I know it sounds crazy, but that’s the kind of thing I’m asking myself lately, and it’s been kind of fun. How to sit so I can feel deeply nurtured? If my chair isn’t helping me sit tall, then I try to sit forward and use my own strength to support me.
Are my clothes nurturing me – can I let the fabric feel like a sweet caress? If not I change. Is this hot water nurturing me – can I feel it hydrating deep into my tissues? If not I add some spices to help the process (turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, fennel is great to start with).
Is this light nurturing me? If not, maybe I can turn it off and just keep the salt crystal on.
So today I’m asking myself: can I let everything I am doing nourish me, can I feel the support in every interaction – the farmer’s market, my teaching, getting together with a friend, playing with my daughter, making dinner for my family?
Especially when sleep is hard to come by mama, and you’re going through all sorts of changes, try asking yourself – can I see the nurturing elements in each moment? The sky, the breeze, the ground, the water in the shower, the warmth of the sun?
According to yoga, these 5 elements are everywhere – they are what make up all the exists in our world.
We so often look for the things that we can acquire, or goals we can achieve, that will finally help us feel good. But we need to practice taking the opportunity to feel good by the the way we practice being strong and finding balance. Or, no matter what we achieve, we might not be able to enjoy it.
On the mat, we become aware of each breath. Sometimes we teachers say we are “being breathed,” to remind us that we are not in control. Whatever that force is that breathes us is bigger than our will power – if we say “I’m going to hold my breath and die”, it shuts off the lights so we can breathe again.
The point is, creating this relationship with our world starts with how we are experiencing our breath. Can you right now breathe in through your 3rd eye, down into your heart, and feel that prana (life force) lovingly nourishing your whole body, even as you exhale the CO2?
If so, you are setting yourself to be nourished by your whole day.
To connect to the wisdom and power of our divine feminine SELF, we need to be in the flow of nurturing energy: receiving as much as giving. It starts with conscious breathing. This is where we step into the flow of nurturing energy.
If I had only one practice I can do (and sometimes being a mama this is true), it wouldn’t be sun salutes, and it wouldn’t be meditation.
It would be sitting with my breath until I notice that I am being nurtured by the world.
