Inspirations: Self Care

If we are each a replica of the Universe, then the nature of nature is our nature. The rhythms vibrating the seasons are simply another layer of energy analogous to the rhythms dancing our mind/body. The ancient Chinese, Indian ( east & west), and the Astrologic healing modalities all pay homage to sharing the basic elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, air, and sometimes ether. Each season has a particular rhythm section, which vary depending on the teachings, but all concur that when we are aware of particular energies vibrating a season, its vulnerabilities and strengths, we have more power to adjust our rhythms within that framework, and mine available health and healing. The following information is culled from Donna Eden’s fascinating book, “Energy Medicine,” where she interweaves her vast, eclectic knowledge of healing with the Chinese elements. She feels that, “the five rhythms approach, grounded in each person’s core bio-energies,” reveals their challenges, personality, health, even their spiritual journey. Winter Rhythm: No surprise that winter’s rhythm is the seed pod, the embodiment of our potential. Bodies that vibrate in a winter rhythm have a start-up enthusiasm, especially when they feel safe. There is a child like wonder at the newness of life, and when they trust their gut, like a new moon child, life runs more smoothly. Their strengths are envisioning and spontaneity, again the gifts of the Astrologic new moon baby. Because there is little heat from a winter sun, their energy is not suited for the long haul. They need to retreat to regenerate in order to plan the next phase. Their powers lie in having the courage to begin, in overcoming fears, and letting down their guard. As with all systems, the weaknesses hold the polarity of possible strengths. In Astrology, Chiron, the wounded healer, embodies… Read more »

In winter’s reticence of frozen waters, lackluster oomph, and general orneriness on having to start over, there is truculence in being kind to self and others. The desire to hibernate overwhelms, and is only bear-able when home, sucking chocolate, with a pillow over the telephone. The heart lies empty, the body depleted, the mind a rag-tag nest of broken egg shells. If you were Buddha, you’d say, “A great place to start.” “But, dear Buddha, start-up cycles require plans, stamina and get go. I have none of those.” “Do you have willingness?” “Not so much. I can’t tell if I am parched, or frozen. Either way, life does not flow through me. I stand depleted from last year’s efforts, and ragged in sorrows many are going through now.” “You can do nothing about either. One is past, the other is not you. Why do you deplete your reserves? Why not re-channel your life-waters?” “Because staying present and preparing, feels overwhelming and scary.” “Why?” “Because much is being demanded.” “Says who?” “Well, you for one, me, everyone. We must do more, offer more, be better, produce more, be happier, more peaceful, make more money, give more away, be faster, stronger, more technically proficient, become more in lock-step with the young.” “Wow. Really? Even as Buddha, I hadn’t heard that.” “You don’t think lots is demanded at this time?” “As you say, ‘lots’ is always asked for. The type of ‘lots’ may change, even its style, but every cycle, each life, through time asks primarily one thing of us.” “Wow. Really? Is this a Buddha moment?” “Yes, it is.” “I’m ready.” “Then sit with your cat. Visualize yourself as a flowing fountain. As easily as you breathe, water rises, burburling and clear from the earth. It overflows the beautiful curves of its… Read more »

“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.” T.S Eliot The famous lines from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets speak not only of this particular time, but in general of fall’s airy, mutable changes, her dance as it were. October engages the Astrologic air energies of Libra. Her Venus rulership seeks relationship and connection. She also wants the bills paid, and money in the bank. Ayurvedically, air and connectivity grow more prominent in fall’s Vata quality. It behooves all of us, no matter how grounded and stable we think we are, to become aware of the restless, dry, cooling surplus imbuing these days and nights. Because like increases like, when we are at the mercy of changes we cannot control, we feel unstable and may seek out others to fulfill and balance our needs. This attracts and adds to the very thing we already have in abundance, which increases the turbulent imbalances. What we want is to call the opposite of what is already present…to dance the polarities. Acknowledging the season’s mobile, restless, spacey over-flow, how do we create not merely static balance, but a dynamic balance, a dance that serves over-demanding, fast paced days? It is easy to sit, meditating in a cave when we don’t have others we are responsible to, or a self that is multi-tasking as matter of factly as breathing. Perhaps changing one simple moment each day will offer us a still point in the dance?… Read more »

In the garden, it is important to grow. In a Practice, it is important to grow. When we stagnate it becomes impossible to blossom. Petals and potential fall unseen back into the earth. Yes, there is always another time, another cycle, a new chance to become, but why not now? If we can but let our tears water us, our pain teach us, our knowledge fertilize the soil, we grow profusely. What of weeding? Who will choose us if our thorns prick? Who will love us if we stink? What if we emerge deformed? When we are attentive we find a gardener right for us. It is possible to bloom without help, but we become lush and fecund with the help of a good gardener. We are more able to grow powerfully when someone weeds, fertilizes, and waters besides ourselves, and as importantly, when someone allows us to do the same for them. Some of us are roses, needing lots of extra attention, and some of us are wildflowers, wanting little, but we all grow as lovers when someone takes time to watch us blossom, and nod appreciation. Most of us manage to survive, despite ourselves, for the will to live is the strongest force there is, next to love. But to move beyond survival, that is the job of a Practice. A ‘growing-practice’ demands weeding out doubt, fears, addiction, and laziness, and a good gardener overcomes by growing knowledgeable, attentive, hard working, and willing to risk. A formidable gardener listens to the plants, converses with them, sees who they want to become, and admires every effort. That is when the garden blazes into glory, and the earth is glad. “The rose is beautiful and scarred…but which is which….Too often we love in spite of the thorns. Let us love… Read more »

Yesterday I carried a small blue bowl full of scented oil across the lawn. I held it lightly, mindfully, noting each step, attentive to not spilling. A thought darted through my mind, “Too bad you don’t carry your heart this carefully.” Another zinged in close behind, “Wouldn’t life be lovelier if you paid this much absorbed attention to every moment.” “Ahhhh yes, small blue bowl, I agree. How do you suggest I do that?” “Practice.” “Oh that. I’m not that disciplined/good/attentive/willing/careful.” “If it made you more joyful, would you? If you could remain mindful long enough to carry me lovingly across that great green stretch of grass, might you not Practice holding what delights your heart, even half that long? Do you not wish to become the skillful artisan of your days?” “I do! I do! But…” “The open heart of a practicing Artisan strews beauty along every path it walks. It is not perfect beauty, neither is the Artisan, but she has chosen to show up, to intend, to choose time and time again to stand worthy in her Practicing. Can you not choose the same?” “I’ll try.” “Personally, I don’t care for ‘trying.’ It arouses suffering. We are half-hearted from fear when we only try. Our imagination savors all that could happen from a full-out effort. Trying leaves ashy tastes on the tongue. No, I want you to commit. Failure is fine, for it’s full-hearted. Fall, get up, fall again. Be bruised, and honor those bruises of your commitment.” “No one ever told me they found me more powerful because I was a huge failure.” “That’s because all they were doing was trying.” Asana: Visvamitrasana. Visvamitra was the name of a man who through many failures finally became exactly who and what he wanted to be, a great… Read more »

A Doctor has described our bulbous, calorie-laden consumption of lemon creams, toffee butternuts, and chocolaty devil mousse’s as ‘gut bombs.’ Those nirvana, heat seeking missives of cholesterol and wide waists that call to us like the Sirens do more than make us hefty, they render us unconscious. When I have polished off a pot pie, or deep fried bits, along with the ice cream that goes with, I can lay insensate for hours, oblivious to the day’s requirements. Not only sugar but white, crusty bread, begging its butter slathering, or pastry logs of sugary fruit commence days of high despair, disappointment, and oblivion. Surrendering long ago to the cheap, low-life grabby fingers of sugar addiction, I have been yanking myself around it ever since, and therefore am very taken with the term ‘gut bomb’ for a number of reasons. 1. It’s silly sounding, and very onomatopoetic, that is, a word that sounds like its referent, as in buzz, cookoo, or crack. Gut Bomb is creatively visual, therefore hard to ignore, whereas saturated fats, caloric intake, BMI index, blah blah blah do nothing but drive me toward the ‘fridge and guilt. 2. Gut Bomb implies the destruction is more than just from food. The expected explosion feels visceral, connected to heart and mind, the gut being only the first tank to blow in the assault. 3. The vividness demands I ask, “Why am I craving a gut bomb? What is the unmet need that is assuaged by this mound, this bomb of sugar, Crisco, butter, and salt? Or perhaps it is drugs, sex, rock ‘n roll, gambling, drink…even perfectionism. Why am I asking to go ‘out’ at this time? What is the alarm bell that needs bombing in order for me to feel safe and placated? If the dark henchman of… Read more »

‘Intimate’ from the Latin, intimare/intimus, meaning ‘inmost,’ to make known, is a word we usually associate to mean closely acquainted with someone. All well and good, but we can also be intimate, or not, to our life, our breath, our time, our death. This requires a good deal of work. Turning inward to sit still and be intimate with any aspect, any person, requires not only conscious attention, but still-listening to exactly ‘what is.’ Intimacy is becoming harder to come by. Instead of having an intimate relationship with time, we feel we are abused by it, cowed and overwhelmed by our lack of it. Would that feeling change if we were to sit in intimate conversation, face to face with time? Try it. Ask what it means to you to become intimate with your time. Do you have intimate friends? Why not? What are you unwilling to give to make that possible? Do you have an intimate relationship with Self? Do you sit in stillness, honoring your relationships, willing to hold every contrary piece of your nature in close proximity, and allow exposure? Being intimate doesn’t mean having to like all of what is exposed, connected with, or related to. Being intimate simply means we are willing to turn inward with that person, that issue, or idea. We are willing to be known to them so that we can open to one another without barriers, or subterfuge. I suspect that this new year is going to ask more intimacy of us, ask us to be more present to a life that is flying by, more aware to what is dying, more compassionate to those not willing to be intimate with their lives. Asana: Ardha Matsydrasana/Fish Pose: Lie on your back, in stillness, willing to open the heart to self, to… Read more »

There is an astrological signature for the place in each of us where we are most wounded, and where ultimately we do our greatest healing, and teaching. It is the placement o an Asteroid called ‘Chiron,’ named for the Greek God who was blacksmith, teacher, and healer to the Gods, and their offspring on Mt Olympus. I am reminded of Chiron through my Yoga Practice, for it surfaces in poses that fmost rustrate me, and where my body feels inept/misshapen. Ultimately these are the Asanas offering the greatest knowledge, and profound understanding not only of my body but my attitude toward it. In my growing consciousness healing begins. The ‘Chironic wound’ is a reminder not only of what we think we don’t do well, but where we hold back, where we allow fear to squelch effort, then disdain ourselves for taking the risk. Psychologically, it is the interior space where we cannot, or do not support ourselves, selling our talents short, diminishing our true gifts, or worse, not even recognizing them. Just as our Practice over time opens consciousness, and elevates desire, Chiron’s healing comes through the same practice of awareness, loving kindness, forgiveness. In both, the deep bell tones of a well lived life emerge out of rock-hard struggles. The Chironic wound often appears as the ‘Zen-Master:’ The unfair boss who drives you crazy, the lover who abandons you, the child who flagrantly disobeys. Each of these demonic conflicts has something important to tell us/teach us, then heal us. Are we listening? Are we willing to bring our ‘misshapen hearts’ into light? Asanas: Natarajasana or Lord of the Dance. Begin in Tadasana, and move onto the R foot, (lift R knee cap, and draw thigh deep into hip joint.) bending L knee, raise the leg behind you. Rotate L… Read more »