The Fall Season- where is your wind of change?

Ah the Fall.

“During the fall season, vata dosha is the aspect of nature that is predominant. Made up of ether and air elements, vata is generation of movement within the universe, which initiates all motion inside and outside the body. Thus vata and prana, our vital life-energy, are connected, for life is movement and movement is the sign of life. Vata orchestrates all forms of circulation..it brings the qualities of inspiration, creativity, spontaneity, and initiation, which when disturbed become insecure, anxious, worried, fearful, and overwhelmed - all qualities that can become exacerbated under stress.” pg. 262, Shiva Rea, Tending the Heart Fire.

Isn’t that so true? Isn’t the fall a time when you get so stressed out running around, trying to get it all done, especially as things get closer to the holidays? School picks up, deadlines pick up, commitments, parties, finances to pay for the holiday gifts…oh and time with relatives you don’t want to see…I could go on and on. And if you are a vata like me, you feel spacy and blown all over the place, (qualities of air and wind — vata) and you get overwhelmed. Unless you do the practices to balance and ground yourself, to counter act the dominant qualities of this season.

I was never one to get sentimental over the seasons. In fact up until 5 years ago — I paid them no mind. Season shmeason. Not until I discovered Ayurveda and the importance of the changes in season, the different characteristics of each, and how our body responds differently to each.

What I mean by that is I noticed how good, wonderful and comforted I felt after I ate warm soupy foods in the colder months. When I went against my gut feeling and opted for a cold blended smoothie, or a salad at lunch…it felt totally off and not satiating and my body felt cold from the inside. Intuitively I began choosing the warmer soupier foods…and low and behold, after my Ayurvedic evaluation: I am vata dominant, which aligns exactly with what my body was telling me…these heavier, warmer foods is what my body needs to function at its’ best…and not the provervbial “salad” in the middle of winter..NO NO NO…

Also oiling my body and drinking oil with my coffee…all seemed so yummy and nourishing. It’s like my body was crying out for them, to help lubricate my joints, my organs and to keep the dry cold winds from my bones so to speak.

If you are not familiar with Ayurveda, you can do your own google searches, or schedule a real consult with an Ayurvedic pracitioner (I know one if you need) to determine what your “blueprint” is— your constitution, in order to provide your body the best fuel for its’ type. Sort of like why put diesel into a car that will not process it, and in fact may choke on it…

Anyhow, so the fall is also a time for grief. I remember my yoga teach Shiva Rea bringing that up during a retreat….It is a time for reflection on past grief, and also a a reflection on any emotions that you may want to “grieve” and let go of currently. It is a time to give yourself the room and the space to process some of that if it is needed. Maybe releasing any sadness will prevent the winter blues?

Also, being the fall is a transition season, this is the optimum time for a detox. So lightening your food for a week - so your body can recharge and reset. Why this is important is that you don’t bring the heat from the summer with you into the winter- and that is when the colds, flus, and infections come from. So give your body a chance to prime for the winter season. Again, things I never thought of or incorporated until I began following Ayurveda an some of its’ basic tenets.

Grounding practices can include warm drinks and teas throughout the day- ones with fennel, coriander and cardamom.

Favorite Fall Beverage:

1 big TSP Cardamom Pods, 2-3 inches fresh ginger cut up, 2-3 cinnamon sticks, and soak all in about 1.5 quarts of hot water. After 20 minutes enjoy. You can make this in a thermos and enjoy all day.

What if we lived in a Harry Potter world?

So the part about the Harry Potter world I am referring to - is Hogwarts. What happened if instead of learning about math, history of war, social studies, and biology in our current schools- we had schools where children were taught how to manifest, how to create herbal remedies, divine wisdom, yoga, how to deal with relationships and emotions, how to become entrepreneurs, learn about world cultures, and learn how to be financially savvy and how to have proper nutrition? How different would the world be?

Maybe we would have people with more career satisfaction, if not true love for what they do, including a world that produces products and services that we need, without the excruciating amount of waste and over consumerism.

Maybe it would allow for a new industry, one that is more aligned with the type of healing the world needs now and the type of consciousness that is emerging, that places out of the material world, and into the more feminine, softer, friendlier, more magic filled, alternative and happier world.

We have the standard industries - corporations, banks, military, medical ….if we check in with people at those jobs, they often dislike, if not hate what they are doing— and want a career that is more meaningful…

Take a look at the family doctors out there. Many of them joined the medical profession to heal and help people. Instead what they are left doing is spending 10 minutes with a patient to write out a drug prescription with more side effects than remedies, and then spend inordinate amounts of money on malpractice insurance, to then spend hours to be in compliance with insurance companies to be part of a “network”. Any remote idea of healing has long come and gone — to be replaced with a fear laden system, dispensing addictive, harmful drugs, leaving folks more deeply confused or sick than when they started. Is that medicine? Is that truly helping people? So many are left looking for alternative solutions or therapies to their ailments.

So why not change the “medical” model, from the bottom up? Oh I know, there is too much money and beliefs invested in our current antiquated model..but with the amount of “alternative” healers out there, I believe there is hope for that system to change, and that we need a new HEALTHIER - HEALTH system- of the people, for the people, and by the people. Not ones run by money hungry boards of directors.

If we look around at the current healers, light-workers, life/nutrition/accountability coaches, or other alternative therapy providers who are following their calling: they have have had to cobble together their education via online courses, trips to far off places, mentors, or other seminars or classes that they have had to discover and find, via a long road that often involved some big inner transformation, much money, and then a long process of discovery. Their roads were not straightforward, where they got to “apply” to their college of choice to study in energy healing. There is no institutionalized academic model for these “alternative” ways of doing things, since they are not yet approved by the status quo….there are many private schools, or courses out there, but they are not yet accepted at a scale at which could be seen as mainstream.

How different would their path have been, if their family sent them to a Hogwarts type of school where they got the training they needed from an early age, to go to a Hogwarts type of PhD program, so by the time they were in their peak career years, they would be truly experts - creating life-changing therapies and treatments. So not only would they would be helping themselves and their own professional development greatly by having started early, but they would thus in turn be able to provide more quality healing products and services to the world.

Now I just mentioned the medical system, but take a look around at the other industries out there and the level of discontent, and dissatisfaction both from providers and clients. So much room for change and improvement!!!! I am sure you know one person or ten in your own community that hates their job, or hates this or that industry, or wants a new way of doing things.

So keep trying and keep looking, and who knows, you may end up at that Platform 9 and 3/4 - ready to dive onto Hogwarts Express.

Honoring India's heritage within today's Yoga industry.

So maybe it is just me, but after practicing yoga for the last 15 years, I couldn’t help but notice that I did not have any Indian teachers, or people of Indian origin in the classes, yet the origin of yoga and its’ principles come from India. I am being dramatic, but in all honesty as time has progressed, I have increasingly wondered about this phenomena, and how here I am person of not-Indian origin; teaching and appropriating a practice that belongs to and has been born in India.

Even more fascinating are yoga classes where the yoga has been so diluted, stripped and modified, as to become a frantic exercise program—where energetics and spiritual healing have no room. Chanting OM is seen as “religious” and might turn some people away. Yoga is adapted to be taught at a gym vs. at a studio where such behavior may be more acceptable; but not too much as – we don’t want to offend anyone; i.e. need the $$$. There is nothing wrong with that- but by definition that is not “yoga” as it was designed and understood by the teachings and scripts. Yoga is a complex system – and beyond just physical practice. The postures, or asanas, are just ONE small aspect of yoga. “Yoga is a whole system that includes breathwork, sound vibration, devotion, and meditation.” Bel, Hemalaya. “Raising the Vibration”. Yoga Journal, May/June 2019,112.

So I was most excited to see in this month’s Yoga Journal – addressing this very issue. It has highlighted the origins of yoga and how it is viewed in India- and how it has evolved and continues to evolve in the Western world. And MOST importantly: all the articles are written by women of Indian origin!!!!! So straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak.

“Yoga is an ancient principle of self-realization that originated in India, but, in addition to Indian devotional practices such as sacred dance, it was perceived as threatening, ridiculed, and banned among its own people in its own land under British colonization, beginning in the 1700’s and lasting until the mid – 1900’s. Today, yoga is often marketed by affluent Westerners to affluent Westerners-and Indians, ironically, are marginally represented, if at all. While this multibillion-dollar industry is offering much-needed well-being to Western practitioners, it’s re-inflicting the same violation on India and Indians: invisibility and misrepresentation.” Deshpande, Rina. "Honoring the Roots of Yoga". Yoga Journal, May/June 2019, 108.

So what Ms. Deshpande brings up is a very interesting point. Just by reading her article I learned about an aspect of Indian history that I was not familiar with: the suppression of yoga in the very country it originated. We are continuing the methods of colonization that had been imposed on India: appropriating by force and imposition, like taking from yoga what suits us, and not respecting the deeper cultural and spiritual history of this practice. Not everyone needs to be a scholar of Indian history, or stop practicing yoga all together --- but we really need to take a moment and review where this yoga we take from, use from, and gain money from; has come- by who’s and on who’s account? Meaning the Indians themselves have had a dear price to pay for THEIR VERY OWN PRACTICE, and now here we are making free with it, with no fear or consequences. I mean who will stop you? The yoga police? In today’s world for many yoga = money, but more so yoga teacher training programs is what brings the biggest revenue for studios. Unlike medicine or law; it is not a regulated practice.

The more I practiced yoga, evolved in my practice, studied with teachers who I thought “preserved” the classical roots of yoga: I became increasingly grateful for the practice and its depth—that only comes with time. Furthermore it has taken me thousands of dollars, time away from my family, hours in travel and all manners of stress to complete all my requirements, AND I AM NEVER DONE. It’s a life-long lesson. The yoga has seeped into my life- …..on an emotional, spiritual AND physical level. That transformation – if you are ready, and open, permeates you: that is the transformative power of yoga—hence why it has so many takers. You become aware of an inner awareness, of a centering…of feeling more grounded and mindful.

But on that same note: my gratitude for this practice has caused me to look to where this practice has come from: its’ country of origin, its’ roots, and then look at myself as a custodian who must take great care not to bastardize it, use it, or take it as my own. It is not mine for the taking. I should be grateful to be able to study it and benefit from it. I am appropriating, its’ norms and customs. Yes it has transformed me, but that does not mean I am the owner and inventor. I am just a servant to it- and I must honor it as such in all its’ facets and aspects; meaning yoga as a complex, rich modality and not a random series of exercises you learned to mimic.

Including as many of the 8 limbs should be taught in a class that calls itself yoga- studying sacred texts, mantra, japa and energetic alignement…it takes more work, and demands more spiritual commitment- yes we speak of yoga.

For those BIG teachers that taught me the philosophy of honoring and respecting my teachers—even though none of you are Indian, I bow to you: Suzanne Leitner Weise #532YOGA, #MaryRichards, #GinnyLoving, #GratitudeYoga in Princeton, #ShivaRea, and #CarsonEfird. I hope we can continue being honorable custodians of this practice, so it can continue to serve the healing that so many need—that comes only with a deeper practice, beyond the physical ability to touch your toes.