Heart Connections in Autumn Light

Here it is. My first peek at Autumn 2008.

As I was walking around our little Lake Hampton, I looked down at just the right moment, and I saw it. This red leaf ~ colorfully lying there amidst last Winter's leftover brown debris and Summer's waning greens ~ invited me to stop for just a moment.


As I snapped the picture, focusing in on this symbol of September changes ~ this organic reminder of life's never-ending transformation ~ it was as if Mother Nature had gently tapped me on the shoulder to share a moment of nostalgic reflection.

Like a parent simultaneously celebrating and yet dreading her child's leaving for school, Mother Nature was inspiring me to capture a few of her Summer's fading memories as we prepare to welcome Autumn's return.

I invite you to take a moment
to enjoy these memories with me.

Glorious Purple Sisters

Summer's Yellow and Orange hues holding on.

Aging Beauty

Goldenrod's blossoms announce Autumns' Arrival,
bringing tears to many eyes.

Geese Friends thinking of Southern Shores?

As I watched our geese friends looking out over their Spring and Summer home, I imagined that they were contemplating their impending Southbound flight. In watching them, I fell into my own moment of contemplation about the changing season. It was a moment of connecting my Heartbeat to the Universal Heartbeat.

Twice a year ~ at the Spring Equinox in late March and the Autumn Equinox in late September ~ we experience equal hours of daylight and darkness. These are Mother Nature's gifts to us. Yin-Yang moments; balancing points of equal dark and light.

In the Spring that tipping point past the balance moves us out of the contemplative Darkness of Winter into Spring's time of planting the seeds of new ideas for us to grow. Our heartbeat quickens with the expanding hours of light, and we feel the urge to spring into motion with the rest of Nature.

Here, at the Fall Equinox, Mother Nature invites us to pause and look back at what we have grown and harvested from those Spring seeds. What wisdom have we nurtured during the full light of Summer? What new ideas blossomed into hardy personal Understandings?

As we once again prepare to move into the contemplative darkness of Winter, we begin to consider what aspects of our harvest will not only sustain us, but empower us. With the outer light growing dim, we need sparks from within to enlighten us, to provide us visions and dreams of new life vistas. The light that shines from within us deepens our Heart Connection to the Universal Heartbeat, just as gathering around a Winter Hearth deepens our connections to friends and family with whom we share that warm experience.

So now, I invite you to take a moment to pause.

Maybe you were busy and missed
the official beginning of Autumn
on Monday, September 22 at 11:44 am.

In case you could not take time to stop
to honor that brief moment
that balance point
between equal light and dark.

If you were unable to pause and be aware
of the tipping point that moved us closer to
Our Heart Connection
with the
Mother Nature's Universal Heartbeat ...

I invite you to take a moment now.

Focus in on the picture below
of our little Lake Hampton
as she appeared at the moment
of Autumn's arrival.

Peer into the water as it reflects
the Light and the Dark
of the Equinox.

And feel Your Heartbeat
connect to the sacred rhythm
of
Mother Nature.

Peace & Light,
Jae

"Gotcha" Body Dialogue

It has been over a month since my last Healing Circles post. And, since then, I have truly missed connecting with you.

I wish I could say that my absence has been due to a wonderful farewell-to-Summer vacation with my husband, or another unexpected getaway day with my daughter or one of my friends. Instead, during my blogging absence over the last few weeks, I have been engaged in an ongoing dialogue with my own body, which has been quite adamantly reminding me that I have not been taking good care of my physical existence.

As anyone close to me will tell you, other than when I am taking my daily walk or doing hands-on de-cluttering projects, my natural inclination is to live in my head. That's where my intellectual and intuitive/visionary centers of the brow chakra is located. It's my true comfort zone. Add to this ~ as with most women ~ a tendency to "just keep going" regardless, and there you have a recipe for the body to do a "gotcha".

My big "gotcha" actually happened a few years ago. After a very long period of high stress, which triggered off a wide array of symptoms, I was diagnosed with Chronic Epstein Barr Virus. Very similar in nature to the effects of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, this "condition" is equally as challenging to learn how to manage and to live with. If you would like more information about Chronic Epstein Barr Virus (CEBV), check out the website listed under Jae's Links.

Since my Epstein Barr diagnosis, I have gotten much better at paying attention to my body's physical-symptom reminders, like

"Brain no think. Hungry. Eat now!"

or

"Excuse me. Headache!
Staring at a glowing computer screen not a good idea.
Take a break!"

Still, focusing on the physical does not come naturally to me. So sometimes, after ignoring its messages for too long, my body has to take drastic measures. And in a last ditch effort, it sends out a combination of stronger symptom-messages that absolutely force me to

"Just Stop!!!"

Which is what I had to do a few weeks ago, as I finished posting my last De-Cluttering Connection blog. Since then, I have been consciously slowing down and relaxing. I've had two doctor's visits and a couple of tests. I'm making a point to eat healthier and taking some prescribed supplements.

In addition, to complement this traditional approach, I also have been having some great Body Dialogues so I can better understand the symptom-messages my body has been sending me.

So, what is a "Body Dialogue"?

A Body Dialogue is sort of a conversation with your body that takes place in a gentle meditative state. As with any meditation, our attention is turned away from the outside world, away from our everyday To Do List, away from our analytical, intellectual processes. And, just like our Life Journey Meditation from last time, we allow ourselves to form a conscious, inner connection with a particular inner aspect ~ or physical part ~ of ourselves. Once connecting inwardly, we open to receive the wisdom held there.

I am sharing this practice with you today in case you may be interested in trying this gentle approach to self-care. You may be having a particular physical challenge of your own, or you may want to just add this practice to your regular self-care routine.

Getting into the habit of "conversing" with our Bodies now will serve us well as we look toward Autumn's arrival on September 22nd. Our body's connection to Mother Nature's clock is already anticipating the North East's colder weather that will reward us with beautiful views of Autumn leaves. With stores already displaying Halloween costumes, we know frostier weather will be challenging us to stay healthy. And, the busy Holiday Season that follows will create an even more hectic pace to our lives. Hey, I've already received a catalog featuring Holly Leaf Tablecloths and Snowflake Decorations.

At this point you may be thinking, "Jae, why are you trying to depress us? Just because you haven't been feeling well, do you have bring all of us down?"

Believe me, I am not trying to depress you. Instead, I'm hoping to provide you another holistic tool to help you avoid illness so you won't have to feel yucky or depressed. So here we go . . .

For a Body-Focused Meditative Dialogue
I find it is best to lie down.

Usually, our head/brain gets "top billing", feeling very important as it "rules from on high" over every other part of our body. In this situation, however, we want to honor that every part of us is equally important. Lying down puts all of our physical parts on a more level "communication field".

Since being physically-focused tends to be a challenge for me, I make a special effort to create a calm, nurturing atmosphere for Body Dialogues. For me, that means candles, soft instrumental music, a glass of water to my right, and my personal journal within reach. Plus, I hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign outside the door of the room so I won't be interrupted and to make me feel secure. I change into very loose, comfortable clothes. But not what I usually sleep in. I do not want to cue myself to go to sleep. I want to be comfortable enough to fully relax, but also alert enough to consciously receive the insights that my body has to share with me.

Once the atmosphere is set, there is nothing left to do but lie down and get comfortable. For me, this means lying on my back. For others, it may mean lying on their side. The most important thing is to find a position in which none of your body parts feel stressed or stretched. Oncee I am in my safe space and comfortable body position, I begin to gently encourage myself to move into a state of relaxation.

Note:

If you are not used to doing self-relaxation and/or meditation, you may want to have a trusted friend or family member slowly read the relaxation script found at the end of this posting, just below the picture of the rainbow candles.

I usually begin my meditation by whispering to myself, "Relax now." This is my cue that my meditation has begun, giving my mind and body permission to "let down," disengage from the outside world and be still. After so many years of this practice, I am also able to use these two simple words to relax myself in any stressful situation.

The full relaxation process usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Once I feel completely relaxed, I begin my Body Dialogue.

During my most recent Dialogue, I silently asked my body to send me a physical sensation to let me know where it most needed attention. I immediately felt a dull headache starting to form at the center of my forehead. This is a symptom I had been experiencing on and off for several weeks. I had been explaining it away as once again having "Forgot to eat!" But on this evening, I had been very attentive to making sure that I ate something to nurture myself before beginning my meditation process. So, I knew that this headache was my body's own way of communicating something of importance to me.

With that in mind, I consciously breathed into the headache, asking my body, "What is it that you are trying to tell me through sending me this headache? I am listening." Then continuing to breathe naturally, I just laid there quietly, waiting for the response.

Within moments, I "heard" the reply. Or maybe it is better described as I had a "knowing" that the words coming to mind were my body's message. Either way, the "explanation" my body gave me for sending the headache, came with the thought,

"A headache is the only thing
that makes your mind stop going."

This made total sense because I live in my head so much. I spend probably 85 percent of my time taking in information, creating and processing ideas, and then translating those ideas into concepts to communicate to others. And the only thing that will stop me is a bad headache. If it hurts to think, I'm done.

Receiving this message, and knowing its truth, I thanked my body for sharing its wisdom. And then, I apologized to my body for having ignored its messages.

But my body had more to tell me.

No sooner had I acknowledged the headache, than it began to fade away. Seconds later, my left leg started to ache. Once again, I breathed into the ache, and asked for more guidance. The ache narrowed into a more intense soreness behind my knee and upward into the back of my lower left thigh. That area had been bothering me on and off for several days. I was eager to hear this message.

"Less sitting and thinking.
More exploring.
We need exercise to be healthy."

This I did not fully understand. But I did not allow myself to get into an analytical process about why it didn't make sense. Instead, I simply thought, "Please tell me more." In response, I received,

"You need to feel like you're going somewhere.
Exercise in one place does not work.
Hurried exercise in any setting does not either.
Distracted, we get hurt."

I still didn't get it, and I asked again, "Please tell me more." The final response made everything clear to me.

"Find continuity and balance both inside and out.
Strengthen by moving with awareness."

"Ahhh! Gotcha!" I replied inwardly.

With a clear sense that my body dialogue was over, I focused on my whole body once again. As the soreness faded from my leg, I turned my attention to the top of my head, and started the process of rejoining the physical world.

Simply focusing on each area of my body from my head down to my toes, I invited all parts of myself to awaken, feeling physically whole, fully awake, and aware of my surroundings and my experience. Taking a few moments to become fully connected to the outside world, I sat up, slowly drank some water, and then journaled about what I had learned.

"The first and second message from my leg reminded me that over the summer, my daily walking routine had become sporadic. Since I do not do well in temperatures over 80, I started a more traditional stretching exercise routine in the air-conditioned comfort of home.

"However, since I do most of my administrative work and writing at home, I have a hard time disengaging from my work process in order to fully focus on those boring, in-one-place exercises. I like to feel like I'm going somewhere ... even it is only going around the circle of a little lake. As it got hotter and hotter outside, I was forced to stay inside more often. Gradually, I was doing less and less exercising, but a lot more work at home. There were no more relaxing morning moments of sitting by the lake and "just being". Thus the headaches?

"I did finally realize I was getting off track, so I knew that I needed to get back to walking by the lake. In order to do this, I decided I had to hurry up and get out there earlier in the morning to beat the heat. Through my hurrying outside and being distracted inside, I must have somehow strained something in my left leg. But sitting and thinking is not going to make it better.

"The last message from my body offers coaching encouragement that I would give to my own clients.

"Find continuity and balance both inside and out.
Strengthen by moving with awareness.'

"Now it's up to me to honor that I 'got it' and to translate my body's encouragement into concrete practices. With the cooler weather upon, this should be fairly easy to do. But I also need to look ahead to when the very cold weather drives inside once again. Much to ponder."

Wishing you wisdom-filled Body-Focused Dialogues
to which you can reply
"Ahha! Gotcha."

As always, your comments are joyfully received.

Peace & Light,
Jae

Suggested Relaxation Script

"Relax now.

Settling into this nurturing environment,
take a little time to just breathe softly.

Sigh into the comfort of this peaceful moment,
and allow yourself to sink into the freedom of "just being".

Next, take a few minutes to be fully aware of your body.

Starting at your feet and moving slowly upward,
begin to focus your attention to each area of your body
and invite it to relax.

feet, ankles,
shins and calves,
knees and thighs
relax.

abdomen, hips,
buttocks, and lower back
relax.

waist, solar plexus,
and back behind this area
relax.

breasts, heart area
and upper back
relax.

becoming aware of your spine,
focus on your tail bone
and follow your spine up to your neck
relaxing each vertebrae.

now focus on your left arm,
starting at your hand and wrist,
then your left forearm,
elbow, upper arm and shoulder
relax every part of your left arm.

now focus on your right arm,
starting at your hand and wrist,
then your right forearm,
elbow, upper arm, and shoulder
relax every part of your right arm.

next move your attention to your throat
and relax this are of communication.

and now move your attention to your neck,
becoming aware of the strong muscles
that support your head
invite these muscles to
relax.

now focus on your face,
your jaw and mouth,
your cheekbones,
your nose, eyes and ears
relaxing all of the senses.

bring awareness to your brow
and relax.

your forehead
and relax.

both sides of your head
relax.

the back of your head
relaxing.

and finally
the very top of your head
allowing complete relaxation.

Having acknowledged every part of
your physical being from toe to head,
allow yourself to just lie still in this relaxed state.

As you fully sink into complete relaxation,
become aware of your whole body.

From this awareness
of the entire physical entity that is you,
invite your body to speak to you
through physical sensations.
Ask it to draw your attention to the part of you
that most needs your special attention at this time.

Breathe into this part of your body that is calling to you,
and hear everything it has to tell you."