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Hey Reader, Back in February, a typical week started with me trying to teach my kids to clean the studio floors on their Monday morning late start, which turned into them thinking it was fun to spread excessive amounts of water over the yoga flooring, all just as we were supposed to be leaving to go to school.👎 Needless to say, when I came upon this fiasco, I lost it. My emotions came pouring out of me, and I admit, I didn’t handle it well. Fortunately, the yoga flooring consists of giant porous mats that could be picked up and moved so the flooring beneath could easily be mopped up, but the cleaning solution in the porous mats took a little more attention to remove from the crevices. Extra work I wasn’t planning on. As I was recalling the story to my Monday evening Yin Yoga class, we all had a good chuckle about it after I told them that the practice for the evening was going to be a Yin practice for Winter and the Water Element. They quickly picked up on a tiny detail I had neglected to connect… That detail being that I had just had a bit of an overflow of water that morning and now we were going to be doing a class all about water and winter. Winter is the season that corresponds with the element of water in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Water is tied to emotion, the feminine, the kidneys and adrenals. All things that remind us to flow. When we begin to live more in alignment with the seasons and the energy of what’s happening in the season we are in, we’re reminded that life doesn’t have to feel so heavy all the time. It doesn’t have to be one constant stream of hustle and movement in one direction. This is the sort of thing I teach my students and clients, and with practice, we all begin to see the alignment in our lives in various forms. Fast forward to Wednesday morning… No water. I wake to very little water pressure, then nothing. Dry. Zilch. All before 6 AM. Come to find out, there was an exposed water pipe in an eroded creek bed that froze in the subzero temps we’d been having. What I wouldn’t have given to have that abundance of water that was on my studio floor earlier in the week now flowing from my faucets at home. But, alas, no such luck. So we adapted. There’s nothing we could do, but wait until it could be repaired by the water company. No emotions pouring out, just objective problem solving to move forward, unattached to the outcome of when water would return. (Which is kinda funny, honestly, because a lack of water would signify a lack of emotion…😉, do you see the irony?) Surrender. So much easier to do when we know and can see that we have no control over the situation. It’s when we don’t realize that we really have no control over life (except for our own approach and response to it) and we try to control others behavior or choices through our own behavior or choices that makes life feel heavy. 💧That makes it feel like you have to hustle all the time. 💧To control the outcome. 💧To meet others’ expectations of you. But really, when you find the right flow, the balance… ☯️of hibernation and movement… ☯️of feminine and the masculine… ☯️of Yin and the Yang… ☯️of taking in what serves and filtering out and letting go of what doesn’t… That’s when life feels lighter. That’s harmony. It’s not always easy and you won’t always get it right, I know I sure don’t, but it’s one of the elements I seek to embody and radiate in my life. What about you? If you’re someone who gets thrown by these sorts of life events and are ready to stop letting them pull you away from your center, reply to this email. Let’s chat. I’d love to be a part of your journey and have plenty of opportunities for you to begin learning how to invite daily res{e}ts into your life so you can live from your center and feel more alive whilst doing so. Because this is your time, your time for change. 💚🙏 Cheers, Cathy |
