SEASONAL SELF-CARE BLOG
Spring asana – pigeon pose
Posted on April 11th, 2018
One of my favorite things to do is to create practices to open the areas in my body where I feel tight and stuck. And right now I feel really tight in my shoulders, hips, neck- all places in the Spring organ meridians. From my deep explorations into the body and mind, I know that these cramped areas are actually a gold mine for awakening. My prana/chi and blood flow is congested in these tight places and I know that if I can just open them up, the pathway to spaciousness in my body and mind will be crystal clear. Just like a river that is blocked by a fallen tree branch from a Winter storm, once the branch is removed, the river runs smoothly. So too for the energy channels (meridians), once they are opened, the energy that is stuck will freely move and create a free flowing river of energy.
According to Chinese Medicine, Spring is the season of the wood element which rules the liver and gall baldder organs. As the green shoots start pushing their way out of the ground, the meridians that correspond to these organs are often very tight. Are your shoulders tight? Are you experiencing stiffness in your neck…tender inner legs? Are you having headaches…dry eyes, or other eye issues? Are you getting more frustrated and irritable lately? Yes…then you will deeply benefit from adding some spring poses into your practice to help release the congestion that comes from an an aggravated and congested liver network. Pigeon poses is one of my favorite poses to stimulate both the inner leg lines of the liver meridian and outer hips of the gallbladder meridian. Be sure to spend some time in the upright pigeon to open into the spaciousness of the heart and lungs as well as create space for your digestive organs. As you fold forward, try resting your forehead on a pillow or bolster to help quiet the mind and nervous system. Pay particular attention to softening and relaxing the eyes which are are associated with these organs. Allow your exhalations to lengthen and deepen as you rest in the pose as you release congestion and awaken prana in the liver and gall bladder meridians.
For a Spring yin practice, join me for my SPRING REST & RENEWAL: RESTORATIVE SOUND HEALING workshop April 28, 6:15-8:15pm at Sacred Sounds Yoga in Manhattan for a deeply nourishing sound healing experience for the Spring meridians!
Sign up for a PRIVATE THAI MASSAGE SOUND HEALING SESSION for some special Spring liver love healing!
For a Spring yang practice, check out my SPRING CLEANSE FLOW video.
I know you’ll enjoy this a powerful detoxifying, core strengthening, twisting asana sequence that releases congestion in the liver and gall bladder meridians to powerfully cleanse the Spring organs and bring clarity and vitality to your being! Even if you can’t fully do the apex poses yet, do as much of the sequence as you can and you will deeply open your hips and cleanse your body & mind!
The SPRING CLEANSE FLOW VIDEO (& photos) were shot at our Thailand Retreat center which we will be going to again next winter!! SAVE THE DATES!
AWAKENED HEART YOGA RETREAT – THAILAND, FEB 5-12, 2019.
Enjoy the Spring! joyous heart!
Leigh
SPRING GREEN SOUP
Posted on February 28th, 2018
Are you starting to feel a little gunky inside as the weather outside keeps shifting between Winter and Spring? Are you experiencing tight shoulders, headaches, eye issues, tight tendons, stiff necks, eczema and other skin problems. Are you getting agitated and irritable lately? These are signs that your Spring organ network, liver and gall bladder organs, are starting to get overwhelmed with the rising energy of Spring and need some loving attention.
SPRING GREEN SOUP
In these first sightings of Spring, warm sunny days sandwiched between snowy or rainy cold mucky days, my insides start waking up and dancing a little “I want to cleanse jig”. But I know that it is still too early to do a juice cleanse or a full on detox. According to the wisdom of Ayurveda, you should wait until true weather to do a juice cleanse because it is too cooling and depleting for your system in the cold weather. But as we start shifting into Spring, I start gently sweeping the main pathways with a Spring Green Soup. It is warm, nourishing and starts the cleansing process in a very gentle way. I just made my first Spring Green Soup of the season! The recipe is from my dear friend, Nishanga Bliss, author of “Real food All Year”. Back in the 90’s she introduced me to the Chinese Medicine Seasonal food practices and we started our Seasonal Yoga workshops which blossomed all the way into my Yoga Sukhavati Seasonal Yoga Teacher Training!
The Spring Green Soup is delicious and easy to make! I chose to use Dandelion greens as part of my cluster of greens to include because of their bitterness and potency in cleansing the liver and gallbladder to help them stimulate bile production which helps break down foods and filters and detoxifes the blood. According to Chinese Medicine, Spring is the time to cleanse the liver and gall bladder, the wood element. So in went the dandelions to my Spring soup! I also added the digestive powerhouse and diuretic, Fennel to help relieve some bloating and indigestion I was experiencing. I’m feeling so much better after 2 days eating this soup & taking my purifying baths! When cleansing it is essential to offer ways for the toxins to leave your body, so I’ve been taking balancing, nourishing and purifying baths this week. Before I bathe, I do a simple skin brushing to get my lymphatic system in tip top shape. The skin is the largest organ in your body and a large part of our detoxification process Check out our Spring Practices post on purifying seaweed baths!
SPRING GREEN SOUP
Nishanga Bliss, from “Real Food All Year”
2 tablespoons ghee, lard, coconut oil, or olive oil
1 bunch spring or greenoinion, white adn green parts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup fennel ore celery, coarsely chopped
1 quart Bone Broth, Poultry stock, or vegetable stock
2 small potatoes or turnips, diced into 1/2 cubes
1 bunch leafy greens, such as spinach, or arugula, or dandelion (include some others in addition to dandelion), coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)
1 tsp fresh or dried dill
2 tablespoons chickpea miso or white miso
juice of 1 lemon
Join me for my Spring Cleanse Flow workshop on Sunday March 25, 2018 at Sacred Sounds in Manhattan, NY or April 15 at BodyWorks in New Hampshire. Or you can download my Spring Cleanse video, and sweep out the cobwebs from home!!
joyous heart!
Leigh
HARVEST ABUNDANCE
Posted on October 18th, 2017
A few weekends ago I went apple picking and pumpkin hugging upstate with my friend Melanie and her absolutely adorable 2 year old daughter, Annabella. It was incredible to be walking in the midst of the fields, picking our way through apples, squashes & veggies galore, feasting on the colors and abundant offerings of the Fall Harvest. I loved seeing it all through the eyes of Annabella, who loved tasting each apple from every tree which had low enough branches that she could pick from. Her exuberance and curiosity about life was overflowing! It was an experience of enjoying the fullness of life, the fullness of the pumpkins in all of their glory as they lay right next to their stalks that had nourished them until this moment. The birthing vines were now starting to dry up and decompose back into the earth, leaving the pumpkin as an offering, a gift from the Earth.
Ahhh Harvest time-the abundance of the last fruits and vegetables offered before nature takes it’s yearly winter’s slumber. The bounty sitting alongside the simultaneous decay of matter as it contracts, pulling inwards and downwards returning to the earth to fertilize the seeds of Spring’s rebirth. The Fall Harvest is simultaneously a celebration and a letting go. It is the time to distinguish between what is nutritional and should be kept and what can be released and left for compost. In Chinese Medicine, Fall is the season of the Metal element. It offers us the opportunity to lighten up and let go, open the door to clarity, and distill and refine our beings to their essence. This environmental distillation is mirrored in our bodies, minds, and lives. The Autumn harvest offers the opportunity to celebrate and focus our energies on that which we want to birth and let go of that which no longer nourishes our lives and dreams. It is the time to invite abundance and vitality into our lives as we shed the non-essential, resolve and release unhelpful habitual thoughts and emotions, and let go of unhealthy relationships and patterns. By releasing the non-beneficial, we create space for recognizing the essence of who we are and clarity for our intentions,
In the Fall we often need supportive practices to help us as we undergo these elemental processes of letting go, releasing, and surrender. Seasonal yoga, food, and lifestyle practices can help us attune our internal rhythm more with the natural cycles and deepen our connection to ourselves and our environment.
HOME HARVEST
Use the metal element to help you harvest your home. Cut through the disorder with the metal element’s ability to discern and systematize. Fall is the time to organize the clutter in your home, release the agitation in your mind, and clear out the chaos in your life. By releasing the excess and organizing our living space and minds, we acknowledge what we want, recognize who we are, and invite space into our homes and lives.
ORGANIZE the chaos in your home
SYSTEMATIZE areas of congestion. Pick one of these areas in your home to clear out and organize this week – filing cabinet, closet, computer, desk, bookshelves, kitchen
JOURNAL to let go of what is swirling around in your mind
FOCUS on what you want to bring to full manifestation
CELEBRATE and enjoy the fruits of your life!
