First Class Free

March 30, 2011

“Yoga is the practice of creating the conditions for opening to occur.  We learn to relax and open up to more feelings than just those that are comfortable or familiar.  This kind of opening allows us to being to make friends with the variety of our own human repertoire of experiences.” This explanation from Cindy Lee of Om Yoga really hits home. 

I have learned through this practice that I create my reality from the inside out.  Or as James Allen writes "The outer conditions of a person's life will always be found to reflect their inner beliefs." I come to the mat to purposefully create the conditions that I want to experience in my life.  If I want more ease then I practice the poses in an easeful way. If I want more enthusiasm then I perform the asanas joyfully! If I need more courage then I face my fears going upside down and stoke my courage.  Whatever I want my world to be more of I try out on the mat so it is reflected back to me when I go out into the world. 

And I have learned that the conditions I create in my mind relate not just to the next moment of my life but sequentially to the moments that follow.  Or as the Buddha says, “All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.” 

Today take responsibility for your life! Create the conditions that serve you best and renew your commitment that this is the day we no longer blame situations or people or things for our happiness but we see the world from the inside out.  I wish you all your own best courage, gentleness and clarity.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

 

YOGA PLAYLIST

Yellow, Jem, Sweetheart

River Flows In You, Yiruma, First Love (Yiruma Piano Collection)

Gobinday Mukunday, Spirit Voyage Artists, Yoga Living Series - Temple Spa

Ardes Bhaee, Mirabai Ceiba, Jamtse - Love & Compassion (An Offering for the Tibet Fund)

Song for You, Alexi Murdoch, Away We Go Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

New People {Empire Remix}, Blue Scholars, New People {Empire Remix}

Hate It Or Love It, 50 Cent & G Unit, The Massacre

Morning Mr Magpie, Radiohead, The King Of Limbs

Karaoke, Drake, Thank Me Later

Still, Wade Imre Morissette, Strong As Diamonds

Gayatri Mantra, Bruce Becvar & Nada Shakti, Samadhi

Chandra (The Moon), Michael Mandrell and Benjy Wertheimer, Anjali

River Flows In You, Yiruma, First Love (Yiruma Piano Collection)

 

February 16, 2011.  We have a CHOICE: As you think so shall you be.  What we tell ourselves is reflected back to us by the world.  How we see ourselves in term of the quality of our thoughts and healthy choices determines how others see us and how the world responds.  We actually are a sum of our choices. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves.  The process never ends until we die.  And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility."  Or in the song BIG BANK HANK by the Blue Scholars "Whatchya gonna do today?"

The yogic teachings on the mat remind us that within every moment we are faced with making loving choices in how we breath, how we stand, how we act (or react) to a new pose or sequence or teacher. We can walk in the path of darkness or choose the path of LIGHT. We can choose negative thoughts or positive thoughts. We can choose Fear or LOVE. And if we can practice CHOOSING LOVE in every pose then we'll stay with it off the mat. This is the yoga of knowing your heart well enough to choose wisely and from love.  And the fact is that all in all we don't have that long in this earthly body to choose the happiest life ever or as Robert Braul puts it, "Life is short, God's way of encouraging a bit of focus."

And every time I step on the mat I am reminded of this gift of asking myself "whatchya gonna do today", what am I choosing.  I hold to the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year." And how do I translate this yoga into the yoga of life? I have been driving what is commonly referred to in Seattle as "the Mercer Weave" and moving across 3-4 lanes of traffic in 2 minutes to get to my exit into the city has been a practice of either choosing loving, positive thoughts (that on-coming traffic will let me cross over) or of expecting the worst and seeing those other cars as out to get me.  The more I consciously choose loving thoughts the better and smoother it goes.  But that's only one small example. We have opportunities every day and in every moment to choose love and happiness.  

The point being that we allow ourselves to keep making our own choices. Sadie Nardini wrote in her book Road Trip Guide to the Soul "Our biggest mistake as humans is to look at our destructive, habitual patterns and think we cannot choose again, because we have fallen prey to the illusion that what we have chosen repeatedly is how we are stuck with being.  You ALWAYS have the POWER - and the RIGHT - to CHOOSE again."  This is why today after some Sun Salutation A (the gold standard) we moved into variations of poses to feel that we can always keep experiencing other choices.  

You might wonder what suggestions I might have for choosing love?  Good news is that the Yoga Sutras tell us.  They actually give us the 4 keys to happiness - how to choose love.  The way to live with an open happy heart is nurture these attitudes in choosing "whatchya going to do today?":

1. Kindness and friendliness to those who are happy
2. Compassion for those that are suffering or less fortunate
3. Respect for those that who embody noble qualities and inspire us
4. Equanimity for those whose actions oppose our values

At first these attitudes that enable us to choose love in all circumstances seem easy.  But applying these in day-to-day life is more challenging than we think.  But all we can do is take responsibility for co-creating our life saying to ourselves "I choose to be happy. I choose love” and let the rest unfold.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

 

 PLAYLIST FEBRUARY 16, 2011

Gobinday Mukunday, Spirit Voyage Artists

Cafe Noir, Akmusique

Song for You, Alexi Murdoch

It Iz What It Iz            , M.I.A.

New People {Empire Remix}, Blue Scholars

Hate It Or Love It (Remix), 50 Cent & G Unit

It Takes a Muscle, M.I.A.

The Fire, The Roots Feat. John Legend

BIG BANK HANK, Blue Scholars

Xoxoxo, The Black Eyed Peas

Waka Waka (Time For Africa), Shakira/Freshlyground

I Know What I Know, Paul Simon

Walk Like an Egyptian, Buckley

Don't Rock My Boat, Bob Marley

Redemption Song, Richard Bona and Michael Brecker

Ganapati, Girish

Don't Give Up, Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush

I Shall Be Released, Buckley

Guru Mari, Shri Anandi Ma

 

DAY  6 BLOGGING 21 IN 2011 ABOUT LOVE.

JANUARY 10, 2011.  "We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us.” -Virginia Satir

Newsweek last December 9th did a story that spoke to how research shows Blaming Others is Contagious.  Yes, I think we've all seen that for ourselves as some point whether it was on the playground or around a conference room table with fellow managers.  This learned human behavior is one of the first things I remember when I started the practice of Yoga.  I'd get on the mat and if class was hard for me I'd blame the teacher (clearly they made it too hard, it wasn't me).  If I couldn't balance I'd blame the students around me for falling out of the pose and distracting me, it wasn't me.  If I had difficulty holding downward dog or plank pose I'd blame the teacher for keeping us there too long, it wasn't about my upper body strength or tendency to give up too soon.  And if I got confused by the instructions of a teacher it for sure wasn't about me not listening, the teacher was unclear.

We live in a victimized society.  

And as many of you know my story I have on three very distinct occasions been victimized whether it was being run over by a car as a pedestrian or losing my Father when he was a young 59 years old due to negligence at the hospital.  I have struggled with what it means to be a victim and what is meant by victim rights and for while there I got really good at blaming others for the quality of my life.  

Then I realized the more I blamed others the more judgmental I became of everyone and everything.  I stopped thinking about the intention and effort others were putting in.  Or as Jen Gray Blackburn writes,  ‎"You will find life a whole lot easier if you can keep in mind that most people are just trying to do the best they can..." And now every time I step on my yoga mat I remember to take responsibility for myself and my breath and my poses.  No one else is to blame.

Yoga is the anti-victim mentality.

And as a teacher of yoga and for those aspiring teachers you have to know that most if not all students will go through this same evolution and not to take it personally.  You will be the person in front of them causing the friction (or at least that's what they'll think) until they take over responsibility for themselves and transform their lives.  Jackie Robinson puts it like this, “I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”

Really what spiritual practice is teaching is nicely summarized by Stacey Charter, “Don't rely on someone else for your happiness and self worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can't love and respect yourself - no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are - completely; the good and the bad.”  Through the time we make for ourselves on the mat we begin to realize this whether slowly or quickly but at some point a shift happens and you stop blaming others and instead take full responsibility saying to yourself as a constant inner mantra I am loving myself, I am loving my day and I am loving my life! Now I'd love for you to imagine a world where the contagion of blame has disappeared forever! When blame disappears only love will remain. Big love in all ways, Silvia

*Dedicated to all those yoga teachers out there teaching their hearts out and serving as the catalyst for change in the world!

OCTOBER 19, 2010 When I learned that we all don»t mature at the same rate in all aspects of our lives at the same time a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders! Up until that point I believed that everything was supposed to mature at the same exact rate. And I felt some sense of failure that I couldn»t be like everyone else. Earlier in my career while in the corporate world I had financial maturity but was physically immature (poor eating, sleeping habits, workaholism) and I was in adolescent spiritual maturity and emotionally in grade school. Then yoga found me and I took a breath and asked myself "what is maturity?" And does maturity mean the same thing as perfect?

"We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present." - Anais Nin

This whole time, up until that point, I was expecting that my physical, mental and emotional maturing was meant to be the same everywhere. And I thought life was often moving backwards. But life doesn»t move backwards. The sun that rises today will not be the same sun that rises again tomorrow. Even when we feel like we aren»t making progress we are always maturing on some level, just not everywhere at the same time. To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. - Henri Bergson

So what does it mean to mature? I believe that this means when we are aware of our physical, emotional,and spiritual needs and can make the sensitive adjustments to determine what is necessary to maintain a healthy balance in our lives. Now this is like an umbrella definition but maturity the yoga sutras tells us are like layers working on multiple dimensions. These are the layers or koshas of ourselves. Think of Russian dolls, our physical layer or kosha is the outer most one, then we travel through our breath layer pranamayakosha and keep going inside deep into our hearts and spiritual maturity.

Three of these layers can be thought of as:
1. Physical Maturity


2. Emotional Maturity/Mental Maturity


3. Spiritual Maturity

What is Physical Maturity? Do you know what your body needs to be healthy in terms of oxygen, food, sleep, quiet time away from the tv? If yes then these are like a sort of destination and therefore physical maturity is the easiest to measure our progress. On my annual physical where I score 99% I know with proof how I am doing. Do you understand your physical nature and use your humanness in a positive way? Treating your body like a temple.

What is Emotional/Mental Maturity? Well there are two levels: with yourself and with others. That saying where instead of saying "it got lost" we evolve to that place where we take responsibility and say "i lost it." We no longer blame other people for how we feel. As yoga teaches we create our world from the inside out. And as we mature we tame our own thoughts and take responsibility for living from love and moving away from fear. Emotional maturity is where we want to self-heal and self-comfort rather than waiting for someone (knight in shining armor) or something (alcohol or chocolate) do it for us. We start to do the work of becoming more expert in our own humanness and as a result have healthier more honest relationships with others.

What is Spiritual Maturity? To be inspired is to be "in spirit" with the blessings around us. It is something we can see exactly. So what do you mean to "progress spiritually?" What does spiritual maturity look like? Is there a destination or goal to spiritual maturity? To me to mature spiritually is to ask better questions. Not that we get all the answers but we are wiser and more grown up in the questions we pose ourselves. We are willing to SEEK. Or maybe that»s it, spiritual maturity is to embrace your role as a seeker. And you won»t see the result, it is like all great things something beyond the mind...things like faith, hope, love.

October 3, 2010:

What is your most common knee-jerk reaction?  Is it impatience, anger, gossip, worry, self-cricism? Well through the mindfulness practice of yoga I want to help you replace all that by choosing happiness as your automatic reaction, response to all things, situations and people.  How do we do this?  The Yoga Sutras tell us.  They actually give us the keys to happiness.  The Yogic model proposes that the four keys to an open happy heart are to nurture these attitudes:

1. Kindness and friendliness to those who are happy
2. Compassion for those that are suffering or less fortunate
3. Respect and honor for those that who embody noble qualities
4. Equanimity for those whose actions oppose our values

At first these four keys to help enable us to retain our inner peace in all circumstances seem easy.  But applying these in day to day life is more challenging than we think. We often fool ourselves into believing we are kinder than we really are and can use this practice to really see where our actions are not aligned with what we believe ourselves to be.  Most of all this teaches us that we are responsible for co-creating our life. We have the four keys to our happiness.  Love in all ways, Silvia

So first step is to create some space. Here at the start of a new month let's just empty and let go of all the grievances, grudges we kept up with throughout September.  As the bible says Love keeps no records of wrongs.

You have a choice.  You can say to yourself "I intend to allow more joy into my life" or "I choose to be happy."  Just five words if you want to keep it really simple!  And notice the power of intention is not placing prerequisites or conditions but just doing it right now.  I know these four keys to happiness seem easy, but applying them to day to day life is pretty challenging because of that knee-jerk reaction, the old way of thinking and doing things.  But you have a choice and can change.  You are happiest when you think yourself happy.  And ultimately you are responsible for co-creating your life.  You have just this one lifetime and there are no do overs. So why not choose happiness starting right now?  I know you can do it!    Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

 PS - We practice Mandala Namaskar 1 (Salutation) to help us see the power of our own choices!

Mandala Namaskar I 

INHALE -- Eka Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana (1 Leg Downward Dog)

EXHALE – Anjaneyasana (Lunge)

INHALE – Parsva Anjaneyasana (Side Lunge)

EXHALE – Skandasana (Transverse Lunge)

INHALE – Ardha Anjaneyasana (Low Lunge)

EXHALE – hands down

INHALE – Ardha Plank (1 legged Plank)

EXHALE -- Chaturanga Dandasana

INHALE -- Urdhva Mukha Svanasana

EXHALE -- Chaturanga Dandasana

INHALE -- Plank

EXHALE -- Adho Mukha Svanasana 

 (To create circular pattern, Mandala, go through series right foot, right foot, left, left)

 

SEPTEMBER 5, 2010.  Newsweek last December 9th did a story that spoke to how research shows Blaming Others is Contagious.  Yes, I think we've all seen that for ourselves as some point whether it was on the playground or around a conference room table with fellow managers.  This learned human behaviour is one of the first things I remember when I started the practice of Yoga.  I'd get on the mat and if class was hard for me I'd blame the teacher (clearly they made it too hard, it wasn't me).  If I couldn't balance I'd blame the students around me for falling out of the pose and distracting me, it wasn't me.  If I had difficulty holding downward dog or plank pose I'd blame the teacher for keeping us there too long, it wasn't about my upper body strength or tendency to give up too soon.  And if I got confused by the instructions of a teacher it for sure wasn't about me not listening, the teacher was unclear.

We live in a victimized society.  

And as many of you know my story I have on three very distinct occasions been victimized whether it was being run over by a car as a pedestrian or losing my Father when he was a young 59 years old due to negligence at the hospital.  I have struggled with what it means to be a victim and what it meant by victim rights and for while there I got really good at blaming others for the quality of my life.  

Then I realized the more I blamed others the more judgmental I became of everyone and everything.  I stopped thinking about the intention and effort others were putting in.  Or as Jen Gray Blackburn writes,  ‎"You will find life a whole lot easier if you can keep in mind that most people are just trying to do the best they can..." And now every time I step on my yoga mat I remember to take responsibility for myself and my breath and my poses.  No one else is to blame.

Yoga is the anti-victim mentality.

And as a teacher of yoga and for those aspiring teachers you have to know that most if not all students will go through this same evolution and not to take it personally.  You will be the person in front of them causing the friction (or at least that's what they'll think) until they take over responsibility for themselves and transform their lives.  Jackie Robinson puts it like this, “I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”

Really what spiritual practice is teaching is nicely summarized by Stacey Charter, “Don't rely on someone else for your happiness and self worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can't love and respect yourself - no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are - completely; the good and the bad - and make changes as YOU see fit - not because you think someone else wants you to be different.”  Through the time we make for ourselves on the mat we begin to realize this slowly, quickly but at some point a shift happens and you stop blaming others and instead take full responsibility saying to yourself as a constant inner mantra I am loving myself, I am loving my day and I am loving my life!  Imagine a world where the contagion of blame has disappeared forever!  Peace to the world, Silvia

"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

May 25, 2010.  The law of attraction simply states that like attracts like.  This includes all form of energy, including our thoughts.  One of our greatest strengths as human beings is our power to focus our thoughts.  And key things to know are (1) if you don’t focus your thoughts they will end up scattered in all directions starting and stopping and running about.  (2) if we make no effort at all in directing our thoughts to something positive they will tend towards the negative or catastrophic.  A philosopher said, “in a civilized world, if our strength are not determined to be valuable, we spend our life shoring up our weaknesses.”

When we practice yoga we practice focusing our thoughts (which then determine our actions). We on purpose set up our hands flat and wide fingers spread in table or plank or downward dog.  And we stay focused on them otherwise if we don’t check in with the placement of our hands or feet they will get away from us like our thoughts if left unattended.  On the mat we apply our minds to performing the poses and controlling our breath as a means to focus our attention.  Yoga is all about the mind.  We just happen to use the body as the technique to gather this energy.

The other main thing to really commit to memory is that applying the law of attraction means that our thoughts (and all energy) is like a magnet.  The less distracted our thoughts the more powerful they become at attracting similar thoughts.  Undistracted thought energy is highly potent.  It works like this, the longer we are able to hold a positive thought in our mind the more powerful the positive energy becomes around us.  And eventually brain science proves that we don’t need to focus on the action and controlling so much because we are already surrounded by the positive vibrations that draws more of what we want to us. 

Like attracts like.

When you think about it there is never any reason compelling enough to hold onto a single negative thought. Not even one.  Why? Because we don’t have time to waste our energy on negativity which only produces more negative energy.  Life is too short to live like that. There is never any reason to focus on anger, fear or disappointment. Instead you are in charge of your life, your best life and responsible for making each moment count.  As Deepak Chopra says it so simply, “happy thoughts create happy cells.”  I get that. I apply it, And my life is forever changed for the positive and I want yours to be too! Love yourself, Love your day, Love your life! Silvia

MARCH 27, 2010:  Your life is the way it is because of YOU.  Can you imagine a world in which everyone holds themselves accountable for the quality of their life?  I dreamed of a place where no one places blame on anyone else for the circumstances of their life. There is no longer a victim mentality or as Rusty Wells said, Yoga is the anti-victim mentality.  Your life is the way it is because of you. 

When I first figured this out as part of yogic teachings the thing I was most blown away by was that this meant I had to work at my own development, happiness and spiritual growth.  This in yoga we know as Sadhana, we work daily as a practice on our own inner evolution. This evolution is where we take responsibility moment by moment for what we say, how we act, how we breath, what we think. 

This active living of life or as a best dear friend always says, “Try Life. Live it.” Makes it clear that we are living and learning from the experience of life moment to moment.  And that this is true living of life is only taking place in the present.  We can too easily fall prey to lamenting the past and pushing blame on things that have expired or forecasting some neurotic tendency towards the future.  If we are taking full responsibility then we are living on purpose right now.  Everything we do is on purpose or with conscious intent.  Even something like kindness, where I go to sleep each night and say to myself “tomorrow I am going to be 11% kinder” requires me to stay present to each situation, person or thing that I encounter and see the best in it. 

Kindness takes work. Taking responsibility for one’s life takes work.  But the good news is that then we get all the credit too. 

Every time we come together in yoga class I realize that my dream has come true. What we do person to person on the mat is hold ourselves accountable pose to pose and at the end we celebrate by resting in quiet meditation known as savasana. Well deserved too!  So join me on the mat, become part of my dream…more importantly become part of my reality of making this world the best place possible.  Love! Silvia

FIRST THINGS FIRST. Think of some myth about yourself you’ve bought into?  Like “I’m not strong enough, I don’t have enough time, I’m not old enough, I’m not young enough, I don’t have enough money, I’m not flexible enough,  I’m not ____________________________.  This practice helps us to unfold our own myth (Rumi).  It has us bump up against the myths or self-limiting beliefs we have about ourselves.  But as Yogananda writes, “What you are is much greater than anything or anyone else you have ever yearned for.  Spirit is manifest in you in a way that Spirit is not manifest in any other human being.  Your face is unlike anyone elses’s, your soul is unlike anyone else’s, you are sufficient unto yourself; for within your soul likes the greatest treasure of all – Spirit.” 

You see “We no longer have a choice about including practices in our daily lives that create health and spiritual growth. If we want a world worth living in today, as well as one worth leaving to future generations, we must take responsibility to create health in our lives, as well as to support others as they choose healthier lives for themselves. It is up to each of each of us to lovingly transform the world simply by first transforming ourselves.” (Judith Lasater)

But we have to see the myths that hold us back for what they really are.  “We are responsible for what we are and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.” (Swami Vivekananda)  Practicing even 5-7 minutes of yoga helps us to not remain victims of old habits, we begin to do the work of washing away the myths. What is required is that we work harder than our pain or made-up limitations. 

“Mines of power lie unexplored within you. You use this power unconsciously in all things you do, and you achieve certain results; but, if you learn how to consciously control and use the power within you, you can accomplish much more.” (Yogananda)  When it comes to picking out what poses to do you have to begin by asking yourself what you need: self-reflection creates self-awareness and reinforces self-love.  Tonight’s class will teach you a (1) Hip Opening Flow, (2) Backbend Flow, (3) Sun Salutation C, (4) Forward Fold/Twist Flow so you have 4 sequences to work on at home when you need them most.  Love and light! Silvia

FORWARD FOLDS.  These are calming, quieting in their impact.  They are restful poses to calm you down when you feel agitated or hyper and restful when you are fatigued. 

SUN SALUTATIONS. Energizing for your emotional body and can help lift you out of lethargy, depression, mental fatigue.

STANDING POSES.  These are very grounding as well as energizing.  They immediately engage your body-mind connection and bring you into the present moment.  They are good to do when worried, distracted or agitated.

BACKBENDS.  These are energizing, uplifting poses.  They create more energy when you are tired.  If you are already nervous they can make you over stimulated if they are difficult so you can also practice passive backbends.  These poses also open you up emotionally which may cause strong emotions to arise.

TWISTS.  Cleansing and balancing.  They help release stress from your body-mind. 

HIP OPENERS.  These are very grounding and balancing.  They help release tension and bring you into the present moment. 

INVERSIONS.  These are soothing, balancing and centering.  

NOVEMBER 24, 2009: As the holidays roll around it seems like people's emotions are in overdrive. Many times, our emotions rule our minds as we react quickly to life, trying to "win" or "fix" a situation or person through control. This sort of reaction comes from disconnection to the body and mind as we allow our emotions or thoughts (chitta vritti-mind chatter) to rule our actions. We can look to the sutras for guidance from this disconnection. Yoga Sutra 1:2 says, Yoga is realized when identification with the fluctuations of the mind ceases. We must cultivate an ability to move from a deeper place than our transient thoughts and sometimes intense emotions. Yoga is one way to do that as we travel on a journey with our bodies and learn from their deep wisdom.

Our bodies never lie and don't care about appearances and false pretenses. When we take the time to listen to the body's wisdom through yoga and meditation we begin to act with "response-ability" instead of quick reactions to life brought out from our emotions and thoughts. We learn the ability of when to quiet, when to soften, when to listen, when to let go and when to speak. So if you feel your emotions a little on overdrive this week, know that you are not alone and that your body is there patiently waiting for you to listen to it's wisdom. Your mind is wonderful but know that you also have your body patiently waiting for you to connect with it, so it can guide you to sweet responses to life. Hope to see you on the mat soon as we let go of our minds for a bit and listen to bodies with great music and getting into the flow of life.

"I will always have fear, but I need not be my fear for I have other places within myself from which to speak or act." ~Parker Palmer

May your holidays be filled with joy, laughter and love. Blessings to you and your family, Mara

Joan Baez says, “You don’t get to choose how you are going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live. Now.”

NOVEMBER 20, 2009: I know this much, Life is a celebration and it is our responsibility to enjoy it to its fullest! But I also know to enjoy life you must renounce your fear and anxiety. I spent a good portion of time being terribly afraid (afraid of not being perfect, afraid of what others might think, afraid of failing, afraid someone I loved would leave me if I didn’t do my life right according to them, afraid perhaps of really being fully happy, afraid of being myself). I don’t want that for you. I really don’t. Life is happening right now so stop waiting, stop wasting time, stop being afraid of living it on your terms because life is already here.

Next month I am learning how to surf. I have been doing my homework, reading up, talking to everyone I know that has surfed, watching DVD’s. It both energizes me and sometimes I get a little nervous. However because I feel free in my choices I am not frightened. In February I went skiing for the first time in ages and here at the end of the year I am again in water…why not? These are my soft spots. (Stay tuned next I go rock climbing!)

Rinpoche talked about how we all have a soft spot and that fear and fear like responses such as worry or resentment occur because we are trying to cover up that soft spot. We tend to hurry past pain but this hurrying causes more tension instead of healing. If we spend more time with what we fear we can look into that pain and release some of the tension. We practice vinyasa flow and enjoy the repetition to feel relationship between poses, we feel power of flow, becoming more confident, growing more fearless. Use this to heal and release fear.

When folks ask me how did I get past a way of fearful living I tell them I practiced a ton of yoga. I came to the mat, going upside down, trying holding a pose into sensation like bending my knee deeper in Warriors or balancing on one leg and by facing me fear on the mat I then was able to recognize that fear off the mat and do something about it. The Buddha says, if a person is struck by an arrow and is in a lot of pain there is that but what if a 2nd arrow hit the person in the same spot the pain would be 100 times more intense because he/she was already wounded. If you recognize pain and fear or worry then you can help STOP another arrow of fear or worry hitting you in that same spot.

The time on the mat helps me to prevent the 2nd arrow. I have slowly grown more confident and now I “practice with elegance and openness so as to open the body in a resplendent expression of my hearts inner luminosity.” You see you guys when we cultivate fearlessness we experience our hearts as more open. I also repeat this mantra to myself

I AM FREE
I AM NOT FRIGHTENED
I AM NOT HUMILITATED BY GUILT OR WORRY
I AM IN LOVE WITH THE MY LIFE!


So may we use today to notice our lives right now, facing them as they are, learning how to stop avoiding ourselves but instead BEING OURSELVES. This may be the most courageous challenge we can possible accept. Free yourself, be your own knight in shining armor. You need not be afraid of anything. Love and light, Silvia

SEPTEMBER 23, 2009:   I don’t remember the exact day that I learned through spiritual practice that the world is not created outside of us but that we create the world first on the inside.  WOW!  I had no idea that what we think is reflected back to us through what we see.  The fact that we have 60,000 thoughts that are “trainable” and that by managing the energy of these thoughts multiplied by 7 days/per week and the days in the month we influence the quality of our lives blew my mind.  I really believed that other people or situations put thoughts in my head and I had no control of that.  You can apply this knowledge to all aspects of your life.  The learning on the mat is transportable.  Maybe it’s something little like the fact today was a bit overcast does not mean it is a bad day. It is all in our perspective.  I CREATE MY REALITY.

Keep this mantra or affirmation in mind as an all time favorite!  One of the most inspiring things I keep going back to are the words of Jack Kornfield, "in the beginning of our spiritual journey, we become aware that much of what we do is a way of seeking to love and to be loved. Perhaps the enlightenment of intimacy is the same as love.” To me this is speaking to the fact that if we are loving creatures then we CREATE THE REALITY OF A LOVING WORLD, within us and then this becomes our experience.   

Love is mysterious. 

“We don't know what it is, but we know when it is present. If we seek love, we must ask where it is to be found. It is here only in THIS MOMENT. To love in the past is simply a memory. To love in the future is a fantasy. There is only one place where love can be found, where intimacy and awakening can be found, and that is in the PRESENT." (Kornfield)

The most difficult part of being responsible for ourselves and our thoughts is to remain present. To let go of the way we wanted things to be in the past and instead focus on the beauty that is here now in front of us. Equal to that is the pitfall of trying to get all the answers about what we want for the future before we love fully so as not to get hurt.  But we will never know the future outcome all we can do is influence it by staying true and loving now, planting seeds for then but surrendering to something greater.  This is a challenging degree of intimacy to have with oneself (let alone another person) but totally necessary to in order to awaken to the depth of love available to us.  WE CREATE OUR REALITY but this means now, not yesterday.

"To learn intimacy is not an easy thing. Growing up in a divided culture, marked by our wounds and longing, it is hard to be present." (Kornfield)  Use this practice to love yourself more, to stop holding back. Through this we learn how not to hold back our love from others and the more we wake up to all that is being offered to us the more it grows!  Rumi writes, "Today is like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down the dulcimer. Let the beauty we love be what we do."

May yoga wake you up to the beauty of your love so you love yourself more, you love your day more, you love your life more!  Create your reality.  Love in all ways, Silvia

 

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009:   I was saying to a friend that when I got to bed at night I appreciate all that I attempted during the day no matter how it turned out, I acknowledge I did my best and right before I go to sleep I promise myself that "tomorrow I will be 10% kinder."

Life moves so fast on a day to day basis that sometimes it seems like we don't have time to be kind which is really another way of saying we don't have time to connect with other human creatures, they aren't important enough.  Yoga teaches us that a root cause of our suffering is isolation; disconnection from others for it is against our very nature.  When we actively practice kindness it brings us closer to other individuals.  Every day I also say to myself "am I serving as an example or a warning" to the people I am in contact with?  I hope my life right now serves as an example, that no matter how difficult the challenges I might be facing I am still above all else kind.

 

One of my heroes Jack Kornfield writes, "The work of your heart, the work of taking time, to listen, to help, is also your gift to the whole world."  I found that quote in a little book titled GOOD PERSON given to me by my loving friend Nancy.  I keep that book next to my bed to remind myself that above all else that is really what influence I hope to inspire others by.  I may not have millions of dollars but the beauty and value of being a good person seems far above an impressive bank statement.  And the good news is that as JM Barrie says, "Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves."

 

We can light up the lives of all whom we think about, touch, email, talk to, and work with, love.  Each of us has this responsibility to be a good person.  If we sit back and wait for the world to be made better, well the funny thing is we are the world.  We are the ones that by being 10% kinder can make an enormous difference. 

 

"There is in each of us so much goodness that if we could see its glow, it would life the world."  Sam Friend

 

I have to be honest many years ago I didn't have the guts to articulate this. I was too embarrassed and afraid what other people might think of me (it's usually a whole lot easier to sit and complain the with the majority of how terrible life is) so I had to do a lot of soul searching to grow up spiritually from babyhood to be able to say without hesitation "I want to change the world.'  Yup, it may be one down dog at a time, one mindful breath at a time but at least I am trying in my own way.  And the heart of the effort comes from being 10% kinder each and every day.  Today can you join me in this effort?  "Thank you to all the people in the world who are always 10% kinder than they need to be.  That's what really makes the world go 'round."  (Helen Exley)

 

Your goodness knows no bounds and is unlimited in its potentiality, do it your way but please accept the responsibility to care enough for yourself, this world we share to be 10% kinder each and every day!  Love to you with lovingkindess (metta), Silvia

 

May 4, 2009:  It’s easy to buy a sandwich and start to complain it’s not what we want exactly (that they could have put more mayo or less lettuce), and that if they did so then it could have been more nourishing.  But the thing is we are the one’s that by blessing our food (and making it what we need the sandwich to be) make it nourishing.  We are responsible for putting intention into things making life what we need it to be for us.  We could go to yoga class and say that it was too easy, too hard, not something enough but again here we have the opportunity to get from the practice what we need.  The class itself is offering a whole meal with different courses and we can choose based on the nourishment we need on a given day what is going to nurture our spirits and bodies the most.  This is how the practice is made unique to each and every person.  This is how life is offering itself to you at your feet…waiting for you to stop blaming or judging the offering and instead turning it into a nourishing experience each and every moment.

 

Donald Walters says, “There are realities we all share, regardless of our nationality, language, or individual tastes. As we need food, so do we need emotional nourishment: love, kindness, appreciation. We need to understand our environment and our relationship to it. We need to fulfill certain inner hungers: the need for happiness, for peace of mind for wisdom.”

 

We all need to be nurtured. If you look up Nurture in Webster’s dictionary it defines it as a “form of nourishment” and to “educate”.  These are both spot on with the philosophies of yoga.  In class teacher to student we are educating you on techniques you might use how to self-comfort yourself.  The flow of this self comforting is love.  Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish. If you are not capable of generating that kind of energy toward yourself- if you are not capable of taking care of yourself, of nourishing yourself, of protecting yourself- it is very difficult to take care of another person. “In the Buddhist teaching, it's clear that to love oneself is the foundation of the love of other people. Love is a practice. Love is truly a practice.” [Shambhala Sun March 2006]

 

We all deserve to love and be loved. 

Love is a form of nourishment. It requires action in thought in words and movement. 

So we meditated together on how we might nourish our spirits through our inner dialogue, how to speak words of kindness to nurture others, how to take actions in honoring our bodies as sacred, nourishing their health.  For a healthy heart lives in a healthy body.  We spoke of the junk food of life things like gossip or complaining and that these do not nourish us but leave us empty and drained.

 

I so want you to appreciate the forms of nourishment: Breath, Thoughts, Words, Actions, Sleep all of which make for a sweeter life!  Please let your time on the mat be that opportunity where you learn how to nourish yourself with bigger breaths, poses and self-observation. All of this leading to greater and greater self-growth!  Happy National Sleep Better Month!  Love you all, Silvia

 

APRIL 12TH, 2009:  It's easy to think sometimes that the universe is working against us but the yogic view is one that says the universe is really always working with us, it is on our side.  The universe (Spirit) wants us to live PEACEFULLY.  Our only job is to say Yes to peace.  So take a big breath right now and let it out slow.  Know you are loved.  Then as you quiet your breath, inhaling love and exhaling peace dedicate today to practicting to love the peace within your heart so that you can dedicate peace to your families, to your friends to the world!

You might say is this really my responsibility?  Yes. (Remember just say Yes)

The Dalai Lama says it like this, "Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace starts within each one of us." From a yogic viewpoint it's not that complicated you guys, its a simple theory: If we are to have true peace in this world, each one of us must find it in ourselves first.  If we don't like ourselves, we probably won't like other people. If we are in a constant state of inner conflict, we will proabably bring conflict into the world. If we are super angry (just plain pissed off all the time), then we are likely going to be angry at everyone around us.  We have to look inside ourselves for the meaning of peace, see our internal struggles rather than denying them, and only then can we create the changes we want. 

In class when we practice peace it's like we're all wearing a PEACE TEE under our clothing like superman or wonderwoman.  It is always our inner most garment, we just forget sometimes that we have it on.  So the practice helps us in some ways strip down to our truest selves and one way to do this is to use poses that offer sensation.  Then observe what comes up from the inside, let it out.  Once we see that our humanness is something to embrace (crankiness, fear, worry, frustration) then we can transcend the dark qualities and move into an everlasting state of peace.  This is why I often say, our lives can make our yoga hard but our yoga makes our lives easier.  Then its a matter of whether or not peace is something you want to choose. Or as Eckhart Tolle in his book A New Earth says, "if peace is reallly what you want, then you will choose peace. If peace mattered to you more than anything else you would remain non reactive when confronted with challenging people or situations."

So join me today, shed light through simple awareness and desire for serenity and peaceful existence on your own humanity.  Then through compassion, which is peace in action, initiate the flow of good peaceful energy into all aspects of your life.  And remember, when self doubt rears its head that PEACE IS LOVE.  So all this really means is that to live peacefully we must love ourselves. 

To listen to a video broadcast about self-love go to the Loving Your Day page of this website.  Love your day, love yourself, bring peace to the world! Silvia

 

DECEMBER 26TH, 2008:  Yoga is a journey into revealing the truth about who we are, what we are capable of and how our actions affect our lives.  We start each practice inhaling the gift of the universe and your life And exhaling with gratitude. 

Jon Kabat Zinn, a favorite writer of mine, says “too often our lives cease working because we cease working at life.  The idea of wherever you go, there you are” which is the title of a book of his I highly recommend.  He says, “You can think if you change location, change partners, change circumstances that everything will fall into place, you can start over, have a new beginning. This is very romantic.  However, we carry our same patterns of thinking, living, breathing with us.  Transformation and discovery of who we are is right in the middle of what is here and now.  In the long run there is no escaping form ourselves.”

 

So when we come to the mat we might as well ask ourselves Where We Are In Life, Who Am I?  Try to get behind the I DON”T KNOW.  That doesn’t serve.

 

And it may be like what Gabrielle Roth writes in Sweat My Prayers, “GIVING BIRTH TO OURSELVES.”  I hope this practice gets you moving, breathing and contemplating why you have been chosen to move and breath.  This alone I am certain will birth your greater purpose.  After that it is as Swami Vivekananda says, WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT WE ARE AND WHATEVER WE WISH OURSELVES TO BE, WE HAVE THE POWER TO MAKE OURSELVES.

 

Love yourself, Love your life, enjoy the ride!  Peaceful blessings to all, Silvia

 

NOVEMBER 4TH, 2008:  Please vote today: show up, participate, share responsibility. It's just like being on the mat - the more you put in the more you get out of it.  Thank you.  (And for inspiration a Poem sent to me by one of our TBY yogis)

Election Promises

I hear the polls
are going to be open on Tuesday.
All day.
Good.  I certainly intend to go to them.
I certainly invite you to go go them and vote too.
But today I say the polls
are not just open on Tuesday.
I say they are open every day.
Every hour.  Even here.  Even now.
Right now I am going to vote
for the robin's egg sky,
the vanilla clouds,
the purple shadow spreading
under the ginkgo tree,
I am going to vote for tulips and redbuds.
I am going to vote for love
that does not have
to run in someone else's circles
in order to be love.
I'm going to vote the homeless into homes.
I'm going to vote the uneducated into classrooms
that teach them in the way they learn best,
not the way that would be most convenient.
I'm going to vote the sick into healing.
I'm going to vote the lost into belonging.
I'm going to vote, right now,
for the right to dream of a world
where the word politics
doesn't stop me in  my tracks,
and where the word honor still
has a few good meanings left.
I'm going to vote right now
for the power of free people
to actually be free,
no matter who they are,
no matter who has abandoned them,
no matter who hates them.
I actually am going to vote for love,
I am going to vote for truthfulness as the norm,
not the exception .
I'm going to vote for a world
that doesn't vote for killing, control and swagger,
I'm going to vote for you.
I'm going to vote for me.
Right now.  Right here.  Silently.  But for real.
 
-by Mark Belletini

 JULY 31ST, 2008:  When I was in High School we did a play by the name of "Who's Life Is It Anyway" which was later made into a movie.  In the movie Richard Dreyfuss plays an unforgettable role as the exuberant and creative sculptor who becomes paralysed from the neck down after a car accident and argues for his right to be discharged from hospital so that he can end his life.  Although the movie is about the right to die, it is not at all depressing. It is a movie filled with raw emotion, love and humor. 

The title has stuck with me all these years.  How I apply this to practice on the MAT is as it relates to responsibility.  The most challenging thing when we first start practicing is to take back the responsibility for the way we feel, the way we move, the way we breath.  Rather than seeing life being done to us and treating it as a prison sentence with no option for parole - we TAKE CHARGE.  Who's Life Is It?  It is yours. However in this case it is not about the right to die it is about your RIGHT TO LIVE FULLY!

As I often say in class you have to want it more than I want it for you.  However, at first and for a very long time perhaps, I WILL BELIEVE IN YOU MORE THAN YOU BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.  Then the coolest thing happens, somewhere along the way there is an internal shift. I love when this happens! This is super important because you then go about authoring your own life (and it will keep you safe on the mat as well so you never get injured).  So Who's Life Is It Anyway - YOURS - you have an opportunity today to write your own happily ever after!  If in doubt then give yourself a 2nd chance, or a 3rd or 4th until you are living your own life on your terms.  LOVE LIFE.

"No One Is Wise By Birth, For Wisdom Results From One's Own Efforts" -Krishnamacharya

To change one's life:  Start immediately.  Do it flamboyantly.  No exceptions.  -William James