Nourishing the heart in hard times

For many of us, the first month of 2017 has been one of great challenge. At for many more, the past week or so has been a time of grief, anger, hurt and dispair. It is an incredibly challenging time to navigate and can leave us feeling depressed, depleted and exhausted. 

While it may seem that there are so many things outside of ourselves calling for our attention, our action and our energy, we also must recognize the importance of maintaining self care routines. If we push ourselves to the bring of exhaustion or worry, we have very little to give and may find that moving forward becomes increasingly difficult. I encourage you to take time to set practices and space for self care. Now is the time to lean into your yoga and meditation practices and to ensure that you are doing things that nourish you in both body and spirit.

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Below is a meditation to help you feed your heart energy, a place many of us may be feeling depletion. Use this as a way to noursih your own energy and to also help heal the heart from heartache and grief. 

Feeding the Heart: A Meditation
Ensure you are somewhere where you will be uninterrupted for at least 20 minutes. Come to lie on your back, on a bed or on the floor. Make sure you are comfortably supported using props such as a pillow under the back of the knees or a pillow under the head. Also ensure that you will be warm, perhaps covering yourself with a blanket or donning extra layers.
 
Once you've settled in, allow yourself a few minutes to watch your breathing and to come into your body. Gradually allow the breath to deepen and lengthen and as it does so, invite your body to relax. Scan from tips of the toe to crown of the head and as you find places of tension or holding in the body, direct the breath into those places. As you feel yourself relax, become aware of the heaviness of the head and the sensation of gravity pressing down upon your whole body.
 
As you've settled into the pace of the breath, begin to direct it along the spine. As you inhale, pull it from base of the spine to crown of the head and as you exhale pull it back down the spine. After several rounds of breath, imagine an orb of light traveling with the breath. As you inhale, pull a golden orb of light up the spine, tailbone to crown. As you exhale, pull that golden orb from crown to tailbone. Continue with this visualization for at least five rounds of breath.
 
Next bring the orb of light up the spine to the heart center at allow it to come to rest there. Take several breaths into the heart center and watch the orb shift from golden light to a deep emerald green. After some time with the focus on the heart, drop your awareness into the back of the body and envision the space between the shoulder blades, the back of the heart. On an exhale drop a cord of emerald light from the heart down into the floor. Send it deep into the earth and as it reaches the earth watch it spread out in an intricate root system, like that of a tree or plant. With each breath send it wider and deeper. Once the roots have sunk deep into the earth, reverse the flow of energy and like a plant drawing nutrients up from the soil, begin to draw earth energy up your root system. As it rises, the earth energy turns the roots from emerald green to a deep crimson red. Breath by breath the energy rises until eventually it returns to the back of the heart and rises up into the orb at the center of the chest. As this energy fills the heart, it turns the orb in the chest from emerald green to red as well. As you take each breath, the light at the heart grows more vibrant and deeper in its reddish hue.
 
After several breaths, draw the awareness to the front of the body. Bring your focus to the sternum and pull an emerald cord of light from the orb at the heart up through the center of the chest and toward the ceiling. Take it up into the sky, higher and higher. Eventually the entire night sky expands before you and you see thousands of glittering stars. Look around and find the bright disk of the moon in the sky and send your cord of emerald light toward that disk. Eventually, you connect with the energy of the moon and as you do, you begin to pull the lunar energy down the emerald cord and back toward the body. As the energy of the moon descends, it turns the cord from emerald green to a glowing silvery white. It drips like honey, bit by bit, making its way back down to the body. When it reaches the body it enters through the front of the chest and enters the crimson red orb at the heart. The moon energy begins to swirl with the earth and energy and as they mix the orb at the chest begin to glow a vibrant pink, the color of quartz crystal. Take 10-15 breaths allowing this pink light to fill the heart.
 
Once this light begins to overflow from the heart center, begin to direct it down the spine toward the tailbone and up the spine toward the crown until you see the entire central channel illuminated a brilliant pink. Remain here as long as you like allowing the energy to course through your body and opening up to the innate intelligence of these two energies. Feel yourself as the meeting place, the bridge, for these energies to meet and co-create and feel your body as the vessel for this energy.
 
When you feel an expansiveness throughout the entire body, come back to an awareness of the breath and begin to slowly return.