Hello LOVE Community!
Sweet September is here!! The sunny crisp mornings and evenings, the leaves giving thought to changing their colors, and the dimmer, more spacious mornings and evenings. In prime fall fashion, I dug out my Ayurveda cookbook the other day and got giddy about all the fall spices, squash recipes, and warm meal ideas! (Psst, If you’re looking for a grounding and seasonally balanced Ayurvedic meal, check out this recipe for Kitchari.
Thank you for hanging in there with me on all the changes- seasons, software, studio construction, YOU NAME IT. It has not been an easy breezy past few weeks, let me tell you.
The other day, needing some serious inspiration and comfort (amidst the disappointment of this WF construction project), I sat and opened one of my favorite books, Journey to the Heart by Melody Beattie. What wisdom could she offer that would make my spirit feel some sense of direction, after suddenly realizing that I was absolutely not going to get my way with a smooth new studio opening. What could these pages offer to help me better understand or soothe my anger (rage?). What could quell my frustration, drive for perfectionism, feelings of restlessness, and unworthiness? What could help settle this tornado in my mind, this sudden sense of what is up and what is down, how do I move forward, what’s the right way? All the feelings associated with rapid change, conflict, and growth, really.
I flipped randomly to the page she had devoted to August 31, which somehow felt like the page I needed to focus on, the day which symbolized an ending to summer. This is what that page says:
Serve Gently From Your Heart
Service. Gentle service that comes from the heart. That’s the theme, the rhythm of life, work, love. See the trees, the grass, the flowers, the mountains, the ocean. Look and really see. See how effortlessly they serve. Their very life is service. Know that your life too is service…Don’t worry about what you will do to serve. Focus instead on loving yourself. Let your service arise from that. Cherish your life, it’s a gift not just to yourself but to others. To the entire universe.
Your part is to serve others by being yourself.
-Melody Beattie
Well if that didn't make me cry tears of relief! Life is challenging, growth is challenging, change and venturing into unknown territory is uber challenging. What I am learning is that it all points us back to ourselves. Outer change begs for inner change. Perspective change. Re-evaluating values and habits and ways of communicating. And I do believe it is all an upleveling; although it still totally SUCKS 80% of the time right now, lol!
What kind of changes and growth are you navigating? I’m sure there is some level of it happening for you this month too. I pray for myself and all of us, that this month, we can grow, change, and transition together into a new season, and do so from a place of service, from the heart. That we (me!) can drop the I, ME, MINE. That no matter what it is that you may be working with and through, that we can use this time of change to take a step back, see the bigger picture, and proceed with patience and love. This is yoga in action. And my gosh is it hard! But it is times like these that I am reminded so clearly, that there is such a bigger picture at play, that there is a higher power at play, and that at the end of the day, we are all (important!) little grains of sand in a gigantic ocean. Thank you for your continued patience and support in all of this. And it will all be so worth it in the end.
In case you’d like some musical inspo to get your flow on at home
Thank you and I love you,
Holly
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