WHY DO YOU DO THE THINGS YOU DO
SEPTEMBER 6, 2010. Why do we do the things we do? Why do you think the things you do? Why do you feel the way you feel? All of these most essential human questions. Yet to be honest, before stepping fully into spiritual practice I had either not thought about these questions or I certainly didn't spend much time thinking about them on a day to day basis. Through the cognitive behavioural therapy that is Yoga that all changed. Even if you don't want to at some point while breathing on purpose and practicing the poses these questions get so loud that you have to address them heart first.
Senior Yoga Teacher and a personal hero of mine Donna Farhi has said “In truth, it matters less what we do in practice than how we do it and why we do it. The same posture, the same sequence, the same meditation with a different intention takes on an entirely new meaning and will have entirely different outcomes.”
Whatever habits of the mind, that lead to actions, that establish our feeling state bubble to the surface of our consciousness during yogic practice and only then can we start to be honest with ourselves about why we are doing the things we are doing. This is what is behind then the idea of INTENTION.
So right now ask yourself, WHAT IS THE QUALITY OF YOUR INTENT?
It doesn't matter if you are eating, drinking, reading, kissing, working, breathing what is the quality of your intention behind doing what you are doing?
Thurgood Marshall said, "Certain people have a way os saying things that shake us at the core. Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive, the impact is shattering. What we could be experiencing is the INTENT behind the words. When we intend to do good, we do. When we intend to do harm, it happens. What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through. We cannot sugarcoat the feelings in our heart of hearts. The emotion is the energy that motivates. We cannot ignore what we really want to create. We should be honest and do it the way we feel it. What we owe to ourselves and everyone around is to examine the reasons of our true intent. My intent will be evident in the results." Renew your commitment this Fall to pay attention of the quality of your intent (is it honest, is it authentic, how does it feel) and stay mindful of your intent in all you do! Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia
BIGGEST OBSTACLE TO HAPPINESS
May 10, 2010, Gosh when you think about the biggest obstacle to feeling happy is letting our minds get all dirty with worry, stress, fear (basically all the unhappy thoughts). If you think of your mind like a load of laundry and yoga is the washing machine we come into the practice to engage our breath which is like the detergent that cleans us on the inside. Today, how big a load of laundry do you have to do?
Start there.
Then we have a better idea of how much work we have to do in order to Yoga citta vritti nirodhah, to calm the disturbances or dirtiness of our minds. This is Yoga Sutra chapter 1 verse 2. If you can engage in mindful movement connected to your breath you slow down and help your mind from being so agitated. Otherwise, the mind stays in this cycle of obsessive churning and never actually let’s you get clean and easeful in your thoughts. And our thoughts are the predecesors to all our actions as Einstein says.
The biggest obstacle to a happier life is our own busy mind. Once we access that contented, peaceful state that yoga brings where we no longer struggle in our thoughts then we can actually remember we have the key to our happiness and joy. Or as Danna Faulds puts it so poetically,
“Within us lie the answers to our deepest questions and the antidote for all our fears.
The divine is not an abstraction – it’s as clear and intimate as a heartbeat or a whisper.
No matter how identified we’ve become with mind and body,
we can release the thoughts that blind us to the truth.
Seek the still point where the words “you” and “I” lose meaning,
where we meet and merge as One.”
LET IT BE - WHY DO WE NEED TO QUESTION EVERYTHING?
SEPTEMBER 20TH, 2009: When I was a girl I’d get together with my friends and we’d use the ouija board. When it was my turn I’d ask serious questions, they’d be things like “Does Craig like me? Will Chris ask me to the dance? Will Ben love me forever so we can get married, have babies and live happily ever after?” The ouija board had no chance in impressing me. I was relentless in my questioning. And I was only 15 years old.
Now just a few years later it has taken a lot of spiritual maturing to realize that as yoga teaches we experience life not with our mind and all its questions, but with our soul. That we are something beyond the mind, beyond thought. And why do we need to question everything?
Putting all questions aside today can we in the words of my favorite band, The Beatles, “Let it Be” Or as Tantric Scholar Christopher Tompkins said during a lecture in
Hmmm, ok I have to say I kind of get the feeling of that on a gut level. It is also helping us to just be present. So easily said but to actually BE has a learning curve. The mind wants to question every little thing, rewrite the past, write out the exact detail of the future. In a way a better understanding of consciousness could be to let go of what we know is NOT consciousness (like what we see, what we think, the numbers of shoes we have, what kind of jeans we wear, etc). Consciousness, a real awakening to this moment being presented is felt with our soul.
This is why fundamentally Yoga is for the Mind, to help us focus and find ourselves more present. I know we do stuff for the body but that is the gateway and totally enjoyable as well. Eventually the path of yogic teachings is taking us deeper inside than perhaps we’ve ever been, the Home of our Heart. May you live in love and today give yourself a break, STOP QUESTIONING EVERYTHING. Just Let it Be. Love and light, Silvia
RELAXING OUR EFFORT: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
JULY 24TH, 2009:
Relaxing effort and fixing the mind on the infinite (asana is perfected). Yoga Sutras 2.47
To me this sutra is about how we relate to the questions and answers seeking in our lives. In class it is that opportunity to stop working so hard at finding answers for life (why things happened in the past as well as reassurances for what is going tO happen in the future) and just be in a state of now. Some psychologists call this “easy speed” This is that place of just pure awareness of the questions of our lives instead of the constant striving for the answers. This is the advanced practice.
A right effort an effective effort and why the poses need not be exotic to effective. I want the poses to be familiar enough that we can find the ease and all the technique becomes effortless so we can be here right now on all levels (emotional, mental, physical, spiritual). So let the poses be the questions, be the breath and unite your focus to breath and move. This then allows us to love the questions as poet Maria Rilke says in her poem:
From "Letters to a Young Poet" by Maria Rilke
I want to beg of you much as I can to be patient
toward all that's unsolved in your heart,
and learn to love the questions themselves,
like locked rooms, or like books that are
written in a very foreign tongue.
Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you,
because you would not be able to live them,
and the point is to live everything.
Live the question now,
perhaps you will then, gradually, without noticing it,
live along some distant day into the answer.
When we find this infinite state then the unknown becomes less scary. We are in the isness of now (as Eckhart Tolle puts it so well). So let yourself feel your emotions around the unknown. Remember all of us are wondering about the future (it’s a trick and delusion of the human psyche). The thing is none of us know the outcome of any given day, the future is an illusion. Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious…” The way to avoid suffering is to learn to be present in the isness and be less afraid of the unknown so we can relax our effort and simply enjoy being here and seeing what is real and beautiful! I love you all, Silvia