Guided by grace

One of those moments when you take into account everything that walked down your path... and you find yourself giving deeply thanks to the teachers and beautiful souls who have shared their wisdom with you a long time ago... and you find yourself celebrating those people from the past again, their wisdom, their truth, their challenges. 

Those moments when grace seems to keep a door open for you, an you gaze inside, take a glimpse of that world, and feel attracted to take the step, move down that hill into a new pasture, into a new state of being. 

Life happens as it happens, we may think, but if you look close enough you see this cosmic, geometrical, stunning pattern unfolding, filling you up with beauty and grace.

And you only have to trust the process, and your feelings... you are recognizing your truth, you are being guided by grace, by the force of life. Who knows better, who does better, who leads better. And you better surrender and cooperate with this stream of bliss and inspiration and love and wonder. This is the path designed for you, for your true unfolding. Trust.

Guru Purnima

In the day of Guru Purnima my gratitude goes to all my Teachers, to all those beautiful men and women who crossed my life-path and walked, or are still walking, along with me, holding my hands and leading me through this wonderful journey called "life", sharing with me their wisdom, their passion, their experience. I dedicate this day especially to my philosophy professor in high school, who first introduced me to meditation and yoga practice, to all the yoga teachers I met along the way, to the professionals who shared their knowledge with me. 

And most of all, I especially bow in gratitude to my Master, Roberto Milletti, founder of Odaka Yoga, for his teachings, his guidance, his vision, his presence.

Namasté.

Shivers

Emotions flying high.

Teardrops rolling down my cheeks.

Happiness filling every little space in my heart, flowing through my soul, reaching out, becoming shivers on my skin.

Forgiveness. And Compassion. And Love.

There are moments in time that really change our perspective. Upon the world. Upon life. Upon ourselves.

I feel truly grateful for every single instant that lead me to this incredible moment. The moment when I realized the distance I've covered in all these years, the self-confidence I've built, the hidden (and sometimes hurting) layers I've brought to light.

Self-compassion. Self-forgiveness. Self-love.

I don't find the words, but I still wanted to put all this down "on paper", to share it, to speak it out. 

Maybe I'll write more. Maybe I won't. For now, I'll go through all this, I'll stay with it, I'll feel it deep down my bones and soul.

Namasté.

The day after

Today. Today is the day after. The day after a troubled day, one of those days in life when all seems to go the wrong way, and plans, ideas and feelings are smashed all around, and you just can't get hold of the whole process. Until it's done, by itself. And as it came, it just went away, a hurricane devastating every single bit of matter and spirit, and then just leaving you as nothing had happened.

Today the sun shines bright, literally, the rain has been chased away, streets and lawns are drying in the warm sunlight, and you feel... empty. Tired, a little bit, slow, a little bit more, and astonished, much indeed. You don't feel sad, or angry, or anguished, or bad in some other way. You just feel as many of the things you've carried along with you for a long long time have been just taken abruptly away from you and thrown away. You feel as if all those things will never come back again, into you, and at the same time you feel estranged from all of them. It's that kind of "sitting on the dock of the bay"-feeling just watching thoughts, emotions, ideas, plans and certainties vanish in the sun. And you breathe, and breathe, and breathe, keeping your mind detached (as much as possible), keeping your heart calm, your emotions flowing, your faith untouched. Just observing. To be honest, you wouldn't be able to do much more now about all of this. So, just be the observer. Have faith. And be the observer. And breathe. Breathe. Breathe. 

Sitting on the dock of the bay

Rock that mat!

Does it ever happen to you?

You unroll your yogamat looking forward to your daily practice, your body needs to move, your mind to calm down, you just can’t wait to finally step on the mat and let it flow… and as soon as you get to the first Downward Dog it feels like it’s already too much. You feel tired or otherwise distracted, or maybe you have sad thoughts or tricky problems spinning around your brain. But you know you need to practice, you need to move and to feel the energy flowing, you don’t want to quit today, but it seems you just don’t have the strength and the focus to continue… And it was right then when I grasped for the remote of my stereo, put some loud dance and rock music on and began to practice again. I started my vinyasa, began with sun salutation and managed, while humming the songs, to get over the first sequence. My body began to move and to warm up and soon I didn’t feel tired anymore, my mind let go from thoughts and problems, and I just kept on practicing till I reached Savasana. I literally danced through the poses, sang through them, and when I finally laid down on my back I turned everything off: the music, the motion, the frustration. It was then when I listened in silence to my emotions, to what had happened, and realized: “Ok, that’s not traditional yoga practice, but it helped me through a tough time. I now feel revitalized and light and free. In total acceptance of what is and what has been”. It might have been just and impression kindled by the dancing atmosphere, you may think, and not a real state of being. But it was real. And you know what? I would do it again, “in case of need”, because in the end yoga is about wellbeing and serenity and feeling fulfilled and in harmony, and once in a while it can get a little bit off tracks if this leads you to regaining energy, joy and peace of mind. (Oh, yes, ehm, you’re right… I already did it again… but just once!)

Without  any judgment or any expectations: just let go and have faith in your sensations. They’ll tell you if you’re doing the right thing. And have fun!

Yoga and prejudice

“I want to stay here, to be here, in my mind and in my body. Not to be convinced that I need to fly away somewhere far above. That’s why I think Yoga is just not meant for me.”

This is what a beloved friend of mine told me a couple of days ago. For anyone practicing Yoga this sounds frankly astonishing: everybody who knows what Yoga is all about will probably smile at this and then, as I did, think of all the strange prejudices that circulate about Yoga. Someone thinks it is a religion, someone else that to practice you need to have a perfectly flexible body, others that it is a too still and soft discipline, many people believe it is extremely boring because you have only to sit in silence for more than an hour while nothing is happening… And what is incredible about this is: most of these people actually never took a Yoga class.

It is true: there are extremely still classes, there are challenging advanced poses, some practitioners live Yoga as a religion, sometimes sitting still in meditation isn’t that fun… but this is only a part of the story. There are also tough Yoga styles, easy poses and rhythmic vinyasas, many teachers practicing with music in the background, and during meditation often extraordinary things happen...

There are prejudices about almost everything in this world, and Yoga isn’t an exception. What I think we as Yoga teachers and practitioners can do is to communicate that Yoga is a discipline, an art, that stretches upon many different aspects of life, and which, as life, is extremely diversified and colourful. You can find many different styles and approaches, you can nourish your body and your soul, you can take some parts and leave others, you don’t need to accomplish to any “musts”. Yoga is not necessarily for everybody, and maybe once you've tried you don’t like it, and that’s ok, no doubt. But sometimes people who could love it just don’t give themeselves the chance to discover this because of all those prejudices mentioned above. Let’s give those people the possibility to give a real glance inside this ancient and constantly renewed practice, without forcing them into something but simply exposing them the wide range of possibilities that Yoga offers.

Because there are no boundaries...

Internet is such a big community. My experience as a blogger started almost two years ago, and during this period I've found out that people read blogs - even small blogs written in Italian - from all over the world. At first I didn't think that much about it: I found interesting and fascinating to learn that my posts were read from far far away, but that's all. Lately I thought about it a little bit more... and well, I felt like trying this new adventure. Opening an english section of "LiV Yoga and...", a place to experiment writing in English, which is definitely not my mother tongue, but is a language I love for it's immediateness and sound. So here I am, feeling a little bit weird, but so so happy to walk past those limits we often set in front of us, which aren't real boundaries but just images in our minds.

What is "LiV Yoga - The Blog" all about? Well, Yoga is the inspiration, is the path I've chosen to walk along in my life, is my primary activity, great passion and life-vest. But life is also many more things, and Yoga is that kind of basic ingredient you can find in... well, in everything. So, I don't write only about Yoga, I tend to write about emotions and life and experiences and thoughts and... whatever I feel like sharing with all of you. It's my world, it's my point of view, it's my feelings and my personal knowledge. Nothing less, nothing more than the writing that originates spontaneously from my soul.

Namasté.