Embracing the ryhthms of the seasons through our yoga practice.

Yesterday was the Fall Equinox. The first day of fall, where there is an even amount of day & night. We often fight this time of year, as the days are cooler, & summer is ended. If feels like a loss of something we love, but it is just part of a rhythm of our lives.

Can we instead embrace the change?

Nature has it’s seasons & transitions, the trees change to prepare for the time ahead by dropping their leaves to take their energy inside themselves for the harsher weather to come. The animals store up for the winter months ahead when what they need is less abundant. Since we don’t have to rely on our own crops to sustain us, as we can just pick something up from the grocery store, we tend to disconnect with the rhythms of nature. We fight the change of the season & the time of less light & warmth, as we mourn the loss of the freedom & life of summer. But can we embrace this transition, as nature does, & realize this time of year is to help us go inwards. To be more restorative & nurturing so when the days of more sun & warmth come back, we have the resources to make the most of the activity that comes with spring & summer.

You may be thinking, I’d like to hibernate like the animals! I wish we could, but that is not realistic in our modern world, so how can you embrace the cold, dark days to come without moving into depression & complacence? By going inwards & really checking in with when you need to rest, when you need to take action & move, what do you need to sustain yourself… by finding a way to practice living authentically from your needs instead of your wants.

Below is a great article on gaia.com with a video of a grounding series that can be done at home. The article goes in depth on some info & ritual that can be done in this transition to fall. A bit of a read, but well worth taking some time to see how you can use your yoga practice to help move into the darker days ahead & not be taken over by it.

note: If the series is a bit out of your comfort zone, adapt the poses as I teach you to do in class & make the series your own. Or, take what we do in class & make your own series, with a sense of grounding & going inwards as your starting point.

http://www.gaia.com/article/autumnal-equinox-yoga-ritual

So I challenge you to look at the change into fall & winter from a different perspective. As a time to give yourself permission to rest more, do things that nurture you physically, mentally & Spiritually. To do things like play a board game with your kids, enjoy a cup of tea with a friend, a book you’ve always wanted to read, or practice some yoga in a class or on your own. What will you do to take advantage of the slowing down of life that nature shows us?

Remember when life get busy with things like Thanksgiving & Christmas, to honour the natural time of the seasons & choose what you do & don’t do to help you replenish your energy instead of to deplete it. Take a cue from Mother Nature, & let your own natural rhythms guide you.

To finish today, I have added a quote from a very unlikely source, Stephen King. I found many lovely quotes in my search for one about fall, from people like Jane Austen & George Eliot, but this one kept drawing me back. Maybe the pipe smoking analogy reminds me of my grandfather, I don’t know, but it spoke to me…. Feel free to comment to me if it resonates with you or not. Or if you have another lovely quote that sums up what fall means to you.

“But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.” ― Stephen King, 'Salem's Lot

Namaste,

Anne Cox E-RYT 500

ACYOGA.net

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