🍁Autumn Equinox + AIR: The 4 Elements of Life

 

 🍁Hey Beautiful Souls!

Happy Autumn Equinox!! The leaves may or may not be changing where you live, maybe due to lack of rain, or or too much heat, but they'll be changing soon if not already! This season is so FULL of beautiful, shifting energy! This is the season where Summer stands up, bids farewell, meets Fall with a kiss, and Fall takes the seat! We shift from the sun-filled, yang, highly energetic summer activities, and begin to turn inward, and slow down, welcoming in this yin, cool, feminine energy. We welcome in the balance with a warm embrace. We find balance in this day, the Fall Equinox, experiencing equal lengths of light and dark, sun and moon, activity and rest. If we have no balance, we begin to suffer. Too much of anything can make us unwell. And so, we find health, and vitality in the balance!

 

 

 

🍂During the Autumn Equinox we look at what we may have been working toward all year, through spring and summer, and today, we begin to harvest and reap what we've been sowing. We allow ourselves to let go of anything heavy, releasing this burden from our shoulders, and from the mind. We gain clarity in this stillness, in this slower season. We remove any obstacles that have kept us from believing in ourselves, from pursuing our deepest desires. We've been manifesting new beginnings, change, and new paths! And here, in this harvest season, we allow those to come into fruition and come to life! Our habits and our patterns become illuminated, and we experience a great awakening!

 

 

🍁I found this quote and I loved these words for our Fall Equinox!!

"Dear Autumn, your presence speaks to my soul, and I can not wait for our next conversation. Awaken in me a sense of peace, clarity, and fulfillment. May I allow myself to let go of all that is heavy, so that I may see the beauty that lies right in front of me."

 

 

 

🍂Last week, we began our 4 Elements of Life series: Earth, Air, Fire, Water. We began with EARTH, and it was a beautiful, grounding practice! Because this week's class landed on our Fall Equinox, I knew we had to dive into our AIR element as well for this very special class! We dove into all things Fall, this airy season, filled with cool breezes, falling leaves, rainbows of colorful leaves, clouds rolling in, the length of daylight begins to shorten. And of course, our breath! 

 

The ancient Greeks used two words for AIR: aer meant the dim lower atmosphere, and aether meant the bright upper atmosphere above the clouds. Plato, for instance writes that "So it is with air: there is the brightest variety which we call aether, the muddiest which we call mist and darkness. According to Aristotle, air is both hot and wet and occupies a place between fire and water among the elemental spheres. Aristotle definitively separated air from aether. For him, aether was an unchanging, almost divine substance that was found only in the heavens, where it formed celestial spheres. The ancient Chinese concept of Qi, or chi is believed to be close to that of air. Qi is believed to be part of every living thing that exists, as a kind of spiritual energy, or energy flow, similar to the Indian prana, life force energy, and breath, pranayama. 

 

 Just like humans, trees breathe. But, while humans inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, trees do the opposite: their leaves pull in carbon dioxide, water, and energy from the sun to turn into sugars that feed the tree. This process, known as photosynthesis, emits oxygen. A human breathes about 9.5 tonnes of air in a year, but oxygen only makes up about 23 per cent of that air, by mass, and we only extract a little over a third of the oxygen from each breath. And so, this is, very roughly, seven or eight trees for a year’s worth of oxygen for one human being. 

 

 

🍁During the Fall season, the air element also coincides with Vata energy!

Ayurveda medicine is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is heavily practiced throughout India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and is becoming more widespread in other countries, and in the west. Ayurveda therapies have varied and evolved over more than two millennia.Therapies include herbal medicines, special diets, meditation, yoga, massage, and oils. 

In Ayurvedic medicine, there are three doshas, or three elemental energies found both in nature and in the body: vāta, pitta and kapha. Balance of the doshas results in optimal health, while imbalance can lead to illness and poor health. 

 

  

🍂The Vata Dosha is the Ayurvedic mind-body element associated with air and space. It’s light, cool, and dry in nature, and it governs all movement and processes in your mind and body—including processes like blood flow, elimination, breathing, and the movement of thoughts in your mind. 

 

 

🌾 If you have a predominantly Vata constitution, the qualities of Vata dosha (light, cool, dry, quick) will be noticeably expressed in your mind and body. Your body is probably naturally thin and slender. Your hands and feet may tend to get cold easily, and your skin is cool and dry to the touch (especially in your extremities). Your sleep may sometimes be a bit elusive, or easily disturbed.

Intellectually, you have an agile mind that moves quickly—though you may be prone to forget things just as easily as you learn them! Your emotions are likely fluid as well. People with strong Vata tendencies are creative, dynamic, whirlwind types who often find themselves rushed or in a hurry.

 

Vata in Balance	Vata Out of Balance
• energetic and vivacious	• tired and/or fatigued
• learns easily	• lack of focus or forgetful
• clear and alert mind	• spaced out or scattered
• falls asleep easily at bedtime	• difficulty falling asleep
• balanced digestion and elimination	• occasional constipation, gas, wind
• good circulation and even body temperature	• can feel cold physically
	• poor circulation - cold hands and feet
	• feelings of anxiousness or worry

 

 

🍁Click the link below to take the Dosha Quiz to see which dosha best fits who you are! 

Dosha Quiz

 

 

 

 

  

 

🍂We began our Fall Equinox + Air Element Somatic Sunday class on our backs, so we could anchor to the earth, connecting the heart to this life source. We allowed the hips to open, and the shoulders to melt into the earth. During this airy, light, breezy season, it's important to ground, so we don't get swept away! We brought one hand to the belly, one to the heart, connecting to our heartbeat, and to our breath. Our pranayama was a 3-part incense breath, deeply inhaling through the nose, from the toes all the way up into the belly, filling it up, expanding, taking up space, pausing at the top of that breath, bringing the lips close together as if we're slowly blowing out the flame on an incense stick, and slowly exhaling through this small opening of the mouth. We repeated this two more times, the inhale lengthening to the chest, and thirdly to the crown! Each time, the exhale becoming slower and longer each time, connecting to the air element, our breath! We became present in the body and the space we're in, and allowed all of our past stresses to wash away, like an ocean wave carrying it further and further away, no longer needed. Our future schedules and to-do lists melted away, back into the earth, to be refined for something greater. Nothing to do, nowhere else to be but right here in this moment for ourselves.

 

 

 

🌾We moved through a sensory scan, noticing what we see around us, or beyond the lids if the eyes are closed, finding peace in the darkness. We traveled to smell, noticing what we smell around us, maybe food cooking nearby, fresh laundry drying, coffee brewing, maybe a scent in the room. I sprayed "Sacred Space" in studio, inhaling notes of palo santo, rosemary, and white sage. We scanned to our hearing, noticing birds song outside, maybe traffic, pinpointing an instrument playing in the music in studio, and to our taste, noticing the last thing we may have eaten, or cup of tea or coffee we sipped. Lastly, we noticed our sense of touch, what we feel against the skin, the warmth of the air or sun, maybe a cool breeze, the cotton of our clothes, the stickiness of our mat underneath us, supporting us, holding us. 

 

 

 

🍁We inhaled extending the hands overhead, toes reaching forward, full body stretch, exhaled and hugged the knees into the chest, finding a rock side to side, massaging the low back, a lumbar massage. We extended once more, and reached the arms and legs to the right upper and lower corners of the mat into our Crescent Moon sideband, honoring this cool, yin, energy of the moon! We flowed through center, and extended our Crescent Moon to the left side, melting the shoulders and the hips, grounding to the earth, finding safety and stability. We extended through center, hugged the knees into the chest, and found a supine twist to the right and to the left, smoothing out the shoulder blades along the earth. We hugged the knees in through center, and rock 'n rolled along our spine two or three times into a comfortable seat, crossing the legs, or finding Fire Logs, or a Half Lotus.

 

 

 

🍂We anchored the sit bones, spine lengthened to the crown, crown to the sky. We formed our Anjali mudra with the hands to send gratitude to the lungs, keepers of the air element. We released our mudra and rubbed the palms together to create some heat, some healing energy, and cupped the hands to the eyes, to the crown, forehead, and base of the skull, sending healing energy to the soul, to the mind, calming the chatter, and connected to the body, which is always present. We set an intention for our class, and released it, reaching the hands to the sky and to the right for a twist, peeling the right shoulder back to open the chest 5% more. We arched the right hand to the sky and toward the opposite knee to open the side body, and then brought it to the left knee, crossing the arms, arching the back and dripping the chin. We twisted to the other side, and then came through center, planted the fingers behind us, opened the chest, arching the spine into a backbend, and then into a forward fold. We unraveled the legs and melted the hips back into a child’s pose, walking the hands to the right, center, and left. 

 

 

 

🍁We slowly rolled the spine, arching the back, brushing the fingertips along the mat toward the knees, the chin dripping toward the chest, until our glutes met the heels, and then the spine waving long, crown reaching to the sky, the shoulders melting back, and the spine concaves, the arms extend out to the sides, and up, palms together, to the heart, and melting forward, walking the fingertips into a forward fold. We repeated this spinal wave in Childs pose 2 more times, delighting in this spinal awakening of the body. We walked the hands back toward the knees, knees then met, as we sat onto the heels into our hero pose. We inhaled, brought the hands to the back of the head, opened the chest with a deep inhale, elbows reaching out, exhaling we curled the back and cradled the head, forearms toward each other or meeting. Two more times in our cradle head breath, and then extending the fingers to the sky, and melting one hand down, the other arching over for sidebands on each side, another backbend, and then we melted forward into our puppy, into our forearms, knees under the hips, tail to the sky, grounding to the earth in this airy season.

 

 

 

🍂Our cat cow flow followed as we warmed up the spine, adding in organic movement, hips swaying side to side, or rolling forward and back into Childs pose waving back and forward into our table top. We moved to our breath, our own pace, making our cat cow our own. Since it's Sweater Weather, we came into a neutral spine in our table top, inhaled the right hand to the sky, and thread the needle through to the left, and up, and through, coming down onto the right temple and shoulder. We could extend the left leg back or out to the left, finding depth, opening the hip. We extended the right hand back to the sky, and into a supported side plank, rolling the extended wrist, and bringing everything through center into one more cat cow flow to repeat on the other side. We flowed through downward dog- plank waves, pranam knees chest chin, into a low cobra, and up into our downward dog. We floated to the top of our mats to meet in Tadasana, our mountain pose. We felt the grounding energy from the earth pull at the soles of our feet from the toes to the arches to the heels, like roots of a tree pulling us into he soil, anchoring us. This energy circled around the legs, to the pelvis, the hips, around each vertebrae of the spine to the shoulders as they melt down from the ears. The crown reaching for the heavens, we are stable, rooted, and anchored. 

 

 

 

🍁Our Tadasana flowed into our Moon Salutation, honoring the cool, light, slower, yin energy of the moon! We began by bringing our hands together above the head, and flowing into Crescent Moon sidebands to the right and to the left, and grounding into the left foot, the right knee lifted into our Pilar, and reached the right foot toward the glutes and to the back of our mat, planting the foot, as we opened up into a 5-pt star to the long right side of our mat. We extended the fingertips to the corners of the room, healing prana energy sent out into the world. We bent into the knees, caucusing the arms into our Goddess, finding a little dance side to side, and then palms together at the heart. We inhaled and exhaled floating into the right foot into our Tree, left foot connecting to the right leg, at the earth, ankle, calf or thigh. We extended our branches full of red and copper leaves, and found a sway through the breeze. We opened up, extending the arms and legs into our 5-pt star again, and then arms out like wings, fluidly transitioned into our Triangle to the back of our mats, left hand to the sky. The left hand floated down, framing the right foot, as the left foot stepped in, into our Pyramid. We could rock forward into the toes and heels, we could find stillness here, hands on blocks, or we could float forward into our Half Moon, left leg floating toward the sky, parallel to the mat, and peeling the left hand to the sky, opening the left side body and chest. The left hand floats down, framing the right foot, as the left leg slowly floats down, left toes softly grounding to the back of the mat, as we rose up into a Crescent Warrior toward the back of our mat. We inhaled fingers to the sky, palms together, bending the elbows, the elbows close to the head, as the hands drip toward the nape of the neck, gaze and heart lifting to the sky. The hands floated down to the mat, framing the right foot, as the left foot stepped in, back into our Pyramid. We walked the hands to the left, to the long side of our mat, into our WideLeg fold, allowing the head and shoulders to hang heavy.

 

 

🌾We slowly rolled up through the spine, one vertebrae at a time, extending into our 5-pt star. We extended the arms out like wings, brought the arms in, folding the right over the left into our Eagle Arms, inhaled fingers to the sky, and exhaled slowly bending forward into our fold, swaying our Ganesh, elephant trunk side to side, removing all obstacles out of our way, clearing the path forward. We released our bind, walked the hands to the left foot, left toes turning to the top of our mat, and planted the left hand to a block or the earth as we built our Triangle from the ground up peeling the right hand to the sky to open the chest. The right hand floated down, as the left hand peeled up to the sky into a Twisted Lunge. The left hand floated down, as we stepped the feet back into our Plank, flowing through pranam or chaturanga, and meeting in Downward Dog. We floated to the top of our mat, into a forward fold, and rolled up into our Tadasana, ready to flow through our Moon Salutation on the left side!

 

 

 

🍂Our somatic practice included something brand new! Somatic experiencing gave us tools to regulate our nervous system, to stimulate the vagus nerve that begins at the base of the brain and runs throughout the body touching every organ system! We agitated emotions stuck in the body, to help them release, and to serve as a reset button. We began at the crown, massaging the fingertips all over the crown and behind the ears, into the temples, the jaw, the perfect release for jaw clenchers like myself. We pulled down on the ear lobes, pulled the middle of the ears out to the sides, up to the top of the ears pulling toward the sky. We brought one hand to the base of the skull, the other hand’s two fingers rolling down the forehead to the tip of the nose! We brushed our fingertips from the jawline down the neck a few times, releasing tightness in the throat. We tapped into the collarbone, and into the sternum! We inhaled through the nose as we tapped into the sternum, and stacked the hands at the heart as we exhaled while audibly humming into our bee breath🐝! If you hold tension here in the chest, this is a nice release! We grounded the left foot, brought the hands to heart center, and lifted the right knee up into our Pilar, and floated the knee and hands to the right looping around to create an infinity symbol in the space in front of us! We found our balance with our drishti and then did the same on the opposite side. A little Tai Chi to calm our nervous system and find regulation! We crossed the arms at the chest, and squeezed into opposite shoulders, down to the biceps and triceps, and into the forearms. We brought the hands to the shoulders again and swiped the hands down the arms, chest, abdomen, low back, and legs, making sure everything still tethered to the body is finally released. We came into stillness, then swayed right and left, and found stillness again, noticing the effects: we can feel cool, heat, or tingling sensations, even a spontaneous yawn! All signs of a regulated nervous system. We removed anything stuck, anything harmful & toxic still attached to the body! We stimulated the vagus nerve, the super highway of information from the brain to the body! We sent messages to the brain that the body is not under threat, it does not have to exist in a continuous active state (fight /flight mode). We helped our body to experience a larger capacity for triggers to be felt and moved through. We have the ability to help our nervous system shift fluidly between states when each are needed, the sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous systems! Both are useful and 100% needed, but we do not want to become stuck in one state for too long. These practices are so useful off the mat as we encounter stress or triggers in our daily lives! We find balance!