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As the weather transitions at this time of year, I start to droop much like the potted flowers on my doorstep. I hunch over, cross my arms, bundle up as much as I can, curl up into the smallest space possible at every opportunity, and desire more than anything to stay indoors until the next warm, sunny day.

So when Nature blesses us with that once-in-a-while Golden Day, I rejoice. We've had a few recently: fall days when the sun highlights everything with an extra glow and the slightly-more-comfortable-than-usual air hugs us like an old friend when we step outdoors. They're days when we almost donít mind heading to the yard to rake the lawn. Such days enliven me, and it seems many others, for I truly feel an all-around happy vibe as with sudden enthusiasm I go about my usual activities. I think at some level, on these days most of us feel some sense of having received a special gift.

At least for the time being, which is, I think, the most crucial aspect of Golden Days. Itís what makes them so precious. Like so many wonders in our lives, theyíre here and then gone. Today might be golden, but tomorrow might easily be gray. If we miss our opportunity to relish what Nature gives us at the moment of the gift.

Every day, golden or not, take note of the ìtime beingî and really live it. Never just watch from indoors as it passes.

 

April 4, 2011.  As an adult I started yoga because I got hit by a car. It was part of my physical therapy.  I love the physical part of yoga. And for a long long time that was all I knew.  And I'll tell you I still love sweating and moving and breathing.  I have never gotten "past that" nor do I want to evolve to a point where I can't enjoy the movement.  

As a more experienced yogi I eventually found out from my teacher Shiva Rea that Yoga is for the Mind.  Who knew? (Well ok if you did, I didn't)

So how does this work exactly if the practice is so physical? Well scientists agree that the best form of exercise is that which involves learning complex movement, including balance and coordination.  That sounds like yoga.  Western science also goes on to say that MOVEMENT provides physiological release that we need to bring our body back into balance while at the SAME time it is also good for our brain where moving helps form more connections between the neurons in our brain.  Other benefits of learning coordinated movements which in yoga we call Vinyasa Krama include: improved mental well-being; increased neurotransmitters; mood regulation; anxiety control; ability to handle stress better; better socialization; ability to better process more information; enhanced attentiveness and improved ability to choose appropriate responses. 

Of all those benefits and ways yoga helps the mind I like appropriateness the best.  I struggled for a long time as an overly sensitive person in appreciating how not to over-react to what others did or said.  Yoga calms my mind and makes me better able to not take things personally (Rule #2 in Miguel Ruiz book The Four Agreements).  I make better decisions when the noise in my brain quiets after practicing yoga.  I need the yoga to impact the ventromedial portion of the frontal lobe of my brain!

Studies show we have too much brain power.  We easily catastrophize and react rather than respond.  When I am on the mat learning, following, trying out a sequence of physical poses and coordinating my breath into that movement I somehow learn how to sequence the thoughts in my mind when not in a pose.  And it's true the primary motor cortex and cerebellum which coordinate physical movement also coordinate movement of thought.  In yogic practice we have then 3 movements:  physical movement (and inside that isometric movement as well as action) and pranic movement (breathing on purpose) and also thought movement.  One impacts the other and managing one fluidly teaches us how to sequence the other.  So that's the scoop, just as we order physical movements in something like Sun Salutation A or Dancing Warrior 1 (which we practiced tonight) we learn how to best order the sequence of our thoughts for thinking our best lives ever. Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia 

Sun Salutation Series A – Overview

Start standing at attention, bringing awareness to your body and posture.  Feet rooting down, inner edges of feet together, lift sternum upward, pull belly in (abdominal lock called uddiyana banda), tilt pelvis pointing tailbone down slightly, knee caps pulling up, inner thigh spinning outward, engage quads and press leg bones down, pull shoulders back relax them away from ears sliding shoulder blades down the back, head centered, ears over shoulders, neck neutral, gaze soft and relaxed

# In Flow	English Name	Sanskrit	Breath
1	Mountain Pose	Tadasana
2	Upward Salute	Urdhva Hastasana	Inhale
3	Forward Bend	Uttanasana	Exhale
4	Monkey	Urdhva Mukha Uttanasana	Inhale
5	Plank	Dandasana	Exhale
6	Four Limbed Staff Pose	Chaturanga Dandasana
7	Cobra or Upward Dog	Bhujangasana or Urdhva Mukha Svanasana	Inhale
8	Downward Dog	Adho Mukha Svanasana	Exhale
9	Walk or Jump Forward		Hold Exhale
10	Monkey	Urdhva Mukha Uttanasana	Inhale
11	Forward Bend	Uttanasana	Exhale
12	Mountain Pose	Tadasana	Inhale
13	Close the Pose	Samastithi	Exhale

Dancing Warrior 1

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

EXHALE -- Place foot down, prepare foundation for Vira I

INHALE -- Virabhadrasana I (Warrior 1)

EXHALE -- Chaturanga Dandasana

INHALE -- Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Facing Dog)

EXHALE -- Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog) (Repeat #1-5, left side)

*DW courtesy of my teacher Shiva Rea

February 19, 2011.  I make the time for important stuff like googling LOVE MUSCLE.  Interestingly enough here is the best advice I found in looking after your Love Muscle:

1. Locate the love muscle

2. Remember to breath

3. Don't overdo it

4. Results should show in 8-12 weeks

 That's pretty good advice that could easily apply to yoga as well.  In yoga we always work our Love Muscle.  The love muscle is our mind.  We work our mind muscle by focusing our thoughts on positive expectations. Shakti Gawain says it like this, “When we create something, we always create it first in a thought form. If we are basically positive in attitude, expecting satisfaction and happiness, we will attract and create people, situations, and events which conform to our positive expectations.” The more we practice using our muscles the stronger we get.  In yoga class we move and breath practicing making our minds stronger.  Brian Tracy says, "Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event.

I understand maintaining a positive expectation is not easy.  Yoga stretches our mind muscle, it teaches us how to connect with ourselves and accept the sense things make or make sense of things as they are.To me this is the ultimate definition of yoga: anything that wakes you up to who you really are, that makes you more aware of your life, that which works our love muscle. Love yourself, Love your day, Love your life! Silvia

 

PS Here is the salutation we practiced to stretch our mind through our body. 

7th Chakra Namaskar

*Start standing in Mountain with HASTA VINYASA – “Conductor arms” 

INHALE – Reach arms down and out lift left knee Crane

EXHALE – Arms to sides and reach forward Flying Lunge

INHALE – Low Lunge circle arms out and up

EXHALE – Half Splits circle arms down and out

INHALE – High Lunge circle arms forward and up

EXHALE – Prepare

INHALE – Warrior 3 circle arms down and out

EXHALE – Crane circle arms forward and up, lower foot to Mountain

Side 2 begins

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  

DECEMBER 24TH, 2009: Yoga can provide us the prescription we need no matter what we are feeling. Each family of poses imparts a different lesson. Here is what we practiced and I spoke about in class. My gift to you on this Christmas Eve 2009! Love and more love, Silvia

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.
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.
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.

MARCH 19th, 2009:   Today we focused on BALANCE.  Because as Thomas Kincade says, "Balance, Peace and Joy are the fruit of a successful life."  We began our practice with a quiet assessment by asking ourselves, "How do I feel, What is My Mood Right Now, Where is my life not feeling balanced?"  To compliment this we practiced alternate nostril breathing to demonstrate to ourselves whether we were flowing the breath evenly through both sides of our brain or not. 

Yoga is all about Management.  This is different than saying control which seems punitive. We are loving managers of our lives, our moods, our relationships both inward and outward and through this we can bring ourselves back into balance when we need to.  Life will offer us challenges that take us off our path.  But we keep moving forward.  Einstein says, "Life is like riding a bicycle.  To keep your balance you must keep moving."

How out of balance are we?  Statistically, 80% of Americans have adrenal fatigue, we suffer from higher rates of anxiety, hypersensitivity, nutritional deficiencies, eye strain, constipation, insomnia than anywhere else in the world.  The way yoga fits in is that it restores BALANCE.  Yoga makes our whole metabolic system function better, improves our immunity, offers us better digestion, better sleep, it bring more energy and is the great equalizer.  Each family of poses can be used to customize what we need more of.  So enjoy the handout below.  Love your life today!  Peace, Silvia

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. 

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. 

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.  

 

 

MARCH 2ND, 2009:  Nourishment Nurturing

 

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 or word or movement.  If you look up Nurture in Webster’s 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 how to self-comfort. We hope to create such a safe and nurturing environment that as students in the kula it is easier for us to nourish ourselves with breath, poses and observation. All of this leading to greater and greater self-growth!  The sweetness of life is YOU!  Love, Silvia