Autumn Vibes

I love to embrace the seasons in my yoga practices and, as autumn is my favourite season, it stands to reason that we locked into this vibe in our classes (in-person, on-line and pre-recorded) over the past few weeks.  I wanted to write a blog post about how we can fully embrace the autumn season in all areas of our lives to use the seasonal change to re-set and shift our mindset and share with you all how I am personally working with these principals.

The Vibe

Think trees losing their leaves; letting go of what they don’t need so they can “lock down” and preserve themselves over winter, ready to emerge in their full glory in spring. 

How many of us re-play situations in our minds and think of different outcomes?  What about persevering with friendships that are not equal?  Relationships that aren’t working?  Negative feelings we don’t feel we can express?  Limiting beliefs about ourselves?  Sometimes we hold on to these thoughts, and they begin to manifest themselves within our body; a tightening of the jaw, that knot between the shoulders, stomach pain etc. 

“Letting go” does not mean that you must quickly stop thinking of something or give yourself a hard time because you can’t stop thinking about it.  It’s finding a way to process our thoughts and feelings healthily, release where we are holding it in the body and find resolve to “let it go”.

The vibe also encompasses a sense of slowing down and conserving energy; hibernating for winter.

This autumn I have been working on letting go of fear and self-doubt.  I have been pushing myself outside of my comfort zone to show myself what I am capable of; to become stronger and more confident.  I have had meetings about starting on the road to doing my PhD, I have done a Jui Jitsu photoshoot, I’ve set up my online membership (after wanting to do it for sooooo long and not feeling “ready”), I’ve spoken up in important meetings, knowing I would be disliked, but determined to make positive changes.  It has been difficult, but when I became anxious I tried to breath through it and let it go, visualising the leaves of the trees falling into a river.

I’ve also been working on slowing down a little.  I find this hard, as there are always things that need to be done!  I am trying to balance my NHS job & my business (that I want to grow and have loads of ideas for) with being present with my beautiful family.  Unfortunately, I’ve also been experiencing a return of endometriosis symptoms.  Slowing down has now become essential, rather than a choice.

The Yoga

In our classes we have been working on tree pose; working on solid foundations, but building up different, more fluid variations (think somatic, dynamic trees (holding for a short time and quickly changing leg to give a repetitive dance-like flow) arm movements, toe balance and tree with forward fold).  We have also been working with prolonged exhales to allow the body to slow down and let go more deeply.  We have been using tree and leaf visualisations to give a visual representation of letting go to embody the practice further.

Our sessions utilised a variety of asana and somatic movement techniques to encourage the muscles to release and move any negativity that we were holding in our body.  Think cat stretch, lying/seated pelvic tilts/circles (anything that feels good with the pelvis), full body shaking & dynamic squats.

I have brought a lot more somatic yoga into my personal practice to really shift and move negative energy and trauma.  I find movement so powerful for the mind.

So that was my autumn on and off the mat!