Yogic Rhythm of Dark and Light

There is a rhythm and lifestyle for winter .The outward giving for the holidays and the inward turning of the calendar new year. Here in the Northern hemisphere it is ideal for nourishing our inner fire and our spiritual light by moving forth into cultivating a place of rest and nourishment with yoga practices that target just that.  But how do you navigate that with the outward giving and the busyness of our holiday season?  What part of your  “to do list “ can you completely omit? I invite you to take a look at the WHY you might still be checking something off your holiday list?  And even more -do you really need to put it on the list or on a table when no one ever eats it? (That’s just me thinking back to my grandparents large noisy table for Christmas Eve – and me asking what's Tripe? - insert overly expressive funky face- clearly it’s not served at my holiday table)

I just got reminded from one of my yoga students that I gave a dharma talk one year about how I choose not to send out Christmas cards anymore - it was the most liberating thing for me to create space and freedom to connect in how I want to … a hand written note or an old fashioned phone call or handmade valentines cards. There is more time in February and my business is called Heartful Yoga you know.

In all honesty, the choice is yours in creating space and time for you. There are the must do’s like work to put food on the table and a roof overhead but what about your yoga practice. It does not need to look like it was five years ago or yesterday. It does need to help bring you awareness, joy and growth.  Yoga helps us discern choices for ourselves by deeply listening to our bodies and our breath so in difficult times the tools of practice can be used off the mat to help manage emotions, actions and health situations for some balance and healing.  A yoga teacher is a guide for you to learn practices to help you serve yourself with satya (truthfulness) and tapas (discipline) honoring our innate biorhythms of human intelligence through self-awareness on and off the mat. It seems easier to give to others than to us. Discipline does not mean force. And a yoga practice is not just an asana practice. It means being willing to show up for yourself even if you if it’s difficult in ways that will serve you.

Taking time to rest with yoga is about using a tiny amount of self-discipline on top of a heap of self-boundaries to affect self-nurturing. It’s about acknowledging that I deserve to be rested, I deserve to feel strong, healthy, and clear. I do not deserve to be burned out, exhausted, or depleted. That doesn’t serve me, or anyone else. And it’s about doing whatever it takes to get there – despite my resistance.

When I finish my restful practice I feel much more peaceful, and I can go back to my life with a sense of ease. A restful vibration seeps into the rest of my day – as if I just had an internal massage, as if I have all the time in the world, as if nothing is worth stressing out over. There will always be a to do list . But there’s never a better moment to rest than the present. It is the present that gives your more presence.

If you are person whose go to is not doing then you might need to turn up your asana practice and pranyamas to agni generating practices to get the body moving to tend to the fire so the pilot light doesn't fizzle out. If you are like me whose fire in the years past would be raging forest fire and all I knew was the Asana practice that was yang like- then my practice would fuel the fire with gasoline to a holiday blaze and without fail I’d get sick in January. I needed to cultivate more rest & restore practices this time of year to serve me.   

The Ful-being Collective of teachers has cultivated a rest & restore daily list of practices for every day  of  the month for December. Make sure to get on the mailing list and start your home practices .

 The winter solstice ceremony of the druid tradition and is “the light of Arthur”. In this ritual the sun god dies and is reborn as the Celtic “son of light “.  Ancient ritual sites such as Stonehenge align with the sunrise on this shortest day of the year. Contemporary ceremonies are sometimes under the open sky and echo these ancient ceremonies of aligning our bodies in a circle with the cosmic rhythm of life and light.  Join Ascend Center in a Winter Solstice Celebration on Dec  at the studio.

The natural waxing and waning of life offers all kinds of opportunities to create personal retreat time and allow yourself to move into harmony with whatever may be arising with you.  We forget that this time of year because our lives get so busy with the holiday cheer!  You can create a sacred retreat at any given moment by honoring your breath, daily at sunrise or sunset or during the simple task of pouring or drinking your tea or you can set aside time at every full moon to write down monthly headful intentions for yourself. 

You can also answer the call for formal a retreat if you get the winter time blues and want to join me in Mexico where ritual, practices and reflections are taught and practiced so you can use these tools to integrate them into your daily life.

I challenge you to make the space for constructive rest and reflection in these darker months just like the animals outside do so that you will have set the compass on the depths of seeing and directing yourself towards new growth come spring.  If you plan on staying local, maybe you try out a yoga therapeutics class with Sam, Erin, Joel and Me at Full-being or join Kathy for yin yoga and me for slow flow at Ascend.

 There are so many options to incorporate the softer side of the yoga practices into your busy life to aide yourself in being the leader in your wholeness of moving with wellness in your daily life.

 All the wisdom religions base their symbolism towards tending a fire or remembering and honoring the dark turning into light. Whether you light the Menorah, the Yule log, Christmas tree, Kinara and/or a cosmological altar.

I wish you a very Merry Holiday Season of love, light & rest.

I will be taking a holiday rest Dec 23- Jan 8

OM Shanti

Dani

PS as always I love to hear from your with any comments , questions and feedback to hear how you are taking a rest and honoring yourself .