Reading from Class: Pema Chödrön on Dealing with Discomfort

“This particular teaching on the Four Limitless Ones, on maitri, compassion, joy and equanimity is really a teaching on how to take the situations of your life and train- actually train- in catching yourself closing down, catching yourself getting hard, and training in opening at that very point, or softening. In some sense reversing a very, very old pattern of the whole species, which is a pattern of armoring ourselves. It’s sort of like the essence of the whole Path is in that place of discomfort and what do you do with it?”  — Pema Chödrön

This is taken from the text of a talk titled MAITRI-Cultivating Unconditional Friendliness to Oneself given by Pema Chödrön (Friday, 9.26.97, San Francisco).

This is really worth reading if you are breathing and living in this world of suffering.  I have included additional highlights at the end of this post.

I am also including a link to entries I’ve made on Sutra 1.33

I.33 maitrî-karuñâ-muditopekæâñâä sukha-duïkha-puñyâpuñya-viæayâñâä bhâvanâtaå citta-prasâdanam

Chip Hartranft’s (Director of The Arlington Center) Buddhist perspective on sutra 1.33 applicable here from his book The Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali (originally posted in February):

“Consciousness settles as one radiates friendliness, compassion, delight, and equanimity toward all things, whether pleasant or painful, good or bad”. – Chip Hartranft

Cultivate these 4 attributes to help maintain some peace of mind as we navigate all of life – especially the more challenging thoughts, people and situations.  A lot of the work and according to Pema “the Path” is dealing with the opposites of the 4 Limitless Ones. How do you deal with people, situations and thoughts and feelings that are the antithesis of loving kindness/friendliness, compassion, equanimity and joy?

Here are additional highlights from Pema Chödrön’s MAITRI-Cultivating Unconditional Friendliness to Oneself:

“…this unconditional friendliness to oneself, it seems to be what most of us do not have.

…

It seems to me in my experience and also in talking to other people that we come to a body of teachings like the Buddhist teachings or any spiritual path, to meditation in some way like little children looking for comfort, looking for understanding, looking for attention, looking somehow to be confirmed. Some kind of comfort will come out of this. And the truth is actually that the practice isn’t about that…

Practice is about that part of our being that, like that finally being able to open completely to the whole range of our experience, including all that wanting, including all that hurt, including the pain and the joy. Opening to the whole thing so that this little child-like part of us can finally, finally, finally, finally grow up…

But this issue of growing up, it’s not all that easy because it requires a lot of courage. Particularly it takes a lot of courage to relate directly with your experience. By this I mean whatever is occurring in you, you use it,. You seize the moment? moment after moment? you seize those moments and instead of letting life shut you down and make you more afraid, you use those very same moments of time to soften and to open and to become more kind. More kind to yourself for starters as the basis for becoming more kind to others.

“Child, don’t let the world harden your heart.”

People’s lives, through all of time, have had a lot of difficulty in them The Buddha’s first teaching was that there is suffering in life, If you’re born as a human being , there’s suffering. At the very least, there’s the suffering of illness, of growing old and of death at the end. Not to mention that the more you love are able to open, there’s the suffering of not getting what you want and of losing what you do want. Just some inevitable sufferings.

I think the point is when our lives are difficult, in small ways or large ways, when we’re going through a lot emotionally, or when difficult things are happening in our environment, do those things cause us to become more uptight and afraid. or do those very same things, when the teachings are applied, soften us and can open us?

To me, this is how I practice and this is the most important thing. You never know what’s going to happen to us. In any day of our lives you never know what’s coming. That’s part of the adventure of it actually, but that’s what makes us scared, is that we never know. And we spend a lot of time trying to control it so that we could know, but the truth is that we don’t really know.

Really, I think a lot of people, like children, you’re wanting some kind of practice that’s not going to take you into anything uncomfortable but at the same time you want the practice to heal you. And it just doesn’t work like that.

The question is how do you relate when things are uncomfortable? That’s really the question.

As far as I’m concerned, in terms of spiritual path, that’s the main question: how do you relate with the difficulties? How do you relate with the feelings you have and the situations you find yourself in?

This particular teaching on the Four Limitless Ones, on maitri, compassion, joy and equanimity is really a teaching on how to take the situations of your life and train- actually train- in catching yourself closing down, catching yourself getting hard, and training in opening at that very point, or softening. In some sense reversing a very, very old pattern of the whole species, which is a pattern of armoring ourselves. It’s sort of like the essence of the whole Path is in that place of discomfort and what do you do with it?

When I said about us coming to spiritual things like children, so many of us think that if we come to a spiritual discipline or start to meditate, it means that everything is going to be OK.

Deep in our hearts, deep emotionally, we all feel somehow that it ought to be like that. We’re always feeling like we did something wrong. It isn’t like that. It just goes up and down. Maitri has a lot to do with a kind heart, but kind
heart towards what?

Kind heart towards the completeness of our being. That means if I go out of here tonight with a heavy heart or feeling of disappointment that instead of it spiralling into something like depression, or destructive behavior, or it can spiral into me yelling at everybody I meet in the rest of the evening, kicking cats.

Somehow we don’t just allow ourselves to feel what we feel and leave it at that. With some kind of kind heart or big space toward it.  Personally, this is how I have been training for a lot of years. It adds up to a feeling that this life
that we have is not so bad after all. It has all these smells and textures and climates, and emotional ups and downs. There’s some sense. . . I don’t know– I think what it is for me, personally, it’s this sense that grows and grows that
we’re all in this together. How we relate with what comes towards us is our path to enlightenment. That’s how I was taught and that’s how I really feel about it. But that doesn’t mean that everything is rosy.

And Roshi said, “On good days, I’m OK. On bad days, I’m OK.”

It’s not easy, you know, to practice this way. What you’re doing is you’re really changing yourself at the most fundamental level. It seems to be that as a species, the human species, that it’s programmed in the genes that when
things are painful, we want to get rid of it. And the other side is that when they’re delightful, we fear losing it. This kind of practice addresses this kind of pattern, this deep-seated pattern. It’s shaking it up a little bit, turning it around a little bit.

If you don’t think that’s revolutionary, it’s revolutionary. It’s extremely difficult to do and it takes a lot of courage, but it changes you very deeply. The way it’s been expressed to me that made a lot of sense to me is it’s how the species can evolve from being stuck to being unstuck. From being uptight and stressed out and being mostly self-involved with our own pain to becoming open-hearted and compassionate and really there for each other.

These teachings on the Four Limitless Ones, and on maitri, are very much about tapping into the resources that we already have. In terms of this quality of maitri, Buddhist teaching always say that these qualities are inherent, that
they’re not something that we have to develop or import. That somebody else has it and we don’t. It’s actually there, but the courage comes in to tap into it and then nurturing it.

With maitri, it’s beginning to contact the feelings of good heart or love or appreciation or gratitude or any kind of tenderness: beginning to acknowledge those kinds of feelings in our lives. Even tiny moment of good heart, like you’re
cold and you get warm, or you’re very hot like we’ve been these few days and you feel a cool breeze: just small things like that when you feel some sense of relaxation or gratitude or appreciation all the way up to large things: beginning to really notice these things. “

— Pema Chödrön

 

 

Reading from Class: Lizelle Reymond “Welcome…the most unexpected”

 “You must learn to welcome consciously the most unexpected events of life, to be entirely transparent in front of them, without any motive, either right or wrong. At that moment avoid all judgment, for you do not know what law is in operation.” -Lizelle Reymond

I just lost a beautiful cousin to cancer last week, and as a human collective we lost a good one.  Moments like these are impossible to reason – just wrong, and to I do not understand the order to this law.

Karma from past lives, as some believe, is sometimes the only way to explain losing someone good or explaining my niece being diagnosed with Brain Cancer at one year’s old.  So deeply grateful she’s two and a half now.

How else do you explain…besides “life is suffering,” “bad things happen to good people”, and Cancer just seems to happen a lot more.

The only benefit I could muster from seeing my cousin at the wake, is that the destructive powers of Cancer and other tragedies, bring the opportunity to fully realize the beauty and goodness that is present in the world…but like everything else it is fleeting.  This beauty and goodness, is so readily taken for granted or forgotten until it is gone or threatened.

Luckily, the ripples of kindness do not end with the life of the benefactor.  Kindness, reverberate far beyond the beneficiary and the example serves as a teacher for us all .  And in this case the example of my cousin’s beautiful soul extends throughout my cousin’s whole family:  her husband and children, and stems from her parents and their parents.  They all have this great heart, warmth, kindness and great wit!

The priest at the Funeral shared some words from Dr. Seuss that I really appreciated:

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” — Dr. Seuss

My call to action is appreciation.  Appreciation for the blessings we have apparently needs reminding.   I kept a daily gratitude journal a couple of years ago, and would write —  no matter what —  at the end of each day before bed.   This served as a beautiful meditation to recognizing some beauty, kindness, connection…no matter how seemingly insignificant and no matter how “un-blessed” the day seemed.  I found great benefit from the sense of contentment  and peace before going to sleep.

Here’s a beautiful Opinions Article from the New York Time‘s last week titled “The Value of Suffering” by Pico Iyer…highly recommend.

I also found the words of Lizelle Reymond and the article above timely and beneficial with last week’s anniversary of 9/11.  An opportunity to remember the tragedy and honor the heroes and victims.

 

 

Reading from Class: Finding Purpose Within…and Cultivating Unconditional Friendliness

“Sometimes folks will treasure your work, sometimes they won’t. Sometimes you’ll get the gig, sometimes you won’t. You’ll be on the marquee and you’ll be passé. You’ll be thanked and you’ll be taken for granted. You’ll give and you’ll get nothing in return. You’ll be “Liked” and you’ll be unfriended…Anchor your purpose within, sweet friend. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself drifting out at sea again and again.” — Kris Carr

Another one from my buddy Andrea‘s site.   I was initially inspired to share by a student moving to NYC to pursue acting.  Practice offers the opportunity to find space from the external forces that we often use to base self-worth, value and happiness.

The quote is from Kris Carr’s Huffington Post blog post titled “The Myth of Finding Your Purpose” and found it inspiring and necessary.  I highly recommend it.  It sounds like it was Kris Carr’s New Year’s message.  I am excited to share it this week  as it co-incides with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

In the post (read it, as I will not do it justice), she speaks to finding our purpose within, outside of the statuses of work, relationship, clicks, views, fb, etc.    We easily attach our happiness to recognition, offers, praise, acknowledgement and their counterparts. We can easily feel valued or worthless based on these factors.  She speaks to finding our purpose through self-acceptance, forgiveness, compassion, faith and kindness

Kris’s message inspires the practice of Maitri (Sanskrit) or Mettā (Pali) cultivating Unconditional Love or Friendship towards ourselves (and therefore others).  It all comes back to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 1.33 — Can’t leave home without it!   I focused on the sutra this past March and cultivating this unconditional love by practicing loving kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity (i.e., the Four Limitless Ones).

I am no expert, so here is Pema Chödrön on Maitri (I love listening to her speak!):

 

Incorporating Loving Kindness meditation (Mettā or Maitri) along with exercising the questions Kris poses in the post and practicing sutra 1.33 in our relations with ourselves and others is the perfect combination to strengthen Kris’s message of purpose in unconditional love and friendship with ourselves.   In this form of meditation we practice forgiveness and compassion for ourselves and others.  Turning inward we get quiet, connecting to and empowered by our greater Self awareness, we can continue on a journey that is plagued with distractions and opportunities to become less.

Here are a few guided meditations to support your work:

A guided Loving Kindness Meditation by teacher Sharon Salzberg (27 min):

Loving Kindness Dharma talks and guided meditations on Dharmaseed.org

UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center Guided Loving Kindness Meditation (9 minutes)

 

Take the opportunity with the Jewish New Year to reflect.   We can gently gage and acknowledge our growth and where we may have veered and then forgive and re-commit to ourselves.  Making time to re-commit and renew ourSelves can happen outside of New Years.  You can do so with the start of each new season, month, week, day or breath.

Shana tova umethuka

“It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life…”

 

 

 

Playlist as of August 28, 2013

beginning of Sept 2013 playlist 8-28-to-9-11

 

There are some favorites/heavy rotation songs on this one.  It’s been energizing to teach to.  I have played most songs in classes before except new great Yuna song and Jaggery.

I had some Jaggery in my last playlist as well, inspired by seeing them at the Outside the Box Festival for the first time. Really enjoyed the show -interesting, a bit dark, a bit theatrical, some operatics and a super cool viola player.  Jaggery has a bit of an Amanda Palmer vibe and is also Boston-based.

Reading from Class: Gelek Rimpoche

“Everyone experiences discomfort. Even when you are just sitting still, doing nothing, you may still feel aches and pains. And even if you don’t, if everything is fine right now, you may still recall past slights and get stuck in a bad memory, or find yourself experiencing fear of the future. When we relive the past and worry about the future, we miss out on our life.” —  Gelek Rimpoche, quoted by Cyndi Lee in her great book May I Be Happy.

Through practice we become present again and again. By connecting to breath we are able to find space from the unfriendly business upstairs, engage fully in the moment and practice living.

 

Reading from Class: Breathe and Be Present

“We spend most of our time caught up in memories of the past or looking ahead to the future, full of worries and plans. The breath has none of that ‘other-timeness.’ When we truly observe the breath, we are automatically placed in the present. We are pulled out of the morass of mental images and into a bare experience of the here-and-now. In this sense, breath is a living slice of reality. A mindful observation of such a miniature model of life itself leads to insights that are broadly applicable to the rest of our experience.” – Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

We all come to practice for different reasons, however, what keeps us returning is how it applies to the rest of our lives off the cushion or mat.

Thanks again to Ms. Andrea Isabelle Lucas for this one.  She shares great inspiration through her teaching and new Barre & Soul venture.

Happy Endings?…or at least at peace with change

(I ended up on this tangent on impermanence while finally finishing my newsletter as I got some reminders lately, both personally and as a teacher.  I did not find it appropriate to include right now, however, thought I would still share as someone may benefit.)

 

Life and most everything we associate with our lives is impermanent.  Everything ends, and this truth can be hard to accept.  And at any given moment we can be both on the receiving and giving end of this fact.  I can say with the benefit  of time and space, that I have been blessed to experience the receiving end of this hard reality with injuries, lay-offs,  ailments and deaths of loved-ones, and with divorce.  Had I been practicing yoga during some of these initial experiences, maybe I could have made peace quicker with these end-of-my-world experiences (death to my life as I knew it).

 

Practice gives us direct experience with making peace with the inevitable.  The breath comes and goes, thoughts and emotions come and go.  The fact that all things “good” and “bad” things come to an end, may be the only thing that gets us through the most trying times/the end of our worlds.

 

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.” — Reinhold Niebuhr

 

The Serenity Prayer above, which I recently shared as a reading in class and post, serves as a useful mantra during trying times to help resolve the citta vrittis (agitations of the mind).  It serves as a reminder of the limited yet powerful abilities we have to surrender, accept get present and then take skillfull/mindful action.  We cannot control a lot of things around us, only the thoughts we have and actions we take.  The observance of the Niyama Isvara Pranidana, surrendering to God (or any other Divinity or higher power or greater good) and taking action that is in service of, takes out ego and any subsequent attachments to outcomes.

 

I know personally, my heartstrings are pulled easily by the suffering of others, so I may not escape sadness, but I have been able to continue to function through some trying moments. Being of service as a teacher and previously in non-profit helped me stay present and serve, even during some really challenging times, even when I did not think I could.  I am truly grateful for the ability to do this, to continue to be of service and teach — so THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

 

(I also want to give a shout out to the focus@will App.  I just heard of it earlier this week through Netted and this deadline driven procrastinator figured he would give this science based tool a try and I had some productive sessions and even wrote more than fit in my newsletter!)  

August 2013 Newsletter – announcing vitoyoga.com

Happy August!

The return of the mythical newsletter or I’m back in email newsletter form. 

I want to start by apologizing for the delay in updates; there has been a lot to share since last fall.  I want to start by saying I am really grateful to have you as part of my community and for your time and support.

This summer has been really beautiful weather-wise here in Boston.  Political climates nationally and internationally a whole other story….  It has been almost perfect weather.  As I walked through the public gardens this week it made it much easier to stay present to the beauty around and “be happy”.

vitoyoga.com

Since I last wrote, I have a website thanks to my friend Bethania Bacigalupe, who helped me put it together.  Please check it out, the address is vitoyoga.com, and feel free to share any feedback of thoughts.   It is still a work in progress, but I have been getting better with staying up to date with schedule, workshops, and sharing playlists and readings from class.

My latest readings in class have focused on True Happiness, by practice of acceptance and presence.  Here are some words I recently shared on the blog:

    Presence + Acceptance = Peace = Happiness

 “We are addicted to pleasure, in part because we confuse pleasure with happiness.  We would all say that deep down all we want is to be happy.  Yet we don’t have a realistic understanding of what happiness really is.  Happiness is closer to the experience of acceptance and contentment than it is to pleasure. True happiness exists as the spacious and compassionate heart’s willingness to feel whatever is present.” – Noah Levine, Against the Stream: A Buddhist Manual for Spiritual Revolutionaries (taken from The Buddha is Still Teaching by Jack Kornfield)

 Happiness takes effort, especially as our minds will readily keep us from it.  Practice is the perfect training ground for this work in presence and acceptance, which is closely tied to patience.   Patience is regularly tested in practice especially as all kinds of muck gets kicked-up.   The challenges are to not wish away the suffering (the funky thoughts, feelings and judgements, the “limited” range of motion, the dread or anticipation of the challenging poses to come, etc.) and to not attach to expectation or the easeful moments (the feel good stretches; the excitement of achieving a challenge pose, etc.). The more often I practice the more present and at peace I can be with Reality:  my “imperfections,” challenges, change, etc.

May Peace and Happiness Be With You Always!

     Serenity Prayer

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.” — Reinhold Niebuhr

I also shared how the Serenity prayer is a great practice of surrender, acceptance and presence that takes me closer to a sense of Yoga — Patanjali’s second sutra 1.2 and definition of yoga:

citta vritti nirodha – Yoga is the resolution of the agitations of the mind (translation by Judith Hanson Lasater).

 

Aggiornamento * News/Updates:
Yoga Wall Workshops return starting next week, Saturday August 22nd @ 3:30p

Experience MORE on your mat using the yoga wall:
More depth, more length, more extension, more upside- down time, more open, more release!
The yoga wall or Karunta yoga provides a special opportunity to access more challenging poses, find a deeper level of stretch and expansion and to inform your practice with a greater understanding of alignment and right action. It is a strong practice that combines core engagement, longer holds and some dynamic sequences in different planes including standing poses, inverted poses, backbends, and hip openers
You’ll leave feeling more open and taller as you traction your joints and spine to create space and ease in your body.
Appropriate for students with a regular practice only. Space is limited to 10, $35, pre-register recommended.
To register:  https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/ASP/home.asp?studioid=7335 or 978-744-YOGA
Come with an open attitude and ready to play. For more information and to register:

Next session is scheduled for Sunday Sept. 24th  @ Yoga Sakti

 

Bliss Yoga Retreat to India:  October 20-30, 2013!

I had a milestone birthday this year and promised myself I’d take a vacation*.  So if you did not know, I am super excited to announce that I am assisting a Retreat to India this Fall!

This is not your average yoga retreat…

Jaganath Puri is one of the most sacred places in India. They say the healing air of the ocean mixed with the transcendental potency clears our negative karma and manifests our dreams to reality.

This October will mark my first trip to India — something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.  I’ll be assisting my friend, fellow teacher and bhakti queen Jaishree on this life-changing spiritual retreat.  I will be providing Thai bodywork and some guest teaching to participants.  Please find more information here on jaishreeyoga.com.

I would love to have you join if you are interested as there is still room…and time to get a visa.  I have not applied for mine yet, and just bought my tickets last week.  While I can point to all kinds of reasons as to why now may not a good time to go (the shoulds), it feels right on so many deeper levels.  If not now!

 ( * My last vacation was in 2006.  Please note: this is just reality, by no means advice).  

 

Deep Stretch:  TBD September @ Yoga Śakti, Salem, MA 
This workshop combines active and resistive stretching, with more passive yin and restorative stretching to get deep into muscles and connective tissue to relieve tension and build flexibility.  This is a great class for everyone especially for athletes, and to all those who simply need a good stretch.  Special attention will be paid to the hamstrings, hips, quads and lower back to relieve tension created from running, cycling, playing sports and those who spend hours behind a desk or in the car.

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Anniversario

“Do not wait for strength before setting out, for immobility will weaken you further. Do not wait to see clearly before starting; one has to walk toward the light. When you take the first step and accomplish that tiny little act, the necessity of which may be apparent only to you, you will be astonished to feel that the effort, rather than exhausting your strength, has doubled it—and that you already see more clearly what you have to do next.” – Philippe Vernier

This past April, marked my 6th year of teaching and this quote also used in class really resonated with me on many levels.  As I continue this path, I am grateful for the faith and time and energy you have put into practicing with me.  I am truly grateful and honored by your support.  I very hesitantly dipped my toe into teaching, doubting myself all along the way.  Despite the constant fear of failure, I was inspired by a feeling of something important and right about taking the steps that let me share my love for this practice and serve.

 

Alicia update: 

I am deeply grateful for your continued support, thoughts, prayers and inquiries regarding my niece Alicia.  My niece and goddaughter Alicia, is now 2 and a half years old.  Her one year post surgery and radiation MRI had some great news this past spring.  Since my last newsletter, she no longer has her Halo, and continues to be cancer free…and is just starting to walk — sooo beautiful.

Her motor skills were most affected by the tumor, hence the delay in walking (never mind cervical spinal fusion, etc). However her speaking and communication skills are really great and she is smart and funny.  It is most heart-warming to have her welcome me when I get to my weekly (I try) Friday visits, and have her happy to see me!!  It’s quite a joyful highlight of the week to make this time for Alicia and her siblings Jason and newest addition as of this past June, Brianna.

 

Thai Yoga Bodywork
I’m continuing my practice of Thai Bodywork

  • What is it?  Thai Yoga Bodywork is a 2,500 year old therapeutic healing art with Ayurvedic roots that combines the benefits of yoga and massage.   Often referred to as assisted yoga or lazy-man’s yoga, as the practitioner guides and manipulates the receiver into yoga stretches and massages along the energy lines of the whole body.

Benefits of this healing art include:

  • stress relief and relaxation
  • relief of muscular tension
  • improved circulation
  • strengthens the immune system
  • increased joint mobility/flexibility
  • an energetically balanced body
  • I tailor the session to meet your individual needs, focusing on strong, deep or gentler, or more therapeutic active release.
  • If you are looking to feel completely stretched out, relaxed, rejuvenated, free and open contact me to schedule a session: vito.politano@gmail.com.  

For more information follow this link: http://vitoyoga.com/thai-yoga-bodywork/

Lezioni privati – Private Sessions for individuals, groups or corporate
Private classes or workshops that can be catered to meet specific needs from beginners getting started, working therapeutically with injuries, helping with range of motion and balance, finding safe alignment, supporting athletic training, working towards advanced poses and also working with the yoga wall!

Students really enjoy these opportunities to get my undivided attention and begin or evolve their practice.  Please contact me and schedule a session to upgrade your practice:  vito.politano@gmail.com

Calendario per agosto * August 2013 Schedule

The latest schedule updates can be found on the Schedule page of my site.

Majestic Yoga Studio

I am very excited to announce I will start teaching at Lindsay’s Majestic Yoga Studio in Cambridge starting Monday, September 9th.  Consequently, I’m very sad to announce that I will be leaving my Andover classes in order to accept this opportunity.

And-Over…

My last Monday night in Andover will be Monday of Labor Day weekend.  As a teacher I have regular practice with this reality of impermanence as students, studios, and classes come and go.  Yet, it is still really hard for me to say good-bye, especially to my students there, as that night and the community and friends in Andover have maintained a special place in my heart.  Andover is where I started teaching 6 years ago and I am honored to have students who have been with me literally since day one of teaching.  And I’m grateful for the opportunities I was given at HOME Yoga and UnionStudio Yoga over the last year to continue

Back Bay Yoga 

In January I also started teaching at Back Bay Yoga on Wednesdays, and really love it.  The not-ready-for-prime-time-player in me was really nervous at this prospect.  I have really enjoyed the community of students and teachers that Lynne has cultivated.

 

Canzone/Scelte Musicali – Songs/Playlists:

I am now regularly posting my playlists on the website on the blog section: http://vitoyoga.com/category/playlists/

 

 

Please email any questions, thoughts, suggestions, language corrections etc.
Grazie Mille!
Vito

Ch. 2 verse 40, Bhagavad Gita
No effort on the yoga path is ever lost,
nor can any obstacle hold one back forever.
Just a little progress on the path can protect
one from the greatest fear.

Reading from Class: “Welcome the Present…”

“Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. It is all we ever have so you might as well work with it rather than struggling against it. We might as well make it our friend and teacher rather than our enemy – Pema Chodron

I believe I got this from my friend and fellow teacher Andrea Isabelle Lucas.