Fall Back into Seasons, Ancestors, and Sorrow

We’ve turned our clocks back, the temperature is dropping (depending on where you live), and our evenings are filled with more darkness. How is your body adjusting?

One of the important pieces of my healing journey has been tuning into the lessons from nature (I know I write a lot about nature!).

Being a recovering perfectionist and, dare I say, workaholic, I’ve been known to push myself to exhaustion a number of times. So it was so relieving to discover that my energy, body, system and true nature are actually just like Nature. I don’t have to push myself to produce and be productive all of the time. There is a time for sowing, growing, blooming, dying, and hibernating. There is actual value in slowing down, resting, and the space BEFORE growing happens. I love this term I learned from Kate Northrup : THE FERTILE VOID. It may feel like nothing is happening there. But it’s the space for planting the seeds of what will be.

{Image by @rockinruksi }

So if we are living our lives in spirals, rhythms, and non-linear beingness, what is this particular season asking of you?

Is it asking you to slow down and find more rest? Is it asking you to release some things like the leaves of the trees? Is it asking you for warm foods, warm layers, warm friends? Are you needing more vitamins and minerals, bodywork, quiet time, social time, sauna/sweat sessions? What does your heart need?

This season of autumn is potent time to connect to our ancestors and loved ones who have passed.

Invite them to join you at the dinner table with lighting a candle. Pull out some photographs and devote a space in your home for them to be seen. Connect with your well ancestors and loved ones through meditation, prayer, breathwork, your spiritual practice. Journal about what their struggles where, what they enjoyed, what harm they might’ve caused, what good they did, and what lineage patterns are ready to be healed.

Fall is a season of endings, decay, transitions, and grief.

Which is not the most comfortable things to feel and go through, so make sure you’re giving yourself enormous amounts of self-compassion. We can honor our sorrow and all the feels that come up around endings and transitions by doing similar practices as celebrating our ancestors: light a candle for it, provide a space for it to be seen, meditate, pray, breathe for it, journal about it. Talk to someone about it, create art with it, trust your intuition around how your heart wants to express.

For me, fall is also about GRATITUDE and I am so grateful you are here with me on this journey.

To close, I’d like to share this Blessing for the Center by Starhawk from her book Earth Path:

We give thanks and gratitude for the center, the heart and the hearth, and for the complex and beautiful patterns of life. We give thanks for the flow of sap through branches, water through rivers, blood through our veins. Thanks for the spiral vine and the sunflower, the daisy and the dandelion, the sunburst and the star. We bless the random element that brings freedom into the pattern, and thank the weaver of the web of life for teaching us that all is interconnected. May we be aware of our patterns, able to change those that do not serve us and to cherish and strengthen those that do. May the cycles of the moon's and the sun's journeys through the year help us remember that light arises from dark, rebirth from death. Blessings on the cycles, the patterns, and the center.

Let's do it together...

Well, I’ve officially worn gloves, scarf, coat, and wool earband to the dog park in the mornings and I’ve also baked my first apple crisp, so I think it’s safe to say that I am fully embracing autumn. :)

I recently had a 1:1 breathwork session with my friend and fellow breathwork practitioner Amy and as soon as I laid on the table and started breathing, it felt like coming home and I was reminded for the eleventy billionth time why I love this work so much. Often though, the things that are best for us are the hardest things to commit to.

One of my favorite things ABOUT breathwork is you can do it on your own wherever you are, but you also don’t have to feel bad or beat yourself up about not doing it on your own. That’s why we have guides, space holders, coaches, classes, communities. To create the space, so all we have to do is create the time and show up to do our work (also this is HUGE and not easy, so kudos to you when you can and be gentle with yourself when you can’t!).

I have this relationship with working out - I have all the body weight workouts and yoga flows I could ever want where I could do them from the comfort of my own home, but the best way for me to commit to moving my body is to schedule in that time to physically GO to the gym. Or hike a trail at a park. Or pay for a yoga class. It’s the act of going to a physical space and being part of a community that is really supportive for me. Maybe you too?

Whatever your practices are for your mind, body, and spirit, my wish for you is that you find the spaces and communities that support you and bring you home to yourself.

Speaking of community, some exciting news: my healing practice is expanding to a new location!

This month, I’m joining the amazing collective at Tall Reeds Healing Arts and I am giddy excited about holding 1:1 sessions and group offerings in this beautiful space. Portia has created the most supportive and special home for healing, change-making, and community. It feels expansive and grounding at the same time and I’m so grateful she is sharing it with me (and you!). There are lots of great offerings, workshops, and conversations happening led by incredible folx, so follow along and see what resonates for you. I’ll still be practicing out of Stockheart Whole Health on Monday evenings, but look for some new group offerings this fall at Tall Reeds.

SO! If you live in the Twin Cities, I have a collection of group offerings happening from now until the end of the year and I can also support you in 1:1 sessions if group work is not your thing right now. And if you don’t live in the Twin Cities? Thanks to the magic of the internet, we can still work together long distance.

In the meantime, I’ll offer this blessing to you from my favorite healing center in Brooklyn, NY - Maha Rose:

all that is good
all that is sacred
this I wish for you

Mastering the Mind

The last time all of my siblings were home in June, we had a book club. One of my brothers had read THE FIVE REGRETS OF THE DYING by Bronnie Ware and he decided to gift each of us a copy to also read and discuss when we were together next.

The book was really good and contained lots of lessons on how to LIVE life well (I recommend it!). It was interesting to also have a conversation with my family about it afterwards, to hear what struck them as thought-provoking, what resonated, and to talk about how we each wished our death to be. Not casual dinner conversation that we regularly have, that’s for sure!

One thing that has stuck with me from our conversation was a question one of my brothers posed to each of us about our mind and meditation process. The author shares different life examples of times in her life when her thoughts were a little unhealthy and how she found a daily practice of meditation or creating art or finding routines that helped manage her mind, rather than getting carried away with worry or anxiety or fear or scarcity or a plethora of other monkey-mind thoughts that can take you in a downward spiral.

So I’ve been contemplating this question over the past month… what do *I* do to master my mind??

Of course, as you probably already gathered from following me thus far, BREATHWORK is a huge tool for meditation for me. I also find WRITING and JOURNALING helps me process my thoughts and tap into my inner truth rather than my inner critic. BUT! I don’t do either of these things on a daily basis. And yet, I feel more grounded, balanced, and in tune with my intuition than I ever have in my life so far. What else is it that might be helping me to sort through all the mind’s voices?

And the answer hit me:

Nature.

Pretty much every day, I’m out in NATURE. Because I have a dog who needs a certain amount of exercise each day, I’m at the dog park every day, every week (except for on the weekends when it’s my man’s turn!). Rain, snow, or shine… we are outside. And because Minnesota has AAAAAAMAZING dog parks, I’m in beautiful locations with lots of trees and paths and bodies of water and earth to tap into.

THIS is my daily meditation practice that brings me back home to my center.

Of course, just like meditation, not every day is easy and blissful. Sometimes the bugs are bad or it’s super hot and humid or the wind is raw or I still get caught up scrolling through my phone or Moon rolls in something dead (yuck). But when I return home, I’m still more connected to myself than I was before we went and I’m grateful for it.

On Wednesday this week, we had a new moon - the time of the cycle where it’s helpful to go inward and re-evaluate or tune into what new things you are ready for. Take a moment today to inquire about your own routines and rituals that you do daily that help you to ground and center. Are they working for you? Do you need to tweak them? Re-devote yourself to them? Give gratitude for them? Try something new for this moon cycle?

Here’s your new moon reminder to set little structures for yourself - little touchstones - in your day that guide you towards working WITH your mind and thoughts. These routines don’t need to be complicated or long-winded. It could be 5 minutes everyday for prayer, meditation, singing, writing, sipping tea while staring out the window, feeling your feet on the ground, walking outside, moving your body, breathing, doodling, knitting, etc etc etc what makes you feel centered?

Happy August friend. Here’s to our daily practices that bring us in collaboration with our minds rather than at odds. xo!

Breathing Myself Home

It had been several weeks since I intentionally laid down to breathe. Sure, I had done the breath technique for a few repetitions while at the dog park or out and about when I was feeling anxious or stressed or full of emotions. But I hadn’t done a full breathwork session until I did a one on one last week with my friend and fellow breathwork facilitator Amy. And as soon as I started breathing I said to myself, “ooooooh yeah. This is why I love this work so much. How did I forget about it?!”

As I was breathing, it felt like I was coming back home!

So today, when I was feeling stuck and restless with all this full moon eclipse energy, I knew I had to make time for my practice with breathwork. I put on an old playlist, grabbed my eye pillow, and laid on my bed to breathe with Moondogg next to me.

And here’s the musings: we know what is good for us. We know what our soul food is. Some of us can be really good at making sure those nurturing gems are integrated into our routines and that is amazing. Some of us need reminders and structures, especially if we experience resistance to the work. So schedule the appointment. Sign up for the group or class. Ask a trusting friend to set up a date. Put it on the calendar.

For me, THIS TIME, it’s fitting in more opportunities for a full breathwork session where I can scream really loud and then feel the energy of pure potential flood my system. Or to cry those tears or bust through the indecision to more aligned clarity.

For you, the activities or practices that feel like you’re coming back to yourself might look like something else and something different each time and that’s great. It might be time in the garden. Taking an art class. Writing in your journal. Working out and breaking a sweat. Gathering with friends. Dancing, drumming, cooking, sleeping, praying, singing, hiking. Putting your feet in the grass. Gazing at the moon.

My full moon eclipse wish for you is that you schedule time for what makes you feel like you are coming home to yourself. xo!

PS if being creative is what makes you come alive and you’re looking for a sacred container to birth a new project, my soul sister Meredith has created an amazing program to guide you through the creative steps. I’ve worked with her as a coach and has inspired me tremendously. Her program closes tonight - use the code HELEN for 30% off! Check out the Conscious Creative Incubator here!