PERSISTENCE AND PERSEVERANCE
JUNE 9, 2010: Today is our birthday! Good gosh when I started the studio 8 years ago the question I got asked for 2 years straight was “why would I leave a comfortable job in the corporate where I was overpaid to start a yoga studio?” Most folks didn’t think it made sense. And at the time I thought that was challenging but then as the years progressed I have come to realize the beginning of things is not the hardest part at all. The most challenging part of our human experience is the spiritual practice of SUSTAINING. To keep the fire stoked and burning bright, to stay inspired despite the challenges and ups and downs. Essentially the hardest part of maturing spiritually is to remain persistent in order to persevere no matter what.
To be honest I didn’t leave Total Body Yoga for 7 years. I taught every single holiday. We are open 364 days per year. I stayed with it from the first moment I woke up each day or as Robert Frost wrote, “First thing I do in the morning is make up my bed, then I make up my mind.” I made up my mind to keep the studio going and teach my heart out whether there was one student in class (lots and lots of those classes!) or if there were 5 or 10 or 25. I refused to be bullied by my own fears.
Have I ever wanted to give up? Yes, yes, and yes. So many times I lost count. But the point is I didn’t give up.
The way of sustaining a determined effort is not to isolate or contract or give in to fear but to maintain a quiet courage, open up to the goodness that is the universe and trust each day to expect the best. All of this is ON PURPOSE. Persistence and Perseverance are ACTIVE. Love is active.
During class we come in with our minds a mess rumpled up and scattered and its hard to stay with something in that state of being, so we breath ON PURPOSE and through conscious breathing (and a sustained interest in our breath) we cleanse our minds and make ourselves stronger. We leave the practice knowing now again We Can Persevere. We can not only survive but we can thrive! Our I CAN is way more important than our IQ.
STEP 1: Determine what is important
So what is it in your life that really matters to you? What will it take to remain interested in that intention and not fall away from it no matter what? Not matter what other people say to you or judge you?
STEP 2: Stay with it
It’s easy to forget what is important. We get busy. So find a practice like yoga that helps you remember. And when the momentum is lacking then put your whole heart into it even more. Do not hesitate. You don’t get to do this life over again. This is it.
Please renew your commitment to your best life. Way too often we give up in our heads way too soon. We allow our self doubt to steal our energy or let our fears hold us hostage. But today is different. We know we can believe in the impossibility of things, we know we can do anything! If we just stay with it.
Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia
NEW BEGINNINGS
AUGUST 9TH, 2009:
“The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on the brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing” (By
I always keep close to my heart the words of Thich Nhat Hanh who says “each minute of our life is a work of art.” Through yoga and daily time spent on the mat this is exactly how I came to see my life as this beautiful canvas, each pose and each life experience: good, difficult, interesting, all adding colors to the artwork of my story. If you say to yourself the first two lines of this poem you get that same feeling or as Roger Housden puts it “you may find, as I have, that they give you the feeling of wanting to live large again on the canvas of your life. For we, too, are buds, you and I, full of life unfolding into flower.”
We all have this amazing opportunity in each minute to step onto our own spiritual path moved by an inner sense to find greatness of heart to choose our own path, or as Robert Frost says “take the road less traveled”. I also really love how this poem speaks to everyone no matter what, “even those that don’t flower externally can do so from within.” We all want to endeavor to fill the canvas of our lives with bold colors, the way is to look at our own hearts and see that everything we need to make a new beginning to give birth to some new venture lies within us already. Housden says ‘the flower of our life is already in bud even now.” Yes it is. Join me on the mat tomorrow at 7:45am Level 1-2 or 9:15am Level 1 or 4:30pm Level 1-2 to as Swami Vivekananda says to experience that “we are responsible for what we are and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves!”
See you in the flow! Love in all ways, Silvia