Be like the flowers

Why not be like the flowers in the field without any reason? They live, they blossom, they expand. Their perfume is swept in the air by the wind and it is not contaminated by ideas, duties, motivations. Those things would twist the flowers in different directions.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 87

Yoga should not be a training for body control

Yoga should not be a training for body control; on the contrary, it must bring freedom to the body, all the freedom it needs.
Yoga should help us to acquire the order in the body that it is necessary for it to function properly.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 106

We are always in a hurry

We are always in a hurry, we run, we run, we run, in order to be able to do as many things as possible: to achieve, to become, to obtain. To run is a symptom of fear, to run after something, after somebody. We are slaves not only to others, but to ourselves, to our ideas, to our ambitions, to our projects, and even to our mental projections. This is a miserable attitude that life does not deserve.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 121

An attentive mind remembers

Memory is connected with attention. An attentive mind remembers. A distracted mind forgets. Attention is energy and produces energy when we use it. It is like the battery in a car, that recharges itself in the running of the motor.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 77

A disappointment may lead to a liberation

If you know how to "look" you will "see" that sometimes a disappointment may lead to a new road.
The same happens to the body: if something goes wrong physically, or after an illness, you may discover a different approach or a different perception in the way of doing certain poses, which may even solve other problems. Therefore, do not worry, do not get upset, but keep your eyes and your mind wide open. A disappointment, a loss, may lead you to a liberation.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 109

You are your own teacher, your own pupil

If you are with the body, you don't become, you are. Slowly the body adjusts and it comes to you. You centre yourself, you follow your breath. Following is an act of attention or of interest. If you are interested in the breathing, in the body, you discover many things. There is no teacher, no pupil, you are your own teacher, your own pupil.

Vanda Scaravelli in Yoga Journal article 1996

Silence

If we can end the swing of thoughts collected by memories in the past, and the ones that have been shaped through fantasy and projected by imagination into the future, we will find silence. Invite silence, welcome silence, and slowly silence will become part of you.

In that silence we will be able to recieve hints of intuitions and sparks of perceptions from which creativity can arise.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 125

As the sun opens the flowers

As the sun opens the flowers delicately, unfolding them little by little, so the yoga exercises and breathing open the body during a slow and careful training.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 41

Bad Taste

To be proud of our yoga positions is bad taste. To be able to do the poses "successfully" means nothing, nothing at all. Yoga should not become a circus. It must not be done as a refuge from life.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 41

Forcing leads nowhere

Yoga has nothing to do with acrobatics or spectacular exhibitionism, even though some poses rather look like it. Students are sometimes inclined to force the flexibility of their bodies to the maximum, but this leads nowhere.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 41

Listen to your body

You have to learn how to listen to your body, going with it and not against it, avoiding all effort or strain and centering your attention on that very delicate point, the back of the waist (where the spine moves in two opposite directions). You will be amazed to discover that, if you are kind to your body, it will respond in an incredible way.

Vanda Scaravelli "Awakening the Spine" page 16

Practice

Practice transforms us. We need to eat less, because we assimilate more and therefore there is loss of unneccessary weight. We become more beautiful, our faces change and our walk gains in elasticity. Our way of standing is steady and poised, our legs are firmer, and our toes and feet spread out, giving us more stability. Our chests expand, the muscles of the abdomen start to work, the head is lighter on the neck (like the corolla of a flower on its stem moving easily with flexibility while the wind blows). To watch these enchanting changes is amazing.
A different life begins and the body expresses a happiness never felt before.

Vanda Scaravelli "Awakening the Spine" page 36