Getting along
Can’t we all pray,
Each in his own way?
Teaching and learning,
we can work it out.
–Damian Marley
Shine your light
This morning as I drove by the ocean, I was struck by how murky and dull it looked. Usually, as I approach the Pacific on my way to work, the glimmer of the Ocean is a highlight. I take a specific route in anticipation of being greeted by the shimmering water, and begin inspired by her.
At first, I thought maybe the water was more polluted…maybe it was ore murky because of the recent rain? Then I realized that there was just enough cloud cover to block the sun.
It’s light that makes everything glimmer.
What a great reminder to shine my light to help see the best in others.
How can you shine your light–give positive energy to–movements, organizations, and loved ones?
Increasing Kapha through friendship
Many of us are fighting the feeling of inertia these days. The best thing for kapha balancing is to overcome stagnation in any way you feel it.
Try something new!
Spice up your romance (or just your diet)!
Jump! Dance! Move!
As I mentioned in another post, during this time of fertile creation, we begin to consider which seeds in our lives we wish to plant. Many times, I get so caught up in considering which seeds I wish to plant for my family and my career, that I forget the importance of nourishing the plants that are my friendships. Now that the holiday social obligation season has passed, thing about which friendships are important to nurture just for the sake of friendship. In these days of non-nuclear families and moving frequently, our friends play the role of our family often. My sister recently reminded me of the importance of “dating” our friends…and I pass that reminder on to you all.
This is the season of establishing stability–the loyalty and love of friendship provides a wonderful foundation for this.
Relativity of time
I once heard that as you age time goes by faster because you are relatively older. In other words, because you are made up of more minutes, one minute seems smaller and smaller.
It’s funny but I do remember staring at the clock as a kid feeling like 5 minutes was oh so long; and now I stare at the clock in astonishment, wondering where the day went.
One of the great things about January is the psychologically fresh feeling of a new year. These days, I’m still using the excitement of the new year to propel so many backlogged projects. As I race through my task list, and fly through my day, sometimes I forget to just breathe.
I check my goal-oriented Pitta, and stare at the clock while I just breathe, and magically once again the clock seems slow. (Aha! yogi’s know that pranayam makes you younger…)
You can do it too. Just stop (what you are doing). Drop (the thoughts). and Breathe.
Vata-Kapha season
When vata energy combines with kapha, there can be an explosion of creativity! On the flipside, many of us may also be feeling the crash after several weeks of doing too much during the business of vata season.
A few of my friends have commented on how they have needed to just cancel plans, call in sick, and just stay in bed because of feeling overwhelmed. Sound familiar? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Vata-Kapha season can also be a time where runny noses meet sinus congestion, and emotions can cycle quickly. Crying, and melancholy and feeling sluggish can come into the picture, especially during these heavy kapha rains.
Grounding vata while not aggravating kapha is the key to balance this time of year. My recipe:
- maintain as much routine as possible
- eat warm spiced foods; keep the amount of dairy to a minimum
- do 2 sun salutations in the morning, and everytime I start to feel slow
- a cup of warm tea in the afternoon
2011: beginnings
A friend of mine recently mentioned that 2011 is a time of beginnings. One is a number of beginning, of course, and yet I had not thought of the coming year in that light. As I reflect on 2012, I remember that even death is just a transformation, and every transformation is a process. 2011 could begin the process of a transformation of any aspect of your life.
What patterns in my life will do I no longer wish for? What new patterns will I transform them into?
After all, kaphic energy is a creative one, and this is the time to plant seeds for the new year.
Happy ‘Planting,’
New Year’s resolutions
As my family celebrates the festival of lights, I’m reminded of Thomas Ashley Ferrand’s beautiful explanation of how sound, not light is the vehicle of manifestation. This morning, we toasted to our goals for the year and I could feel the power of voicing–or giving voice to–our intentions. Yes, this is what practicing mantra is; but is also what a conversation with a friend could be.
Do my words reflect my thoughts and intentions? Do my actions uphold my word?
As we wrap up the year, this is a good time to reflect on the harmony of your intentions, words and actions. Are they all playing the same tune?
At the Leadershift conference this weekend, a speaker noted, ” They say ‘put your money where your mouth is’; How about, ‘put your LIFE where your mouth is.”–I loved that.
What are your intentions for our next revolution around the sun?
Our son arrives
Deshant: having the knowledge of the four directions; bringer of peace
Deshant. I wasn’t too fond of the name when I first heard it. We had sent of for our new son’s vedic janam patri-an astrological map drawn relative to your location and time of birth. This birth chart allows for interpretation of which planetary energies have what type of effect on you, and so much more. One of the reasons a person’s birth chart is consulted is to reveal sounds that are energetically favorable—and these can be used to find the best name for the him/her. So here we were, a few days after “baby brother’s” arrival still pondering his name.
My husband had the same reaction; we looked up other sanskrit D names to no avail. Nothing seemed to feel quite right. We even thought to get a “second opinion” on the read of the birth chart. Then we realized, we were making this about us—what names we were fond of. Yet, this was supposed to be about our son and what was best for him.
Here we had asked the universe to reveal his name through his birth chart, but we didn’t want to accept the answer.
I never expected the number of lessons I have learned from my children, from the experience of being a mother; How naïve I was to think that I would be the one to teach them life lessons!
So here my son teaches me his first lesson—if you ask the universe for something, be prepared to receive it.
And, he gently reminds me of perhaps the toughest lesson my daughter had already revealed: sometimes what is best for our kids is not to our liking.
The good thing is that tastes change, and our perspectives can be shifted. Only a week later, I’ve fallen in love with his name. Maybe it just took some getting used to; maybe it’s because I love him.
Thank you all for your warm wishes and joining our family in welcoming Deshant!
Vata Season (winter)
We are in the season of wind (vata), which brings us transition and movement. For most of us, it is a time when we are caught up in the whirlwind of life and are perhaps feeling a bit overwhelmed. Anxiety is common this time of year, as is difficulty concentrating, restlessness and insomnia (other signs of vata imbalance).
- Be careful this season with allowing the wind to blow you towards extremes–try to find the middle-ground.
- Root yourself, by enjoying the grounding rain (a welcome bump of kapha), doing less, and routine, routine, routine!
- Enjoying the warming, grounding foods of this season is another way to calm vata. Spicing up your cooking, eating warm stews, and avoiding cold and dry foods helps as well.
- If you are starting to crave sweets this season, take a look at how you may feel depleted and where you could use more love in your life.
This is also a season where creativity abounds and you can envision how you would like to make changes in your life. Just envision for now, allow yourself to enjoy the holidays and just become aware of obstacles to those changes. Then, you can prepare to make those changes with the stability of kapha season and the momentum of the New Year supporting you.
Permission to be goofy
Today I skipped down a hill…what a long time since I’ve done that. It struck me that being goofy felt like a guilty pleasure.
Why should someone in their 30′s feel weird about skipping, or singing in public, or any of the thousands of other ways my children express joy? Somehow social decorum seems to dictate that we don’t really express joy openly, publically, unabashedly. How strange. No wonder so many of us are more focused on what is socially acceptable–complaining.
Strangers in elevators seem more likely to bond over a complaint about the weather, or smog, or politics than they are to share a smile, or happy news. It’s no surprise that it is an act of bravery to smile at a stranger these days, or that we are so much more preoccupied with our woes than our joys.
Let’s shift the focus, in our speech, in our interactions. Go ahead, give yourself permission to be goofy today.