October 7th, 2022
This is the season of pumpkins, fall leaves, and ANXIETY. As we really settle into the season of Autumn, it is extremely common for people to experience more rumination, worry, insomnia, general angst, irritability, and analysis paralysis.
Yoga (and Ayurveda) would teach this is due to a lack of downward flowing energy called Apana.
What this means is we are ungrounded with the majority of our energy stuck in our heads!
Living from the neck up is a dangerous proposition. Why? The reality of the mind is not that pretty.
Our minds are the most constricted aspects our being according to the yogis! Far more constricted say than the body, or even our energy.
The mind is also never satisfied. (You know this…as soon as you sit down to finish emails, your mind convinces you to get up and find a snack or make another cup of coffee).
The mind is ALWAYS working…it is the ultimate work-a-holic. It hardly rests, even when sleeping.
The mind self-sabotages us. It is the master of telling us stories, convincing us of “truths”, and getting stuck in old conditioning that causes us to lose track of the inner self. We no longer see things as they are. Rather things get very “foggy”.
And in this “foggy” state, fear is the ruling emotion, fueled by our mind’s negativity bias that convinces us there are more threats, and fewer opportunities and resources than is actually the case.
We experience:
Fear of rejection
Fear of failure
Fear of ostracism
Fear of loneliness
Fear of unworthiness
Fear of success
So conditioned by our mind are we to be afraid, that we forget there is another path.
This is the path of connecting to the self: to one’s body, to one’s inner voice, to one’s breath, to one’s heart.
Despite practicing and knowing that path away from fear, I still need constant reminders to do my practices, especially this time of year.
