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Super Namaste and Happy 8 Year Birthday to TBY Today!

8 is my lucky number! I am delighted to be celebrating this milestone birthday together and am so grateful to see so many of your smiling faces in class this week!  What an amazing month: to receive your visible support by way of choosing TBY Best Yoga Studio and now our birthday. WOW, WOW! Blessings are dropping like blossoms everywhere (to paraphrase Rumi).

And the greatest blessing is you!  We needed every single student to ignite the flame, to stoke the fire and to sustain the amazing energy at TBY all this time.  We've grown up together, we've seen many of you make some tremendous life changes and how great to know the best is yet to come!  To make it 8 years is a visible demonstration that YOGA WORKS! Yoga is love, love is always the answer, love unites, love inspires, love is fierce, love is real, love is the way.  

So dear students, thank you for bringing your best selves and creating such a loving environment for us to teach in.  On behalf of all the teachers and supervisors and team at TBY.  Gosh, we are deeply grateful and can't wait to begin another awesome year starting tomorrow!
Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia

www.totalbodyyoga.com www.silviamordini.com

PS: I'll be guiding the Tuscany Yoga Retreat June 16th-July 1st with alchemytours.com, teaching pretty much until the moment I get on a plane.  :-)

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

JUNE 7, 2010.  Who is the most Courageous person you know?  How do they inspire you to be more courageous?  When was the time in your life you were MOST courageous?

All these self-observations and contemplations were the focus of or practice today.  And who doesn’t need more courage.  When I come to the mat to teach my intention for each student is that this practice helps them rise with courage to meet the challenges of their life.  And yes we all face challenges.  Judith Lasater a national yoga teacher, author and a personal hero of mine says, “Courage is the second most important quality to cultivate in life. (Right after love).”   

It is easy to fall into believing the old stories about ourselves and getting stuck.  Or as my friend Sadie Nardini says in her book Roadtrip Guide to the Soul, “Alongside positive change, challenge appears. You will confront old fears, old ways of being, as you drive through to your soul. Along the road to your best life possible, be prepared for delays. There will be potholes, irritating construction, and long stretches of open space where nothing seems to be happening. That’s life, imperfectly perfect. The lag times and frustrations are necessary to hone your discipline and commitment to your path.”

This much I know for sure, that to live life to its fullest means to risk being hurt.  We cannot numb out or check out.  Oh for certain comfortably numb will keep us from pain but we’ll never get to experience the joys of love and passion and excitement and happiness that are our birthright.  Having the courage to really action the secrets of your heart will bring you to your fullest potential.  It doesn’t make it less scary but isn’t the scariest thing not about having the courage to try and fall but more so not beginning to live at all?

Hey I get it.  In April I finally took the risk and mustered up the courage to begin teaching Yoga Retreats.  Does it take me away from the studio I love a little bit (well like 3-4 weeks a year)? Is that scary for me? YOU BET IT IS! But I know that by doing 3-4 retreats per year I not only help sustain the studio but I give myself the chance to try something I’ve always wanted to do.  And that is to change the ecology of heart and mind for my beloved yoga students. 

I come back a better teacher and I have more to offer everyone.  So it’s a choice.  You can use this practice to connect to your own best courage, open your heart and ride the biggest wave of your life or you can stay on shore and risk nothing.  It’s up to you.  May you rise up to meet the courage of your heart! Love the day, Silvia  (I want to honor and humbly thank my teacher Shiva Rea for sharing with me the Agni Namaskar Fire practice we did today that I shared with you, pay if forward...)

 

 

June 7, 2010: Courage
June 8, 2010: Discipline
June 9, 2010: Persistence and Perseverance, TBY B-day!
June 9, 2010: Mind Body Integration
June 10, 2010: Compassion (Slowing Down)