Appreciating Dawn. To support radiance & integration as summer calls.

6/11/24

Take in a nourishing beverage, start to slow your breathing and join me for a read, a learning, a practice, a pause.

The morning.

A gentle, late spring morning in the time before dawn offers me a light and luminous welcome to the day. It is that time of day when much of life is lingering in rest, or there is a subtle stirring of wakefulness. That stirring is one that comes most naturally from spending time in nature. I warm some water for tea, garner a cozy sweater and tend to my dog's needs and my own. Stepping outside in the brisk morning, something about this one seemed different, and also familiar. While I could have gone back for a few winks, or rolled out the mat, taken a walk, today seemed to be asking for different. In Ayurveda, we call this time of morning the sattvic time. There is a quieting. A light, spacious quality. They say the veil is thinnest spiritually, energetically if we are able to really pause and take in the rhythm.

In many of our urban lifestyles, this time folks maybe sleeping, at the gym, bi-passing on the way to coffee, to screens, to tending to responsibilities and the start of to dos. And this is not wrong, each a unique pace asking for different as we meet the day. For me- in describing a quieter morning, I am brought to the familiarity that harkens to the waking hours of camping, or early mornings where I'd wake to witness my late father sitting on our porch with his coffee, taking it all in. There is a beauty to this learning, to this revisiting. It's a relishing in appreciating the simplicity and the subtle as the body and all it's layers naturally meet the day.

As a young, vibrant child in a different season I see here deepening appreciation to this natural meeting of the day. How it connects to loved ones passed in their experience of witnessing from sattva. In the timelessness of pause before the stirring. A sense of arriving, a sense of returning.

The spider is tending its web. The squirrels start to patter along the fence line. Distant birdsong becomes the soundtrack that rides along the softened, cool air as it dances with the leaves. The trees themselves, breathing. Baring witness as the bird lands upon its branch. And then a distant siren, followed by the sounds of a plane passing overhead. All of life in its rhythms. In their nature. In this ecosystem. I'm just clear enough to witness. I sip my tea that warms my core, just as the rays of sun offer their light to warm the tall pines, starting to peek on the horizon.

The learning.

As we come into summer season, the vibrancy of life, of sun, of doing and the fun- working hard and playing hard as they say, it is my hope that you can pause into the witness and take in these moments of sattva. The sattvic times where you can slow into and be in the connection with the elements, with an evenness of regard to what might otherwise be mundane or dismissed. And while early morning is a prime time to touch into sattva, you can be in the practice. To call upon a resource within, a space of evenness to witness with kind regard. For me, I sense this as a practice of appreciation, remembrance, and connection where I am free from the pulls of preference, judgement, or needing things to be different. You may know it as an inward smile that may come from witnessing the awe of a child, the laugher from a stranger, or the sweetness found in nature.

All of this in the spirit of the winds of the season. Last week I'd shared about the downward wind, Apana vayu, for eliminating and letting go. Of the 5 vayus, the winds, at this moment, there is more Prana vayu present, the life force that lives in everything. Prana that is expansive and so often most potent when connected with nature. I wont argue with these winds of prana wanting to be seen today as I took in the morning.

And. My classes this week as we come off longer, warmer days potentially filled with the busy-ness that is the season, are more focus on Samana vayu. Samana is an inward, gathering wind aimed at supporting integration, assimilation and digestion of life experiences.

The practice.

I'll welcome you to quiet the eyes, the face and the jaw and begin to take in steadier belly breaths. Trust the moment to feel unrushed, bring a bit more balance to your breathing. You might imagine that rhythm as soft waves that ease onto shore and come back home to ocean. Breath in. Breath out. Balancing breath. Sama breath. Bring your attention to the region of the solar plexus, the mouth of the ribs. Offer your breath to come in toward this center to channel just a bit more warmth, radiance.

May you bring this radiance with intention to support integration of your life's experiences. Taking what you need, and letting the rest go. Rest and Digest- as with last week- in support of your greater happiness and purpose. May you take with you a bit more evenness and appreciation for the subtle as the season of the sun beacons us forward.

Here with you in practice, and in love & light.

-Maya

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Above all, take in wholehearted week.