Finding your balance: inspirations from the autumnal equinox

On September 22nd, 2012, the sun will cross the celestial equator, meaning that the length of day and night is as equal as it’s going to get during the year (Vancouver daytime will be 7 AM-7 PM).  Transitioning from the  summer can be bittersweet as we look over our shoulders at the departing days of sunny adventure.  And yet the darkness of fall offers a new opportunity to move inwards, reflect, and re-connect to the deeper and steadier currents in our lives.

Yoga Balance: Summer and Winter

This seasonal balance is echoed in our yoga.  In our practice, we are constantly moving between consciousness of our outer form (alignment) and the internal sensations of our inner body and breath.  Consciousness is an expression of the archetypal masculine energy of the sun; it shines a light onto our experience and invites us to cultivate fire, luminosity, and strength.  Focusing on our internal world engenders the archetypal feminine of the moon and the winter’s darkness; connecting with our inner body’s sensations invites us to soften, receive, and feel.

Empower your yoga experience by making your practice what you need.

On the days that we feel isolated, tired, or depressed, focusing on the strength and alignment of our outer body will boost our energy, burn out lethargy, and create a sense of empowerment.  Practice power, flow, and core styles to ramp up your inner sunshine.  Engaging in the social setting of a group class will encourage an invigorating and extroverted practice; connect to your fellow practitioners before and after class to get your focus out into the world.

When we are over-hyped, aggressive, or distracted, then we need the cooler energy of introspection to nourish our practice.  Focus on the inner experience of your body and your breath to pacify the nervous system, smooth out anxiety, and calm the mind.  Choose styles like yin, hatha, mediation, and restorative in order to reconnect to your inner world and come back home.

Life Balance

The autumnal equinox is also a potent opportunity to reassess the larger balancing act of our lives.

Some food for thought:

  • Do I need more alone time?
  • Am I making enough opportunities for play?
  • Am I finding a balance in my relationship of give and take?
  • Are there any dark corners I’m avoiding?
  • What part of my life need more nourishment and passion?
  • How can I refill my own cup?

As with all balancing acts, there is no one point of fixation.  Instead, balancing means moving continually in the dance between the extremes.  Relinquishing the need to find “the” exact tipping point frees us from the ossification of artificial perfection.

Invite the dance of light and darkness to your practice and your life.  Allow the balance to shift from day to day, moment to moment.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein

 

Kitchen Music: Christmas Lullaby (Jason Robert Brown)

This is not the Christmas Lullaby you’re thinking of, but the one by Jason Robert Brown from “Songs for a New World.”   The lyrics are probably the closest thing to Christian rock that I’ve ever sung, which is a little out of my usual range, but the message is universal.

I love this song.  This is for all the mamas out there.

Christmas Lullaby, composed by Jason Robert Brown, sung by RAS

 

“Kitchen Music:”  Music recorded literally in the kitchen.  No auto-tune.  No fancy mixin’.  Just me and my Garage Band and the sink.  Right click to download.

Clarify: How saying “no” to the little stuff says “yes” to the big stuff

Like most of us, I get a lot of email.

“Shit-ton” is the word that comes to mind.

The steady deluge in my inbox can keep me responding, forwarding, and archiving for several hours a day.  There’s something about seeing the bold font of a new message that makes my brain say, “Oh, hey someone must really like me!” and “Now, THIS must be important!”  Before you know it, my afternoon has been sucked down the vortex of google mail.

Recently I was in a time crunch and had to edit our 300-page Teacher Training Manual in three days.  In order to finish this daunting task, I desperately shut down access to my beloved email in order to devote myself wholly to the project.

I was astonished by how much I was able to accomplish.

Without the “you’ve got mail” distracting me from my task, I finally made inroads into a seemingly monumental task.   In fact, I was able to deliver the revised manual to our marketing department a day early.  And because I had a designated structured time for answering urgent mail (answering – not just reading and postponing), I blazed through my communication obligations, too.

 

Getting real about distractions

Distractions – like email – keep us from getting what we really want.  While email is the shiniest toy, it’s certainly not the only one.  Here are some of my personal favorites:

  • Facebook (ohhhhh, Facebook!)
  • Unsatisfying or obligatory relationships
  • Pointless flirtations
  • Trashy reading
  • Emotional eating.  Cheddar bunnies.
  • Web surfing
  • Daydreaming rather than doing

We all have our seductive gremlins of comfort.   And while they each have their occasional place, we have to get clear with ourselves about whether these past times are taking time and energy away from our priorities.  When we learn to say “no” to these little seductions, we have the capacity to take action on the bigger projects that lay close to our heart.

 

Living your Vision

We each have a unique vision for our life that takes time, space, and effort to manifest.  Usually we try to add on action steps for this vision to an already busy life – without first letting go of the stuff that’s getting in the way!  Then we beat up ourselves for not being able to do what’s needed in a cycle of self-blame.  Our distractions keep us bogged down in an “I can’t really do it” mindset.  Whether our greater vision is related to work, family, travel, adventure, or health, we need to first create the time and space to commit to what is “Important” rather than what is “Urgent.”

 

Word of the Month: Clarify

Clarified butter is made by simmering butter and skimming off the foam and solids, leaving a warmed, golden, clear butter broth that can withstand higher cooking temperatures.

When we clarify our lives, we commit to a similar heating process of intensity and elimination.  We endure the fires of discomfort and self-reflection in order to separate the pure from the impure, the distracting from the nourishing.  We clarify how we are spending our energy and honestly evaluate what is serving our vision for our lives  – then we firmly let go of what is not.

Warning: this process of purification may cause feelings of emptiness, loneliness, discomfort, fear.  We may long to fly back into the arms of distraction rather than face the void that is created.   (At this very moment, I would much rather eat the nearby loaf Banana Bread than finish writing this post.)  While this journey takes immense courage, the resulting nourishment of your soul will ultimately satisfy you much more deeply than any short-term distraction can.

This month, consider:

  • Where do you spend most of your time?
  • What activities don’t increase your sense of well-being?
  • Which relationships are nourishing to you?
  • What can you let go of that isn’t serving you?
  • What does creating space look like?
  • Can you create more space by increasing your efficiency or creating boundaries?
  • Are there foods, substances that you are taking in that don’t take care of your body?
  • What habits are you holding onto that no longer serve you?

This month, rather than slathering on new obligations or to-do’s, engage in a practice of questioning and culling.   Prepare the ground for your greatest vision by opening the space for possibility.

 

How to make clarified butter

Unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1. Heat the unsalted butter in a heavy-duty saucepan over very low heat, until it’s melted. Let simmer gently until the foam rises to the top of the melted butter. The butter may splatter a bit, so be careful.

2. Once the butter stops spluttering, and no more foam seems to be rising to the surface, remove from heat and skim off the foam with a spoon. (It can be saved and added to soups, bread doughs, polenta, pilaf, or a bowl of warm oatmeal.)

Don’t worry about getting every last bit; you can remove the rest when straining it.

3. Line a mesh strainer with a few layers of cheesecloth or gauze (in France, I use étamine, which is cotton muslin) and set the strainer over a heatproof container.

4. Carefully pour the warm butter through the cheesecloth-lined strainer into the container, leaving behind any solids from the bottom of the pan.

Instructions: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/03/how-to-clarify-butter-recipe/