Posts In: yoga off the mat

Get to know Nazli who teaches a Vinyasa Flow, Levels 1 & 2 class on Sundays at 10:30am. Nazli is an experienced teacher with a light-hearted approach to yoga.

Visit www.yogaonesandiego.com to register for classes.

Q: How does yoga show up in your life right now?

At this point in life, yoga is a way of being. It’s a deep breath when life gets weird, it’s a trust that life is moving along as it should, and it’s an array of tools when things are overwhelming and I need help or guidance, and an added bonus when everything is going my way ??.

Q: Where are you experiencing growth in your life?

Where am I not?! Haha … seriously though… one piece is that I am evolving my career and work and am growing into a sense of firm confidence and a clear vision of what is sustainable for my future and goals. TBD what that looks like!

Q: What’s your favorite burrito?

I’m a simple bean and cheese gal —  with too much hot sauce!

by Olivia Cecchettini

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Translation and Commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda

Summary: Sutra in Sanskrit means “thread.” Each verse of the sutras is a thread in the tapestry of Raja Yoga, a yogic path of meditation and concentration. The Sutras of Pantanjali are at least 1,700 years old and contain ancient wisdom in yoga ethics, meditation, and physical postures. This compilation by Sri Swami Satchidananda not only includes the original Sanskrit alongside the translation, but also personal stories and advice shared from his own spiritual journey.

Why I Love It: Timing is everything. I picked up this book in the past and felt overwhelmed. My intuition knew that it wasn’t the right time yet, so I put it back on the shelf until some months later I began to read it one sutra at a time. I gave each one time to marinate in my thoughts. I really believe the quote, “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali uses metaphors and examples that are easy to understand and applicable to a modern lifestyle. I love that the full depth of knowledge contained in each sutra is so accessible because knowledge is power. When we become as curious about our internal landscape as we are about the external world, we are limitless. This book offered me the tools to live a life of introspection, fulfillment, happiness, and peace. It raised and continues to raise my vibration.

Recommended For: Those seeking emotional intelligence, who want to find balance between mind, body and spirit. Understanding The Sutras may come easily, but applying the book’s teaching in your everyday life might be a much harder task. The spiritual methods may be simple, but there could be a lot of work that goes into embodying each step forward.

I’ve found that it’s not by reading that I actually grasp new teachings or new ways of being in the world; it is through experimenting. Practicing, failing, having devotion and patience, and fully participating in my own life is where the learning happens. Being alive and feeling alive can be two very different experiences. My hope is for all to experience the fullness of life.

Ciao,
Olivia

Olivia Cecchettini
Contributing Writer

Olivia’s yoga journey began in 2003. She is certified in Vinyasa, Hatha, and Aerial Yoga and holds a Masters degree in Spiritual Psychology. She believes the mind, body, soul connection is sacred and encourages her students explore and expand within their own bodies and consciousnesses.

by Olivia Cecchettini

“Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life”

by Judith Hanson Lasater

Summary: You don’t have to go to a mountaintop in order to have a spiritual experience. Living Your Yoga makes it clear that spirituality can be encountered anywhere, at any time. I appreciate that this is the biggest lesson Judith Lasater wants to share because it is simple and profound.

Lasater provides examples of everyday situations that become the basis of lessons, learning and growth. Honoring the wisdom of the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, Lasater shares off-the-mat practices to guide you into deeper relationships with yourself, your family, friends, and the world.

Why I Love It: Living Your Yoga is a beautiful reminder to slow down, stay present and practice gratitude. In our fast-paced world, life can so easily feel overwhelming. It is more important than ever to meditate and discover the place of wisdom within. This book reminds the reader that there is nowhere you can physically go to find that place. Instead, you can use the tools of meditation and present-moment awareness to rediscover what is already within you.

Recommended For: This book is a great foundation for individuals starting the yogic path; someone ready to cross the bridge from the mind of yoga into its heart.

Living Your Yoga was given to be by a friend during my first Vinyasa 200 hour teacher training and I absolutely loved it. It opened my eyes to new ways of being compassionate with myself and taught me how to access a place of spirituality more readily in my everyday life.

I hope you enjoy it and I invite you to pass it along when you’ve finished. Just the same way it came into my life, let’s keep the spirit of giving going. Ciao!

Olivia Cecchettini
Contributing Writer

Olivia’s yoga journey began in 2003. She is certified in Vinyasa, Hatha, and Aerial Yoga and holds a Masters degree in Spiritual Psychology. She believes the mind, body, soul connection is sacred and encourages her students explore and expand within their own bodies and consciousnesses.

guest post by Missy DiDonato

During this month of November, we’re reminded to give thanks. I count myself lucky that I’m grateful for my family, friends, my body and breath. These things are so important, but also obvious in a way.

I was taught to look for the good in everything. This year, I’m trying to find the positives in the unpleasant and downright annoying experiences of life. Here’s my top three unexpected situations I’m grateful for this season:

TRAFFIC: The sound of the word alone probably sparks an ugly feeling inside you, as it does me. Like many other San Diegans, I drive a lot, so being stuck in traffic happens often. I use traffic and driving in general to practice patience and compassion. I’ve come to the realization that no one wants to be in traffic – we all have destinations and other places we’d rather be. So instead of complaining and yelling (which is my first instinct) I simply put on some mood music and try to enjoy just being. I am grateful for the time to relax and listen to good music.

JERKS ON YELP: We recently got a yelp review that rocked my world! The guy was a pretentious asshole who didn’t have any traction for his opinion of the teacher whose class he almost attended. My first response was to be defensive, angry and sad. After I calmed down, I asked myself why a rude comment on the internet upset me so much. I realized it was because I have created a life filled with people who are supportive and non-judgmental. I am grateful for my family, friends and colleagues who show me their love on a daily basis.

DIVORCE: Now this one is pretty unique to my experience. Divorce may have had a different impact on your life. The divorce in my life happened to both of my parents before I was born. They were both married and divorced before they met each other, so I wouldn’t be here without it! They both had children with their previous partners, which helped create the large family that I have today. I embraced their exes as parents, so I got double the love. My second mom has taken me around the world which has been a huge influence on who I am today. My dad’s ex-wife remarried a man who was also divorced and had two sons whom I now consider my brothers. We are lucky because there is a mutual respect for all the ex and current spouses. As hard as it can be for families to separate and recombine, I am grateful for divorce because it has given me the loving family that I have today.

Missy DiDonato
Guest Writer

Missy began practicing yoga at home when she was fourteen, following along to a DVD in her living room. She has since completed two separate 200 hour Yoga Teacher Trainings with UCSD and Yoga One. Missy loves helping others find their own yogic path and students of all levels appreciate her warm and friendly teaching style.

by Monique Minahan

We all wear our stories in some way or another, don’t we? They make us who we are (and sometimes keep us from becoming who we can be if we let them define us too narrowly.)

I started making what I call “Life Malas” because each marker is placed for a life event. I used yellow jade for manipura chakra (solar plexus), green jade for anahata chakra (heart), green ruby zoisite for sahasrara chakra (crown), and a spiral shell I found on the beach because it feels like home.

I made this one for me, so I placed the green jade marker beads at the times when my life and heart were busted open. Marker 1 is at 25, the age I was when Nathan died. Marker 2 is at 37, when my baby was born. Marker 3 is at 98, the age of my great-grandmother, born in 1917, who is breathing her last breaths this year.

Stringing the beads under the darkness of a new moon, it occurred to me that at one of these beads I will pass away myself (and that this life is not a dress rehearsal, so I’ve got to live it right the first time.)

There are 108 beads in a mala, and if I get to see bead 98 like my grandma, I’ll count myself very lucky. I’ll still count myself lucky to see 39 this month.

I made this mala necklace to remind me that both loss and life are part of the same cycle. They coexist beautifully if I let them, and if I practice embracing both rather than inviting one and rejecting the other, I get to experience the full depth of being human instead of just skimming the surface.

My life mala is an outward representation of the integrity, cohesiveness and beauty that emerges when I allow every experience to support the next one. Broken or fragmented as they appear at times, when I view them all together they form this fragile but beautiful thing called life.

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. 

Read more from Monique on her blog, mindfulmo.com

 

by Monique Minahan

If walking down the street was a yoga pose, how would we do it? Would we walk more mindfully, consciously, and with attention to how our breath informs our every step?