Happy Equinox and entry into the spring season of Aries. As we enter the season of more light, blossoming flowers, and new growth all around we too enter a period for a fresh start. Aries season is the beginning of the astrological new year (different than the Chinese new year and our calendar new year). What is unfurling had to make it through the darkness, the cold and the dead of winter. That old energy is ready to yield into new growth and opportunity. What was germinating under the surface is now ready to come to the light. Intense desire, strong will power, and a courageous spirit is activated to super cede the inertia before to awaken our inner warriors to action. Like a spark to a match, we must be ready to act, to cut away what holds us down and into the ground and follow our luminous passions in our belly into the unknown. Although the details often not yet fully unveiled, if we can tend to our light it will reveal the path into discovery of what lies on the leading edge of our lives.

How do we ‘tend our light’?

In astrology our “fire” is our passion, our creative expression, our impulse to act, what we are willing to “fight for”, the zest for living that pushes us forward. We connect to fire through the Aries archetype through fighting those battles worth fighting for because it is who we are and what we desire on the deepest levels. Aries is called the “warrior” for just that reason. What are the battles worth fighting for? Well, what within you stirs your interest, your drive, and your willpower to look fear and the eyes and act anyway? For some of us this is a drive to create change in our communities and world and we are willing to promote causes, organizations and platforms that we feel embody what we want to create. We march for these causes, we volunteer, we teach & serve others, we do our part and that feeds a hunger that we cannot explain. Perhaps your battles are more internal like being willing to fight the programming of “fitting in” or “doing it like everyone else” to be yourself. Maybe it is standing up for your needs in a relationship or starting a new job to follow your heart. These battles don’t have to be bloody or on a battlefield but they do require us to muster courage and action together at the same time.

Tips to connect to your light

• Be in touch with desires-strong impulses to do something (like hunger calls us to eat)

• Be in touch with what stirs your anger (this usually touches on a value that we want to protect and must defend)

• Who inspires you? Why? How does this apply to you?

• Actions that take courage-repeat-find your warrior spirit

• Cutting away people, situations, choices that make you feel “dim” inside or that compromise who you are

• Maintaining good boundaries so that we can honor our needs and desires-reducing a tendency to compromise at our expense too costly to our soul

Watch-outs for Aries season

With every archetype there is a shadow zone, where we ride the energy into zones that are less than productive. For Aries this shadow zone is aggression, addiction, unproductive or misplaced anger, and selfishness action that is at the expense of others wellbeing. Often we when cannot connect to our true desires or if we can’t face our fears then we end up taking that same energy and acting aggressively (being a bully to feel powerful at the expense of another) or forming an addiction to satiate the hunger that stirs us. Anger is not a negative emotion. Angers shows us where boundaries have been crossed and that something valuable is at stake. When we are disconnected to our values then the anger turns into blame, vitriole and gets displaced into the wrong forms. We can even turn on ourselves much less others. We can get so hyper focused on our needs and wants that we think that we have to use and abuse others to get our way instead of finding creative pathways. Watch your anger and learn a bit from it. If you tend to be tunnel vision with roadblocks then use another perspective to see where you might be your own roadblock and where a creative way through exists.

One other side effect of too much fire is adrenal fatigue or stress. Action is Aries tool but not all actions are created equal and too much stress is not the same as productive stress that forces a decision or action. Take care of yourself during Aries season and don’t forget even warriors need sleep, some peace and quiet and to chillax. You may watch out for too much adrenaline and anything that keeps your nervous system activated for extended periods of time. Like maybe not that 5th cup of coffee…water instead?

Support for Aries Season

My blend “Courage” will connect you to that inner warrior spirit. Spray this with intention and use it when you are dancing with those old fears that rear their heads when we get ready to act. I also have an oil blend “Agni” to stoke not only your digestive fire but your zest and creativity. If you are feeling that stress and fatigue then “Sattva” will balance you out!

Purchase these on my “shop”.

Get an astrology reading to learn about what is on the horizon for your life. What desires must be fed and how can you take that next step. Book a free consult on my website to learn more.

Spring Equinox Ceremony

Do this outside if you can! Create sacred space by lighting a candle, some incense or using some aromatherapy. Take a couple deep breaths and center yourself. Imagine a flame inside your belly. Imagine it growing in size and warmth so that it fills up your whole center region. Allow the fire to illuminate your heart and the pathway all the way to your head. Feel the luminosity extending all around you filling the space around you. Ask the light to reveal anything that wants to come to the light. See what comes. What stirs you into action? What is one step you can take to honor your light? Give yourself few minutes to listen. Then stretch your arms overhead and take a deep breath and circle your arms out to the side on your outbreath and imagine that light inspiring your path. Spend some time in nature if you can and write down anything that comes to you..even small nudges.

Sending love and light to all!

These series of reflections are inspired by my unexpected injury in Trinidad and Tobago that has caused me to bound to my arm chair leg propped up and still for the time being and forced to relate to reality differently. I hope these reflections inspire you to open your mind to new ways to invite in the present. 

The act of receiving has been forced upon me during this healing process. It has baffled me that one of my favorite acts to bestow upon others has been my nemesis during my recovery. Since I cannot stand up for very long, I have had to receive others help in bringing food and groceries. Since I cannot drive, I have had to ask for rides. Since, I am not working as much I cannot escape out of this vulnerability by requesting an Uber or Lyft due to financial restrictions. One of the most uncomfortable weeks for me was when my mother came to take care of me. Crazy that we all love a mother's care and no one does it better than Mama yet I watched my independent, self-sufficient ego become so annoyed at having to ask for help and having to receive so much of it. Normally when friends ask "What can I do" I can proudly say "Nothing". Well, during this time, I have had to swallow this silly pride and say, "I need help with ....". I have accepted services, money, food, rides and more in this last month than in perhaps the last 10 years! Why is this so hard for me psychologically?

I relate this struggle back to cultural overly dominant masculine conditioning of doing more than being or receiving, and that self-sufficiency= maturity, responsibility and capability. If I have my shit in order I will not need help. If I need help then I am weak or incapable. Why do I buy into this dogma? Because I think we are validated in doing for others or being "good". A "good" person gives more, does more and since we are awarded and recognized by what we do it in the end makes us feel good about ourselves. I am validated because you need me and therefore I have a place. I love giving my time and talents in support of another. In fact I thrive off of it. It fills my heart to help another in need or to offer something to let another feel loved. It has certainly fed my "worthiness" tank. What I have noticed about this journey into receiving is that it feels good too. It felt so humbling, vulnerable and yet sweet to realize that people care for me. That people would offer their time, resources and talents for me. I immediately wanted to respond to this offering by planning how I would "pay them back" but I noticed when I did that it took away from that delicate feeling of being loved. It made it smaller or downplayed it like a game of tit for tat. When I was really able to just open towards this tenderness of receiving, I noticed how it made the other person feel. I felt the love and joy that inspired them to give in the first place. That in trying to trade off or escape the moment of receiving I would also diminish their receptivity of joy as well as my own. How vulnerable it feels to admit that I cannot do it all myself and that I need another's hand but the hand and the support that was extended allowed for a momentary pause in my conditioning to reframe my storyline of purpose. My purpose was to receive and I was not weaker or incapable, but blessed!

It made me realize that when another gives in the pureness of love and appreciation of me that I receive the joy of being in a moment of connecting to the other person's worthiness as vessel for love and abundance. And when I can allow myself to be on the other end and openly receive that love and abundance I too can give another the opportunity to see their validation of my worthiness. So, in the end this practice of receptivity has been so healing, perhaps even for all of us but especially me. I have experienced community and family that is beyond blood/family and obligations. I have softened to the concept that maybe I can be present with an aspect of worthiness that needs no response other than being willing to let it in. In just pausing and meeting fully my needs without rushing to fill them or ignore them I have given myself an opportunity to experience the present without my active nature taking over.   In meeting the moment and not struggling to define it by what makes me comfortable I have allowed the moment to comfort me in new and beautiful ways. Thank you dear friends who have taught me what it means to be enough, to feel loved and how to open to receptivity.

These series of reflections are inspired by my unexpected injury in Trinidad and Tobago that has caused me to bound to my arm chair leg propped up and still for the time being and forced to relate to reality differently. I hope these reflections inspire you to open your mind to new ways to invite in the present. 

I never noticed how busy and distracted I was with life until I wasn't. One of the most challenging stages of my injury is the presence of the non-doing aspect of my existence. Some days the only thing I have to do is go to the doctor. Other days I get to go to the studio and teach a class seated and immobile (contrary to what I prefer). I get small doses of doing and giving but not the quantity I feel comfortable with. So much of my day is sitting and doing really nothing at all (atleast nothing I deem "productive").  It is interesting to allow this into my presence as I push it away so readily eagerly seeking something to "do". I notice upon meeting this "non-doing" that I feel guilt. I am not really helping anyone, performing a job, contributing, or feeding my "busyness". In fact I am doing the opposite, I am receiving a lot. 

I also notice the non-doing leading me to feeling worthless at times. What is the point to my day? What is the excitement in waking up to sit around and watch the day go by? What is there to look forward to? Again, I notice an anxious feeling that I want so desperately to feed with some "doing".  This worthlessness at times makes it hard to take the necessary care of my injury that it asks for. Am I worthy of just allowing this time for myself to heal and provide self care (doing for self) and let that by my doing? This is an different way of doing that is outside my norm. 

It makes me pause to see how much of my day is filled and gratified by a presence that  allows mainly for external "doing".  In that reality the objective is then is to "do" the thing and then to "do" the next thing and it never ends. I notice that this can keep me more future focused, planning the next thing or going to the next place in never arriving into this moment. In my sitting and non-doing, now the tables are turned. I am squared up to  the present and in this place there is a lot of space and ambiguity. No control and no certainty.  If my current "point" is not to do something am I really "pointless" or is this fixation with "doing" an escape route for the present. In this present I have to meet all that is occurring around me without my participation. I am an observer and my ego is smaller. If I cannot latch onto the next "thing" then I must be able to sit in spaciousness of the vastness that is way bigger than me. I think this is why we avoid the present so much. It gives us a view of reality that we aren't and all this doing is not the end all be all and what do we do with that? I am sitting still and doing nothing and the earth is still spinning, day and night are still occurring and the birds are still chirping, It begets a larger question that need not be answered but possibly just observed and allowed to pass along. I hope to find a way to find more peace in this present moment of just being. Perhaps it is the path to healing the guilt and worthiness wounds that never really heal from our external doing. Maybe this struggle and surrender is to open me to include myself in the vastness of life that is way more than just doing. Maybe the present is way fuller that I imagined.

These series of reflections are inspired by my unexpected injury in Trinidad and Tobago that has caused me to bound to my arm chair leg propped up and still for the time being and forced to relate to reality differently. I hope these reflections inspire you to open your mind to new ways to invite in the present. 

It is a little before 5am and after a quick night's sleep I am rushing out the door to be driven to the airport. Of course, I woke up at the last possible moment so that I could get every last drop of sleep before I sit for 14 hours of travel (one must be well rested for all that sitting). I have barely rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and I am dressed, packed up and attempting to catch my international flight which leaves in 2 hours (mind you I am 30 minutes from the airport). This is the American way right..get there right in time with no time to waste. This would be a successful mission, right? As I am rushing to hand my suitcase to the driver, I fail to notice the 4 foot deep by 2 foot wide large drainage ditch that runs alongside the road and directly in my path to the car. The next thing I know I am being pulled out of the ditch, bleeding, and in shock at the huge gaping hole in my shin. How did this happen? How did I not see the hole?  Why was there not a sign to warn me or better yet grating over the hole to protect me? This would also be the American way..signs everywhere so you don't have to think and pay attention for yourself,,rely on the sign to tell you what to see and what not do do. There was no sign to tell me to watch out for a large hole, how inconvenient. I also notice, there was nothing to protect me and keep me safe from my inability to be aware of my surroundings. How rude of them to expect me to first of all pay attention to where I was going and then to be responsible for keeping my body and my mind in the same location simultaneously. How can I possibly manage this with the little time I gave myself and in the midst of my race with time to the airport? Now, all sarcasm aside,  I am not stating that a sign or grating would not be a great investment of money in Trinidad, but where does my accountability land? Now, I am human and we all make mistakes and I am not trying to blame myself for this unfortunate accident. But, in all honesty, I do have some accountability to own that can possibly allow me to make some sense of a dark event in my timeline. I failed to take the time to be in that moment fully so that I could be aware of my body, my state of mind, and observant to the environment in which I was experiencing the moment in. Part of me was still asleep, part of me was worrying if my time calculations would get me there on time, part of me was annoyed that I had not had coffee before leaving, and perhaps another part of me wondered why I had chosen to stay so damn far from the airport...and so on. This fractured presence can work when we have signs that we can rely on to remind us temporarily to pay attention and when we have protective measures in place so we can stay unaware and make mistakes and never be the wiser. But, how do we learn to transition to full presence then when this reality is changed, like when you are in a foreign county or any new place? What alerts us to turn on our alertness radar when we have made a habit of never leaving time for it? I have to wonder what would have happened if I had set my alarm clock for  30 minutes earlier. Would I have taken the time to fully wake up? Would I have taken the measures I know I need to be alert? Would I have slowed my pace a little since there was no need to rush to the airport? Would I have taken my time walking to the car? Would I have perhaps noticed the temperature outside, if the birds were singing, if there were cars on the road, if the sunrise was occurring, and even what the ground was like that my feet were standing on...all that the moment offered that I was simply too rushed to notice. The moment is happening now. I wonder how I can take my own responsibility for how I choose to show up for it? I can rely on the external to remind me and keep me in check or I trust that when I fully arrive into it, I will have plenty of time to choose where I am step forth.