After the large beautiful meal that you enjoyed yesterday and left overs today you may not be feeling your sharpest or most energetic.  Here are some suggestions for getting that digestion back online even when you might have eaten sides that inflame your gut.

Standing with feet shoulder width, arms at your side, feel your feet in the ground and begin to sway with heavy soft arms.  a casual twisting that likens a walk. exhale every time you twist, inhale as you sway to the other side.  15-30 breaths.  Breathing may seem fast, and that is ok!  Work for those thorough exhales.  Energize this twisting sway with breath, not arms.

Then begin to high step one knee to the opposite elbow (maybe seems like an aerobics class at the moment). exhale with every elbow/knee touch.  15-30.

Stand tall, feet close, for Standing Crescent.  Arms over   head, feet and heels firmly planted.  pull one wrist over stretching the side body like a crescent moon.  Opposite side as many times as you like.  Your side body may be quite tight, so DEEP inhales as you arch over.

Next, either take a nice walk outside in the fresh air OR lay down and increase your digestions with Reclined Twists, Legs left first.  Back and forth with 3-4 breaths for each side and then end legs on right side.  This is for your ascending and descending colon.

JOY to your GUT.

It’s not always nice or helpful to say ‘get over it’.  Mmmm probably never actually.  Yet, I am going to say it, inside.  This morning was a morning in which my 6 year old felt the world and its inner workings were worth tears and defeat at every turn.  Nothing was right or OK.  Don’t we all have moments and hours and days like this.  Sometimes entire seasons.

Some things we may never get over, we move along with them and begin to see them differently.

Some things we can share and talk about and find joy within.

Some things, some mornings, we need to get over.  Move past and start FRESH.  Breath. A pose.  Change clothes.  Allow for a mess.  Move through on and get over IT.  There is a day waiting that is bursting with NEW.  I hope today the best lifts you up and sets your path onward.  Little things can be worth tears.  You are worth moving on and getting over IT.

 

Last year around this time, healing familial ties and other relationships was a theme that felt appropriately placed in the holiday season.  That time of year has come around again, and this year I’m thinking of it a little differently.  I’m wondering how the holidays will look if I consider myself a garden to tend and the people I interact with as visiting flowers.

How would activities be chosen differently?  How would words to a petal or stem be spoken?  How much water does that one need and what kinds of food does it like best? (I’m thinking of water and food here as listening, affection, shared conversations, and perhaps eye contact.)  What truly nourishes? This lends to feeling a little lighter and inquisitive about how the coming week and end of year will look and feel.  Envisioning people and yourself as a garden may not be what fits you — but if it does and you try it, I’d be delighted to know what you experience.  I’m giving it a try for sure!

Poetry by Emily Dickinson 

Lessons from a kindergarten class:

Last week I was in the art room at my daughter’s school to lend a hand to a group of kindergarteners working on a clay project.  When I first walked in one of the students scowled at me.  I’m guessing that’s because he didn’t know who I was —  I’m not quite sure.  A few moments after instructions for the lesson were finished and the art teacher explained that I was there to assist the class, this kid was the first to come over and say, “I’m going to need your help with my clay.” There were lots of little hands and lots of clay that needed rolling, so after he was set for his next step it was time to move along quickly.  The class time flew by and they were lining up just as the last child finished the first step of their project. I went around picking up dried bits of clay while the art teacher organized their line up and dismissal.  The boy from the beginning said, “I’m going to miss you.” and I replied, “That’s very kind of you to say. I’ll miss you too but maybe see you again next time.”  Five and six year old children are notorious for catching on to what draws a compliment and wanting to receive the same, so the girl next to him said, “I love you.” The child next to her said, “Me too!  I love you!”  It set off a wave of I love you from the entire line of children.  They were saying It to each other, to the art teacher, and maybe to the air.  It was absolutely adorable.  I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a room full of I love you, but it’s a sweet reminder about letting go of conditions or reasons to love.

Love to love and say it just because.

When you’re able to bring yourself into the present without carrying the past or feeling concerned about the future, you have the opportunity to become a clean slate for yourself and for others.  Learning to drop judgements about yourself and to not form them for others or releasing them if you have, can create a lot of freedom in your life.

I’ve been in a long process that I consider to be a deep clean, a time of letting anything go that once defined who I thought I was.  This includes letting go of notions I had about others too and practicing seeing myself and others as clean slates.  If you’re willing to try this, so that you can be fresh for the moment you’re in, I think you’ll find the benefit.  It provides the platform for forgiveness and making choices with a loving heart.

Imagine what your life would look like if you were willing to let people be new in each moment instead of holding them to the patterns or displays of their past.  How would you feel and behave if that were offered to you in each moment?  Being a clean slate creates the space needed for any kind of real change.

We can move through life taking our bodies for granted and forgetting to be thankful and loving ourselves as we are.  Body experiences vary for each person and change with age.  Sometimes we have pain or discomfort and yet we can still see all of it as an extraordinary happening that we get to take part in and that is worth our gratitude!  Pause to acknowledge the blessing your body is to you with a short guided visualization.  This takes just a few minutes and may help to keep you mindful in other parts of your day.

Blessing the Body

I am thankful for my whole body.  I am thankful for my whole being. I bless my mind, body, soul and all the points at which these parts of me interconnect.

I breathe into my entire body with a warm, soothing light that glows as it moves with my breath.  I breath warm, soothing, glowing light into my chest.  I breathe warm, soothing, glowing light into my shoulders, neck, and face.  I feel the warmth flow into the back of my body, stomach, hips, legs, and feet.  I am filled with warmth.  I am filled with a soft glowing light.  I am safe. I am warm.  My entire body is a blessing to me.

Guided voice with singing bowls and tingsha bells:

 

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anaïs Nin

Have you held yourself back from anything that could have helped you to expand? Could you let yourself take a step in a direction that would lead you to living a little larger and letting yourself embody more of your expansive spirit?  Where in your life is fear of something keeping you small?  If just acknowledging a fear is where you are today, that’s okay.  Approach it when and how you can until it’s easy enough to see whatever that fear is as something you can hold hands with, merge with, and then work with.

You can use the word fear interchangeably with insecurity, hurt, anger, sadness, and anything that could feel heavy or restrictive. All of these states of being need you to bring in their opposite to balance and heal.

 

 

An affirmation for trusting life and possibilities :

I trust that every moment is unfolding as it should.  I trust in my experiences and I am open to possibilities not immediately seen.

 

Your vehicle is just a party waiting to happen!  Even a 5 minute drive has  a minute in there where  you could be letting loose!!   The extent to which you’ll embrace this is all up to you.  I’ve been known to dance it out at a red light which my two kids think is horrifying now that they’re in their preteen and teenage years.  I’ve joked that I’m invisible in the car and they insist that’s absolutely not true.  (I do have leeway at the moment from my daughter to dance after 6pm with daylight savings time. – Thanks a lot kid.) The truth is I hope the people sitting around me will see it and remember to LIVE their lives and snatch up those moments of fun when they can.

So this is an ongoing scene for us, but yesterday my dear neighbor who is a little more reserved than me had her windows down and her jam turned up.  She yelled out as she drove by, “I’m having a party in here.”  Her British accent made it all the better to hear.  (Why is that – propriety?)  I was so happy to catch her in that moment and said, “Yes you are!  Enjoy!” and it’s made me think to share it with all of you.

Let yourself be the person having fun in a row of metal and minds lost to the mundane.  What is that quote by Omar Khayyan? 

Be happy for this moment.  This moment is your life.

You may be strapped in to that vehicle but you get to decide if it’s going to be a happy sort of restriction or not.  Please dance responsibility.

 

 

rit‧u‧al /ˈrɪtʃuəl/  noun [countable, uncountable]    

1 a ceremony that is always performed in the same way, in order to mark an important religious or social occasion

2 something that you do regularly and in the same way each time

It could be that you are a very orderly person and live your life by routine.  If that is the case, you could benefit from bringing in something special to that routine to give it spark, wake it up, and help you to be fully present in the moment with your life happenings.  It could be that you are not a very orderly person, and that your life would be more productive if you faced what may be a difficulty in adhering to routine which can be made more pleasant through creating rituals that you enjoy.  No matter how you naturally function, rituals can be a beautiful practice in staying present and they can consist of anything that you like.  Your ritual could be all in the preparation of your morning coffee or tea, it could be in a time you set aside to meditate or to exercise.  Creating a ritual brings more focus into an activity and I believe more gratitude as well.  It can be helpful to have rituals as part of your morning and evening.

Think of ways that you can greet the day that would feel special to you and something that would be a good marker in closing it off too.  The practice doesn’t need to be too long or an obstruction to your day, it should be something that you can easily add to brushing your teeth (assuming you do that at least twice a day) and that will help you to appreciate your morning and your days end.