Welcome to the art/life trail!
It’s Imbolc/Candlemas the cross-quarter day midpoint between solstice and equinox. A deeply quiet time when our culture checks to see if the groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, foretells more winter. However you tap in it’s apparent that this is a point of shift in the energy in which we live and move and create. Winter now opens toward Spring.
Here on the art/life trail we recognize this as a point of entering the Balsamic Phase of the Natural Year. Balsamic represents a transition time when there is both an end occurring and a beginning flowing closer in.
The next six weeks are for deep healing and renewal. Consider this the “fallow” zone on the circle of the Natural Year. Contemplate the power and critical importance of a time each year to be barren. During the six weeks ahead feel the potency off your next seed/dream/vision stir.
Notice that all that is required to bring your seed/dream/vision forth is a short time, each day, devoted to being empty. Recently in our current ‘It’s About Time… to create progress without pressure’ 8 day challenge I shared my creative equation that sets the rhythm of this quiet time.
I M MT n I MT n2 XTC
‘Did I Dream This?’, Drozda, Acrylic/wood, 18 x 24″, private collection
In the Natural World, here in the Northern Hemisphere, these six weeks bring the last days of winter. Yet, there is simultaneously the beginning of activity…we see the birds getting ready to build their nests, the rivers are beginning to flow beneath the ice, here in Virginia the daffodils are pushing upward and the buds are swelling…and yet, symbolically and creatively, consider this time as the deepest rest, respite, repose opportunity….even if only for 15 minutes a day.
Make a list of 10 ways that you might take time to replenish yourself. It may be naps in the afternoon, a focus on eating light and well, a liver cleanse, a desire to walk in nature, a quiet time of gazing at birds at the feeder. Make it part of your creative practice to decide what brings you that average of 15 minutes each day so that you can consciously connect with the idea stream within.
10 WAYS THAT I REST
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Contemplating Contentment
Choose the most potent three rest modes from your list. Pay attention to what ideas, dreams and visions come when you engage that practice. A seed/dream/vision might be visualized as “mind like water.” Drop a ‘pebble idea’ into your mind stream. Notice the movement outward. Breathe yourself back. Return to stillness and peace. Repeat. This rhythmic daily practice acts to midwife your creative rebirth.
The last three days of each moon/ month offers this same opportunity. To sync in with this rhythm provides fertilization to your seed/dream/vision13 times each year.
This 6 weeks before the natural balance point of Spring Equinox expands the monthly segment into a portion of the Natural Year. Now you can consciously recharge and reconnect to your deeper seed/dream/vision…your far-reaching most evolutionary and creative dream.
See if you can welcome this Natural Time! Fifteen minutes a day to experience being fallow, bare of purpose, the seed/dream/vision not yet planted. During this 15 minutes you’re listening for guidance regarding what to birth come the spring. You’re resting. You’re imagining what it means to have a seed/dream/vision that is Your Calling.
Here’s powerhouse practice: every year at this time imagine your death bed.
Death ushers in a re-birth . . . we can’t tell what that birth will be. Consider this as your chance to “lie-in-state.” Withdraw, release, detach, let go, soak, float, be still, and consider what you will bring into your seed dream/vision. Why this dream?
‘Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep’, Drozda, Acrylic/board, 10 x 12″, private collection
A gentle practice: Shavasana is perhaps the most important part of yoga practice. Lying on the back, the arms and legs are spread at about 45 degrees, the eyes are closed and the breath deep, using deergha (long) pranayama. The whole body is relaxed onto the floor with an awareness of the chest and abdomen rising and falling with each breath. All parts of the body are scanned for muscular tension of any kind, which is consciously released as it is found, optionally with a small repetitive movement of the area. All control of the breath, the mind, and the body is then released for the duration of the asana, typically 20–30 minutes although often less in Western yoga classes.
The asana is released by slowly deepening the breath, flexing the fingers and toes, reaching the arms above the head, stretching the whole body, exhaling, bringing the knees to the chest and rolling over to the side in a fetal position. After a short time and a slow inhalation, the practitioner takes a seated position. From wiki-pedia
What’s your practice for consciously connecting to this rest period? All that’s asked is 15 minutes a day.
See you next time on the art/life trail
~ Iona ~
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