In yogic tradition, mokṣa means freedom from saṃsāra, the endless cycle of life and death. Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism all view the attachments of our physical lives as limits to the ultimate goal - enlightenment. Each has different ideas as to how liberation is achieved…
Read MoreBy celebrating the summer solstice, we recognize and honor just how important the sun, and each day, is. Here are some ideas for how you might work with the energies of and honor the summer solstice yourself….
Read MoreThe lingering effects of this concussion force the Energizer Bunny to slow down and remind me of my True Self which aways craved quiet and stillness. I nap, listen to books, and more deeply embrace internal practices that support my healing.
Read MoreI walked out the front door of my Florida home, stepping into a sky-blue-bright day blazing with heat, only to find a chicken turtle clinging to the edge of my paver-patterned driveway. As I approached, thinking how much it looked like a painted turtle our children once raised, it appeared more lethargic than frightened.
Read MoreThink of a seed that has been hibernating through the long winter in the cold crusty earth waiting for just the right moment to reach upward through the soil toward the warmth of the life-giving sun to fulfill its life purpose, its dharma. This is the qi (life-force energy) of springtime….
Read MoreAs I really began to look around me, I became acutely aware that this moment was a gift. Its value would not be determined by the number of Facebook ‘Likes’ or the fact that I shared a photo with a friend across the country. This moment needed no outside validation. Nor did I, despite my habitual need to somehow capture it all and offer it up for public consumption.
Read MoreFinding ourselves surrounded by lions in the heart of Tanzania, we held our collective breath. Here’s what happened next – you can’t make this up – and what I learned from the experience.
Read More…my life was forever changed. The life-coaching program emphasizes tapping into your feminine side and women supporting women. These ideas led to being introduced to the concept of a Power Partner. A Power Partner is an intentional platonic friend who you support and who feels supported by you.
Read MoreInner wars and conflicts never pass without struggle. Whether the focus is on love, relationship, food, exercise, money, or anything else, once the inner struggle begins, we easily bog down, mired in the mud of indecision and inaction. Ask me: I’m expert on this one.
Read MoreOne day the question “What brings you alive?” caused her to sit up. Her immediate response was, “Not a doggone thing.“ With eyes brimming and a knot in her throat, she wondered, “When did I become so small? I need more! I want to LIVE!” she proclaimed aloud.
Read MoreIn the dark days of winter, around the Winter Solstice, we long for the light of the sun. Our wintertime traditions with stories of bright stars, traditions of Yule logs and candles, and decorating with twinkling lights all serve as reminders to look toward the coming light in all its forms.
Read MoreDuring this time of year, when we are reminded to pause and feel gratitude for our good fortunes and blessings, I realize that “thanksgiving” has not been an annual event for me in a very long time. The practice of yoga, mindfulness, and healing brings gratitude front and center – a daily pause kindled by the observation of life’s victories, no matter how small.
Read MoreThis is a song of life. Like most songs, and all stories of life, it contains both joy and sadness, and it begins like this.
Read MoreWe settled around the blue farm table in Deborah’s kitchen. Its worn wooden surface carried many layers of aqua-colored paint, applied seasonally by Deborah, a five-foot tall sprite with bright eyes, vibrant wit, and a flare for bringing people together….
Read MoreBook Review: When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
When you read the words lush, rollicking, and imaginative to describe a new novel, it’s difficult to not read it. And when several people you admire as readers recommend it, then it turns into an impossibility, especially when the plot turns on the ability of women in the 1950s being able to turn themselves into dragons.
Read MoreFloating when depleted proves to be a strong Rx, a natural one, too. You don’t need to be on an ocean- or river-bound ship to do it, either. Floating, I’ve come to realize, comes in many versions and leads to a more- restive state of mind…
Read MoreI’m depleted. Out of juice. Stopped dead in my tracks. I know I’m not alone. Just saying the words, “I’m depleted” somewhat eases the sense of depletion. I suspect you might know the feeling. The question is: Why does it take so long to admit it? And who do we think we’re fooling?
Like so many of you, I am finely attuned to my body and to my mind. The slightest change in calibration – be it physical, mental, emotional, spiritual - reverberates throughout my integrated system like shock waves. I trust my body and what it communicates, and I trust that I know my body best. I trust myself to make sound decisions that affect my body, mind, and spirit – I trust you to make yours.
What I mistrust? The ubiquitous “I’m fine”, “I’m well”, “I’m good” when someone asks me how I am and when I ask someone else. This mistrust bases itself on my direct experience. If I, your average human being albeit one who possessed huge amounts of energy, feels depleted from time to time, I assume with a high degree of confidence that most other humans do, too.
My depletion flows from a hidden underground spring of challenges, many of which we share. A primary culprit? Two years of coping and then recovering from the pandemic – in the case of MB and me fighting to save a business while facing the worry about loved ones. We’ve heard your pandemic sagas, too: saving your kids from the shock and challenge created from it, working from home (a blessing and a curse), feeling stuck.
Depletion results from so many triggers: grief, worry, overwork, no work, conflict with friends and family members, overeating and undereating, too much exercise and, for most of us, too little. Sometimes the cause slams into us like the fast-moving service vehicle that recently rear-ended my car on the freeway from following too close. When an accident happened in front of me, and I was able to avoid colliding into it because I’d left enough space, the driver behind me had not. Stopped dead in my tracks turned out not to just be a phrase. That impact depleted me in multiple ways and forced me into cutting back my schedule.
I wanted to keep going – this is both an instinct and a learned behavior (“just keep going” being a favorite idiom in many family structures). My head, my neck, my brain, my mind, my heart say otherwise. I’m listening to them. MB said recently and kindly, “My Energizer Bunny is missing in action.”
Stopping for a while, what a notion. It’s in the pause that we find ourselves and our well-being again. I’m working less because those are the doc’s orders as my eyes and brain require time to establish the proper communications patterns between them. In the pause, a secret revealed itself to me: When we finally admit to feeling depleted, healing and rebounding begin. Slowly, the body wants to move again. Carefully, the brain permits trying different approaches to counter the ever-present pounding headache. Mindful that we are energy, we attune to the ebb and flow of it and make different choices.
What if, when you feel depleted, you stopped yourself dead in your tracks? What if, instead of blustering through with the “I’m fine” and “I’m well”, you told the truth – “Right now, I’m pausing for a bit”? Would you, like me, begin to turn a corner into respecting your body, mind, spirt? And if you’re already practiced at this, share your stories.
What I’ve learned from this experience is to honor only that which I am feeling – whatever the feeling is – and pause in it. In the pause a solution reveals itself, whether it’s for rest, action, reflection.
The philosophy of yoga encourages us to “stay in the body”; to find the middle path; to non-harming ourselves and others (ahimsa); to telling the truth to ourselves and others (satya), and to cleanliness toward ourselves and others (saucha), which means to take care with ourselves and others.
Don’t wait for a debilitating shock to your system, for doctor’s orders, for collapse. Admitting to depletion (satya) completes it so we can move forward with the confidence that we know ourselves best. Admitting to depletion is the first step in defeating depletion. Join me.
When I feel a tightening or an uncomfortable burn in my Solar Plexus, I stop. I feel. I “listen” with my whole being. Is this anger? Is this a desire to be “right”? Is this a play of a sheer force of will? Is this over-excitement? Is this nervousness or shyness?
Read MoreIn her cheerful, quiet room, I sit as close to her hospital bed as possible, my hand on her bony shoulder, and turn my full attention to her. Even as she sleeps, I resist the phone….
Read MoreThere comes the time when we take deep stock of our lives. If we’re living a life grounded in the present and in the body, we will have taken stock frequently throughout the entire arc of our lives. What does it mean to take deep stock? When do we know it’s time to do so? How do we do it?
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