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April 7, 2011.  Spiritual practice doesn't mean we don't ever face self doubt or worry.  We do.  The difference for me in my life is that when this happens I know better questions to ask myself.  Then it’s a matter of believing, trusting, having pure faith.  We are destined to rise to life’s highest ideal if we just keep the faith and trust in ourselves.  This is like a promise we make to ourselves, an example of the most important kind of active faith for it’s the promise of believing in our best happiness.  Now what I like most about Faith is best offered in the words of Sharon Salzberg who writes, “In Pali, faith is a verb, an ACTION, as it is also in Latin and Hebrew.  Faith is not a singular state that we either have or don’t have , but is something that we do.  We ‘faithe”.  It is the willingness to take the next step, to see the unknown as an adventure, to launch a journey.  Faith is what gets us out of bed, opens us to the possibility that our lives can be different.  Though we may repeatedly stumble, afraid to move forward in the dark, we have the strength to take that magnitude of risk because of faith.” 

Through FAITH we can see that although heartache or hurt exists in the world with Faith we will recover.  Helen Keller says it like this, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”  How do we action our faith? First we must accept that Faith is active, it’s something we have to take responsibility in doing.  We can’t expect our healing to happen if we aren’t most interested in our own healings.  I believe Jon Kabat Zinn who defines trust as “spiritual and emotional maturity”.  It takes faith to have confidence in our potential for evolving in our maturity (physically, emotionally, emotionally). In yoga this is the most advanced pose, loving ourselves. 

As Rumi writes, We are the mirror as well as the face in it.  We are pain and what cures pain both.  He encourages us to be the catalyst for faith healing our own wounds. How do we do this? Rumi puts it most simply when he writes:

I love myself...I love you.

I love you...I love myself.

So join me and let's faithe everyday, without fail and watch ourselves and the world grow in love. Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

PS Here are the two Salutations we learned and practiced in backbending class this day.

4th Chakra Namaskar Hridaya Namaskar (Heart Salutation)

INHALE – Urdva Bhujangasana (Standing Backbend)

EXHALE— Uttanasana (Forward Fold-Hands Down Thighs)

INHALE – Eka Pada Prasarita Padottanasana (Standing Splits)

EXHALE - Ardha Anjaneyasana Right (Low Lunge) Prep

INHALE/EXHALE – Ardha Anjaneyasana Flow Side to Side

INHALE -- Ardha Anjaneyasana (Low Lunge)-Back Bend full expression!

EXHALE –Anahatasana (Quarter Dog)

INHALE – Bhujapidasana (Cobra)

EXHALE – (Lay on Belly)           

INHALE -- Urdhva Mukha Svanasana  (Up Dog)

EXHALE – Adho Mukha Svanasana (Down Dog)

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

EXHALE - Ardha Anjaneyasana Right (Low Lunge) Prep

INHALE/EXHALE – Ardha Anjaneyasana Flow Side to Side

INHALE - Ardha Anjaneyasana (Low Lunge)-Back Bend full expression!

EXHALE - Eka Pada Prasarita Padottanasana (Standing Splits)

INHALE/EXHALE – Uttanasana (Forward Fold-Hands Down Thighs)

INHALE – Urdva Bhujangasana (Standing Backbend)

*Repeat again but stand on left leg this time, step back right

5th Chakra Namaskar

INHALE - Upward Plank

EXHALE - Lower Hips

INHALE - Boat

EXHALE - Plow

INHALE - Tip Toe Pose Urdva Hasta Arm Position

EXHALE - Forward Fold Arms Fly Back Chin to Chest           

INHALE - Tip Toe Pose to Camel

EXHALE - Camel backbend

INHALE - Place hands prepare

EXHALE - Plank to floor

INHALE – Cobra Low

EXHALE – Locust

INHALE – Bow no hands

EXHALE - Rest

INHALE – Cobra High

EXHALE - Downward Dog

INHALE - Jump to Sukhasana

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.

JANUARY 6^TH, 2009:  We all get tired right?  But why?  Interesting enough when we are tired we are stagnant, it is not that we have expended too much energy but we have not been actively moving our bodies enough.  The yoga of moving and breathing moves our energy and flushes the body to remove the stuckness.  A key way to look at Yoga for being less tired is to focus on the 3^rd Chakra.  This chakra often called the solar plexus, is our personal power center.  The magnetic core of our personality which wants to bubble up and radiate out.

When the 3^rd charka is in balance we have strong Self-esteem, self respect, and self discipline.  When out of balance we get stagnant and run down as a result of fear of rejection, criticism, whether we’ll look foolish and worried about whether other people think we are meeting our responsibilities.  This drains us of energy.

How we feel about ourselves, whether we respect ourselves, determines the quality of our life, our capacity to succeed in business, and relationships. Self understanding and acceptance, the bond we form with ourselves, is in many ways the most critical spiritual challenge we face. This is really then the entry from spiritual babyhood or adolescence into spiritual adulthood.  Managing our energies is a big part of this.  From a spiritual perspective, in fact, the entire physical world is nothing more than our classroom, but the challenge to each of us in this classroom is: Given your particular body, environment, job, family, and beliefs, will you make choices that enhance your spirit or those that drain your spirit?  Will you be able to maintain your energy boundaries and sense of identity as part of your tribe but not based only upon it. 

A favorite meditation I have from my friend Constance Hart is this:   DRAW YOUR ENERGY BACK TO YOU - imagine that you are gathering your straying thoughts and energies back into yourself. Or visualize yourself casting a net and pulling all the disparate parts of yourself back to the center of your being, creating a sense of balanced energy. From this place of centeredness, we can begin again, directing ourselves outward in a more intentional way.

Life life on purpose, with purpose, maintaining the energy necessary to propel yourself towards your dreams!  Think big! Silvia

 "Time in life is short. Robert Bucco, Professor Colorado University says, "don’t spend it tired, spend it energized to live more fully, joy is healthy, happiness is yours to behold.  YOU DESERVE IT!"