Winter Energy - Disrupt Your Norm To Change Your Form

Western culture has demonized notions of rest, slowing down, introspection and contemplation, preferring to glamorize and venerate activity/busy-ness. Without offering benevolent disruptions to all momentum, positive and negative, we lose opportunities for alternative perspectives, healing, new possibilities and transformation.

In this meditation, through breathwork and wisdom sharing we explore the value of the energy of winter and how turning inward is essential for balance and wellbeing.

Transcript

So welcome all to meditation practice today. We are on the verge of the season that I need the most in my life, But don't necessarily enjoy the most right. I am an autumn baby. I was born in October and love the colors love all the stuff and love the metaphor right so the metaphor of autumn is that it's a harvest time. So spring the commonly held notion is that you plant seeds in the spring. Then you water them in the summer and then you harvest in the fall. But that's not true. You plant seeds in the winter. Right. Then they're nourished in the spring. They come to life in the summer. You harvest in the fall. Then you turn in again. Right. So that's how the natural cycle works. People just gloss over winter. Right. It's either like it's too cold or I don't know. But there's wisdom in the fact that you have to shut off that you have to slow down. You know, We get tethered to a notion of momentum. I took class. I took class for the first time in months last night, Which is amazing. It's good to be a student again for one of my old school teachers and our culture specifically is tethered to a notion of momentum as progress. It demonizes rest. It demonizes quiet. Whereas if you don't rest, If you don't have quiet, How can you discern? How can you grow? Like if you don't have a time where you pause everything in review, Then how can you decide what you keep and what goes away? I'll show you one example from my from my life last year, Which reinforced the way that I articulated the seasons. I totally understood them because of my experience last year. So I received my 300 hour teaching certification last year on the solstice. So it doesn't get much more black hippie than that. And I didn't even plan that. You know what I mean? So teachers like you're presenting on the 20th of December. Okay. So my thesis is on the solstice. Yes. And two days prior to that, We impeach Donald Trump. Right. So it the reason that I got that is because so the whole impeachment scenario so began last winter or winter in 2019 when Rashida was like we're going to impeach the man. Okay, So here we go. But the seed was planted then. Then we nourished it in the spring came to life and whatever. So we harvested that seed in December. Then my teaching defense was on the solstice. So like it was as if okay, Now stop. But you did all this work now stop and review. And so what I did during last winter is I had all these great plans, Right? So like I kind of withdrew and I had this whole yogic Shangri-La thing plan. So I was going to go to see all my master teachers in these crazy retreats to recover from being the spiritual center of impeachment. And so was in deep practice and deep discernment over winter. Because in my mind in the spring, I was going to go to these retreats and then just fade off into the sunset. But as we know, The pandemic hit in the spring. And so what ended up happening what ended up happening is the time that I took in the winter to clear space prepared me to step into being like this teacher in the spring. But I didn't if I didn't take that time in the autumn to pause and relax and discern and filter then I would not have been prepared to win and this is this is a true story. My teacher, His name is yoga, Rupa rod striker. We were at the Himalayan Institute in Pennsylvania and I had I had just become acquainted with him, But he and I became fast friends. And in front of like 200 people, He's like, Some people need to stop taking training and teach more Reggie blah, Blah, Blah. And I'm like, Oh my God, Did he just say that for real like in front of 200 people like, Oh, I don't be knowing you like that. But anyway, So but he and I've talked about this sense where I in the winter cleared space to allow the practice to take form in the spring. So I say all that to say this. Well, We're going to work on today is slowing down our breath and having longer exhales to get into the habit of slowing down. You have to train your neuro your neurology and your biochemistry to slow down. I mean, A lot of us are recovering political so like slow down. What does that even mean? Right. So this is this goes out to you and you. Right. So I see Karen, It's funny. So before we do any of that, Just begin by making wrist circles, Or maybe wrist and shoulder movement, Just get into a space where you rely, Offer relief to the wrists and the shoulders, Maybe open and close the job, But spend a minute settling in shaking off aspects of anything up until now that just doesn't matter in this moment. And begin the transformation of your experience with this screen time for your healing, As opposed to a lot of other zooms which are nowhere near as nourishing. So begin to sense and step into the healing that exists in purposeful connection, The healing that exists in slowing down and the healing that exists in taking time to place yourself as priority. So whatever organic movement calls out to you, Embody that for about 30 more seconds. Maybe he do some shoulder shrugs and the light forward and backward just because our shoulders tend to creep up and eat our neck. So let the neck be a neck and not an accessory. And to that end, Maybe if you want to draw half circles on the neck, I mean with the neck, With the chin of the chest, Go forward. But 15 more seconds of preparing the body before we settle into the seat and take deeper breath. Even now in this warm up, Consider the alternative that a warm up is also a wind down, Right? So detaching from your prior neurological state, Detaching from any attachment to anything other than slowing down and relaxing with intention. So coming to stillness, Shoulders back and down. If you're seated in a chair or on the floor, Just feel grounded, Right? So feel the earth beneath your feet and or beneath your seat. So before we take any deeper breath, Feel supported by the ground. Feel the sensation that all you have to do in this moment is find a tall spine and how easy that is from a sense of grounding. Slightly engaging the able to spine to allow the low back to release and also for postural integrity. Shoulders back and down, Shoulder blades kissing, Shining the heart forward, Not only for shoulder relief, But allowing the breath to be more easeful. Chest is open, Not closed, Convex as opposed to concave if you want to be nerdy about it, But you get the drift. Now, Feeling that sense of grounding, Now let's begin to get into the breath. And take the breath as deep as you can, Recognizing that some days are more difficult than others, But just even if it's only a smidge deeper than your normal breath, That is medicine. Some of us, Especially when we're under duress or under the perception of duress or both, The first thing that shortens is our breath as well as our attention span, Because we get into an anxious loop or a sense of, What about this, What about, I mean like the mind starts to race, But even lengthening the breath a little bit awakens the parasympathetic nervous system, Which is the opportunity for the body to rest and digest and to heal. So as you settle into a deeper breath with shoulders back and down, Rooted in the feet and the seat, Rounded yet alert. Entertain taking an inhale from the count of four, Three, Two, One, Pausing at the top. Exhale four, Three, Two, One, Release. Let's have these exhales up the mouth as we begin to relieve tension and then we'll make it more circular. Three more like that. Inhale four, Three, Two, One, Pause, Shoulders back and down. Exhale out the mouth four, Three, Two, One, Pause. Two more of the same cadence please. Inhale four, Three, Two, One, Pause. Exhale out the mouth slowly four, Three, Two, One, Release. Final one as an exhalation at the mouth. Inhale four, Three, Two, One, Pause. Exhale out the mouth four, Three, Two, One, Pause. Keep that same cadence on your own, Inhaling at a count of four and also pausing at the top for two. Exhale out the nose. Settling into your rhythm, Training the mind to focus on counting the breath and nothing else. I had this delightful experience the other day teaching black and brown kids in Southeast DC. We taught them eagle pose and meditation. This one beautiful woman named Vanessa, Young woman, She was like, Why is it so hard to focus the mind with so many things going on? I was like, She go, Wow, You're seven. So if a seven year old can discern the mysteries of how hard it is to pay attention, And I told her what I'm telling you, Just count the breath. Four part inhale, Pause for two. Four part exhale out the nose. Pause ever so slightly at the bottom. And settle into this rhythm for a moment or two. Noticing how when you willfully wind down, The body has no choice but to fall in line. It may struggle at first, It may resist. But if we don't offer breaks to the momentum that we've created, Positive or negative, If we don't offer disruption, We'll never have a chance for reflection. The beauty of the season of winter is that it's a disruption to long days. It's a disruption to warmth. It forces us by nature, Either of climate or chronology to slow down. So bearing that in mind here, Keep the inhales at a count of four and extend the exhales to a count of five or six, Whatever you're comfortable with. But lengthening the exhale, Keeping the inhales the same, Lengthen the exhale, Willfully slowing down even more. And maybe with a deeper exhale, It gives the mind and body an opportunity to focus on areas that need to soften. So maybe you soften the face. Maybe you willfully soften the neck or the heart. But through this deeper breath and deeper exhale, Noticing the correlation between the pause and the lengthening of the exhale towards softening and healing. The teacher I mentioned earlier that I studied with last night who is just very amazing, But he shared with us and I'll share with you that if we don't pause, Whether it be rest or meditation or Shavasana in the physical yoga practice, If we don't offer these disruptions, It takes us to a different dimension. It takes us to a dimension where healing is possible, Where insight is possible, Where transformation is possible. Doing the same old, Same old is going to get you the same old, Same old. So welcome this disruption. Welcome this longer exhale. Welcome this deep breath on the top and the bottom as a needed disruption to momentum that isn't necessarily taking you anywhere. You're just addicted to it. Especially those of us in the political world, We view checklists as badges of courage or badges of honor when nothing on that list is you. It's just stuff that you do. Meditation and yoga remind us that we truly are the energy behind all those things. So using this deeper inhale and exhale as an opportunity to refine that energy, To pause the momentum that usurps and depletes and diminishes that energy and fortifying your wellness through stillness as opposed to being tethered to the notion that activity is wellness. And as we head towards conclusion, Keep the same inhale at a count of four. And if you can expand the exhale to a six, Seven or eight, Go for that. If it causes disruption and you're not ready for that, Then that's fine. But at least give yourself the invitation to take a deeper exhale to settle deeper into that rest, That cocoon. Winter is an opportunity for the caterpillar to become a butterfly. It's the opportunity for a tired operative who spent his sole shepherding impeachment to transition to a teacher. These disruptions, If we don't have these disruptions or in some ways it's a death, Right? So our culture demonizes death and we don't like the word, But number one, We're all going to do it. So we may as well get used to it, But not in a negative way. But nothing lasts forever and nor should our experience. If we don't have these disruptions and offer interruption, We can't transform. We're not meant to be the same thing forever. We're meant to evolve. So explore this deeper exhale for the next 30 seconds, Whatever you've chosen. Keep the inhale at a four, But whatever the exhale is, So long as it's longer than four. Explore how this opportunity to rest and focus on release, To focus on disruption, To focus on willfully upsetting patterns, Whether they be good or bad, But upsetting the pattern to discern whether or not it even matters anymore. One example I'll use from my personal practice is that I poured my soul into the election for the past five years. The past five years of my life have been devoted to ridding us of Donald Trump. I have to divorce myself from being attached to that. I mean, We still have work to do clearly, But the hardest part is over and I still find myself being energetically attached to carrying the boulder, Which was decided on the 3rd of November. So I'll be using the energy of winter to release deep held attachments of momentum built of five years of soul struggle. And in releasing those attachments, Opening myself up to other opportunities to manifest in the metaphorical or literal springtime of my life, But I have to go through winter to get to spring. Final breath or two at whatever pace you've chosen. Keep shoulders back and down. Keep softening something on the exhale and enjoy this disruption as an opportunity for creation. A new perspective, New energy. Bottom of the next exhale, Bring hands to heart center, Shoulders back and down, Pressing into the hands. Come back to that sense of grounding that we had at the beginning of our time together. This was a longer meditation, But by design winter is the long dark night, But out of long darkness light emerges. Press tip of tongue to the roof of the mouth to seal the meditative moment with reverence and precision and also creating a somatic reminder of the peace that you feel now, The break that you've taken now, The reconnection with you, The energy behind the apparatus as opposed to you. It is fascinated by taking items off the checklist. That's fun and fine, But that's not who you are. That's what you do. Release the tip of the tongue from the roof of the mouth, Three clearing breaths, And then we open our eyes and health of the nose. Exhale out the mouth, Deeper inhale through the nose, Exhale out the mouth, Deepest inhale thus far through the nose, Longer exhale out the mouth. Bowing head towards hands is a gesture of reverence for one another, Reverence for the time that we've taken to heal and relax and disrupt our norm, To change our form. And as you're ready, Actually today rub the hands together, Gentle friction on the palms. Take those heated hands, Place them over the eyes, Open the eyes in the hands, Then lay the hands down. Welcome back.

Reviews

Healing and beautiful. Thank you so much, Reggie 💛