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March 23, 2011.  Wishing you a day of effortless effort where you are not feeling pulled or pushed. And a day where you aren't the one doing the pushing or pulling. I know from experience every time you push your partner, he or she will pull back and when we try to pull at them to stay longer they will then push away. It's the win-lose scenario of dualism.  Imagine how strong a person has to be that when you push them they don't react to your pushing while at the same time being careful not to overcompensate for the initial push all in effort to come back into balance.  Whew! That's not fun. 

But when we follow the lead of our breath and stop pushing and pulling at the people in our lives it all makes for living a life of delight.  It is fun.   

We practice on the mat to recognize Pushing and Pulling, Dvesa and Raga, so we can live better off the mat.  Take to heart the words of Judith Lasater who writes, “in life we are pulled between trying to get what you want and trying to avoid what you don’t want.  Pulling and Pushing away both limit our freedom.”  What is freedom? To me is about learning to BE happy with the playful side of life. It's so simple, if you want FUN in your practice you have to put FUN into it. If you want FUN in your life you have to stop pushing and pulling. We learned it in kindergarten and it all still applies.

This concept is from the Yoga Sutras: 

Yoga Sutras Chapter 2, Verse 7

Excessive fondness for pleasant experiences causes longing.  Attachment (Raga) which is PULLING

Yoga Sutras Chapter 2, Verse 8

Excessive avoidance of unpleasant experiences causes disdain.  Aversion (Dvesa) which is PUSHING

On and off the mat we can be aware of what we are thinking:

Where are your thoughts PUSH energy.  Push thoughts are things like “I don’t want to hold this pose, I don’t want to try this new or difficult variation”.

Where are your thoughts PULL energy.  And pull thoughts might be things like “I want another Sun Salutation, I should be able to do 35 vinyasas per class no matter what. Bring on side 2, I'll take it on.”

Maybe that's why I appreciate the website www.thefuntheory.com The site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as FUN is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better. Fun Theory asks us to think about why don't we do more of the things that we know are good for us?  And suggests that if we make those things fun can we get change our behavior. (You should know this initiative is sponsored by Volkswagen.) Go to their website to see how they got folks to take the stairs instead of the escalator and other playfully brilliant examples! Caution this site will make you SMILE. 

When we aren't pushing away positive change our pulling at it either we remain on easy speed and Fun Theory works in our favor which is always Win-Win.  Life is Win-Win (at least when we stop pushing and pulling). Try it and see!  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia 

TODAY’S PLAYLIST

Rainbow Connection, Muppets

Korean Dogwood, Devendra Banhart

Cold Wind, Arcade Frie

Queen Bee, Devendra Banhart

Days Go By (Acoustic), Dirty Vegas

Rise, Eddie Vedder

Sympathy for the Devil, The Rolling Stones

Just Can't Get Enough, Depeche Mode

Stuck in the Middle with You, Stealers Wheel

Say You Love Me, Fleetwood Mac

Fix, Jack Johnson

Come Out To Play, UB40

Pass the Dutchie, Musical Youth

Lively Up Yourself, Bob Marley

Freedom, George Michael

No Rest for the Weary, Blue Scholars

Lakshmi, Girish, Donna Delory, Greg Leisz & Georges Lamman

Faust Arp, Radiohead

Ocean Breathes Salty, Sun Kil Moon

Sitara Dreams, Rasa

Ahimsa, Baird Hersey & Prana

OCTOBER 22, 2010.

A quick summary of the highlights about Pushing and Pulling, Dvesa and Raga.  Take to heart the words of Judith Lasater who writes, “in life we are pulled between trying to get what you want and trying to avoid what you don’t want.  Pulling and Pushing away both limit our freedom.”  What is freedom? To me is about learning to BE. The aspiration is towards beingness.

Yoga Sutras Chapter 2, Verse 7

Excessive fondness for pleasant experiences causes longing.  Attachment (Raga) which is PULLING

Yoga Sutras Chapter 2, Verse 8

Excessive avoidance of unpleasant experiences causes disdain.  Aversion (Dvesa) which is PUSHING

On and off the mat we can be aware of what we are thinking:

Where are your thoughts PUSH energy.  Push thoughts are things like “I don’t want to hold this pose, I don’t want to try this new or difficult variation”.

Where are your thoughts PULL energy.  And pull thoughts might be things like “I want another Sun Salutation, I should be able to do 35 vinyasas per class no matter what. Bring on side 2, I'll take it on.”

And the way this travels with you into your life is how you treat your family, your friends, you partner.

Every time you push your partner, he or she must pull back, and the pressure is now on them to not only react to your pushing, but to do so with accuracy, without overcompensating for the initial push, in order to come back into balance. Think if you just stopped pushing or pulling at your partner how the beingness would be so much easier.

Peace out, Silvia

Happy Day Friends!

So thankful for all of you who shared your practice with me this morning and can't wait to see you Friday 9:15am Level 1-2 and 6pm Level 1; Saturday 9:15am Basics or Sunday 7:45a Level 1-2 before my flow takes me to Europe and back.  

The meditation in my heart is about why some pull or push in life when the experience of just "being" is so much easier.  And so I went back to the source, before I learned about the yoga sutras, I learned really great rules about not pushing or pulling in Kindergarten.  I share these inspiring words from Robert Fulghum and hope you can join me for loving, easeful practices where we do it together because really "when we go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together."  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia   (Hey don't forget to friend me on facebook, like me under Alchemy Tours or Alchemy of Yoga)

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

These are the things I learned:

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

[Source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum.  See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/  ]

www.silviamordini.com

www.alchemytours.com and www.alchemyofyoga.com

AUGUST 24, 2010.  Yoga Teachers talk a lot about sequencing.  Sometimes they speak about it with awe and reverence and go to workshops to learn more and more.  And if you get even two yoga teachers together they will undoubtedly start whispering excitedly about a new sequence or someone's class they went to that had a totally rad sequence they'd never done before until they end up gigglng like little children.  Yoga teachers are stoked about smart sequencing! And that is one of the definitions of Vinyasa.  To place the order of poses in a special way and with intelligence.  A great teacher makes the practice easier and more accessible to all students when they treat sequencing like a gourmet chef would treat the creation of a meal.  It is easy to make the physical practice of yoga hard, just do it without intention and order and there you go!

The greater lesson here is the Vinyasa of life.  There is a smart sequencing to the order of how things are evolving in your life.  There is a beginning, middle and end to all cycles.  And if we allow this then the currents of grace more easily carry us moment to beautiful moment.  These are also referred to as Kramas (stages or waves). However, what happens is that we try to push or pull things out of order in life and sometimes as yoga students on the mat.  Back to school time means many yogis who took the summer off return to their practice and try to advance too far too fast rather than going with the step by step progression which is vinyasa.  We respect the start of where we are in this moment and then based on how we are feeling we move from there.  You will avoid injury in class and in life when this spiritual recipe is followed.

I have appreciated this teaching from my teachers Shiva Rea and John Friend for many years.  It doesn't mean I always apply it to my life.  I do however consistently apply it to the yoga on the mat as both a student and as a teacher until one day it seeps into everything I do.  Too many times I still get stuck in the past replaying how I could have done things better when the step I'm in is right now and going backwards is not intelligent vinyasa.  Neither does rehearsing and worrying about 10 steps from now make for smart sequencing in life.  But those pulls and pushes of past and too far into the future continue to challenge the sequence of my life practice.  The good thing is at least I see and know why there exists a wisdom to sequencing.  

So is sequencing the Holy Grail? Well yes it can be defined that way as long as you let go of that part of the legend that says you have to "prove" yourself before achieving it or finding it.  In Yoga come as you are, figure out what you're starting point is and build the intelligent sequence of your life from there.  Keep in mind this one suggested definition of the Holy Grail that Grail means "a derivative of cratis, a name for a type of woven basket that came to refer to a dish, or a derivative of Latin gradus meaning "'by degree', 'by stages', applied to a dish brought to the table in different stages or services during a meal"  Life is happening in stages, stay tuned in to where you are at right now and do your best not to go backwards or too far forwards but savor the yummy and delicious nature of where you are in this moment. Love yourself, love your day, love your life!  Silvia

**And if I might, Happiest Birthday to my brother Federico!!!