January 2019

| February 19, 2019

“Those times when we’re grounded in our body, pure in our heart, clear in our mind, rooted in our soul and suffused with the energy, the spirit of life, are our birthright.”     GABRIELLE ROTH

I am writing this just after our 9th Tribal Dance, 5 days workshop from Old to New Year (you can have a look here in this short video).
It was truly a full on one so this letter from me will be short and simple and hopefully sweet.

I belong to my body.
My body belongs to the dance.
I commit to my heart.
My heart is committed to the love.
I am co-creating with my mind.
My mind is co-creating with the mystery.
I am connecting to the nature of my soul.
My soul is connected to the nature of all things
I breathe my spirit alive.
My spirit lives in my breath. My spirit dances with my breath.

May this New Year 2019 be full of dance, love, mystery, nature and breath aliveness.
With Love
Silvija

January 2020

| February 4, 2020

 

“If only we could drop judgement and move to a place of peace beyond struggle where there is nothing to be fixed, nothing to be changed, nothing to regret or even wish for. We would know then that we were living our destiny.” GABRIELLE ROTH

 

This is my prayer for new 2020, that was born from the fullness and magnificence of Tribal Dance workshop that danced 145 dancers from Old to New Year, from Flowing to Stillness, from separation to connection, from individual to tribal, from fear to courage. Special thanks to everybody who made this possible.

May I follow my destiny in the fluidity of Flowing.
May I speak my heart in the clarity of Staccato.
May I soften around my pain in the depths of Chaos.
May I share my light in the lightness of Lyrical. 
May I rest in peace in the silence of Stilness.

with love, 
Silvija

January 2021

| March 8, 2021

“In inertia our fullness is empty; in ecstasy our emptiness is full.” GABRIELLE ROTH

 

I wanted to write first about all the most important things I have learnt in 2020 to help me remember those lessons. Then I started making a list of all the things that I have lost and all the things that have arrived in my life last year to find some balance. After that I thought it would be better to create a blessing, a prayer for the New Year, to create a vision and focus on all the things I want to bring into my life and begin this 2021 with intentions grounded in my heart.
Then I realised I am actually pretty overwhelmed with all of that and what I really need is some courage, a pinch of patience and a lot of tolerance to stay a bit longer with the blank page, with the empty space. I know that my craving for this silence, for this emptiness is one of the reasons I go so deep into my dance as that is how I can find this zen zone, this unified field, this refreshing oasis, this present of the present moment. 
So what I want to offer all of us is some empty space. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With love, Silvija

July 2018

| July 27, 2018

“You don’t have to be the Dalai Lama to have a destiny. Every life has a spiritual path. It’s just a matter of falling into your own rhythm.”  GABRIELLE ROTH

How much weight I put on my own flow, on being who I am, on my own truth. And when this goes for longer time, I start to identify with that weight, with that resistance, as I forgot the taste of my own self, the one that is ever changing. I start to believe that I am that heavy energy that just wants to sit all day through, that wants to hide rather then to say the truth and show up, that hand that keeps pulling me back and shutting my mouth. So much effort into holding back this natural force of energy I was born with, my unique flavour. And then I am surprised why am I so tired, as it looks on the surface that I am not doing anything. But I know how strong life is and how much it takes to hold it back. And then to make things even harder I start judging myself for being like that, and I start to fight with something that is not even who I am, so it feels like fighting with the shadow. And when the pain of being closed and living so shallow becomes to much to bear, I drag myself to the dance floor, and I begin exactly where I am, by dragging my ass around, by rolling on the floor in my own self-pity, by making myself as small as I can physically get and in the midst of that I start to feel acceptance infusion running in my blood, my breath being release by the grip of my ego, and the dance starts to reveal itself to me. Again.
Tears start pouring out without me even allowing them as this time the gates were open for the flood of sadness. The pain in the joints of my body, in the locks of my heart begins to cry for freedom. And in that cry for freedom I find the lioness scream in my belly, in my womb, in my vagina – and the dance is born out of my frustration. All that frustration about other people this and other people that, and I am too much and they are not enough, and I need help but I am beyond help, and this keeps happening and I learn nothing because it keeps happening. The steady beat in the music is cheering for me, is backing up my whole body shaking it out, burning it down. And in this scream and in this dance, nobody gets hurt. I am not eating myself anymore from the inside, I am not blaming those on the outside and biting them just to keep them at the distance, I am not bursting out in uncontrolled rage towards the little ones.
The big wall of Silvija crumbled down like a ginger cake house, and I find myself sharing the sweet crumbles with those around me as they welcome me with eyes and arms open. I even find myself with some extra energy after long time, I overflow into the corners of the room to those whose eyes and arms are closed. I notice the lightness of my being, I am aware of the spaciousness inside of my heart. It feels like before all my emotions were squeezing into this waiting room just outside, in front of my heart, and everytime I would postpone, ignore, reject, push away those emotions they would just fill in the waiting room, and that crowded waiting room of emotions that were to be honest kind of loosing their patience, was squeezing in the heart and taking more space then the heart itself. As they were let in, sometimes more emotions in the same time, I could let them go and as I kept dancing, the waiting room emptied out and the heart could stretch its legs and arms and breath easy again. And in that stretching, I was hit by waves of gratitude. You know those moments when all makes sense. The pain and the pleasure, the fullness and the emptiness, the shadow and the light. You and me. Oh yes.
Can’t wait to dance again…
What about you?
Love, Silvija

July 2019

| July 9, 2019

 

“Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.”  Tao Te Ching

 

What are summer holidays for me? What type of holidays do I want and what do I need to rest from? I am fed up with holidays from which I come back home tired. I want summer holidays which offer balance that I am trying to achieve in my everyday life. Time to be in the sun and time to sit in the shade. Time to be in the sea and time to sit and look at the greenery. Time with my eyes open absorbing the light and the summer colours and time with my eyes closed, resting deep in the darkness. Time away from everybody and time when I feel so close to myself. Time for connecting with others without too many words and time to connect with nature without a plan or a schedule. Time to spend with my family and time to dance with the dancing tribe where I feel at home. Time to be active and leading and holding the space as well as time to relax, float and drift. Time to be a mom and time to be a wild woman. Time that is planned with a beginning and an end and time that is totally free and spontaneous.
Our summer workshop “Move’n’Rest” provides just the balance I am looking for and wish to offer and share with others who are looking for this type of a summer vacation. We wish to explore how each of the 5 Rhythms can wake us up from inertia and our autopilot and stir in us the power of being where we feel so safe and on our home turf that we can really relax and rest. What a gift it is to have time to find our dance, the dance that does not need to accommodate anyone else, or look a specific way, or even follow the rhythm of the music. The dance that we create ourselves. The dance that regenerates us because it is honest. The dance that moves us from the inside.
The dance in which movement leads to rest and rest prepares us for movement. The dance in which dualities and opposites merge into one. The dance in which everything vibrates and ebbs and flows like the tide.
I hope that you will dance this summer wherever you are, especially if you haven’t got the time, whether to music or to the murmur of the sea, under the stars or under the AC, hand in hand with someone or in the arms of the Universe.
Love,
Silvija

 

 

July 2020

| September 22, 2020

“Your father teaches you how to express your heart as he initiates you into the world of relationships with others. He teaches the art of how to best relate to another person, because he is the first person outside of yourself that you have to relate to, that is, build a relationship with.” GABRIELLE ROTH

I dedicate this newsletter to my father, Tomislav Tomčik, who died June 15th this year. I would often say I was a great mixture of qualities and talents from both my parents, that I have this creative, artsy and pedagogic side from my mother, and this practical, organizational, economic side from my father. Those two sides support, balance and inspire each other. Dad was the one who supported me financially towards my 5Rhythms education at the time when I couldn’t take a loan or pay myself all of the costs of the education that included all the prerequisite workshops that were mostly all taking place in the USA. And at that time 5Rhythms didn’t even exist in Croatia! A few years ago my dad told me: “You know, Silvija, I didn’t believe then in those 5Rhythms and that it could become your job and a succesful carrier, I did it because I believed in you as a person.” My dad even showed up to one of my first classes, and participated, I mean he danced, and I never saw him dance before! He would attend promotions of Gabrielle Roth’s books where I would give a speach (he would fall asleep for moments, as he did when he attended concerts of my mother’s students). He would lend his car to people who drove me to teach in another city. This sort of support is definitely one of the reasons I am where I am now and that I can support others on their path. 

My father is the one who brought me to Sutivan, with which he fell in love 40 years ago, and where we are now so happy to be dancing our “Move’n’Rest” workshop.  He would be a special guest at the workshop’s party, and people loved talking to him. There is a lovely anecdote where he once stepped onto a bus that was organized to take participants to the party, and some people gently tried to tell him he took the wrong bus, thinking he was a lost tourist.

As a child I was afraid of my father so I developed a relationship with him over letters. Firstly they were hand writen messages I left him, then I started using his typewriter, then when I started traveling I would send them by post (he saved some of them), and finally they turned into e-mails. I am aware that this made it harder for me to have an intimate conversations one to one, but I developed this ability to intimately communicate through writing. Like I am doing in these newsletters.

Following is the eulogy I wrote for his memorial. 

Love, Silvija

 

You were generous. I remember how skilled and deft you were when buying gifts for your 3 girls at home on your travels, even clothes, all the while not being able to distingush the colours so well. You are the one who gave me the gift of life. 

You used to tell me that even though you traveled often and everywhere, I definitely managed to do more so. You are the one who opened the door to the world for me.

You were a father who didn’t shy away from buying sanitary pads or going to gynecologist with me. You were right there beside me, even if silently. 

I remember how when I was a little girl the employees from our neighborhood grocery store asked me what did you do or what was your job, and I simply told them – a president. At that time you were a president of the building council. Wearing a fine suit, briefase in hand, hat on the head, a cigar in your mouth. You are the one who taught me that I can do what I love or love what I do. 

You loved French cheese and wine, Italian music and architecture, English elegance and humour. You loved enjoing life, you loved good company. You were especially happy in Sutivan, so we’ll spread a bit of your ashes there.

Mum often invited her artistic friends to our home, and I was always surprised how they ended up talking to you. For, to me, you sometimes really seemed as a boring guy. A boring guy with a great sense of humour. 

You were a positive guy, always cutting out and saving inspirational messages like these last few I found at your place: 
“I know that I don’t know”
“The only person who is always with you is yourself”
“So far so good”

Because of that it was hard for me to see when you lost all hope for some new tomorrow, for a better tomorrow. 

Your time to rest has come. I love you, dad.

June 2019

| June 12, 2019

 

“We don’t have to wait till we’re eighty-seven to experience stillness. We contain our future within us. Any time we are ready we can access the lessons of stillness: wisdom, compassion, and inspiration.” GABRIELLE ROTH

 

Silence needs empty space
Silence needs the fullness of surrender
Silence is hiding in the depths
Silence dances right on the top
Silence asks for all or nothing, or perhaps both
Silence has the sound of a heartbeat
Silence gets closer on the inhale
Silence stretches out on the exhale
When the body has told all the stories that I keep even from myself – silence.
When the heart has let go of the shame for what I am and the guilt for what I am not – silence.
When the mind has sweated off all the options for avoiding the present moment – silence.
When the soul has found another soul which it feels at home with – silence.
When the flow of breath has become completely free in absolute trust – silence.
I am afraid of disappearing in silence.
I hunger for the nourishment of silence.
I take delight in my reassembling in silence.
I am grateful for the stillness in silence.

I hope we will meet there…
With love,
Silvija
 

June 2020

| September 22, 2020

“A spiritual practice requires discipline, the willingness and commitment to show up not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. It points the way to infinity allowing you to feel the full force of your creative genius, to make yourself up from scratch again and again….
Practice should never become routine, something you do by rote, unconsciously, mindlessly.” GABRIELLE ROTH

I am passionately fascinated with how we can turn all those things that we usually use as excuses for not moving, for not joining the dance, for separating and isolating ourselves, for quitting, for abandoning ourselves – into the very inspiration for how we can move. And from that place creating the bridge for our connection, through vulnerability into intimacy with others. In all these places, and many more, I would find myself pulling a hand break on my dance, leaving my body alone, cold and hungry, holding my breath and closing my eyes, hiding in the corner, pushing myself out of a circle or pushing myself in the centre of it, drowning in the shame, guilt and blame. This practice has given me enough tools of awareness and embraces of compassion to approach myself gently in those places and those moments and remind myself that this too can move.


Because I am tired, I move this way. 
Because I am lost, I move this way.
Because I am in pain, I move this way.
Because I am insecure, I move this way.
Because I am turned on, I move this way.
Because I am proud, I move this way.
Because I am blushing, I move this way.
Because I am needy, I move this way.

In all these places, and many more, I would stop my Flowing, I would adjust my Staccato, I would control my Chaos, I would diminish my Lyrical and I would walk away from my Stillness.
This practice is teaching me how to turn my need to slow down, go low and go inside into the most nourishing Flowing, how to discipline my no-filter honesty into loving kindness clarity Staccato, how to ride the fire of the edge and dissolve into my deepest softness Chaos, how to give permission to my endless variations and variables and patterns and vibrations to be an on-going process and dance in progress Lyrical, how to receive the abundance of emptiness in Stillness. 

I hope you are finding different ways your practice can hold you, support you, release you, inspire you, connect you in these days of your life. It is my true honour and pleasure, gift and blessing, responsibility and learning to be holding space for your practice. 

With love
Silvija


 

March 2018

| March 6, 2018

“So the body is where the dancing path to wholeness must begin. 

Only when you truly inhabit your body can you begin the healing journey.” GABRIELLE ROTH

 

Dance was always for me the fastest route to that place where I feel I have lost myself and actually I found my true nature. From teenage years, this was a way for me to completely surrender to something else and stop being a victim of my own thoughts and worrying what other people think of me and about me. I loved offering my body to the music, to the beat. I didn’t feel alone when dancing at the times when I felt that nobody sees me and nobody understands me. I remember first time I read Gabrielle’s “Maps to Ecstasy” I was so thrilled and so happy as I felt both that I totally understand her and what she is saying and that she totally get me. What a gift!  The dance was teaching me to be authentic, to be honest with myself, to trust my body and my breath. In the dance I discovered the presence of something bigger, something sacred, something holy, something that was empty and had a lot of space for me.  This emptiness is always here to hold me, even when I knock its door with so many things that I carry in body, with such a heavy heart and a really clogged mind.  This dance is always here for you too, whenever you are ready to enter, you are welcome.

Love, Silvija

March 2019

| March 20, 2019

Many people would come to me after the workshop and thank me for holding a space with so much permission. It made me curious about why this is so important and healing and how it helps us with whatever we are learning. There is a part in me that feels dictated by some rigid beliefs about what I must or should do as well as about what I can’t or shouldn’t do. “I must always be strong” and “I should take care of others” or “I can’t break down” and “women shouldn’t make the first move”. These beliefs somehow formed an alliance with my fears and like to keep the status quo.
I discovered that these parts of me are in need of permission and if I am not able to offer it to myself, I look to somebody outside of me. Permission has the power to offer me choice and possibilities where I feel limited. Permission counters these rigid commands and prohibitions. Permission creates space where I feel accepted as I am. Permission moves me and encourages me to expand myself and my life.
I love bringing this theme into the movement practice, as so often I find myself stuck in my flow feeling that I should move a certain way or that I cannot move in some way. My flow reaches this limitation that probably came from outside of me but now lives deep inside of me, and it actually even physically stops me, limiting the freedom of my movement.
In this respect I find the Rhythm of Flowing specially healing. It feels like Flowing is whispering to me “Yes, you can”, “It is OK to move this way”. It feels like Flowing is solid enough and fluid enough to hold me with all my blocks, limitations, frozen places. There is enough space to be who I am, and it embraces gently and with warmth the parts of me that are essentially organically fluid, alive and free as well as the parts of me that still believe the old beliefs that may have even been important for my survival as a child.
As I bring the permission into my mind, heart and the body, I feel my own courage waking up and standing right next to me, hip to hip, hand in hand, and I start feeling my spine strengthening, my feet rooting, my chest beating, my eyes opening, I am ready to move, ready to grow, ready to live life I was meant to live. There were so many times when I felt something hadn’t been permitted, allowed, accepted and I found myself looking for somebody else to tell me that I was not crazy for feeling this way, that how I was feeling made sense. Heartbeat practice is showing me how to become the authority on my own heart. How when emotion comes to me, I have the authority and power to give myself permission to feel this way. I have permission to move how I feel, I have permission to express how I feel and I have all the permission to let it go.
Permission starts teaming up with Courage surrounded by the continuous strong Flowing field and – wow – anything is possible. I no longer feel the need to apologize for who I am or to explain why I feel this way. I find the inner strength supporting me to stand up in my own truth and dance in my own beauty. And as I meet others, this permission becomes a vibration that spreads so contagious, inspiring and generous.
I look forward to meet you in this field that we can create together
With love, Silvija

March 2020

| September 22, 2020

“Energy moves in waves. Waves moves in patterns. Patterns move in rhythms. A human being is just that, energy, waves, patterns, rhythms. Nothing more. Nothing less. A dance.” GABRIELLE ROTH

When I found 5Rhythms practice, it was all about the dance for me, the freedom and sense of belonging. I loved surrendering to the Wave after Wave. Then with time I enjoyed so much getting to know the difference between each of the 5 Rhythms, how unique and how complementary they are to each other, and learn from their embodiment. The embodiment took me deeper into understanding of how I can use each rhythm as a medicine for different parts of me and for different situations.
It feels very much as I was all this time searching for myself looking into a mirror of the Rhythms, feeling where I feel safe and comfortable and where I am challenged to the point I want to avoid it and skip it all together. I could see how it was easy to get attached and identify with one of them, and how that would change as times would change, as I would change. And now more and more I am fascinated about how they all actually teach me to keep moving, to keep breathing and to follow the energy. 
When we stay too long only in Flowing, where our energy is going inwards, and we follow our body’s needs, and wherever our feet take us, we can end up going in circles and eventually being pulled down the drain into inertia and feeling too safe and too comfortable there so that we do not want to move out of it, not even to change a TV channel.
When we focus too much only on Staccato, where our attention is on the linear moving and thinking and reaching out to the world, we can easily get too tense in our bodies and rigid in our hearts, seeing only white and black, right and wrong and eventually feeling separate from the world and people in it. 
When we go too deep only in Chaos, where we are letting the head go and letting our mind to be everywhere in our bodies so we become mindful, we can end up being more confused and starting to lose the ground beneath our feet, lost in the brain storms and feeling overwhelmed.
When we buy only one way ticket to Lyrical, where we are able to be fascinated with so many details and not getting attached to any and also rise high enough to enjoy the bigger mandala of our life, we can find ourselves flying into outer space and leaving the body alone and abandoning the present moment all together. Wanting it all to be pink and light all the time we start lying to ourselves and the fake smile on our face is hurting more than the pain we are trying to cover. 
When we get absorbed for too long just with Stillness, where we are moving with the mystery, connecting with our true essence by emptying our ideas of what spirit and divine and truth is, we can get so so so still that we actually stop breathing, and then we stop feeling and it is like living in a bubble where even the hope has left the building/bubble.

Next time you practice 5Rhythms, pay attention to the transitions between the Rhythms, and those moments when a part of you wants to stay in something familiar and known, and how the energy wants to naturally move and shift and transform and grow and complete the Wave. 
With love
Silvija
 

 

March 2021

| March 8, 2021

“Art is all around us and we are all artists. You may not be Picasso, but there’s a force within you which drives you to create art .The spirit of magic and creativity you bring to everything you do inspires what I call “everyday art”. Life is full of raw material – whether you work at the local bakery or in a corporate office, the level of awareness, attention, and inspiration you bring to your job can transform it to art.” GABRIELLE ROTH

I wouldn’t say my parents were creative, but they would hang out with many creative people. At the time when my mother was studying piano at the Music Academy in Zagreb, the musicians and composers were hanging out with actors and directors who were hanging out with painters and photographers who were hanging out with writers and poets. From an early age I could sense the difference between creative people and those who chose a safer life. My mum loved discovering and supporting talents as a piano teacher, and it was hard for me to suck at playing the piano. I was more into drawing and painting and she was very encouraging of me. My parents even organised an exhibition at our home where we put my paintings up for sale. Unforgettable. For a kid to see adults buying her art. Then I started to go to school and the art teacher told me that the grass can not be purple. And I stopped.  I still paint like that little child, my drawings never “grew up”. 

Both of my parents loved music, and I have learnt that classical music is what Latin is for languages. It opens and educates the ear and the part of the brain that can see the movement and colours of music. This musical upbringing saved me when I started teaching 5Rhythms and awakening the sacred DJ in me. There is no genre of music that I would not be ready to play and use to create a specific movement. 

Music went straight to my innocent heart and it has always been a loyal companion. There was a song for when I fell in love and there was a song for when my heart was broken. There was a song somehow for every feeling I had. 
When I would watch dancers dancing and ice skaters skate, I was moved to tears. They looked like magic, they moved like both – so physical and so divine. 
And I tried. I tried ballet, I tried African dance, I tried contemporary dance, and I struggled, following the steps. I believed I had no discipline. I felt totally opposite from how I would feel when dancing at home alone or dancing in the club as soon as it opened when the dance floor was still empty. 

Then I found 5Rhythms, or 5Rhythms found me!

I found a place where I finally felt creative. I was creating the dance I was dancing. Or as Gabrielle would say “co-creating with the great mystery”. I felt talented even though I didn’t need to be at all. I felt unique in the midst of equally unique and different people. Suddenly I even had the discipline! 

I remember in school the teachers would say about me “she is smart but lazy”. Now I was happy and free. I started to heal the wounds I wasn’t even aware of. I met people I would have been either scared to meet or people I would think with whom I would have nothing in common. I travelled not just too many cities and countries of this world, but also many mountains and valleys of my psyche.  
I learnt and I practised to be creative with the way I move. Creative with the way I speak and write. Creative with my pain. Creative with my boredom. Creative with my shadow. Creative with the way I relate through my heart. Creative with my attention and my presence. Creative with my life. 

It is such a gift and honour to hold space for others to join me in this and to support this creativity we have as humans. I want to shout a big THANK YOU, to all dancers who have been dancing with me online once, twice or even every week, for these last 12 months. YOU blew my mind, recharged my heart, gave me a reason to change at least the top of my pyjama for a class, inspired me to learn new ways of teaching, restored my discipline and infused me with hope. 

With love, 
Silvija 

May 2018.

| May 7, 2018

“When joy does come, it should be celebrated, although many of us are embarrassed by spontaneous bursts of elation. It’s not that we think there is something wrong with being joyful, but that we have a notion it’s not cool or sophisticated to be too joyful, or too openly emotional. We’re often as uncomfortable about having hearts as we are about having bodies.”

GABRIELLE ROTH

The joy of dancing. The joy of being alive. The theme I need, the theme I explore, the theme I offer.

 

In the dance, I find enjoyment when I allow my body to do what it needs to do, what it wants to do. I have a feeling that my body laughs as a little child who was finally allowed to take of its shoes and get its clothes dirty.  In the dance, I somehow manage to dig out the spontaneity under layers of politeness, fear and prohibition. When I dance, I sometimes realise that I feel like laughing, but that I hide that silly, flushed, sweaty face of mine. The best thing happens when, out of the corner of my eye, I somehow spot another silly, flushed, sweaty face which laughs even though nothing is funny. So, I laugh back, like a mirror. There are some special friends, some special moments we have together, some films, some comedians I laugh at from the top of my lungs, I scream with laughter, I have to get up, can’t sit back any more, I have to jump and wag my tail. Crazy! I sometimes catch that moment of happiness like I have caught a beautiful butterfly in the mid air, and as soon as I catch it I know the only way for it to continue living is to let it fly away as soon as possible. There are those moments of joy that hold me in their arms only when I surrender totally to everything, even to the deep sorrow. You know that laughter which vibrates the same as crying which vibrates the same as laughing, belly- and chest-shaking, and that crazy feeling of release through that laughing, through that crying. Sometimes when I lead workshops I am seduced by the beauty of what I see in the group, in the dance, in the people – it is so real, so honest, so human that I forget to play the next song on time. What a wonderful “error”, one that I enjoy indulging in, even praise myself for it! I love feeling the sense of fulfilment which actually makes me empty as much as full, the sense of peace which I somehow earned and which is actually always present inside. When I finally get in touch with it and let it overflow me I get that Mona Lisa smile. I am grateful for the joy of play I rediscover with my children –  there is nothing more precious than watching them play together, make each other laugh till they cry, make each other laugh till they pee their pants. I am also very lucky to find so much goodness, so much frolic, so much new things in my work and the fact that it has brought me to you.

I am also happy to offer MENTORING for 5Rhythms Teachers and Teachers in Training. Individual Skype Sessions offering a safe space to share and to express. A place where I am being a witness and a listener and creating a possibility for you to hear yourself and find answers and ways through your questions.

I wish you a wonderful, flourishing and dancing month of May, Love, Silvija

 

 

 

May 2019

| June 12, 2019

 

“STACCATO: Flamenco, kung fu, fire, dog having sex, the crack of the bat, woodpecker, kodo drums, funky music, slamming doors, tap dancing, New York Stock Exchange, cutting hair, crunching an apple, cha-cha, red light green light, striking a match, sushi chef, stapler, pinball, fireworks, metronome, heart pounding…” GABRIELLE ROTH

 

ODE TO STACCATO 
 
I breathe out the clarity that comes from my moving center.
I dance out the truth that I find in the consistency of my heartbeat.
I live out the desire to show up in my full power and vulnerability.
I speak out what I see, what I feel, what I want.
 
I bring you as medicine into my rigid heart and locked hips.
I invite you as a wake up call into my boredom and heart denying routine.
I call your spirit to show me direction towards what is really important to me.
I use your fire to burn the walls of separation between me and you. 
 
You align me with what is really needed and what is the right action.
You teach me about how loving is to have clear boundaries.
You connect me with the super power of self-discipline. 
You kick my ass to take the lead in my own life and focus on love.
 
I bow to your juiciness. 
I lean into your warmth.
I salute your integrity.
I look straight into the eyes of your dedication.

Silvija

May 2020

| September 22, 2020

“Every time I dance I shed the skin of separateness and I feel the frequency of the tribe.”  Gabrielle Roth

 

At the end of one of my online classes, there were tears being felt and some released, and one of the dancers expressed how much he misses people. That went straight into my heart. 
And another dancer spoke beautifully: “this kind of sadness of losing someone is a reminder of how fortunate I have been to have had these persons in my life”. That landed so warm to my already opened heart.
As the doors of my own sadness were gently pushed open by the presence of dancers and the dance through many zoom screens on my own big screen, I decided to follow in this direction. 
To really feel what and who I miss, and to allow myself to plunge bravely into those good memories that are keeping my hopes safe. 
Maybe the most important thing that I am missing and that I feel I have lost during these social distancing and quarantine days, is this 5Rhythms Tribe. Its taste, smell, sound, touch, colours, vibration. Its freedom, its holding, its intimacy, its wilderness, its diversity, its unity.
I love the things I find out within myself when we get together.
I love how I can let go of “me, me, me” when we get together.
I love the juice of our sexuality without having sex. 
I love the the depth of our intimacy without words. 
I love to let my feet fall in love with looking for empty space in a room full of people doing just the same.
I love that feeling of “coming home” when I join a group in any country. 
I love how this map helps to show me where I am, right now, right here, not so much where I need to go. 
I love how I can dance emotions that I can not name, feelings that I can not organise. Emotions that I am afraid of, feelings that I want to share. 
I love how not only  we meet on the dance floor from all the ages of life, but we can dance all ages of our life. Folding like a foetus, cooing like a baby, wobbling like a toddler, skipping like a kid, walking the edge as a teenager, breaking through as an adolescent, exploring as a mature woman and blossoming generously as a wise woman. 
I love how I can be creative and artistic for the pure joy of it, for the healing powers of transformation when I dance, sing, paint, write and act. I love how we can be each other’s mirrors, showing up with all the faces and outfits and scripts of our ego characters on the journey to our naked soul. 
I love how we move from “I don’t want to move and I can not move and I will not move” to disappearing into the dance and being moved by the breath. 
I love the power of the circle, when we stand up or sit down in the circle, holding hands, sharing our highs and lows, giving and receiving, honouring how each of us has a different perspective on the same thing from their own place in the circle. 
I love that I am a student of this practice, that I am a teacher of this practice, and I love those mind-blowing, awesome, inspiring, life changing moments when I become the teaching. 
I love you, and I miss you.
Silvija

November 2017

| November 3, 2017

“The word comes from the Greek word “chaos”, meaning empty space or abyss. Most of us are afraid of emptiness because we consider it a vacuum, a negative force. In reality it is a positive space, loaded with potential, free of all strictures and structures of the ordinary world.” GABRIELLE ROTH

 

I have always felt good in this autumn month, perhaps because it was the time of my coming into this body and this life. That is why I am not surprised to see that it is so intense and full on this time around.

So many things are changing, shaking, rearranging at the moment, some things are falling into place. In the midst of all the changes on so many levels, I see how it is easier to hold on to the old and familiar even though it makes no sense any more or is no longer necessary or has already ended. Whatever is coming is so unfamiliar, a real leap into deep void. How do you hold on to something unknown, something that has not happened yet? It is as if all the chaos is pushing me into the hands of creativity, my own as well as the great creativity of life and the Universe. The creativity from which I emerged but also that which I am still holding on to although I know it is time to let go, to surrender.  The deep void then becomes an empty page of a book or an empty canvas to paint on. I begin to ask myself what it is I wish to create in this new, unexpected opportunity. What was once daunting now becomes exciting. Chaos that brings polarities together, connecting what was with what will be, what ends with what begins, what is known and experienced with what is unknown and comes from life itself. I begin to grasp the deeper message that is actually very simple and keeps repeating: If I want to move on, if I want to take the next step, I must let go of the one before. I realize that there is no next step without a previous one. I see how deeply and closely connected the known and unknown, the old and the new, are. They are cooperating with each other: one dissolves so that the other can emerge.

I love the wisdom that comes from the feet, from the body. I love the intelligence that is awakened through movement and dance. I love the intimacy that grows when we meet each other in space where hearts speak without words.

I hope to meet you in one such dance soon.  Love, Silvija