Sacred Self-Care

A question I’ve been getting a lot in the last few weeks centers around how best to manage the paradox of slowing down with the natural rhythm of the seasons and the busyness of our modern world.

This paradox is especially true as we enter the holiday season amidst the cool fall weather (in the Northern Hemisphere). This time of year can feel laden with sadness for various reasons that keep us mired in the past, or we may feel overwhelmed by all the planning and prep to create the ‘perfect’ event. Either scenario can leave us feeling disconnected from the present moment.

We’ve all experienced so much over the past year and a half. There is a palpable tension between wanting to connect with our friends and family and a desire to retreat. For many, we feel caught between the constructs of expectations we have stopped questioning and a deeper desire of being here now.

We desire a tool or practice - to help us move through the uncertainty and noise. One that feels aligned to the deepest knowing within us and the highest wisdom available to us. I see and feel this in my work with women every day.

The beauty of this life lives in the wisdom of the Divine Feminine and how She asks us to be fully present even when it is challenging to do so. She's calling us back into the simplicity of living in concert with the world around us—all of it.

The simplicity of this wisdom begins with the breath.

Your breath connects you to your body – your body connects you to this Earth, this life, this existence as it appears to you now.

Have you ever stopped to notice your breath when you are feeling anxious or stressed? It is likely shallow and rushed, or in some cases, you may not be aware you’re holding it in. At that moment, you may be reacting with your mind to stories that are bombarding you about the past or the future, rather than attuning to the wisdom of your body in the here and now.

There is so much information for our mind and senses to take in in this modern age, yet we can only process so much.

When you feel caught in the limits of your human self, the breath can become a means to increase your human capacity to receive the Divine within you fully. The inhale brings in the air of Divine inspiration. The exhale allows what is expended and no longer needed to be released. It is this natural and automatic rhythm that brings us into connection with all life.

Stopping to notice the breath is the sacred pause between the tension that comes from the mind and the simplicity of reconnecting to your body, in the present moment…

In this moment, you recognize the wisdom of breath as it invites expansion. Using your breath to expand the lungs and open the ribs – to the heart space that is the center point of your Divinity and humanity.

In this sacred pause, you begin to notice the shift that occurs within you as you connect to the breath. Witnessing the slow rhythm like a gentle tide ebbing and flowing on a sandy shore. It becomes like a ribbon of light that brings with it energetic love to your body to bring you back to your heart.

The beauty of this wisdom is that it is available to you all the time!

Take a sacred pause.

Feel your breath as it moves through you.

Placing a hand on your heart, you can affirm, “I have not forgotten you”.

With the inhale you take in the nourishment of life.

With the exhale, feel the cleansing of this breath in your body and the fullness of your being as you gently release the mind’s grip a little more…

Softening into the moment of peace allows you to connect to the Divine wisdom within you. From this point in awareness, you can begin to expand your perception and align your thoughts, words, and actions to your heart (not simply the mind).

If this is a new concept for you, be patient and gentle with yourself. Consider using the practice of coming back to your breath to connect deeply to your beingness as a Divine Human. You may find ease and grace as you move through the world, less distracted by the mind, more present in your body, connected to your Divinity and all of life.

This is sacred self-care in devotion to love.