Autumn's Unfolding: Welcome Balance with Nature and Heart
9/23/24
"In order to effectively embrace transition, operate from loving kindness. Let your sincerity and heart guide what unfolds." Tara Brach
Hello dear friends. Welcome to another week. Gather yourself kindly and with heart. As always, take what you need, and leave the rest. Embrace the transitions, offering intentional breath and a curiosity for both what is within you, and also what is before you.
Now the Yoga Begins. Atha Yoga Nusasanam.
As we come upon the first official days of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, this seasonal shift is expressing itself in nature, and perhaps so too within us. Crispness of mornings make way for a warming as the day progresses, only to return back to the cooling and rest of night. Like nature, do you too feel these energetic shifts occur within you? This continued transition from green to gold, or a calling for this within yourself?
This weekend I lead an intimate group in a botanical garden to feel into the elements and experience their yoga, their union. Many times is the experience of some discomfort to start. And then an easing in. From crisp air and wet grass that makes way for the sun- a warming both internal and external emerged. This internal sun is a reminder of not only what is always within us, but also the agency we posses and our ability to channel this life force to meet the moment. The external was a gift and a reminder that without our need to do anything, the sun rises to warm and share with all of life its radiance. And that life force, or prana from this light is transmuted and expressed in all living creatures. Unconditionally. If we only give ourselves the time and space, we can appreciate, slow, listen and receive. Back toward equilibrium. Returning back home to ourselves, each other and all of nature as belonging, connected, and whole. The continued uncovering and glimpses of this wholeness.
The equinox marks this time when mother earth ventures back to equilibrium. A welcoming of Libra season in western astrology. A balancing of day and night. The very duality inherent in life, the co-existing of movement & rest, work & play, celebration & grief, creation & dissolution.
You may sense scattered pieces of yourself, with the winds of vata season in play. Libra ruled by the element of air in play. Movement of ideas, aspirations, commitments and waking each day. Scattered pieces of ourselves, perhaps a project or a season of life.
A bridging between earth and air, there is a call for more harmony, stability, peace and heart. These are the gifts of Libra. The bridge between the lower and upper level chakras, our energetic centers- is the heart (anahata).
"Pull in the parts of yourself, the beautiful parts that have come alive. Beckon your warrior, your healer, your playful child. Bring together your professional self, your adult self, the passionate part of you, the nurturing part. Let all the parts come together. Don't send them away. You need them all. Each is a beautiful piece of the soul, the life, the person you are."
"Trust the process. Even in the developmental stages. Even before the puzzle has been put together. The scattered pieces will come together. The connecting thread is love." Melody Beattie
Come back to the heart. Be reminded from Tara Brach, to let your sincerity and heart come through to the continued unfolding of your journey. Trust the process and the scattered pieces will come together. Trust the earth that carries, the sun that shines, with radiance, light and prana. We are in this together. And your inner sun brings forth wisdom, with nature as teacher. Attune your choices to bring more harmony and equilibrium. Wisdom from the gunas and ayurveda here, that like attracts like, and opposites heal. Balance may call for a slowing down to meet the rushing of the mind or responsibility. For others, honing more inward fire to draw up from a place that is too muddied or dull.
Trust your light, invite balance between earth and air. Here with you in practice, and in love & light.
-Maya
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