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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you think that people “grow” apart…
It is almost as if there is no “responibility” in such a statement…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEqdr_Awdak really inspiring!
Dear Jessica and Savita,
I understand and can also identify myself with how are you feeling.
These last couple of days I’ve been feeling really depressed too. I didn’t know why, I was just sad…
But its just like Savita said: It shall all pass. I recommend you to listen to inspirational music, let it be – the beatles would be good, and the videos I posted earlier should really help you out, specially the first one.
Wishing you lots of love,
Anna M
Savita & Jessica
Thanks for sharing the bad days as well
There are wisdom & learning to achieve in them too
- for all of us
Love*
Dear Jennifer,
That is a very inspiring story. The practice of yoga is ripe with such tales of seemingly “impossible” cures. Similarly, I am quite certain that, if it were not for yoga, I would be in a wheelchair by now. At a certain point, not very many years ago, I was given precisely this prognosis by doctors who told me that my only option was major back surgery. Rather than going to the hospital, I went to the yoga studio. Still, it took me a very long time to find a teacher who could explain to me what I needed to learn in a way that I could understand it. Before that, I was practicing in enormous pain, simply enduring it, but definitely not getting any better. Then, in one day, when I finally understood what I needed to know – when someone was finally able to reach me and explain it to me in a way that I could comprehend it – everything began to change.
Still, even after my personal experience, I am somewhat hesitant to suggest to people that yoga will cure what ails them, as every situation is unique and much depends upon the individual. Your dedication to your practice has obviously played a big part in your recovery.
I also know what you mean about the mats being set side-by-side so close together. I actually like practicing in a room that is full – too full – so full that you have to dodge one another when you extend an arm or a leg. It is such a special occasion – this kind of closeness. I suspect that it does have a sort of healing energy in itself – just being that close to other human beings and sharing with them every challenge. Beautiful!
And thank you, sido66, for sharing that spectacular demo video. (Did you notice in the first segment, the monkey crawling down out of the tree in the background?) Here is a link to a demo by a friend, Kino MacGregor, who, to me, is always an enormous inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhSAc3CzMg0
I have taken only a few classes with Kino, but her husband, Tim, is my teacher. Of course, when I practice, I look nothing like this. Even the simplest poses, for me, are a struggle, but I love it nonetheless.
It is good to read on this blog that so many others also find great joy in the practice of yoga. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences. You inspire me greatly.
Sincerely,
Savita
Here’s an excerpt from my latest CycleCast, which I posted to my blog on 4.30.09 :
Looking back, have we paid enough attention to the Earth – our resources, stability, and structure? If not, the times of neglect will be catching up with us. If so, then we have a firm foundation to build upon. It’s the nourishing soil that grows sweet flowers and attracts the Butterfly. This lets us rise up, as if on a Ladder, all the while Bowing to the great mystery that surrounds us. Sit for a while in prayer or meditation, dear traveler, and when Hope is restored, take up your Sword and go forth once more.
Dear Jessica,
I’m feeling sad today too! Very sad! And for no identifiable reason whatsoever. It started yesterday, or maybe the day before, but today it is full-blown depression – perhaps not in a clinical sense, but I can find very little to smile about. As well, I keep having the feeling that something very bad is about to happen – irrational thoughts, but nonetheless intense: maybe I’m going to have a car accident, maybe the house if going to catch on fire while I am out and my dogs will be trapped and burn to death, maybe my daughter is ill, or I’m ill, and we just don’t know it yet, maybe my father is about to die…. Ridiculousness! And these are not the sorts of thoughts that generally go through my mind. I just don’t think of such things. But today, for some reason, I am sad, and this sadness, like a dark cloud hanging overhead is coloring my vision of the entire world, casting in an eerie yellow light upon all that I see and experience.
The thing I tell myself when such a thing as this comes upon me is simply: EVEN THIS SHALL PASS. I don’t have to DO ANYTHING about it. I don’t have to change it or escape from it. I don’t even have to struggle with it – just let the thoughts come and go, and wait. Just as surely as I am happy some days without knowing why, I am surely destined to know moments of sadness or even gloom that have no apparent reason. But, one thing is certain – everything is always in flux: the moon, the tides, the seasons…my moods. This sadness will pass all of its own, without me doing anything in particular to “cure” it. And tomorrow, if I am happy, this sadness that I am experiencing today will make that joy seem all the more intense.
So, the answer is: you don’t have to “control your feelings.” They are like the weather – just wait and they will change by themselves.
Much love, and wishing you a brighter tomorrow!
Sincerely,
Savita
This afthernoon I started to read Brida. I was shocked, because it seams as if it was my life. I finished the book 2 ours later. I wonder what part is fiction an which part not. I have my ideas about it. As it says in the Bible that one studies everything and just keep those things that are right for you. I read some of your books an some I put aside. I try them later.
I thank you very much for your words.
Charlotte
Whenever I fear the unique spirit of my imagination or the imaginations of others, I light a candle and recall the words of Madame Bassa, whose spirit lives on.
Madame Bassa Says:
Welcome The Strange in All You Do:
“Welcome the Strange in all that you do. Greet it with an ‘it’s been so long,’ sit it down in a chair and bring it a cup of tea and the newspaper. Watch as the Strange changes the tea into a wine called Ambrosia and tosses the newspaper into the fire. Relax into spaces of abnormality; they are cavernous, shallow, and as infinite as the abyss. These spaces will reveal all that is not normal in you and this may at first feel unpleasant and frightening, as if you are losing your grip. Insanity is nothing more than avant-garde cinema, made for under $100 bucks. Insanity is inspired poetry written by the under-educated and overworked. Insanity has become a slur and its newest meaning to our culture dishonors our ancestors who did not write stories but left them hanging in the universal consciousness we create out of, called, ‘The Oral Tradition,’ or more aptly, ‘the wind.’ Let me tell you what The Strange reveals to me everyday: ‘Normal’ is a philosophy stricken upon the masses by uninspired leaders. Strange is our birthright, our ancestry and our heritage. Strange is in the rattle of our DNA. In your arms, the strange is a bronze puppy with not paws but small, tightened fists. In each fist is a wisp of cigarette smoke in the shape of your past. Strangers, you cannot see the rest of my body, but this body still exists and what is not visible to you is that my gown shelters a corridor of children stuck in ornaments. When I laugh, these children glow.”
You may read more, here, and look at her picture:
http://bassabassa.blogspot.com/search?q=Madame+Bassa+Says
It is said that if you gaze at her picture long enough you will recall back to you the blessed Spirit of Strange, who will add – with great pleasure – much more insight and dimension to your life.
Bassagirl(aka Tiffany Osedra Miller)
Thanks, Paulo!
I just want to wish Happy Cinco de Mayo to all who lives or comes from Mexico. God help them survive the swine flu and how it effects their lives and financial situation, which weren’t all that to begin with.
“When you control opinion as Corporate America controls opinions in the U.S. by owning the media you can make the many believe almost anything you want and you can guide them.” Gore Vidal from the Golden Age
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money first by inflation then by deflation, the books and corporations that will grow-up around them (around the banks) will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake-up homeless on the continent of their fathers conquered.” T.Jefferson
“Those who have the privilege to know , have the duty to act.” Einstein
Dear Anna, you were right!! They are really worth watching. Thank you.
LOVE,
Thelma.
I practiced meditation while doing martial arts. I know a person is doing prana yama , and looks very young for his age. A novella about yoga secrets is “The Secret of Doctor Honigberg”, by Mircea Eliade. Interesting. Love
Alexandra
Nos ultimos dias o ser humano experimentou mais uma vez em sua história o medo de uma pantemia. O pavor de um inimigo invisível. E num momento desses o homem sentiu-se mais próximo de seu semelhante tanto no medo como nos mesmos propósitos e esperanças. O caminho espiritual muitas vezes é tão solitário, mas não devemos nos esquecer que embora enfrentemos diariamente inumeros inimigos invisiveis, de ordem física ou espiritual, que tomam tanto nosso tempo e energia,somos frágeis enquanto matéria. E muito mais frágeis quando estamos sós.
Hello everyone,
just thought I’d share a couple of videos with you, for inspiration…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
They’re really worth watching, I promise!
Hoping you all have a great day and wishing you lots of love,
Anna
I take part in Bikram Yoga about 5-6 times a week.
It is yoga practiced for 1.5 hr sessions in a room heated to about 42 degrees.
I have M.E and was told not to do any excercise but this has practically cured me….and it is very intense and difficult so goes agains everything said about M.E.
The room is small and you are a few feet away from the next person, all doing the same thing collectively……it is this that makes me feel strong, that i am a part of something without even speaking to the other people.
ashtanga yoga http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu9Sq1RvuoA ( eh savita , tu as un conseil si je reste coincé , en angle droit ! ! ; -D :lol: ) ( Eh savita, you have an advice if I remain stuck, in right angle!! ;-D :lol:)
No, without laughing, it is a good practice, assciée in the breath, the control of the souflle, and the communion of the body and the spirit (congratulations for the daily practice) : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patthabi_Jois