You transfix me: You are my chakras

you are balanced. i live with you.

You are a work of art. It’s not easy but you do it. You live true to who you are and know it. When you are open, chakras, in my yoga practice, I don’t question it. 

dear chakras, you help me walk with strength, enchanted. i’m open to each of you as you arrive, speak and feel. i know who you are…

-->> chakra article moved to here.

Surrender to your heart: Let go of anger, sadness and stories that cover up your love

find your peace

Maybe it doesn't seem like it at times, but there is peace within you. Sometimes it's hiding on purpose, so that you cannot find it easily. Let's say you find the source of a problem and throw it out the window. But your inner chaos returns. Why?

Surrendering is a process. You need to believe that it relieves you. And then know that this action needs to be repeated.

But what does surrender even mean?

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How Yoga Robin was born: Why private yoga instruction?

Private vs. group yoga

Many people drop into their favorite group yoga class, with usually a number of studios, teachers and times to choose from. With an unlimited membership at a studio, why would a student choose private instruction instead?

Robin in Death Valley 108 degrees (image © Simeon Schatz)

How I began teaching yoga

I started teaching private yoga exclusively

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Perception of time

Being on time?

Is a true spiritual practice about respecting time—living by it and being on time for it? Or does the mere concept of time mess with creative flow in life?  

Being late for everything in life

...is most likely to live in a timeless place in your mind. To come down from that—to live with a real clock—is a downer. In this way, the clock can be a method of control, and becomes one to fight against in order to be free...

image by simeon schatz

Let's look at two different spiritual ideas to compare: mindfulness from Buddhism and illuminated thoughts from Tantric tradition. 

Mindfulness seeks to empty the mind of thoughts, letting the thoughts go so that you are left with peace. 

Tantra invites the thoughts to become illuminated, positive or negative, so that you have a beacon in which to focus for your true path.

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Coming into wholeness

coming into wholeness

Coming into wholeness. Feel your peace. Be in love with your path in life.

Find it inside you. Let go of all that makes you worry. Be free.

Access this freedom any time! The truest side of you coexists with the emotional mind...

an advaita vedanta metaphor

Imagine 3 buckets of water. 

The sun is shining in all three, and they each enjoy the sun equally. One is muddy, one is stirred up, one is still and clear.

Reflection in bucket #1 is dim and dull, in bucket #2 is agitated, and in bucket #3 is peaceful. 

Sun is the Self, water is the Mind, reflection is the Ego (mis-identification)

Some conclusions...

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Diving deep, where are you my fears?

go to the edge

I am now wondering where my fears are, going off the edge to find them in myself, in the depth of who I am. If I am bold enough and I don't turn back, I will be able to renew my patterns. This action will set me free.

In the dark shadows, I imagine I will sail through my depths as if a dream and find the silence I need and have searched for all my life. I know that the best stuff is at the very bottom.

gems and secrets are beacons

More conspicuous and offset against the darkness, the gems and secrets are easier to see and feel. Sometimes they shine with luminosity like a beacon, with my name on them!

The bottom must be a bed of soft sand which I can dig my bare feet into and feel rooted, maybe for the first time. The ground of my soul. To touch this part of me is to release all that I previously imagined was hidden.

Transforming itself, no longer in the dark, I will invite it to be a part of my waking life.

freedom lies in our minds and bodies

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Receive your gift in silence

what is your intention?

We go to yoga class. We start the class by making an intention. Then what?

Do we hold true to its energy every second of the class? No. We tuck it away in our heart and let it speak its own words to our soul.

be patient for the prana to do its work

For, the energy of a wish comes from within us and can hardly hide its wings when we are allowing the prana to circulate as we move our bodies in twists and waves.

What we feel comes from within. Before the words even articulate themselves to our being, we know what it is we are trying to say.

sometimes no words

Sometimes we are silenced. Sometimes this is a blessing. In this inability to find words, our soul is telling us to go deeper. Look into the still pond of your being. Do not always rely on words. Look to the swirling space that doesn't want to hear your words and give it your thanks.

There is more to living.

Namaste.

© 2010 Yoga Robin^®

Discipline: A spiritual practice

disciplined mind

I just returned from a Bikram yoga class. What sticks with me is not the power of enduring the heat, but the power of discipline to control the mind.

Bikram yoga, unlike the Vinyasa Flow yoga which I have 13 more years of experience with, has many rules that are not necessarily inherent in many people. In my life and in my yoga practice I am used to living organically, letting my life take me in a flow. When I am practicing yoga alone, I have no plans in advance for my practice. I let my yoga practice take me.

Sure, there is discipline required with many styles of yoga, such as Ashtanga. But the movement inherent in this active style, where you generate your own heat, and move your own prana makes for a more organic practice inately.

Back to Bikram. What I feel in these classes is the necessity for discipline, as I'm led along a distinct path and how the discipline itself becomes the spiritual practice.

stay present

It is important to notice where the mind goes in any yoga practice, but in Bikram it is more about needing to stay with the group, listen to the teacher on cue, not close your eyes, drink water only when told, rest in savasana over and over, to name a few

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