Ether. Awareness. Gratitude.
Soul Food
“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
This Week: As we deepen into the seasons of Fall and Spring. I am inviting you to contemplate the unexplainable via the ever present ‘ether’. As the trees shed their leaves and the seedlings begin to sprout ether steps into the foreground to support us and guide us from here to there and back again. If you are ready to listen and be, this is a great segment to contemplate how and what you want transmit and receive.
As inspired, listen deeply, and engage your relationship with your inner integrity. Align yourself with your ether and wood. Then, being practicing reciprocation. Receiving + Giving. There is plenty for all beings to exchange.
Contemplation:
What are your core values? Choose 3.
Are you honoring them internally and externally?
No matter what your values are you can always strengthen your relationship with those values and work towards embodying them. For example, if it is kindness you can always enrich your relationship with the act of kindness towards yourself and others. You will even start to have a stronger understanding what it means to be authentically kind.
These weekly talks are an offering to assist you in exploring your spiritual practice, your inner landscape and cultivating inner peace.
Time Stamps: Dharma 0 Meditation :22:00 Sound :48:00. Outro 1:26:00
Heart Food
Grief and Anger. Gratitude and Patience. Celebrate and Calm.
There are many opposite emotions that compliment and counter balance an emotion you are experiencing. Ultimately, all emotions are valid; yet, certain emotions will diminish your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well being. When mood swings become a constant, it is an inner call to practice emotional regulation coupled with some lifestyle and nutritional changes to support your course correction.
A few questions that you can ask yourself about your emotional well being is:
Do your emotions feel like a dragon ride with high peaks and valleys on a consistent basis?
Do you know what it feels like to express all your emotions externally and internally?
Do you know how to use your voice to communicate your emotions without causing harm to yourself and/or others?
You can choose to retain a balanced relationship with your emotional center. If you have not learned how to have emotions or are over indulgent with certain emotions, it will take effort (aka practice) and courage on your part to bring yourself into balance. However, it is worth it. Once, you master how to express yourself, you will realize how much more freedom you have to authentically be yourself. In the present moment, you will know how to regulate your own emotions when they shift. This will assist you in clean emotional living without putting demands on your inner and outside world. In a blissful utopia, we would be rocking calm and engaging our emotions in ways that nourish relationships, feed creativity and expand our individual/collective consciousness. Being we are collectively on a spectrum from an emotional developmental age of a three year old to an early teen, we have some work to do individually and collectively. However, we are at a collective tipping point and we are all poised for our inner and outer evolution for the benefit of all.
Where to Start:
Acknowledge where you are at.
Are you ready to observe your emotions and how they impact you and others daily? If yes, go to the next step. If no, keep acknowledging where you are at without judgement. Once you are ready, go to the next step.
Start observing your emotions and how they are expressed via your words, actions and thoughts. Just observe. Anchor in the willingness to observe yourself continuously. This will help you make changes, see what is and start to cultivate an active meditation practice.
Then, take time to self reflect on your emotions that historically derail you from your natural flow and impact others. As inspired, journal about your emotions and your revelations. Then, decide what emotion you would prefer to use to assist you through those tender moments and unexpected upheavals. This is where the opposite emotion becomes the remedy and practice.
The Practice.
When grief rises up, if you are ready and willing, you can begin to practice gratitude and celebration. For example, if you just lost someone (to death) grief needs to be expressed/processed; however, it is just as important to celebrate your time with them and give thanks for them. This shifts the downward pulling energy of grief into a building energy for you and the person that has moved on. Our souls are eternal. When you radiate an emotion towards anyone who has crossed over or just moved out of your life, the individual can feel that subconsciously. If this person is/was self aware they will feel it consciously. This is how you can help each other out by being responsible with the emotions you choose to exchange. By choosing celebration and gratitude you will lift self and another higher.
When anger rises this is a very potent energy. It is best to remove yourself from the situation (ASAP). Find an activity that will allow you to return to calm (moving the body works well). This activity will be unique to you. Once, your affect returns to neutral. Then, you can start practicing patience. It is easy to grasp and get angry because someone or something is not behaving or emoting the way you want; however, you are not going to get very far in that relationship by using anger (overtly or covertly). Eventually it will exhaust your wood energy (aka liver) and diminish your relationships with self and others. Practicing patience and returning to calm daily will serve you and all of others well. In addition, this will allow you to see the action, your anger was fueling. Then, you can take aware action that will serve you and others.
As inspired, during these Fall and Spring months do some emotional check in. Give yourself the space to tune in and up.
Mind + Body + Heart Food
Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhana), calming. Reduces and/or eliminates anxiety or agitation.
This is a yoga breathing practice where you will be inhaling and exhaling through one nostril at a time. Then, you will repeat to the other side. The name comes from the Sanskrit words nadi, means ‘tube’ or ‘channel’, and shodhana, means ‘purifying’. This practice will clear your channels.
The benefits:
Calm Down. It can help reduce stress and anxiety
Balance: It can help balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain and the nervous system
Improve breathing: It can help improve breathing and strengthen lung muscles
Lower blood pressure: It can help lower blood pressure.
How to Practice
Place a thumb by your left nostril and your pointer finger by your right nostril.
First close off your right nostril with your pointer finger. Then, inhale through the left nostril. Gently release the right nostril and close the left nostril. Then, exhale through the right nostril equal counts.
Then, inhale through the right nostril, release the left nostril and then close the right nostril. Then, exhale through the left. Repeat the sequence. Find your flow. 3, 5, or 8 counts will work well. Looping from the left and right side.
Then repeat 5 times total. Once it is comfortable, increase to 8 rounds. Then 13 rounds. You can also alternate starting the inhalation on the right side vs the left.
Tips
Flow: Take it slow. This is a cooling and centering practice.
Do not grasp. Let go of any attachment to an outcome.
Practice being present with each inhale and exhale.
Once you establish your rhythm with your thumb and finger you will move through this effortlessly.
Body Food
Calming the Mind. During Fall and Spring, the mind tends to become overactive. As mentioned, emotional regulation can become a necessary daily effort because the planetary energies are flipping from a positive (male) and negative (female), giving and receiving. The flip can create some disturbances until we anchor into the Full Yin and Yang energies that are present during Winter and Summer. In addition, your internal/external dialogue can add a layer of support or degregation to the fast moving and shifting energy. Emotional input during these ‘transitional’ seasons can create a sensory overload depending on your constitution and state of balance. This is why grounding is beneficial. Grounding can be achieved by walking or laying on the earth. In addition, you can also achieve this daily or weekly giving yourself a massage (Abhyanga).
In Ayurveda, the abhyanga, is powerful technique where you apply warm oil to the entire body while massaging it in. This is an act of self-love. It is recommended to do this daily, especially as your reach the winter of your life cycle. If you want to learn more about what oils will harmonize with your body and how to apply the oil with care, simply send my an email with the title Abhyanga. Then, send me a little summary of what is happening in your mind, heart, body and soul with a photo. I can share what would specifically nourish your current state of being.
Mind You + Fall Food.
Ingredients (organic)
4 C Vegetable Broth
1 Small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 carrots, sliced
3-4 leaves of Kale
2 heads Buk Choy, sliced
1 C Cherry Tomatoes
1 Bay Leaf
1 T Thyme, fresh
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 C pumpkin seeds, sprouted
Cracked Pepper
Himalayan Salt
Olive Oil
2Tbsp. Ghee
Fresh cilantro
Directions
1. Prep and measure all your ingredients
2. In a medium suacepan, add 2 Tbsp. Ghee and 2 Tbsp. Olive Oil heat over medium for less than a minute. Add your garlic and onions. Cook down for 2-3 minutes stiring often.
3. Add all your spices and continue to stir. As the onions and garlic carmelize add 1/2 C of vegetable broth slowly.
4. Add the buk choy and carrots. Let cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add the kale. Continue to stir.
5. Add the rest of your broth and tomatoes. Season as needed with salt and pepper. Let cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes.
6. Serve with fresh cilantro, crusty bread and a little cheese on top.
7. Enjoy with some gentle sounds and candlelight. Serves 2-4 Even better the next day.
Herb Spice Friend.
A little dot connecting. When your emotions have a huge upheaval coupled with persistent stress/anxiety, low nutrient dense meals and/or substances that diminish your life force, your immune system will be compromised. The key is to be mindful with your emotions and the food you nourish yourself with. This awareness will assist keeping you in well being during the fall/spring. These seasons are historically filled with cold/flu and/or sinus/allergy upheaval. As inspired, nourish yourself proactively with nutrient dense foods and retain your emotional awareness.
If you happen to over indulge in the holiday blues or one too many holiday treats, star of anise, is a helpful friend. It is a warming herb that will get things moving and breaks up stagnation. It is anti all the things that can put your left of center (oxidants, microbes, fungus). To test it out, you can simply steep one pod in hot water and sip it gently. See how it feels and your body responds. If it feels good, then sip on a cup or two. Alternatively, you can make a warm cider or a seasonal recipe with star of anise .
May your day be filled with JOY and a lot of LAUGHTER. .sT
good 🌹🌻🌸💐💚💛💜❤️🌼😍🥰