Seasons

Pay Attention

Elizabeth Advice, Current Events, Seasons , ,

Frozen Conodoguinet Creek

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
…from “The Summer Day,” Mary Oliver

Thirteen degrees on our back porch as I poured sunflower seeds in a bucket to carry to and fill the bird feeders. Thirteen felt very cold, but as I walked across the front yard, I swear the sun warmed my face and penetrated the layers of clothing I wore. I like to think this was a February duel between the Arctic’s breath, not ready to recede, and the sun’s promise of the spring to come.

Standing beside the Conodoguinet, I looked upstream as I often do. Mostly frozen, the creek’s current continued to insist upon a stream of open water. But where only days earlier Canada geese had bedded down on the ice, and hooded mergansers had fished, all was still and quiet, save for a faint birdcall now and then.

Climbing the steps from the creek and crossing yard, still covered here and there with snow, I looked for the prints left by animals that had ventured out. A pair of large prints, perhaps a raccoon, led from the front of the house to under our neighbor’s porch. Clearly the community of rabbits, squirrels, birds, mice and moles, with whom we share this small plot of ground on the creek, have been busy in spite of the cold.

Several times I have run into friends over the last few weeks who, knowing I had taken February as a hiatus month, have asked, “How it was going?” I have found myself answering that it has been a month, so far, of mixed blessings. What it certainly has been is a month of paying attention. To the birds, to the weather each day, to the footprints in the snow, to cats, to the fire in the wood stove, to knitting and books, to the voices of friends and family, to the spirals of my own voice.

The poet Mary Oliver comes back again and again to this directive: “pay attention.” And, so it is with yoga, giving us the tools with which to bring attention to our practice, to ourselves, to our relationships, to our lives.

When Mary Oliver asks, “…what will you do with your one wild and precious life?,” I think my answer will be, “Pay attention.”

A New Year, A New Beginning

Elizabeth Current Events, Mindset, Seasons , ,

Creekside in Winter

I think most of us like New Years because its message is “begin again.” Perhaps we never got around to doing a fifteen minute yoga practice in the morning, or eating a healthier lunch, or getting more rest, or spending time with friends we haven’t seen in a while, or nourishing a spiritual life. The list can go on and on. I am sure you could add to my examples, but I think you get the point.

The New Year feels like a time to start over something that didn’t go well last year, or renew something that did go well, or just plain begin something brand new we haven’t done before. It can be the work of giving up something that no longer serves us, and finding something that does. It can be a change in thinking, or speaking, or listening, or acting. It can be simply a time to reflect on the path we are on and to look at ourselves in our life with courage.

A new beginning for me this year is to take off one month this winter as a time to reflect upon the directions I want to take in teaching and in my life. To allow myself this space, I will not be offering classes the month of February. Our classes will begin again Wednesday, March 4 and Friday, March 6. We will be continuing with the theme of Whole-hearted Living, focusing on yoga as a tool to help us live more fully and with greater acceptance in our relationships and in our attitudes toward ourselves.

You will notice another new beginning in the upcoming weeks as a redesign of the Yoga 4 Healthful Living website is launched. It is my wish that the site is as simple, useful, and aesthetically pleasing as possible for users on all kinds of electronic devices. I am working with my wonderful “web guy” Ric Albano at 33 Dimensions to bring this about and will welcome feedback on your experience.

I realize this is not the type of blog I usually post, but I believe examining where we are and where we are going to be an important part of yoga. It is a svadhyaya, a kind of self-observation and examination. In this way we can construct an appropriate plan going forward.

How many times have you heard me tell you that yoga is about balance? Recently I came across the following definition of a “balanced lifestyle:” It is “a state of being in which one has time and energy for obligations and pleasures, as well as time to live well and in a gratifying way.”

If ever there is an over-arcing principle that can guide our reflections on and our choices in our work and life, it is this. As you begin this New Year of 2015, it is my wish that you find and enjoy this kind of balanced lifestyle.

 

Winter Solstice – Practice and Reflections

Elizabeth Seasons, Special Events ,

Winter Solstice image

Each year, I am able, I teach Yoga for the Winter Solstice. I do this believing we can come to a deeper, quieter place in our lives by heeding the messages of this season. I hope you will join me Wednesday, December 17 from 5:45–7:15 pm at The Movement Center in Harrisburg for this balancing, meditative time honoring the wisdom of the season. You can find out more information on this class here. Below you will find my reflections on the Winter Solstice, written for the Solstice last year, but still speaking to me, and I hope to you, of the blessings of the winter season.

I love noticing seasonal changes and what those changes suggest about the rhythms of our lives. After all, the teachings of yoga stress finding balance in our lives, harmony with the world around us. Awareness of the seasons, the energies they possess, their influence on our lives, and the lessons they teach can lead us to
live more healthfully and harmoniously with our environment.

The winter solstice is the day of both greatest darkness and the promise of returning and growing light. In this way, it also offers us a metaphor for our own energies. Within each one of us there is both energy that is quiet and reflective as well as energy that is light and uplifting. In our yoga practice, we always seek a balance of these two energies, remembering that the seasons and our environment will influence these energies uniquely within each one of us.

As we move toward the winter solstice, we can bring our awareness to the messages of this season. We look around and see the skeletons of deciduous trees as they husband their life-sustaining resources. Most plants have entered a time of dormancy so they may bloom in the spring. Ground hogs, rabbits, and chipmunks hibernate or reduce their activity so as to conserve their food, water, and heat. Even in the midst of a winter storm, there is a sense of quiet as we watch snowflakes fall and cover the ground.

If we were to honor the quiet energy of winter, we would rest more and view this season as an opportunity to restore ourselves so we have the energy to blossom with our activities in the spring. Winter can be a fallow time, but not necessarily a time when nothing happens. It can be a time of reflection; we can begin to ask ourselves what projects we want to undertake when the energy of spring rises to nurture us. Remembering that in winter we plan our gardens, we don’t plant them, can help remind us of winter’s rhythm.

The winter solstice teaches us about living with faith. It is the day of greatest darkness. It announces the coldest months of the year. Yet, at some moment, probably in January, we will notice that dawn arrives a bit earlier, and the sun sets a bit later. In the face of the cold, cloudy days, and winter weather, the lengthening hours of daylight will raise our faith that spring will come. In December 21, Clear and five degrees, Ted Kooser reminds us of the hopefulness of this season;

“Perfectly still this solstice morning, /in bone-cracking cold…/…as I walk the road,/the wind held in the heart of every tree/flows to the end of each twig and forms a bud.”

 

Transitions

Elizabeth Health, Seasons , , ,

Leaves are Starting to Fall

When I woke the other morning, the air felt chilly as I slipped into the space I call “my room” to do my yoga practice. And it was still cool enough when I went downstairs afterwards that Jim had cooked oatmeal for our breakfast, his “first oatmeal of the season,” as he said.

At my desk later, I found my head spinning as I looked at the well-organized sheet of notes listing all the things I should be taking care of. Fortunately, I stopped and decided the only way to gain perspective was to take a walk.

The lane where I walked divides smallish homes and the Conodoguinet creek on the left and a woodsy area below a town house development on the right. Scattered across the lane were brown leaves, and a few even floated down in front of me as I walked. Some trees sported drying leaves lacey with holes. It was quiet. No voices, no bird calls. Just the peace of the trees and a few horsetail clouds in a blue sky. I couldn’t help but think the day announced the slightest shift, an almost perceptible movement, toward the energy of fall.

I know this change toward shorter days and cooler weather is not welcome by everyone. And I’m not writing this as a foreboding of unwelcome things to come, but rather as an observation. So often our awareness of seasonal change is about what is around, outside of us. Yet the energetic qualities of each season influence all beings – including us.

In fall we observe the leaves drying and falling, often blown by the winds. The air cools. Autumn is characterized by the qualities of vata dosha, one of three constitutions described by the Indian science of health known as ayurveda. If we are in a vata stage of life – mid-50s and up – we might be even more vulnerable to these effects. We might find our hair, nails, and skin is dry. We may suffer from constipation and have trouble sleeping. We may feel ungrounded or anxious.

Knowing in advance the energetics of fall can keep us from wondering “what is the matter” if we find ourselves experiencing some of the symptoms of out-of-balance vata. Accepting that the season may exacerbate these effects, we can start making changes in our diet and lifestyles that can support a sense of balance. So, for example, if we tend to experience dryness, we can begin to add soups to our diets and take time to massage some sesame oil into our feet and joints. Our yoga practice can change to bring a sense of grounded-ness and stability to our system.

We do have to remember that how we respond to seasonal and life changes varies from person to person based upon what ayurveda identifies as our personal dosha or constitution at birth. Understanding our constitution helps us to understand our strengths and weaknesses and our responses to seasons and life events and choices. Much literature exists on the subject, and an ayurvedic practitioner can accurately identify and explain our constitution and its implications in our life.

Whether you choose to delve more deeply into learning about your constitution or not, we all can observe, without judging, the qualities of each season. We can notice how we are affected and prepare strategies to counter-balance any negative effects we may experience. In that way, we can help ourselves to “avoid future suffering“.

 

Spring Cleaning

Elizabeth Advice, Health, Seasons , ,

Spring Cleaning

The wind in March sweeps away the residue of winter and prepares us for change. As the earth releases what is old, space is made for the new growth to come.

Last week I attended a class offered by my friend and Health Coach Ruth Seitz at the Cornerstone Coffeehouse. In keeping with the traditional notion of “spring cleaning,” Ruth’s class focused on “Lifestyle Practices that Cleanse the Body and Soul.”

In her presentation, Ruth discussed the many ways we might include cleansing practices in our life. For example, we may commit to drinking more water, eating organic, deep breathing, skin brushing, and including foods in the diet that are known to cleanse and purify. What especially grabbed my attention was her recommendation to “dispense with what does not serve you.” As she explained, things that don’t serve you or bring you joy dry your soul.

A metaphor I’ve heard talks of a cooking pot that is used day after day without scrubbing it clean. When we continue to use the pot without cleansing it, the dirty pot taints each new dish we prepare. When we allow things to accumulate around us, they can taint whatever new project we undertake. They impinge on our space, creating tension so our bodies and minds cannot relax. When a flower pushes through the earth only to be choked by weeds and other plants competing for space, water, and light, it cannot flourish. And, neither can we.

We can start our cleansing practice by looking at the physical space around us. Are there objects, papers, clothing, “stuff” we do not need? We can look at ourselves. Are there issues affecting our physical health that need attention? Are we doing so much that we feel anxious and exhausted from all our commitments? Are our activities keeping us from getting adequate rest or eating in a way that supports us? Are there relationships that leave us feeling depleted? Do we have habits that continue to cause us suffering?

Our practice of yoga always requires svadhyaya – self-observation. We set an intention to be observant so that we can see what we need to clean out in our lives. Then we can set the intention to let go of what no longer serves us with the knowledge that this release will give us the space to breathe and bring to life what is new. Like the cook cleaning the cooking bowl soiled with the remnants of many meals, we may require time and patience and scrubbing. But as we clean gradually and steadily, the shine will come through.

If you would like more information about the classes Ruth Seitz teaches, you can reach her at ruthhealthcoach@gmail.com or by phone at 717-238-7878.