As colder, darker days and Thanksgiving approaches, with the holidays soon to follow, it helps to cultivate a state of gratitude to keep our energy uplifted.

What are you grateful for?

Just pause momentarily, close your eyes, bring your hands to your heart, and consider what you appreciate.

We spend so much time focusing on what’s wrong, rather than what’s right in our abundant lives. Author John Kabat-Zinn reminds us, “There is so much more right in our lives than wrong."

Focusing on what we appreciate lifts our spirits and brightens the mind. Especially the things that we take for granted - like our health, our warm, safe homes, and the feeling of security and peace in our lives.

Fall is the season of reflection. It's also the time to build emotional resiliency.

During these times of global turmoil and grief, we can get paralyzed by the weight of it all.

After a few minutes of the news, our nervous system is taxed as the images and stories replay in our minds repeatedly.

Movement and breath are the quickest ways to go from upset to reset. Memory isn't only stored in our brain but throughout our entire body. This is why yoga and qigong effectively create a calm inner disposition. They release the 'issues in our tissues'.

When we can find our center and connect to stillness, we can show up for others who need our support.

Serving others is one of the best remedies for grief. The autumn is the time of year that grief arises, as it's stored in our lungs. The lungs are energetically running the strongest in the autumn.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, the lungs are part of the metal element. When we serve others and become benevolent, we are shining our metal into gold, rather than letting it rust from grief and sadness.

I was feeling low energy and some sadness yesterday. I remembered that sadness is the emotion that the lungs energetically hold. Then I noticed that I was barely breathing.

So, I allowed the weight of my sadness and started to breathe deeper into what was there. I put one hand on my heart, one hand on my belly, and breathed with my sadness.

I then became the field of awareness that was holding the sadness - rather than identifying with the sadness. It then slowly shifted to a soft gentle energy, that could allow whatever was arising to be included.

What a relief.

Did you know that we can change our thinking by changing our breathing?

With the world in such turmoil, it's hard to know what to do and how to process it all. Grief and sadness weigh heavily, and we can become paralyzed by it.

My meditations this week have been focused on a prayer-like breathing technique referred to as Tonglen. Tonglen is a breathing practice to relieve grief and suffering for ourselves and others.

Tonglen is a Buddhist practice of taking and sending energy. It reverses our logical thinking in an effort to avoid suffering.

How do you feel in the autumn? I've noticed several friends have a hard time emotionally this time of year.

We see the leaves falling and plants returning to the earth as the natural world lets go of what once was.

This time of year can bring nostalgia as it's hard to let go of the past.

In autumn, when the energy starts to travel inwards, there is compression in the atmosphere that can be physically felt.

The autumn relates to the metal element. Metal has significant weight and can be sharp and cutting. These are the energetic qualities that we feel in the autumn. The cutting away and letting go.

This is the time of year when the lungs and large intestine energy (Qi) is running the strongest - and the easiest time to work with their energy and bring it into balance.

The term samskara is a Sanskrit term referring to all our experiences and memories stored in our being.

Our memory is stored not only in our head but throughout our entire body.

This is why we can find ourselves in tears while in a yoga pose – not because we’re necessarily in pain but because we are releasing the stored, stuck energy that may be the result of trauma.

The seasonal shift is in the air. School starting has an imprint on our psyche.

Late summer shifting into fall has an energetic affect that stimulates our intellect. We are inspired to learn and/or create a disciplined routine.

According to Chinese medicine's wisdom, each season's energetic vibration (based on how the earth is positioned to the sun) relates to a specific consciousness or spirit.

During the late summer, the consciousness is referred to as Yi, which means acquiring knowledge. This refers to our intellect.

Therefore, this time of year is the easiest to learn new things.

I recently watched an interview with Venus Williams, the famous tennis star.

She said, “I honestly believe discipline is freedom. When you have discipline, you get what you want.

When you do not have discipline, you do not get any of what you want.

When you’re disciplined, you start to live your dream, to do the things you love, and then you start to LOVE THE DISCIPLINE.

Have you noticed repeated patterns or triggers in your relationships?

They usually show up with the people that we’re closest to.

They can often last a lifetime if we’re unaware of them - and do a lot of unnecessary damage.

When I’m being judgemental of my husband and other family members, it creates a ripple effect that doesn’t serve our relationships.

They become defensive, and an argument is sure to follow.

They feel nervous around me, which creates an energetic barrier that creates distance.

And I wondered why I felt lonely in a lot of my relationships!

So many of us get stuck in our ruts of work that aren't fulfilling and take up so much of our time and energy. Then add responsibilities on top of it, and it feels overwhelming.

The term samskara is a Sanskrit term referring to all our experiences and memories stored in our being.

Our memory is stored not only in our head but throughout our entire body.

This is why we can find ourselves in tears while in a yoga pose – not because we’re necessarily in pain but because we are releasing the stored, stuck energy that may be the result of trauma.

The heart's energy is at high tide in this early summer fire season. This energy (Qi) affects us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The heart's energetic pair is the small intestine.

As we age, this often flips. Our bodies become colder, and we tend to become “hot headed” and anxious. A well-balanced constitution that we are always seeking to cultivate is “water above, fire below.” Water energy creates a cool, calm mind, as the brain corresponds to the kidney chi of the water element. And the fire relates to the passion in our hearts as well as the fire of digestion in the small intestine.

In this high time of year, when the sun is at its peak and the days are bright and long, we connect to our innate sense of joy.

Joy and peace are the virtues of balanced heart chi. The practices that stimulate the meridians of the heart and small intestine, the organ pair that are running the strongest in the early summer, will create an ample energy flow. Breathwork and specific physical practices will shift us out of anxiety and into a calm peaceful heart that expresses joy.

If you’re feeling anxious these days, you’re not alone. This is the time of year that many of us yearn for, as it’s so beautiful - It’s warm and bright, everything blooming, so why anxious?

“A flexible body creates a flexible mind”. There’s a lot of truth to this, but not just by stretching our muscles - we need a long slow breath to stretch the mind open past our limited thinking.

The sprouting energy of the wood element in the spring is rising and blooms into the flowering energy of the fire element in the early summer. With this excitement and beauty, comes the shadow side of anxiety and overwhelm.

Does this ever happen to you? You’re inspired to create something, but once you start, all kinds of resistance rise up! I find that when I’m excited to create something new, it's the beginning stage that’s invigorating. Then when I actually have to make it happen I become anxious. Will this work? Do I know what I’m doing? What will people think??

While I was studying the Yoga Sutras, which are the foundational teachings of yoga, I had a hard time grasping them as they are like little wisps of wisdom that are tricky to wrap the mind around. A pond that I often walk to became the live illustration of these Sutras. The Yoga Sutras are the basis of mindfulness teachings. They dissect the mind and how it works so we can observe the nature of our thoughts and emotions from an objective standpoint. Thus, I named this pond NOM: The Nature of Our Mind.

Truth be told, I suffer from impatience. Yes, I know, I’m a yogi, and a yoga teacher - shouldn’t I be mellow and patient all of the time? Oh the SHOULDS of being a yogi! I hide my impatience…well maybe not now, as I’m sharing this with you, but I certainly keep it tucked away. It’s not a characteristic I’m proud of, so I continuously work on it.