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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.

SEPTEMBER 2010.  The theme tonight was LOST & FOUND. Really this gets to the heart of what nondualism means in seeing the world holistically, its challenges, and its ease.  In yoga can we be sthira and sukhum at the same time instead of pitting strength and flexibility, effort and happiness against one another.  We can apply this to all aspects of our lives: for instance how do we forgive when we are hurt, how do we balance strength and flexibility in the poses, how do we stand bravely but with heart? 

It’s as Einstein said:  “The rational mind is a faithful servant. The intuitive mind is a sacred gift. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”  

In this example even Einstein is saying to us that we shouldn't be all or nothing, a dualistic philosophy.  Instead as much as you engage your rational mind stop being mindful of the gift of your own intuition. Tap into both at the same time and realize one is not better than the other and we need not pick only one.  The same then can be applied to what happens we get lost.  And if you're honest with yourself we ALL get lost sometimes.  We lose track of where we are in our lives and why we are doing the things we do.  This is also what Elizabeth Gilbert comes to play out in her book Eat, Pray, Love.  She has everything she could want and is lost within herself.  The difference between those of us practicing yoga, meditation, mindfulness is that we are seekers.  We see we are lost and want to be found.  We don't punish or judge ourselves when we get lost we simply do the work for reconnecting to who we really are.  

You see being lost is not bad in and of itself.  It is just part of the whole spectrum of who we are. Perfectly imperfect and simply amazing human beings!  So take the time on the mat to help you find your own balance - more ease, more playfulness, more discipline, more strength....find both.  Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

Music tonight 6:15pm Yoga included: Dream Machine by Mark Farina, Ancient People by Nas, Damian Marley, In Another Time by Sade, Outre by M.Ward, Salsoul Nugget, even some Blue Scholars and Trevor Hall. 

MARCH 14, 2009:  Today we're going to the Bank.  The Spiritual Bank where we make deposits into ourselves and our capacity to love and appreciate who we are so we can life more fully.  How do we make these deposits?  The answer is simple - by meditating on GRATITUDE!

So you might ask, what is my role in this?  Well, in the words of Albert Schweitzer "sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. each of us owes our deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light."  I have had the patient support of many friends through the years that in times of challenge where my deposits were low or I had overdrawn my spiritual account helped stoke the fire.  I pass this light to you when you need it most.

Today as you ground down lift your heart and align to making the commitment to breathing in a way that encourages you to expand. Be grateful for what is available in your body on this day and let it be enough.  This will help us make the deposits of love into ourselves that we take with us the rest of the week.  Or in the words that came to me in meditation last night, we leave the yoga mat with pockets full of love (like hundred dollar bills stuffed to overflowing).  That way we have a little extra to share with our friends and families.  Love in all ways! Silvia

Let us rise up and be thankful,
for if we didn't learn a lot today,
at least we learned a little,
and if we didn't learn a little,
at least we didn't get sick,
and if we got sick,
at least we didn't die;
so, let us be thankful.
-The Buddha  

See posting for January 28th below to explain where I am being.

JANUARY 28TH:  I am out of town for four days (1/29-2/1) in Colorado "yogaing" and skiing and taking time towards looking within myself to seek a deeper spiritual meaning in my life.  The Sutra that inspires me is Chapter 1, Verse 3: the the seer abides in his/her own true nature which is JOY.

I am a spiritual person by nature. I seriously felt this even as a little girl and it took until I was 25 years old before I even began spiritual babyhood.  Before then I had not given birth yet to my Spirit.  I was really in a gestation period the first 25 years of my life.  As you know many circumstances that brought me pain took place during that gestation period to help reveal who I really am, that sense of wholeness that yoga teaches is within us if we just remove all the outer crap.  But with that said I want you to know that I have never experienced failure at life because there is no such thing, however I did get stuck many times along the way in a state of suffering.  Yoga tells us pain is part of life, YUP.  But suffering is optional.  REALLY?  Yes. Judith Lasater says, "suffering is caused by the emotional reaction we lay on top of our pain."

So I became a spiritual seeker and it wasn't until I was 30 years old that I started to say that out loud.  Before that I was too embarrassed to admit it for fear of what other people would think of me.  I really was afraid folks would think I was a freak or I'd lose "popularity" from more traditional friends.  Then another event happened in my life which resulted in FINALLY accepting responsibility for myself and I officially entered Spiritual Adolescence and finally Spiritual Adulthood where I've been for a while now. 

This trip, as my daily practice does as well, helps me stay connected to what is important to living spiritually.  Some mantras I speak to myself from my hero Judith Lasater are:

*I am my own authority

*All the answers are within me.

*Life is practice: practice is life

So this trip is my practice.  Hope to see you upon my return where together we will keep at this work in progress.  Please live in the moment, love life fully for this is the performance!  Silvia

JANUARY 28TH:  I am out of town for four days (1/29-2/1) in Colorado "yogaing" and skiing and taking time towards looking within myself to seek a deeper spiritual meaning in my life.  The Sutra that inspires me is Chapter 1, Verse 3: the the seer abides in his/her own true nature which is JOY.

I am a spiritual person by nature. I seriously felt this even as a little girl and it took until I was 25 years old before I even began spiritual babyhood.  Before then I had not given birth yet to my Spirit.  I was really in a gestation period the first 25 years of my life.  As you know many circumstances that brought me pain took place during that gestation period to help reveal who I really am, that sense of wholeness that yoga teaches is within us if we just remove all the outer crap.  But with that said I want you to know that I have never experienced failure at life because there is no such thing, however I did get stuck many times along the way in a state of suffering.  Yoga tells us pain is part of life, YUP.  But suffering is optional.  REALLY?  Yes. Judith Lasater says, "suffering is caused by the emotional reaction we lay on top of our pain."

So I became a spiritual seeker and it wasn't until I was 30 years old that I started to say that out loud.  Before that I was too embarrassed to admit it for fear of what other people would think of me.  I really was afraid folks would think I was a freak or I'd lose "popularity" from more traditional friends.  Then another event happened in my life which resulted in FINALLY accepting responsibility for myself and I officially entered Spiritual Adolescence and finally Spiritual Adulthood where I've been for a while now. 

This trip as my daily practice does as well helps me stay connected to what is important to living spiritually.  Some mantras I speak to myself from my hero Judith Lasater are:

*I am my own authority

*All the answers are within me.

*Life is practice: practice is life

So this trip is my practice.  Hope to see you upon my return where together we will keep at this work in progress we call life.  Please live in the moment, love life for this is the performance!  Silvia