The (always) Bittersweet Farewell

A storm cleared the air, finally
scrubbed the sky clean
and for one day it was perfection
the magical lake fresh with a crisp and stunning beauty I know so well.

The still evening called me, alone
down to the dock in just a towel
and I slipped down the ladder in the dark
the cool water sliding over my skin as I swam out to my usual spot.

Just me on the lake
just me watching the last light fade.

One more night, one final dip
less perfect but this time with stars
everything quiet, smooth, peaceful
the water lapping at the edges of my body
blurring sound as I gazed up at the big, dark sky.

Just me on the lake
just me watching the light fade
just me to bid the bittersweet farewell.

-RDP

Accessible Ayurveda - The Longest Days

Summer is here!  Following a multi-day heat wave in the PNW, we’re back to the usual June gloom, but there's no doubt that spring is officially behind us.

In Ayurvedic terms, summer is "pitta" season.  Pitta is a blend of fire and water elements - think long, hot days melded with juicy melons and refreshing swims.  If we keep these elements in balance, then we are able to thrive in this season and beyond.  Ayurveda approaches disease from a standpoint of imbalance.  To maintain health and well-being, we try and live in harmony with various cycles of nature, like the seasons.  The idea is that "like increases like," so imbalance in summer looks like adding fire to a fiery season (going for a run in the full sun at the hottest point of the day). Balance is an afternoon siesta or a slow flow yoga class during lunch hour instead of power vinyasa.  

To maintain optimal health, find ways to nurture yourself this summer so you are ready to greet fall with a healthy, energetic mind and body. Your instincts to play, take a vacation, and be near water are spot on for the next few months. 

Which foods best nourish us in summer?  Let’s start with what’s fresh - Mother Earth usually proves a trustworthy partner in wellness.  I’m visiting multiple farmers markets each week, along with visits out to Ecolibrium Farms, and the offerings are abundant.  Enormous lettuce heads, bright carrots and radishes, sweet cherries, various apricot blends, juicy strawberries and raspberries, leafy greens, summer squash, fava beans…  Menu planning this time of year, for me, is a breeze.

I start with Ayurvedic tastes as my guide.  We’re coming from spring, a season which is best suited to bitter, astringent, and pungent tastes.  For summer, we maintain bitter and astringent and decrease pungent, while also increasing sweet.  This helps us stay cool in the season’s heat.  Below are some seasonal expressions of these tastes.

Bitter Foods - kale, arugula, collards, leafy greens

Astringent Foods - quinoa, beans, fava beans, pasta, raw carrots, peas, parsley

Sweet Foods - fresh berries, mint, squash, basil, meat, rice, corn, beets, cooked carrots, olives, fresh dairy, eggs, nuts, fennel

During the week, I’m usually pressed for time in the kitchen.  Some days I head straight from work to preschool to pick up my toddler and we arrive home just before dinnertime.  Other days we have a few hours together in the afternoon between nap and dinner, but my son usually wants to be outside with other kids -  a 2 year old running around the courtyard we share with our neighbors means I need to supervise.  Neither scenario is conducive to leisurely preparing our evening meal.  So I keep it simple.  

Step One - set out a little bowl of olives to pacify hungry tummies

Step Two - pick a grain (usually quinoa, rice, or millet) and cook it on the stove

Step Three - slice some vegetables (carrots and radishes)

Step Four - toss some peas and fava beans on the table to shell as we eat

Step Five - Dish up grain bowls, top with slices veggies and pumpkin seeds, and serve!

When the season encourages us to decrease stress, it makes sense to keep things easy.  Spend your time outside and at the table and take advantage of a season that invites us to enjoy fresh, light foods.  Happy Solstice!

Balancing Productivity and Rest for Summertime Wellness

Our bodies are intuitive, but for most of us, we've become skilled at tuning out.  We try and push through a mid-day energy slump, ignoring the body's cues that it needs a recharge.  We're not designed to function at the same speed all day, all month, or all year long.  The concept of a cyclical rhythm is especially true for women.  As I recently learned from a fascinating workshop with Nicole Negron at the Riveter, female hormones are designed to ebb and flow in a cycle that affects our ability to function the same day in and day out.  

All humans are healthier and more resilient when we pay attention to our natural daily and seasonal shifts.  Especially in summer, rest is key to maintaining wellness during the hot months and into autumn.  In Ayurvedic terms, summer is pitta season, blending elements of fire and water. Each day has a pitta time too - around noon.  We find ourselves out of balance when the activities we choose increase the qualities already present in the season and time of day.  So, if mid-day we go take a run in the hot sun, or continue to work ambitiously during lunchtime or throughout the entire summer without a vacation, we increase our internal heat.  This sets us up for irritability, anger, and judgement (towards self or others).  If instead we find ways to decrease fire in the middle of the day, and in the summer season in general, we encourage health and wellbeing.

Other cultures are smart about this, perhaps forced into a varied pattern of living due to a closer relationship with the weather (a lack of air conditioning will quickly and effectively put you in touch with the realities of summer and a need to move more slowly).  Think siesta. This isn't some quaint southern European notion, a nod to laziness.  A surrender to mid-day rest is actually a tool for increased energy and mental focus.  The New York Times posted an article today about the incredible benefits of workplace naps.  No joke!

For most of us, a mid-day rest is quite a counter cultural notion and it's hard to break the habit of non-stop doing.  We can't just flip a switch and suddenly take 2 hours for rest.  But we can start small, and even 10-20 minutes of a real break from our screens will benefit our afternoon efforts.  

Here are a few other tips for a restorative 10-20 min wellness practice mid-day.  If you have access to a quiet space like the beautiful meditation room at the co-working space I belong to, the Riveter, lucky you!  If not, try and find a shady, quiet spot outside this summer.  Happy resting!

• eat lunch outside in shade
• legs up the wall (or a park bench)
• shitali breath
• breath of joy
• forward fold series (below)

Yoga Asana Stick Figures by Justine Aldersey-Williams 

Accessible Ayurveda: Spring to Summer

Happy summer solstice!  It may be the longest day of the year, but here in Seattle it feels like early spring.  Which sadly makes sense, considering our winter lasted well into May this year.  To celebrate summer, I wore a scarf and boots today (eye roll).  

Energetically however, I know it's time to shift seasons.  I always feel a ramp up in projects, busyness, and just general mayhem and chaos as spring moves towards summer. I usually feel like collapsing a week before the solstice, but if I hang in there until the wave crests, it's a nice ride into July and August.

In Ayurvedic terms, summer is "pitta" season.  Pitta is a blend of fire and water elements - think long, hot days melded with juicy melons and refreshing swims.  If we keep these elements in balance, then we are able to thrive in this season and beyond.  Find ways to nurture yourself this summer so you are ready to greet fall with a healthy, energetic mind and body.

Balance is key.  Ayurveda approaches disease from a standpoint of imbalance.  To maintain health and wellbeing, we try and live in harmony with various cycles of nature, like the seasons.  The idea is that "like increases like," so imbalance in summer looks like adding fire to a fiery season (going for a run in the full sun at the hottest point of the day). Balance is an afternoon siesta or a slow flow yoga class during lunch hour instead of power vinyasa.  

Your instincts to play, take a vacation, and be near water are spot on for this season.  Think of seasons like a gardener - so much planning and effort went into seeds and soil and nurturing bursts of growth throughout spring.  Now all that work pays off with flowers and fruit exploding in abundance.  There's maintenance to be done, sure.  Water, weed, tend.  But you also get to kick back a bit and enjoy ripe red fruit and crunchy veggies.   

Tomorrow I'll be facilitating a collaborative discussion about seasonal ayurveda and health at the Riveter.  Join me at 10am and experience this beautiful new female focused co-working and wellness space in Seattle! Here's a sneak peak at some tips for maintaining your health and building resilience during the summer months:

• yoga poses like forward folds, chandra namaskar (moon salutes) with low lunges, 
• long savanasa
• cooling breath practices like shitali and left-nostril breathing
• meditate on images of water and nature
• wake up at sunrise and exercise outside before the heat of the day
• eat foods that are cooling, sweet, bitter, or astringent in nature

Want to learn more?  Schedule a private yoga session or wellness consultation, or join me for regular yoga classes at the Riveter (Mondays 7am/5pm, Thursdays 7am/12pm).

Summer Practice

Much as I love summer in Seattle, I usually like to escape the city for a trip or two.  I always take along my yoga mat, but whether it actually gets used is a toss up.  Sometimes I find I just need a break from my routine, which is a lovely thing to give yourself permission to do.  Last summer I discovered that being away was a great chance to develop my own practice.  Morning yoga by the lake before a swim invited a new layer of calm into my being.  I'm looking forward to being back in in that place for a good long while this July and August.

Before the lake in Idaho though, there's always theater.  Last week I was in Southern Oregon for an annual trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  Friends who are fellow yogis joined this time and they are both more adventurous about trying new studios than I am.  Emily even wrote about an experience for my blog last summer.  On this trip, she inspired me to walk a couple of blocks from our vacation rental to a beautiful studio on a quiet street in Ashland.  Rasa Yoga was the perfect place to spend the noon hour on a hot summer day.  The breeze teased the filmy curtains as I moved through reclined twists and watched a few high clouds skirt over the bright blue sky.  The teaching was familiar, spoke to the breath frequently, and promoted a balance of effort and ease--something I always appreciate in our over-asana-ized culture.  I get pretty attached to my studio and teachers in Seattle, and this experience was a nice reminder of the larger community of yoga and the benefits to trying something new.

So here's to summer, and a willingness to let go of our strict routines and embrace whatever comes along.

Slow and Steady

Here we are, over the hump of the summer solstice.  Once we actually pass over into summer, the incredible momentum and energy (usually enough to drive me insane) leading up to June 20 gives way to something more mellow.  If we let it, if we give in, summer is here to carry us along at a leisurely pace as it meanders towards autumn.

Speaking of pace of life, I've been thinking quite a bit in the last week about choosing a different path than "full speed ahead."  Not just how much I pack into a day or week, but how I manage and respond to what comes my way.  I think this is actually a harder road to travel.  I find it easy to go to extremes.  It's easier to decide at the beginning of a yoga class that I will practice intensely throughout - no matter what.  Trickier, much more so, is to be open to how I feel and what I need in each moment and then adjust.  This is why I practice.  Yoga teaches me awareness.  This awareness of self is not someplace I arrive at and then stop working towards, it's a continual commitment.  And I find that slowly, over time, it gets just a little bit easier to accept and surrender to.  I learn to trust myself as I know myself better and better.  And it's in this trust that I can approach life in a less extreme manner.

My dearest friends in the world just left Seattle.  They sold their house, packed up all of their things and their dog and their kids and headed east to the Rockies.  The night I said goodbye I experienced a broken heart for the first time in my life.  If you'd asked me before last week I'd have said "sure, of course I've had a broken heart before."  I just figured it was the same as sadness, as intense anguish felt after a loss.  I didn't realize it is an actual, physical pain at heart's center.  It hurt to breathe, I felt ripped apart inside.  Anytime this week that I slow down and sit in quiet, I feel it.  I am overwhelmed by the intensity and I literally can not bear it for too long.  I know myself well enough at this point in my life to recognize that this isn't avoidance.  The sorrow is so great, it must be felt and I simply can't take it on all at once.  What an inconvenience.  Wouldn't it just be easier to totally ignore it or just get it all over with at once?

Doesn't it seem that our culture would tell me to pick between those two options?  We like to fixate on all or nothing, don't we?  We're either lost or found, we're good or bad...  Once we realize we need a change, it has to come all at once, BAM, and then we're on a different path and we don't look back.

What if we adopted a different approach?  We could embrace the challenge that comes with self-awareness and commit to taking it slow, to trust that we will find our way.  Sure, we might have to fuss around a bit, it might not be a straight path (oh how we like our linear roads).  It's harder this way, less gratifying.  And it is also life-giving.  When we slow down - take life as it comes, are willing to let grief come in waves and not race to get it over with - we are rewarded with moments of peace.  We shouldn't be in such a rush to arrive at some perfect state that is painless.  We'll miss the good stuff, the space in between pain and bliss.

In a class I regularly attend, we've been practicing a stair-step pranayama lately.  We inhale for a specific count and then pause for the same count.  And then we inhale again.  This last part is an "echo breath."  It isn't logical.  I feel full of breath before the pause, and then magically, I suspend the inhale and somehow create space for even more breath.  My capacity increases just by pausing.  What a lovely lesson for life.  I take in what I can - be it pain or joy - and then rest.  At some point I will find I can take in more...effortlessly.

Summer Reading Suggestions

The past month has been a big ego check for me.  When I started my blog I was determined not to be "one of those writers" who posts consistently for the first few months and then fades off into oblivion.  I should have known that would only set me up for a little humble pie!  Fortunately, I'm a big fan of pie, even this flavor.  Lesson learned.  Spring quarter has been busier than usual for me and my writing energy has gone into essays for grad school.  The rest of my creativity seems focused on teaching.  And so it goes. Last week a student of mine stopped me after class to thank me for a book recommendation I'd given her.  I often read a passage during our studio practice from something I've been assigned in grad school.  Chipping away at a masters degree in Whole Systems Design ties nicely into my continuing study of yoga.  Whether a book is about the environmental history of Seattle, cross-cultural communication or science, it inevitably brings me back to my practice.  With summer just around the corner, it seems like a good time to post my grad school reading list as I finish up my third quarter.  Hope you find some time to sit down with a good book or two in the coming months!

Reading List - in no particular order

Hidden Connections  |  Capra

Thinking in Systems  |  Meadows

Post Carbon Reader  |  Heinberg & Lerch

Emerald City  |  Klingle

Soil and Soul  |  McIntosh

Walk Out Walk On  |  Wheatley & Frieze

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down  |  Fadiman

Bridging Cultural Conflicts  |  LeBaron

Group Genius  |  Sawyer

Paradoxes of Group Life  |  Smith & Berg

Bulldozer in the Countryside  |  Rome

Original Instructions  |  Nelson

American Cultural Patterns  |  Stewart & Bennett

Four Fold Way  |  Arrien

Finding Our Way  |  Wheatley

Practice of Adaptive Leadership  |  Heifetz, Linksy & Grashow

Basic Concepts  |  Bennett

Leadership and the New Science  |  Wheatley