🔥Fire: The 4 Elements of Life

 

 

🍁Hey Beautiful Souls!

Happy Autumn!! Does it feel like Fall where you are? It did here for a minute, now it's kinda back to summer temps. 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, 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 season, 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!

  

 

 

🍂Over the last couple weeks, we've immersed ourselves into our 4 Elements of Life series: Earth, Air, Fire, Water. We began with EARTH, and it was a beautiful, grounding practice! Next, we dove into our AIR element during this airy season, filled with cool breezes, falling leaves, rainbows of colorful leaves, clouds rolling in, connecting to our breath! This week, we dove into the FIRE element! Fire, the element that governs light, heat, energy, and the power of transformation! Rather than creating a class that was deemed "hard, difficult", too challenging or fast-paced, like most "fire-themed" classes would be, I created our somatic class to be focused on transformation! Along with its heat and ability to radically transform what it touches, fire gives us the light that makes it possible to perceive form. The fire element is associated with the eyes and our capacity to see. The action capacity connected to fire is locomotion, and its organ, the feet. Life on our planet depends on the sun—its heat that warms the earth and its light that makes food possible and allows us to see. Fire requires oxygen and fuel to exist. In darkness, fire is the light. Smoke from the fire can cleanse a space, remove negative energies, and clear the path, so we may see forward more clearly. Fire is our passion and our purpose! Our inner fire is located in our Manipura, the Solar Plexus Chakra, this swirling energy center located just above the navel, and the mudra, or hand gesture relating to fire is the Agni Mudra.

"I am the brilliance in fire and the life in all beings."—Bhagavad Gita

 

 

 

The ancient Greeks,  Heraclitus (c. 535 BCE – c. 475 BCE) considered fire to be the most fundamental of all elements. He believed fire gave rise to the other three elements.  Heraclitus regarded the soul as being a mixture of fire and water, with fire being the more noble part. 

Fire has been used by humans for a very long time, and its discovery and use was a critical technological advancement:

  

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

"Be lit by the fires of life, for they are transformative. Nothing touched by flame ever remains the same."

 

 

 

🍁The Fire element coincides with Pitta 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 Pitta Dosha is the Ayurvedic mind-body element associated with fire and water. This is the dosha responsible for our ability to mentally digest our life experiences and biologically digest our food. Pitta is responsible for all of our chemical and metabolic transformations. When in healthy balance, this dosha brings intelligence, charisma, courage, clarity, and the light of understanding. In excess, it can cause imbalances related to excess heat, such as anger, jealousy, irritated skin, sharp hunger, and difficulty sleeping.

 

 

 

🌾 If you have a predominantly Pitta constitution, the qualities of Pitta dosha will be noticeably expressed in your mind and body. Your frame is medium to small. Your blood will be healthy and the acid secretions in your intestines and stomach are optimal for digestion. Mental digestion, sound judgment, and discernment are functions of balanced pitta. Our ability to clearly perceive what the body senses (sees, hears, smells, etc.) is governed by pitta. Regarding transformation, pitta governs the ability of the body to combust, or digest, the materials needed to bring warmth and color to the body. The body’s ability to maintain warmth and absorb sunlight as well as our ability to mentally digest our thoughts and emotions are governed by pitta dosha. The “light of awareness” is governed by pitta as well.

 

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

Dosha Quiz

 

 

 

🍂We began our Fire 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 ground, 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 fade away, cast into the fire to be transformed, no longer needed. Our future schedules and to-do lists melted away, back into the earth, to be refined for something for our greater good. Nothing to do, nowhere else to be but right here in this moment for ourselves. We lengthened long with an inhale, exhaled knees to chest for a hug, rocking side to side massaging the lumbar spine. We moved into a Crescent Moon, hands and feet extending to the upper and lower corners of our mat, shoulders and hips melting to the earth. We honored the left side, came through center, and found supine twists on the right and left. We rock and rolled along the spine into a comfortable seat.

 

🌾We anchored the sit bones, spine lengthened to the crown, crown to the sky, and crossed the legs or found a half or full lotus, and closed the eyes, with our hands resting on the knees. We began a visualization meditation, envisioning a bonfire before us, friends all surrounding the bonfire in a circle. We moved through a sensory scan, beginning with sight, noticing what we see around us, the glow of the fire, the embers, the dark night sky lit with stars, and smiles of friends around us, finding peace in the darkness. We traveled to smell, noticing what we smell around us, the wood burning, the pine of the trees, the fresh night air. I sprayed "Solar Plexus" in studio, inhaling notes of neroli, juniper berry, and lemon. We scanned to our hearing, noticing the crackling of the fire, maybe an owl nearby, laughter of friends in community. We moved to our taste, noticing the lingering notes of cinnamon from a cup of coffee we're holding in our circle, maybe clove in our tea or spices in our mulled wine. Lastly, we noticed our sense of touch, what we feel against the skin, the warmth of the fire, maybe a cool breeze, the wool of our sweater, the wood of the Adirondack chair holding us, connecting us in our circle. We may even be able to feel the love of community against the skin in a hug or a loving hand on our knee as we share stories and laughter.

 

 

 

🍁We fluttered the eyes open, and formed our Agni mudra with the hands, extending all 4 fingers out, folded the ring finger in, rested the thumb on top of the ring finger, and brought our mudra to the solar plexus, the abdomen, connecting to our inner fire center. This Agni mudra increases our energy, blood flow, and digestion. Improved energy means improved mood! We released our mudra and rubbed the palms together to create some heat, some healing energy, and cupped the hands to the eyes, sending healing energy to the soul. Hands floated to the crown, sending healing energy to the mind, calming the chatter. One hand floated to the forehead, and the other to the base of the skull, sending healing energy to the mind + 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. 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. We inhaled gaze and right toes to the sky, bending at the knee into our Tiger, exhaled nose to knee, repeating 2 more times, ending with a bind, reaching the left hand for the right foot, extending to the sky, opening the chest. We released the bind, right toes to the back of our mat, a little rock forward and back, inhaled as we lifted the leg, exhaled crossing it over the left side of our mat, gaze following over the left shoulder. We brought the gaze through center, and tucked the right knee behind the left, walked the hands to the right, and melted the hips back into a fold. We returned to a cat cow, and honored the left side. We returned to our table top, inhaled tucking the chin to the chest, and on the exhale lifted the gaze and stuck out the tongue exhaling audibly for our Lion's Breath, 2 more times, bringing fire and energy to the lungs! 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 sidebands to the right and to the left, and then grounding into the left foot, the right knee lifted into our Pilar, found our drishti, our non-moving spot to aid in our balance. We reached the left hand toward the right knee, right hand reaching toward the back into our Dancing Shiva. We came through center and wrapped the right leg around the left, formed Eagle arms, and lifted the fingertips toward the sky, and down into a crunch. Today, this was our Phoenix, rising from the ashes! We unraveled the arms and legs, allowing our Phoenix to fly, and landed the right foot to the back of our mat into Warrior I. We opened the chest forming cactus arms, found a bind behind the back, and humbled our warrior. We kept our bind as we floated into a WideLeg Fold. We released our bind, turned the heals in, toes out and rolled up into a 5-pt Star, extending the fingers, prana energy out into the world. We exhaled into our Goddess, today our Kali Goddess, preserver of nature, goddess of transformation, she rides a lion, wears a tiger pattern, holds a sword and a blue lotus, cutting away the ego, allowing us to connect to the Divine.

 

 

We reached the arms out like wings, formed our Agni mudra once again, and lifted the right heel, then the left, then both, finding balance. We inhaled into our 5-pt Star, exhaled into our Warrior 2 toward the back of our mat. We flowed into Sky Archer, Warrior 2, into our Triangle toward the back of our mat, the symbol of change and transformation. We brought the left hand down, right hand lifted into a Twisted Lunge. The left knee grounded, and the right foot extended to the back, right hand to the sky into a supported side plank. We floated off the left hand into our Gate, right hand reaching down the right leg, left hand overhead. We cartwheeled the hands back down, right hand reaching overhead, as the hips melt down, our seat meeting the mat, into a Fallen Tree, left foot meets the right thigh, right hand reaching for the right foot, left hand overhead. We created a flame dance, reaching high, and coming low. We cartwheeled the hands back around, lifting into our supported side plank, and brought the knees and hands into our table top. We tucked the toes, lifting the hips into our Downdog. We walked the hands back, and melted into a toe squat, Toes of Fire, hands to the heart! We planted the hands, lifted the hips, placing the palms under the toes for a palm stretch. We stepped the right foot around the left, spun around, into a forward fold. We rose up into our Tadasasana, re-grounded, and honored 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 then placed the hands onto the chest, crossing one over the other, like butterfly wings, our symbol of metamorphosis and transformation. We slowly thumped the hands one at a time into the chest, continuing as we inhaled, paused, and as we exhaled we audibly hummed 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/freeze 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! We find freedom!