Summer Mudra — Fire element

Here Virginia goes through the Summer Mudra 3 times, with the last in silence. Follow along with the transcript to the left.

Summer Mudra — The Element of Fire

Continuing with my offering of Tai Chi Mudras that my teacher, Virginia Scholl, has been sharing with my Tai Chi class.

Summer is the season of fire according to Tai Chi Philosophy, it is a full yang season wherein we collect the warmth to last all year. The ability to love is essential to fire. To come from the heart with our inner fire. To radiate our true fire out into the world.

May the flame
Within me
Shine forth
May it open my heart
So that the warmth and radiance
I put out into the world,
Comes from a place of compassion.

When the fire element is balanced within us,
we are accessible and responsive to others,
and able to communicate clearly with them.

We are able to love deeply
and be loved deeply.

We can live with abundant spirit
and walk the unique path chartered
by our own, no-other-like-it heart.

The fire phase encourages us to mature
and to flourish, to lighten up
and explore the adventures of life.

Fire helps us to be spontaneous and express
our true nature to the world.

The warmth, passion and joy of Fire
are available to us each moment
that we stay alive to ourselves
and to the fullness of life in others and in all nature.

~ Ann Bailey

Spring Mudra - Elements of Wood and Wind

Spring Mudra – The Elements of Wood and Wind

Continuing with my offering of Tai Chi Mudras that my teacher, Virginia Scholl, has been sharing with my Tai Chi class.

Spring is the season of wood and wind according to Tai Chi Philosophy, it is also associated with waking up, pushing up and out from the depths, a renewed energy. A youthful masculine energy emerges at this time of year — grandiose and pushy at times! This is a time of new beginnings when life bursts forth in uninhibited joy, when hope returns and everything is growing towards the light.

There is incredible drive and determination available during this season of wood and wind. This energy can take us away with it, giving rise to impatience and impulsivity. Conversely it can be hard to meet, resulting in feeling overwhelmed and even a bit depressed in the presence of the all the greening and blooming. If we, like the trees around us, are well rooted deep in the earth and in our past, we can stand tall in the present moment and reach toward our visions for the future.

Practicing this Mudra supports me helps me to fully accept the invitation spring offers. I urge you to try following along with Virginia in this video. It takes only a few minutes, even if you slow it way down. It is a lovely way to begin or end your day

Whispering these words to yourself quietly as you learn the movements:

Holding these seeds in my hands and planting.
The roots push down, stems push up into, buds, and flowers.
Then falling back down to earth
to bring what is inside to the outside.
And standing in this present moment, I acknowledge
Where I have come from and where I am going
With strength and kindness to bring me home.

Here Virginia goes through the Spring Mudra 3 times, with the last in silence. To activate subtitles, click the CC square in bottom bar.

Accepting Winter's Invitation - Activating the Stillness

February 4th

Breaking News:

Winter is releasing its grip. Here we are, midway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. On this archeoastrological day of Imbolc . . . you can trust that delicate awakenings are occurring in the deep.

I am continuing with my offering of Tai Chi Mudras that my teacher, Virginia Scholl, has been sharing with my Tai Chi class. Winter is the season of water according to Tai Chi Philosophy, it is also associated with going into the depths and with stillness. Practicing this Mudra helps me to accept the invitation that is inherent in winter. Especially, if you find this time of year difficult, I urge you to try following along with Virginia in this video. It takes only a few minutes, even if you slow it way down. It is a lovely way to begin or end your day.

Whispering these words to yourself quietly as you learn the movements:

May I rest in the stillness of winter
May I cherish my dreams and my intuition
Guide me from fear to courage
And teach me to look deep in the mirror of my soul

Here Virginia goes through the Winter Mudra 3 times, with the last in silence. To activate subtitles, click the CC square in bottom bar.

Turning Towards Next:

The resolutions of the calendar new year are shedding their grandiosity. This is a good time to gently turn into the rising energy of the year and see what is emerging in you and in your life. Gardeners pull out their seed catalogues — I find it is a good time give a few hours to turn towards what is next by consulting with the Wisdom Council. You can find those reflection questions by clicking here. Perhaps it is time to sort the seeds of your new years resolutions and decide which ones to nourish with your attention and energy?

Perhaps you feel some new stirrings and desires that are wanting to emerge...

The days are lengthening.

The sun is strengthening.

The energy is shifting, but it is very subtle at this threshold. It takes courage to stay with the intimate stillness of winter. It takes holding power, being a source of warmth for yourself and others . . . and sensing into messages that are gestating in the stillness of winter.

I hope you are wintering well!

Warmly, Lyedie

And please note: Next up is Spring!

Thanks to Elizabeth Ungerleider for her photo

Activating Mountain Energy - Practices for invoking late autumn Grace

Here I am continuing with my offering of Tai Chi Mudras that my teacher, Virginia Scholl has been sharing with my Tai Chi class. Late Autumn is the season of Metal according to Tai Chi Philospohy, it is also associated with Mountain Energy. I’m struck by how this Mudra invokes a sovereign capacity that many of my clients are stepping into as they develop their ability to take leadership in their personal and professional lives. The sovereign capacity, as I define it here, is the ability to hold a vision through the ebbs and flows of time, to affirm self and others, to be deeply trustworthy.

So below you will find a video for the Metal/Mountain Mudra and a few sovereign building practices I’ve gleaned from practicing the Metal Mudra.

Here are a few practices to develop the sovereignty of metal / mountain energy in your daily life.

• Endeavor to take a lesson from the trees — how they stand tall as they gently let go of their leaves - to relinquish that which has been brought to full harvest

• Allow the sharp edged thoughts that arise in your mind to descend down into your heart where your compassion can soften and transform them

• Look for the hidden treasures, even in these darkening times. And ask yourself if you’d be willing to receive these gifts

• Look back out over the year as if you are on a mountain top. See all that you have received and all that you have lost from a heightened perspective that is also grounded by a wide base.

• Invite yourself to trust that you are part of the great unfolding: Consider the time it took to form mountains, the time it took for the tree to form the leaves that are now drifting to the ground, the time it takes for grief to work its way through us.

• Be the mountain in all its grace and sovereignty

To activate subtitles, click the CC square in bottom bar.

May the diamond clarity of mind
Descend to my heart
To reveal the treasures of my life
Accepting what I have received and what I have lost
And trusting what is invisible and what is hidden

Know that you are always eligible for grace . . .

More on Metal / Mountain Energy from my teacher’s teacher . . .

Of all the five element, perhaps it is Metal that we Westerners find most difficult to comprehend, The word usually evokes in us something rigid, sharp and uncompromising; something harsh, demanding or judgemental.

From a Chinese perspective, Metal is associated with the season of Autumn. It is a time of loss and grief, yet in its clarity and purity it brings us closest to the place of spirit and the work of bringing spirit into form. This is the abode of the sage, the Hermit and the Mentor, those who understand the lessons of receiving and releasing when experience turns into understanding. Autumn presides over all separations and asks us to turn inward, to examine what we have brought to full harvest, to decide what we need to keep and what we need to relinquish. It teaches us to know the balance between appreciating the beauty of life and mourning its loss. This is the time of year when we search for something uncorrupted; a time to turn inwards, a time to find the jewels, the treasures we hold within ourselves.

. . . Like the season itself, Metal spirit asks us to find what is of essential worth, what is of real value in our lives. Although its lessons are not easy ones, Metal’s spirit knows we are always eligible for grace. It teaches us to let go without giving up, without losing trust. It reminds us that with acceptance and surrender, we are able to let go of the old so that something new can be born.

Metal’s spirit knows we are always
Eligible for grace
It reminds us that we are never past healing
And never beyond hope
It has a purity that precludes judgement
And teaches us to trust our innate value
Metal asks us to find
What is of essential worth in our lives;
To understand the dynamic
Between appreciating the beauty of life
And mourning its loss
It is the holy grail
As well as the search for it

Cielle Tewksbury, November 2009

Activating Earth Energy - Practices for bringing strength to our compassion

Life starts all over again
when it gets crisp in the fall.
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

I’ve found that life becomes distinctly more wonderful when we begin to work and play in accord with the seasons. So I thought I’d share.

In Tai Chi the elements are closely associated with the seasons and the practice helps me find this accord. In the last few weeks my Tai Chi teacher, Virginia Scholl, has been attuning us to the transition from summer to fall by offering this Earth Mudra (see video below) to our small class. Surrounded by the bounty of autumn, we have been bringing in the earth energy I associate with heart centered warrior-ship. This energy, and the capacities that it gives rise to, are often needed by people who care deeply — Capacities like being centered, grounded, balanced, intentional in word and deed. This Mudra provides somatic support for bringing strength to our compassion. This is what I call grit.

Here are a few practices to develop earth energy in your daily life.

• Endeavor to take on less and then stay with the projects you start.

• Express yourself more clearly by saying what you observe, how it makes you feel and why, and what you would like to see happen. (Clean talk)

• Listen to your own inner voices and take their messages seriously.

• Lower your center of gravity so as to feel more centered in your self and be less thrown off balance by other people’s problems, needs, demands, or opinions.

• Let the earth and the very substance of your body give you a sense of solidity; so that when you meet an obstacle, you can stay clear on your intention and work to find a way to solve the problem and move ahead.

• Look for where the activities you are engaged in are generating results. Take a few moments to register these. Savor them and see them as your bountiful harvest. This will help you see the world as fertile ground for your good work.

• Hold your ground. Feel your grit . . . :)

To activate subtitles, click the CC square in bottom bar.

Holding and being held by the earth
May I be centered, balanced, and rooted
And in my desire to nurture and care for others
May I remember to extend that same care to myself

Enjoy!

(Practices adapted from Tai Chi wisdom as written by Lorie Dechar; Bronze sculpture by Linda Hoffman)