Shift From Anxiety to Peace
Recently, I was asked how I stay inspired while teaching and practicing yoga for over 30 years. I responded, "I teach by the seasons."
They asked me to explain.
When I healed my chronic pain through meditation, Chinese medicine, and Qigong and wove it all into my yoga practice, it intuitively made sense. Understanding that we are energetic beings housed in the physical body, and our energetic flow dictates how we feel emotionally and physically.
According to Chinese medicine, we are subject to seasonal energy depending on the sun's relationship to the earth. The sun is like our Wi-Fi signal, and our organs are like computers, each with its own specific function.
Each season, a different pair of organs are energetically in high tide, and they are affected by the flow of energy (qi) through their meridians (energy pathways). When the energy flow is balanced, we feel physically and emotionally vibrant and yet relaxed.
When the energy flow is excessive or deficient, it affects us emotionally and physically, causing chronic pain, anxiety, and depression from low levels to debilitating.
Using nature's rhythms to guide our yoga practices becomes medicinal. Focusing on the organ's meridians that are running the strongest in that season creates an acupressure technique that helps to balance the flow so we feel emotionally and physically optimal.
It's easiest to repair and balance the energy of the organ that is running the strongest in that season. So in the spring, the wood element season, it's the time to fortify and balance the liver and gallbladder energy, which presents anger and frustration when out of balance, and inspiration, kindness, and an easy-going attitude when balanced.
Knowing what we are prone to and how to regulate it makes our practice medicine. For instance, I know I am prone to impatience, which is an aspect of anger that is associated with liver energy. So, I always incorporate stimulating the liver meridians in my practice.
Now, we are entering the fire season of the heart and small intestine energy. This time of year, the energy is peaking, blooming, and flowering. We feel peaceful and joyful when the heart's energy is balanced, and we suffer from anxiety and stress when it is weak or excessive.
So we work with the heart and small intestine meridians that run through the arms, strengthening and stretching them. It makes such a difference and keeps our practices fresh and in alignment with nature's rhythms.
Because we sit at desks behind computers, we don't use our arms nearly as much as we used to before technology. The meridians of the heart and lungs that run through the arms become weak and stagnant.
The result of imbalanced heart energy is anxiety and stress, and weak lung qi presents as sadness and grief. So, knowing this, we need to stimulate the arms by strengthening and stretching them regularly.
Come activate and increase your heart energy in our upcoming FIRE weekend and join the 300-hour teacher trainers and Masters Path mini-retreat at Vitality June 1-2. See below for details.
Try these poses during this upcoming early summer season to strengthen the heart and small intestine meridians, which will enable you to find peace and touch joy.
The modified Handstand strengthens the arms and activates the heart meridian.
Do this during breaks throughout the day.
Walk your feet up the wall, or a tree, especially if you have to sit behind a computer.
While in the pose, breathe through the heart and small intestine meridians.
Backbends are awesome heart openers!
Plus they strengthen the arms and cultivate an open, peaceful, joyful heart.
Focus the mind to:
Inhale a golden thread up the small intestine meridian
Exhale down the heart meridian.
Where the mind goes, the energy flows!
Namaste,
Maggie