Yoga For Autumn
Autumn - the time to reap the harvest, rest and prepare…Sivasana (Corpse Pose) is perfect for this time of year
Autumn which starts on the autumnal equinox is a season of change, transformation, productivity, harvest, bounty, celebration and preparation. It is a season of activity cloaked in stillness.
Autumn is a time of change. The leaves change color and fall to the ground. The trees become bare. The crops are ready for harvest and the land is prepared for the next growing season. The animals prepare for winter. Many cultures that are connected to the earth celebrate the bounty of the season in their traditional way.
Autumn is the perfect season to deepen your yoga practice. Autumn starts with the autumnal equinox which is the 1st day of fall. During the autumnal equinox the earth is not tilted towards or away from the sun. It is in balance. Both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres get the same amount of solar rays.
Autumn is a time to align with nature. Summer was a time of outward activity. Autumn is the time to turn inward. The first week or two of autumn is the perfect time to focus on balance. Balance will help you grow as you continue on your yoga path. Autumn has a subtle charged energy of transformation. Balance helps you to ease into this energy that is good for both your body and mind.
Practice Tree Pose (Vrksasana) for the 1st few days of autumn. See your roots going deep into the earth connecting you to the earth as you breathe and relax into the pose. Trees, in many parts of the world, are some of the best indicators of the changes in the seasons. A bonus would be to practice outside facing one of your favorite trees. Inhaling the oxygen that it exhales as it inhales the carbon dioxide that you exhale. A symbiotic relationship. A oneness. A balance.
Vrksasana - Tree Pose - helps bring you balance in the fall
Practice Nadi Shodhana (Alternate Nostril Breathing) to help you bring the balance that you feel with nature further inside, deepening your experience. This pranayama helps you to balance your energy in your body as well as calm and settle your mind.
As the days roll into weeks autumn energy quickly shifts from balance to transformation and change. The energy of summer is winding down and the winds of autumn began to blow and cool things off. This is a time of productivity, harvest and bounty.
As with the trees, so it is with you. Trees change from the inside and show the effects of that change on the outside. You too change from the inside. One way to deepen your yoga practice is to spend time in your favorite pose - deepening and relaxing - in this pose. Aligning your body from the ground up. Connecting to the ground energy in the earth. Breathing, resting and relaxing into the pose, reaping the bounty and the benefits of your practice, as you settle and prepare.
Autumn is a time of bounty, abundance, harvest, celebration and rest. Celebrate your deepening practice and the expansion of your understanding of your yoga practice over the last year.
Warrior I and II are great foundational poses to practice in the fall. These poses help to expand and open your lungs. Chair Pose (Utkatasana) and Twisted Chair Pose (Parivrtta Utkatasana) help you to strengthen your immune system and to wring out excess energy from your body so that you can rest and prepare.
Parivrtta Utkatasana - Twisted Chair Pose - a pose to strenghten your immune system in the fall
As you prepare your intention for the coming year you flow from a natural seasonal productivity to a time of rest. As you begin to practice Savasana daily to let the abundance and bounty that yoga has brought you to seep into each of your trillions of cells you rest and prepare the soil of your mind, body and spirit for the seed of your intention for the coming year.
Enjoy your autumn practice. Be ok with it changing and adapting. Know that everyones’ practice changes over time.
Namaste…