Welcome to Day 13 of our 21 Day Yoga Challenge! Today’s challenge is to cultivate silence into your day. Try to spend at least an hour being silent. That means no cell phone, texting, email, TV or even music. Notice what comes up as you practice. Do you struggle with silence or is it a relief? Does it bring up feelings of sadness or joy? Try to just be with everything that comes up.

If for some reason you can’t practice silence today, put it on your schedule for next Sunday, October 20th.

Enjoy this inspirational poem by Rumi:

Quietness

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.

Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.

Escape.

Walk out like somebody suddenly born into color.

Do it now.
You’re covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side.

Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.

Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.

– Jelaluddin Rumi

I wish you peace, joy and love.

Namaste,

Suzanne

Welcome to Day 7 of our 21 Day Yoga Challenge! You’ve made it a third of the way into our challenge. I hope you are carving some time out for yourself and your practice. But there’s no judgement from me if you haven’t. Just try to give to yourself first, so that you have the energy and the right spirit to give to others. Allow yourself to be imperfect in your practice and your life.

Today, I’ll suggest that you spend between 20 minutes and one hour in silence. That means without checking email, Facebook, texts, etc. Please, no TV or music to distract you. Try it, then notice what comes up. Relief? Discomfort? Anxiety? Try to surrender to it all.

Silence is particularly difficult for those who talk too much. Consider how you communicate and how much of it is meaningful to you. It’s a good time to reserve your energy.

I used to make every Sunday a day of silence. I loved it! I also thought it would be great to start that practice again with some of my practice buddies…you! So let’s make Sunday, October 13 and Sunday, October 20 Silent Sundays. If you’d like to dedicate all day to silence, that’s wonderful. If that seems too daunting, try setting a goal for one to six hours.

Are you in?

Namaste,

Suzanne