September 2020

RITUAL.

Six weeks ago Chia arrived into my life. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to be with her almost 24/7 since then and she has taught me the art of slowing down, being in the present moment and most importantly- unapologetic napping!

Most days she will fall asleep on me for a few hours and if I don’t have my phone to hand or a book I have no choice but to be present in my thoughts and surroundings or join her in sleep. It’s funny to witness myself worrying about not doing enough or feeling guilty about enjoying my time with her and my thoughts. I’m so grateful for her and what she is teaching me without any words.

Animals are magic!

NOURISH.

I’ve really enjoyed creating some creamy concoctions using herbs and mushrooms such as chaga, reishi and ashwaganda. The extra indulgence has been using tinned coconut milk rather than oat milk. I use Biona Organic Coconut milk because it doesn’t have any extra ingredients/ preservatives. Sometimes I also add in a little CBD oil and whisk it up.

I bought myself a glass Keep Cup last year and it is one of my favourite and most used items. When the weather gets cooler I don’t like to leave the house without a warm drink to comfort me. I also like that I can trick people into thinking I’m perfectly normal person with my morning coffee walking through town…..but little do they know what sort of experimental recipe I am sipping on that day!

SELF PRACTICE.

Perhaps inspired by my time with Chia, other than live daily meditation for the Luna Sadhana Course I have been drawn to taking time for 20 minute still, seated meditation.

Although a yoga asana practice can sometimes be considered a moving meditation or using mantra or kriya for specific results- still, seated meditation can be more challenging, if anything just getting yourself to sit down and begin in the first place!

For this I suggest what Katonah yoga teacher Abbie Galvin taught me- to seduce yourself to your mat…set the lighting, burn the incense, make your favourite comforting tea. I recommend using a healing frequency. There are so many on YouTube and Spotify, if you choose one that is 20 minutes then it will act as your timer too.

SELF STUDY.

I have found myself being very self reflective this month. I’ve been analysing how much my self practice has evolved naturally this past year and especially during lockdown. The awareness of how my practice has changed alongside how my life has changed is especially interesting to note. As someone who has always been very driven by physical movement I am confused currently by my resistance to exercise in the way I did for so many years! But I am learning to listen to myself deeply and allowing the pace to slow a little.

I have revisited the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. This may look a bit like a self help book but actually it’s unlike anything else I have read. The author of the famous ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ shares her concept of creative ideas being entirely their own entity and us humans merely being the vessels. The ideas however, will want to choose the most suitable vessel to be able to materialise themselves! So if we want to write a novel we must practice the discipline it will take to achieve this feat. If we want to write an album we must be honing our technical skills, our understanding of what it will take to perform and connecting with the right people. Ultimately our job is to prime our vessels and work extremely hard to be the right fit for these entity’s of genius idea. But simultaneously it is extremely humbling to accept that perhaps we are not the original source of this creativity, merely the body it has chosen!

Another book I like is by choreographer Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit. I love how she explains so bluntly that it takes hard, consistent work to be creative. It is not about sitting and waiting for it to arrive, it is about intentionally building our creative muscles daily. Although not connected to yoga at all, this book inspired me years ago with the concept of daily work- the art of ritual and daily practice to make things happen, something that is now at the core of what I teach.