassion, hate into love, fear into courage and yes even pain into joy!" Love yourself, love your day, love your life!  Silvia

Join me with alchemy tours in 2011 www.alchemytours.com

EAT PRAY LOVE at Total Body Yoga!
Embark on a 2 1/2 hour "Restorative Reading" Yoga Workshop based on the best seller Eat, Pray, Love! 

EAT! Discussion of the 1st portion of the book and the savoring of organic chocolates with vinyasa mixed in! 

PRAY! Discussing the "Pray" section, we will learn mantras and chants using our new mala beads. 

LOVE! We will exemplify "Love" as we practice restorative yoga during book discussion and finish with a special svasana. 

About Sandra Coyner: 
I received my 200 hr teacher certification through Silvia Mordini at TBY and am Yoga Alliance certified. I currently teach at three locations but teach the majority of my classes at Living Yoga in Aurora. I teach theme-oriented Vinyasa, Gentle, Restorative and Kid's Yoga classes. I am a Level 2 Reiki Practitioner and enjoy incorporating essential oils into my yoga classes. For more information, please visit my website at www.inspiredbyearth.com. 

TIME: 6:30-9pm 

COST $45/person

Pre-registration is required by email help@totalbodyyoga.com or call 847-266-9642 (YOGA) Price includes workshop, mala beads and organic chocolates!

SEPTEMBER 4, 2010:  From the teachings of yoga a teacher shared with a teacher that shared with a teacher that shared with teacher Pamela Bliss who shared with me, "One of the most profound bits of wisdom shared with me in a teaching yoga is that procrastination is severely detrimental to one's development on the spiritual path."  For me the truth of Yoga is that if you practice regularly you see swift changes mentally, emotionally and physically.  And if you step away from your practice chances are inertia takes over and it is epically difficult to get back on the mat again. Or as Jon Kabat Zinn says, "not practicing is a form of practice."  And the follow up from my friend Dr. Gregg "so how's that working for you?"

"The fault is in the one who blames. Spirit sees nothing to criticize." RUMI

This is not about blaming ourselves for our shortcomings. Not at all. Instead just think of yoga as TRUTH SERUM (SATYA SERUM).  The body doesn't lie.  When you are on one leg balancing and your mind is in a million places you will fall out of that 1 legged balance for sure.  If you are in a warrior pose and your leg is shaking after not practicing yoga all summer well, not doing something has resulted in your muscles responding by shaking when they didn't do that when you took action and came to class 3 times per week.  On the other hand your life is not a dress rehearsal so be happy you are pushing all your poses to that point you call the soft edge.

To me there are 2 kinds of procrastinators: (1) those that have gotten off the couch and attempted and (2) those that have never fully tried.  Interestingly, just because you might fall into category #1 of procrastinators doesn't guarantee you momentum.  For that you have to stay engaged.  So whether you've tried a little, a lot, or not at all procrastination in any of its forms will stunt your spiritual development.  You will forever stay a Spiritual Baby and never evolved towards spiritual toddlerhood or adolescence or adulthood.  The path is sequential.  

I have healed myself of procrastination is through yoga and my spiritual practices that support my yoga, because I grew up enough to ask for help from the universe.  The reason I would often get paralyzed by procrastination was I was afraid of having to do everything by myself, I even felt like I had to always offer my prayers for others but never for me.  "Where did you get that idea you aren't allowed to petition the universe with prayer? You are part of this universe. You're a constituent - you have every entitlement to participate in the actions of the universe, and to let your feelings be known. So put your opinion out there. Make your case. Believe me - it will at least be taken into consideration."  -Elizabeth Gilbert from Eat, Pray, Love

So start now or reboot, or restart today. Stop blaming, stop waiting for everything to be perfect, stop postponing your happiness and just ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT!  And keep asking, continue the momentum. And if you want a really easy way to to keep up with yourself and your intentions well then make regular, consistent appointments with your yoga mat and I promise you will see your life blossom beyond your wildest intentions!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life!  Silvia
PS if you need a quicker kick off then join me on Retreat for a 4 day adventure in Moab, Utah or Pagosa Springs, Colorado this Fall come November and December. www.alchemytours.com

"Prayer is a relationship; half the job is mine. If I want transformation, but can't even be bothered to articulate what, exactly, I'm aiming for, how will it ever occur? Half the benefit of prayer is in the asking itself, in the offering of a clearly posed and well-considered intention. If you don't have this, all your pleas and desires are boneless, floppy, inert; they swirl at your feet in a cold fog and never lift." — Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

AUGUST 11TH, 2010.  In a phone interview a couple days ago I was explaining to a TV producer the purpose of yoga in 100 words or less.  And what I shared with him is that yoga practice makes us stand up with FULL awareness to be FULLY present to our lives and take FULL responsibility for the quality of our existence right now.  

It is all about the FULL spectrum of who we really are.  Not who we were yesterday or who others want us to be but harnessing the power of our minds to focus on being in charge of our own lives.  This means we stop blaming others for what our lives were or are like and stop making excuses for delaying the next steps of our lives.  We accept that the job of being ourselves is ours alone.  And Elizabeth Gilbert speaks to this in this quote.  Hey if you can't bother to show up and speak your truth about what you want for your life then how will you ever achieve it?  The thing is you won't.  So yoga is a way of praying with our bodies, meditation in motion so to speak.  And grace shows up to be co-caption but at the very least the universe is expecting you accept the other half of the job.  

Today get clear on what your intention is for your life.  Let go of the kinda, sort of statements even remove the I will statements and just make it more direct. I AM CONFIDENT, I AM ACCEPTING OF MYSELF, I AM BEAUTIFUL, I AM COURAGEOUS.

And yes from there the inertia that comes from not taking responsibility for your intentions will disappear.  TAPAS, the engagement of discipline and effort in yoga will burn off the self-doubt, worry, apathy forever.  Start now....and repeat throughout the day your intentions.  I AM AMAZING!  Love your day, love your life, love yourself! Silvia

AUGUST 9, 2010.  MY ODE TO WHY I LOVE TUSCANY.  And remember if you email us retreats@totalbodyyoga.com or post why you would love to visit Tuscany you are entered to win $500 OFF our Tuscany trip October 24-30, 2010.  Just go to Facebook Alchemy Tours to post your response or email us through facebook or at above address.  www.silviamordini.com for more information.

"Tuscany has been a life-changing place for me. From the moment I arrive and smell the air I feel washed in the rich sights, sounds and smells of this beautiful place. The energy here has brought me great healing and love. The love is a beautiful story whereby I met by chance on a train and fell in love with the most amazing man.  Ahhhh yes just like in the movies such as Eat, Pray, Love but it was my real life (as it was for Elizabeth Gilbert too) and it is as my Italian grandmother, Nonna, used to say "tutto e destino". Everything is destiny.  I am so grateful to appreciate the endless vistas, the serene vineyards of the Tuscan countryside, to marvel at the imposing fairy-tale architecture, or ride through the rolling hills that never end. Of course I also enjoy making time to shop, eat and sample a Chianti Classico or perhaps a little known SuperTuscan. Perhaps what I find most peaceful is the gentle pace and rhythm which I try my best to bottle up and bring back with me, holding these memories forever close to my heart.”

This is why I love Tuscany and will continue to bring friends to experience firstand this mystical place forever!  Love your life! Silvia

FROM TBY TEACHER LYNN MINTON (JOIN HER MONDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS)

NOVEMBER 20, 2009 CLASS THEME: I was cleaning out my email box and came across an email I had sent to myself while on a couples weekend in early October.

This is an excerpt from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert I would like to share with you...
"The Yogis, however, say that human discontentment is a simple case of mistaken identity. We're miserable because we think that we are mere individuals, alone with our fears and flaws and resentments and morality. We wrongly believe that our limited little egos constitute our whole entire nature. We have failed to recognize our deeper divine character. We don't realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme Self who is eternally at peace. That supreme Self is our true identity, universal and divine. Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line from the Greek stoic philosopher Epictitus: "You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not."
St. Augustine wrote, "Our whole business therefore in this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen."
As I reread this passage and my heart smiles.
Have a joyful day,

Lynn (847-269-8462)


I TEACH: Friday...Basics...1pm Monday...Level 1...1pm See you soon:)

AUGUST 18, 2009:  I remember as a little girl loving the story of Sleeping beauty.  I wasn’t so into Snow White, that story freaked me out. And Goldilocks was too much unlike me so I couldn’t relate. But Sleeping Beauty, I understood.  Now I tried living my life literally to this story, waiting for my prince to come, to get married and have all my problems solved.  That didn’t work out so great.  The prince was there but problems remained or grew worse.  So for me the practice of yoga taught me that there is no prince (as in another person coming to make us happy, saved, peaceful, etc). We are the lover and the beloved in yoga. We use the poses to and breath to wake up our sleeping limbs and awareness. 

Yoga kisses us awake one way or the other.

 

Stephen Levine in the book Be Happy puts it like this:  “Most of us live life half unborn”  It is an in your face way to phrase this concept of what we call in the yoga sutras “remembering the self” Vairagya (Chapter 1.15 for reference).  Remembering is waking up to who we really are and how we want to live our lives.  And quite frankly you have to ask yourself don’t you want to complete your birth before this ride is over?  As Gabrielle Roth writes about in the book Sweat Your Prayers we are giving birth to ourselves.  YESSS! To see some folks that are totally awake check out this clip that inspired me today:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpacvA_ZQQc 

• So right now in this moment what will it take to free up your life? 
• On a scale of 1-10 how resistance are you to life? 
• Are you afraid of what others will think of you if you start to live life on your terms? 
• Are you afraid of being happy?

Well it is not too late, as long as we are breathing to begin to remember it can be better.  Even the Buddha said, “it doesn’t matter how long you have forgotten only how soon you remember.”  And for how much you’ve forgotten well let the poses tell you that.  As it says on page 26 in the book Secret Power of Yoga (a translation of the Yoga Sutras, “We are all in a constant state of grace, yet how often do we remember?”

Starting today let’s be more awake to every moment.  You have the power to change your life!  Love yourself, your life, you day! Silvia

 

FEBRUARY 24TH, 2009: "Love calls on parts of you that cannot speak."  To me the highest practice of yoga is self-love.  Time and again this is the purpose of practice.  And just like loving another person we have to work at it. We must make an active effort to fall in love with ourselves on a day to day basis (or at the very least week to week). 

The act of falling in love gets you centered to go to the next step in your spiritual journey!

This is Puja for your body.  In India Pura is a ritual where they take idols that represent spirit and give their love to them, feed them, sing to them.  Yoga poses (yoga asana) is like praying with our bodies in that the idea is that our bodies are temple.  When you practice giving love to every part of your body through the nourishment of breath and movement you plant seeds of love and when they grow you will love, honor and respect your body even more.  Life can be super easy when you LOVE yourself, when you LOVE your way of life, when you see everything through eyes of LOVE!

In the book Four Agreements a key section speaks to this, "in the search for self-love you will discover that its just a matter of time before you find what you are looking for.  It's not about daydreaming or sitting hours in meditation.  You have to stand up and be a HUMAN.  You have to honor the man or woman that you are. 

• Respect Your Body
• Enjoye Your Body
• Love Your Body
• Feed, clean, Heal Your Body
• Do what makes your body feel good

Today please repeat this Toltec prayer before bed and when you wake in the morning to promote this act of falling in love with yourself again and again:  Today help me to keep the love and peace in my heart And to make that love a new way of life, that I may live in love the rest of my life."  Be love, Silvia