Sensual Being: Tending the Warmth
There is a watery sensation that spring starts to offer, as the humidity rises and the ground gets warmer to bring forth new life. In Ayurveda, the sister science to yoga that speaks to daily living, spring is Kapha season - or - a mix of the water and earth elements. The belief is that the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether exist in all of nature, including our bodies. Depending on where you were born, what you have lived through, and what you do daily determines your dosha, or energetic makeup of the elements. The word dosha translates to “that which can go out of balance” so we seek to balance and harmonize our unique nature to live a more connected, joyful life.
One of my favorite ways to welcome spring and honor this natural cycle is to practice mindfulness around daily rituals that intuitively start to shift with the energy around us. For example, I find myself craving salads and fresh fruits again rather than the soups and stews I nurtured myself with during the winter. I’m seeking the heated blanket less and reaching for sandals, and it feels a little easier to get up in the morning. Collectively we are each building internal heat, Agni, which cleanses and purifies anything we no longer need to carry with us on our journey. The fiery nature of Aries spikes our passions and stokes the fire before moving into the grounded safe space of Taurus where dreams are put into reality.
After the cold death of winter, spring sensuality can feel like friendly warm sunlight on your face, or a growing pain of roots pushing fiercely into the softening earth. April brings showers - emotions that can feel like rain drenching the heart space - so that in later months we can flower and grow into something unique of this time and space. Generally during this time I enjoy mindful, intuitive movement rather than focusing on structured postures and sequences that have a name and lineage.
Cellular memory - history doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme, and that is true with our personal history and story. “I can honor my story because it got me to this point, and I feel free to write the story from here.”
Stored emotions in the body show up sensationally as tension or pain, and cannot be intellectualized through the mind to process it. We must feel to heal, setting the logical mind aside and letting the body remember, digest, and sacrifice lower dimensional aspects of ourself that no longer serve the story we are living. New neural pathways = new ways of being in the world. Allowing for the Agni, internal heat to naturally rise as we focus on alignment with our passions, goals, and wildest dreams, we create the life we want to live.
Yoga Practice for Radiant Transitions
Practice outside in nature, or inside as nature.
Music with no words and a good rhythmic beat is a fun addition to this practice, but not necessary.
Listen to the rhythm of your heart beat.
Sprouting Seed
Recline with feet on the floor - shoulder width distance
Begin windshield wiper legs side to side, as you focus on the support of the floor
Gradually turn your awareness toward intuitive movements such as hip rocking, feet stomping, rolling side to side or anything your body calls for
Movements often come out as primal and can bring up emotions related to early stages of development
We need to feel to heal, but there’s also a limit our bodies and minds can take at one time, so it’s important to be gentle with yourself and not push anything to happen
Stirring Fawn
Get into table top position on hands and knees
Stack your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees
Start connecting breath with movement in cat cow spinal movements and allowing the movement to expand into something bigger
Hip sways, chest circles, head movements, really focus on the fluid movement of your spine from the top of your head down to your tailbone
Seaweed Sway
Stand on your mat with relaxed arms alongside in mountain pose
Soften your knees and start to lightly bounce as you connect to your breath.
Move and breathe bouncing the knees, focusing on your feet feeling strong and rooted into the ground
Allow this energy to travel up the legs to the core and heart, expanding through the arms.
I like to imagine a blade of grass dancing in the wind, or seaweed on the bottom of the ocean floor.
For final integration of the physical practice I suggest reclined resting with your legs propped up to promote nervous system relaxation and circulation of the fresh energy created through the entire body.
