First Class Free

SEPTEMBER 28, 2009:  I am inspired by this beautiful poem called The Awakening.  It fits in perfectly with our dedication this week to the importance of dreaming and envisioning our lives as we really want them. All we have to do is stay the course with this amazing practice of yoga so we can see through the Kleshas or veils that build up and stop us from dreaming as big or bold as we did when we were in love with life with less complications. It can be that way again.  May this time on the mat help you “remember everything!”  Love and light, Silvia

The Awakening

"In the early dawn of happiness

You gave me three kisses

So that I would wake up

To this moment of love

I tried to remember in my heart

What I'd dreamt about

During the night

Before I became aware

Of this moving

Of life

I found my dreams

I saw how my heart had fallen

On your path

Singing a song

Between my love and my heart

Things were happening which

slowly slowly

Made me recall everything"

MARCH 26TH, 2009:  Yoga for me from the beginning, after coming to it seeking physical healing from injury was about self comforting.  I wanted to heal.  I intrinsically did not want to accept what life had served me as a car accident and major life change.  I just was not going to accept limitations!  I now know this was the universe whispering to me to dream of optimal health and to not give up. 

In the Yoga Sutras HEALING is written about as:  A process of rejoining; A rejoining body to heart; A rejoining of spirit to consciousness.

What does HEALING mean to you? 

What it means to me is a letting go of hurt or angry feelings, an absence of conflict, relief from pain, and a belief in miracles - that things WILL GET BETTER.  Too often we get bogged down in thinking we are alone and stuck in the pain forever, or as Author Alice Walker says "we are being consumed with our suffering."  But we don't have to be.  Yoga gives us that opportunity to realize the healing for ourselves, to self-comfort.  Even right now take 5 breaths and use your thoughts to keep your energy on healing whether it be directed at physical or emotional healing or both.

This will go far to remind us that miracles are happening all the time.St Thomas Aquinas writes "MIRACLES ARE SIGNS NOT TO THEM THAT BELIEVE, BUT TO THEM THAT DISBELIEVE.

So where does healing come from?  It comes from that still place inside, in the quiet chambers of our hearts.  This time on the mat helps us to hone our visions for our lives.  Ultimate healing is that feeling that we are co creating with the universe and are partnered together in all good things.  At the end of class we then ask ourselves from our own healing, what do you want to bring out into the world? 

How do begin the healing process?  Join me tonight on the mat.  We will start with the breath, as we inhale we will say to ourselves inside LISTEN, LISTEN and in the exhale we will start to hear ourselves respond with healing intentions.  A very sweet practice, perfect for you to realize your dreams of peace.  We all deserve a life of serenity and please don't think this excludes you.

Love and peace to you all my dear, dear friends,

Silvia

SEPTEMBER 6TH, 2008:  Well it’s that time again to clean out the closet and prepare to move the summer things and bring out Fall/Winter stuff, right?  You can feel the shift taking place:  the crisp feeling to the air, the lengthening of our nights, kids back to school.  Yoga can help us reflect on where we’ve been and help us make time to design our vision for this last quarter of the year (and beyond!)  Focus this vision on the kind of person you want to be by taking time to revisit your emotional, material, physical and spiritual goals.

So if you’ve been away from the mat let’s begin again this Fall without apology.

STEP 1:  REFLECT

Express gratitude for all you’ve learned up to this point. Every event of this year has offered us lessons.  So whether we’ve had a challenging 8 months or not we can all grow from these experiences. Then say thank you, let it go and say good bye to what is past.  It’s like cleaning the closet we have to make room for what comes next.  This will help us stop being a prisoner of our past.

Instead let’s become architects of our future!

STEP 2:  FALL VISION

Carl Jung once said that ‘your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. 

Who looks outside: dreams;

Who looks inside: awakens.

REMEMBER:  YOUR I CAN IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR IQ.

Exercise your mind muscle by saying I CAN.  Don’t accept no or maybe.  Take back your thoughts and own your life. Winston Churchill speaks to this when he said ‘the price of greatness is responsibility over each of our thoughts.”  I believe you can do this!

So take time on the mat to get clear about who you want to be and what you want your life to feel like.  Through this practice you can awaken to your highest potential!  Or as Pantanjali in the Yoga Sutras writes:  “When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world.  Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”