letting go to the flow........

Dear Damp Yogis,

Rain.  Rain.  Rain.    ………and then some more rain. 

And just when it would appear that it was letting up and the skies were brightening ever so slightly…..more rain. 

Steady heavy rain all week.

 

You couldn’t help but feel it.

I have been in a funk most of the week.  Part of it is probably due to the gray skies that come hand in hand with rainy days.  But I know that was just the trigger that brought it to the surface.   The steady, relentless stream of water caused me to feel something I would just assume bury.  That my funk is also tied to the time of year. 

I struggle every year during this transition to fall.  The evenings dark before I can even finish dinner, my garden slowly fading back, the chill that settles into my bones when I sit too long at my pc, and ……sigh….having to put my feet back into shoes to go outside.   It all makes me feel sad and a little hollow. 

I know for many of you it is quite the opposite.  People around me are thrilled for the nip in the air, the fall colors and Sunday football.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy many of the changes that fall brings, and I wouldn’t ever want to live somewhere that didn’t experience the wonder of earth’s magical ability to change seasons.  But when I look toward fall as a whole it appears to me as a long dark tunnel.  And I struggle. 

When I find myself in this state of mind I can only describe it as a longing.  The sense of “is this it?”.  A wanting for more.  A wanting for things to be different.   And the interesting thing when you observe your emotions is that they begin to entangle themselves into every aspect of your life.  Suddenly your job is not right, your activities feel stale and even your body suddenly appears more imperfect than usual when you glance in the mirror. 

This week we are working with Svadisthana, our sacral chakra, the element of water.  How fitting. 

The energy of water is receptive.  When we toss something into water, it is accepted fully.  Water opens herself up completely to wrap her arms around all that is placed within her.   Water does not struggle against, but changes form and flows easily around any and all obstacles. 

Water is the goddess.  Sensual, alive and open.  The tides and the current, and the radiance of the moon.  She is that part of us that is wild, instinctive and completely comfortable in our skin, without regard for what is happening on the outside.

Water makes us feel.

So my work right now is to let go.  To lie back in the current of the Universe and allow it – without this need to struggle.  To be able to separate what I feel vs who I am.   Recognizing that this funk is simply fluctuations in my mind, and that it, like everything outside of me is impermanent.  That soon I will be comfortable in the new season….and again in my own skin.  But for now to just let it be exactly as it is.  To LET it rain, soak in my tub and allow myself to feel what it is like to be low.  To wrap my arms around it.

Not easy.  But a lesson from the Goddess.

I couldn’t even coax Bunny Rabbit out in the rain last night,

SARAH