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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  

FEBRUARY 7, 2010:  So here's what is at the heart of yoga: Yoga is the practice of revealing yourself to yourself.  Our time on the mat is an experience of pure self-exploration.  And although we often begin the practice with familiar poses or sequences from there we expand and create something unique and never before experienced.  As much as we think we know exactly where we are going, as Martin Buber says, All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. 

I just got a Mac. I’ve been a PC girl up until this point in my life. I have been very afraid of exploring new territory in this way.  I knew it could be better but the mediocrity of how my PC worked was fine.  What’s weird is that I’m not like this anywhere else in my life.  I will happily travel to new places, try new foods, experiment with creative flow of poses, I’ll seek out the next spiritual adventure! But not when it comes to my laptop.  Then I think of RD Laing’s words, “Creative people who can't help but explore other mental territories are at greater risk, just as someone who climbs a mountain is more at risk than someone who just walks along a village lane.”

Life is too short to just keep walking on the beaten path. I know I could see more if I opened my eyes to being at the top of the mountain.  Yoga inspires us to reveal our fears or hesitations so we can grow beyond them into new uncharted potential.  The way yoga has changed my life is that it made me realize the briefness of our life as human creatures.  There is not time to waste.  We must keep exploring!

“After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it?” – Richard Dawkins

I believe as Neale Donald Walsch writes, “Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do. It's a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do.” I came here to make a difference and trying out new poses on the mat during yoga class gives me the opportunity to explore myself more deeply.  From there I’ve realized anything is possible.

This combined with the support of dear friends, one of whom in particular was vitally important in encouraging me to adventure away from the PC world into Mac land.  They saw before I did my ability to enhance my ways of working, my way of being.  And the decision I made to take this risk is a reflection of who I am in the world, just like trying new or challenging poses in class offers me the same opportunity.  So don’t hold back don’t get stuck in the SMART goals (specific measurable achievable realistic) break free of that crap.  As is written in the book How We Choose to be Happy, “When you step away from the confines of realistic you become an artist painting your own masterpiece, an explorer charting new territories. You are creating new ways of looking at situations; you innovate at work and at home..  It’s impossible to be bored with your life.”  Love your life! Silvia