Fall Equinox: Tools for Letting Go to Create (CSUN Week 4)

Transitions between seasons are a beautiful time to pause and reflect on what you have been creating with your daily thoughts, words, actions and focusing energy on.  These mindful moments of self-reflection amid change can empower your awareness to let go of what may no longer align with your life’s purpose or serve useful in our world, as they may have in the past.  Thus, you create space for or renew what you now choose to manifest and share with the world.  This balance of surrender and non-attachment to goal (or, Vairagyabhyam in Sanskrit) and focused action with steady practice (or, Abhyasa in Sanskrit) are the two main qualities described in Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Chapter 1, v. 12) for entering the state of yoga, that is, ultimate union with inner and universal consciousness. 
 
At Fall Equinox, we prepare to transition from the leisurely pace of hot summer and its light seasonal cuisine of watermelons, asparagus and kiwi to cool autumn with its busier schedule paralleled by wind and some rain.  In fall, nature offers her blessings of heavier produce—pumpkin, apples, brussel sprouts-- to sustain our increased activity and keep warm and nourished.  In adapting to the new season, it’s important to nourish your entire being—body, mind and spirit.  Here are some ways to use yoga to prepare for your transition into fall:
 
7-Minute Re-balancing Breath Work
To watch the guided meditation, click here.

Yoga Postures for Creativity & Welcoming Change
 
Opening the hips through both fluid breath-led movement and sustained postures aid in the clearing of the creativity energy center, called Sacral Chakra or Svadhisthana in Sanskrit.  A balanced sacral chakra aligns with your ability to be open to change, take healthy risks with childlike curiosity, express yourself uniquely and embrace your sexuality.  Thus, at a time of environmental seasonal change, embodying the natural element of water, as hip-openers promote, can well-equip you with resilience and joy. 
 
10-Minute Yoga Sequence for Opening the Hips
 To watch the guided yoga practice, click here.
 
Guided Meditation on Letting Go to Create
 
Stay tuned on our social media (Instagram or Facebook) this week for a guided meditation on letting go to create.  Either before or after, enrich your meditative state with a nature walk, soaking in with all your senses the natural beauty of the fall season as it comes.
 
Connect with Community
 
Besides your personal preparations, gathering with a community of like-minded people also seeking personal growth and positive change offers a supportive and inspiring atmosphere for welcoming the new season.  Consider joining a community event, such as Flow into Fall: Flow + Soul Movement + Restorative Yoga with Live Music gathering for increasing vibrations of peace as you enter autumn. 
 
With these many suggestions, choose the practice that best resonates with you, if not all.  However you welcome fall, allow your practice to guide you into clarity and grace flowing with life as it unfolds breath by breath, a means of predisposing your inner conditions to fully experience the present moment. 

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