💦WATER: The 4 Elements of Life

 

 

🍁Hey Beautiful Souls!

Happy Autumn!! Does it feel like Fall where you are? 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! And then we dove into the FIRE element! Fire, the element that governs light, heat, energy, and the power of transformation! Today, we ended our Four Elements of Life Series with WATER! I immediately think of streams, rivers, oceans, rain falling from above! But we also contain water within us, helping us release through tears, and keep us healthy throughout our bodies! Water represents the center of life, and has divine energy! It symbolizes movement, fluidity, cleansing, renewal and rebirth. It is connected to our Sacral chakra, Svadhisthana, this swirling energy center housing our femininity, our creativity, emotion, joy, and self worth! Water is considered the most yin element, representing slower qualities and an inward energy. In Chinese Taoism, water symbolizes wisdom, intelligence, and adaptability.  

Water has less density than earth, but more solidity than fire. According to the Samkhya philosophical system, water makes possible our sense of taste and is associated with the tongue as its organ of perception. Think of how important saliva is to our ability to taste! Science tells us that our bodies are up to 60% water—with the brain and heart comprised of 73% water, lungs 83%, skin 64%, muscles and kidneys 79%, and our bones 31%. (U.S. Geological Survey). We usually experience bodies of water—creeks, rivers, lakes, and oceans—as healing or inspiring. Water has the capacity to move and change, taking on many different forms like rain, snow, ice, ocean, stream, or mist, as well as the ability to nurture and support life.

 

 

 

💧Water purifies, heals, and transforms. Our thirst naturally draws us to its life-supporting power, and its energy soothes our soul as rain, mist, ocean waves, or river songs. In nature, water flows to low places, gathers its power, and nurtures life. Water shows us how to realize our soul power and become a nurturing presence. Its central message is this: know who you are, be fully present, and learn to let go.

Many cultures around the world have traditions including water: 

• Native American tribes: Water is sacred to many Native American tribes, and is a symbol of life, death, creation, destruction, nourishment, and deprivation. For example, the Cherokee people have a morning ritual called "going to water" to cleanse away illness and bad thoughts. The Washoe tribe believe that magical creatures called "Water Babies" or "Me-tsung" live in all bodies of water, including Lake Tahoe. 
• Christianity: Water is a central part of baptism in Christianity. 
• Hinduism: Water is associated with spiritual purification, such as the tradition of bathing in the Ganges. 
• Judaism: Water is used in cleansing rituals to restore or conserve purity. 
• Mexica-Nahua culture: The Indigenous Nahuatl people perform a water ritual to honor water as a life-giving, spiritual force. They offer gifts, sing, and dance in the water. 
• Japanese tea ceremony: The ancient art of the tea ceremony, known as "Sadō", uses water to symbolize purity and create a serene atmosphere. 
• Armenian culture: The vishapakar is a round-shaped cultural representation that is associated with water. The khachkar, or cross-stone, is a Medieval Armenian Christian art form that is a transformation of the vishapakar tradition. Some khachkars were erected next to water sources. 

 

 

 

🌊The Water element coincides with Kapha 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 Kapha Dosha is the Ayurvedic mind-body element associated with earth and water. It is water that is responsible for most of the protective and healing aspects of the kapha dosha. As water is the foundation for earth in the body (water supports earth’s heavy, stable qualities) an increase in the qualities of water will result in weight gain and sluggishness. The Kapha Dosha is slow, moist, cool, oily, heavy, smooth, and steady in nature and embodies structure, lubrication, and stability in the mind and body.

💦 If you have a predominantly Kapha constitution, the qualities of Kapha (slow, steady, moist, smooth, oily, cool, heavy) will be expressed in your mind and body. Your frame and build will tend toward robust and strong, and you will likely have a radiant complexion, large eyes, and thick, lustrous hair.

 

 

🌲💦You’re probably pretty warm, friendly, compassionate, and easygoing, too. If you know someone with a Kapha personality, they’re probably a true blue friend. When in balance, Kapha types are the teddy bears among us—sweet in nature and a pleasure to be around.

The heavy qualities of Kapha dosha can sometimes leave Kapha types feeling a little sluggish and lethargic (they’re the soundest sleepers of all dosha types). When it comes to getting things done, Kapha-dominant types generally take their sweet time! They may be slow to get going, but they are dependable and dedicated. Kaphas often have a sweet tooth.

 

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

Dosha Quiz

 

 

 

💧We began our Water 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 90-10 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, to take in a tiny bit more, and slowly exhaling through the mouth. We repeated this two more times, the inhale lengthening to the chest, and thirdly to the crown, each with an extra sip of air at the top! Each time, the exhale becoming slower and longer each time, calming the nervous system. 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 water to be taken far away from us, lost in the waves, 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 moved through a scan of the 5 senses: We noticed 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 "Women’s Balance" in studio, inhaling notes of Clary Sage, Peppermint, Geranium, Fennel, and Bergamot.
We scanned to our hearing, noticing birds song outside, maybe traffic, the hum of the furnace providing heat, pinpointing an instrument playing in the music in studio, and on to our taste, noticing the last thing we may have eaten, or a sip of cup of tea or coffee. 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, bringing us back home to ourselves.

And finally through a scan from the Root Chakra all the way up to the Crown Chakra, connected each one's color to the color of the Fall leaves of our favorite trees! You can fin that full meditation here:

🍎🔥☀️🌲💧🌎🔮

CHAKRA + FALL LEAVES MEDITATION

🌊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. The moon, our yin, slow, feminine energy, as it pulls the tides of the ocean in and out. 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 boat pose, extending the fingers forward, either grounding or floating the feet. We brought the hands into prayer at the chest, and twisted to the right and to the left in our boat, and floated 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 formed our Padma mudra with the hands, extending all 4 fingers out, keeping the thumbs together and the pinkies togerther to create our Lotus flower. She grounds her roots into the soil of the pond and has to travel through murky, cold, dark water, in order to finally reach the surface of the water where the sunlight is, where she blooms, radiating beauty. We raised our Lotus up to the surface with an inhale, and back to the heart with an exhale. 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. The mind can become stuck in the past, ruminating over things that have been, or travel too far forward into the future with worry, but the body is always present, so here we connect and stay present. One hand floated to the forehead, and the other to the base of the skull, sending healing energy to the mind + body, finally bringing the hands to the heart sending gratitude to the heart and lungs. 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, lifted the left knee up into the chest, set it back down, and opened into a supported side plank, peeling the right fingers to the sky, circling through the wrist. We returned to a cat cow, and honored the left 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 into a forward fold, root to rise, we slowly lifted up, one vertebrae at a time, the head the last to come through, into our 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 melted forward into a fold. We stepped back into a downward dog, inhaled the right foot to the sky, exhaled right knee to the left elbow, lengthened long, exhaled to the right elbow, lengthened long, exhaled right knee into the chest, hovered here, then stepped the right foot forward, planted the back foot, rising up into our Warrior I. We melted the shoulders from our ears, inhaled opening the chest, forming cactus arms, exhaled extending the arms out to the sides, and then forward, leaning forward, inhaling drawing back, cactusing the arms, like we're pulling water toward us, exhaling allowing water to recede as we reach the arms out and forward. We repeated this 3 times, and on the third one, we fluidly floated toward the back of our mat, into Warrior 2. Strong in our feet, shoulders melt down, hips square to the long side of our mat, gaze over the left fingertips. We inhaled up into our Sky Archer, straightening the left leg, right hand meet the right leg, left hand overhead, reaching for the heavens. With the exhale, we cartwheeled the hands around into our Side Angle, left elbow meets the left knee, right hand overhead. Repeating this 2 more times, very fluid like water, before extending into our 5-pt Star toward the long side of our mat, sending prana energy out through the fingertips with an inhale. On the exhale, we melted into our Goddess, and waved the spine to the right, right hand reaching for the left thigh, left hand overhead, through center, and waving to the left. We repeated this 2 more times, and then lengthened long into our 5-pt. Star, and turned the right toes toward the top of our mat, reached the arms out like wings, hinging from the hips, reached the right hand forward, and melted the right hand down to a block, the shin, or the earth into our Triangle, peeling the left fingers to the sky, shifting the hips an inch to the left, opening the chest, and heart. The left hand melted down, as the right hand peeled up into our Twisted Lunge. The right hand cam down inside the right foot into our Lizard, today it's a Salamander, honoring our aquatic creatures thriving in the water. We rocked forward and back, opening the ankle, grounded the left knee, and options to stay high, melt into he forearms, or peel open to the right, onto the outside edge of the right foot, right hand rests on the right knee, and the hips melt toward the earth. We could bind for the back foot as well, or stay right where we are. We moved through a vinyasa flow, or could skip it to meet in downward dog, float to the top of our mat into a forward fold, root to rise one vertebrae at a time, the head the last to come through, into our Tadasana. We melted into sidebands, and honored the left side to complete our flow!

  

 

🌊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 our fingertips to the base of the skull, pressing into our vagus nerve, and melted the fingertips toward the ears, along the jawline, and down the front of the neck to the collarbone. We repeated this 2 more times, releasing tightness in the throat, activating our Vissudha, Throat chakra, speaking our truth. We tapped into the collarbone, with slow rythmic taps, all fingers in unison, into one of our acupressure points in the body. We brought this tapping to the sternum, center of the chest. We slowly tapped here, continuing as we inhaled, paused to bring the hands to the heart, stacked on top of one another, 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!