November is the finest time of the year for a shedding as the New Year advances close. Days become shorter and we feel our own darkness. November brings rare opportunity to inventory your own space, the silence around us, and our disciplines. Rebirth, regeneration and transformation are the vital elements of this witchy and precious month.
Death is deeply apparent in November. All around us we feel the life become slower and quieter. The air is crisp, leaves are falling away and our external world calls to us to begin shielding ourselves from the cold. November sits in between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice, as a center point, lending us a glance both ways to what has been and what shall be. Ancestral spirits watch over us as our dreams become longer and darker, coaxing us to rise higher in our own magic. This is the time to become the person you were destined to become. A spiritual being, cloaked in their own limitlessness. It is a time for death. It is a time for birth.
Spring and Summer are valiant Seasons of extraversion, yet the introvert in all of us needs space as well. Our inward world can dream and imagine and wish, and in this world, we may birth a new life. We can watch difficult thoughts plague us and how much of our own misery is ours and ours alone. This is time for a refresher course in courage. Autumn and Winter hold the essence of a dark forest that we enter alone and come out, beaten, tired, and hungry, yet deeply alive and full of strength. Confidence is manifested from a place of knowing the power of slaying a few dragons. Parts of us must die to bring the space into our lives to become reborn. Also there is not a more brilliant time of the year for journaling and planning into our more solar months. This is a time to dream adventure and excitement into the future seasons.
Last November I was having so much depression that I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to ever move forward. In a deep morning meditation, I asked for grace. I needed help. I awoke fevered with flu on Christmas Eve, and it stuck without me until New Year’s Day. No festivities or parties. I spent the week in bed. This flu was strange. Deep inside me, I felt that I had somehow called this in to begin the new year with a fresh newly regenerated body. I cleared all of the garbage out of my temple. I was sparkling clean like a brand new human. So much left me and I was able to move into a bright new year. I needed to be done with 2023. And every year prior to that.
Reading LETTING GO by David Hawkins last year was my favored book of the season. This book pulled me through the end of my programmed codependency and attachment issues. As programs like pleasing, fixing, pandering begin to dissolve we are left with a lot of space. There is a softness to this space that can feel quite sad. Who am I now that i do not have tails to chase or busyness to veil avoidance. From last November to this one, I have moved through one long ass chapter of my life. Slow and boring in the beginning and vamping up to this moment. I am happy to have shed that last page. I am able to feel the promise of a bright future again.
Our intellect plays a powerful role in our spiritual growth. Knowledge can take you only so far, until there is a time that letting go is something that must come forth from a quite and still space of mind. I was frozen for so long on the impasse that the surrender was just on the other side of the block that I did not feel would ever dissolve. There is a quote that we must pass through. There are no easy skips to the other side. Grief and mourning our old self is a difficult place to dwell, but there is hope here. For me, I realized that this was a temporary state and I would at last begin to move again. Not in busyness or avoidance, but in deliberate steps to a more open and joyous life. The rise to higher consciousness is a process.
Space is the ultimate elixir for growth. More room to plant seeds to our future selves. At every stage of growth in the last ten years, my habits have been the comfort that lifts me in darkest hours. Change is difficult, and we need practices that keep us grounded and focused.
1. Hydration is essential to wellness. Water we are, and water we need. Drinking warm teas and sipping soups and stews to keep our cells juicy throughout the dryness of Autumn.
2. Prayer and Meditation instills intentions as we shed away the skin of yesterday. Purging old running programs that repeat themselves is an important role of meditation. Regenerating ourselves to vitality and our changing bodies.
3. Dry brushing on cellular levels allows for eliminating dead skin cells. Our bodies are encouraged toward cellular regeneration. Your skin will shine and glow. This is one of Ayurveda’s most sacred anti aging practices.
4. Kombucha is a pleasurable drink to make and to sip throughout this time of the year. Kombucha has cultures that are essential for vibrant gut health. This will help to rid our digestive system of sluggishness during the cooler months. Spending time in the kitchen in fermenting things can be quite therapeutic. I also enjoy feeding my sourdough starter. Begin playing in fermentation during this time. This brings life and love into your kitchen as well. I named my scoby Phoenix. Fermenting can teach us how important it is to love something in a way that it will give to you an entire food source.
5. Dream journaling. November is a good month to begin documenting your dreams. In starting a journal for your dreams, you may be surprised at how vivid your dreams will come into your nights. Remember to spend time deciphering the symbols that come up in your dreams. Dreams are a way for the spirit to speak to you.
6. Warming practices such as infrared yoga, saunas, hot tubs. This is an important time to bring fire into your life to combat the cold and influence your circulation. We can also bring warmth in through hot tea, and spices into our foods.
7. Hygge. Hygge is pronounced, “hooga.” This is a swedish practice of deeply cozy practices. Light your candles, dim the lights. Add warm blankets and soft background music. Give your home a sense of atmosphere. Uplevel your reading.
8. Nighttime Nidra and guided sleep hypnosis or meditations. I love Michael Sealey and there are many amazing meditations on audible. Begin with five to ten minutes and work up to an hour.
Allow yourself grace in the stillness. Allow yourself your feelings. Take your practice of self reflection deeper this time of the year. Get to bed earlier, get up earlier. Go easy into the darkness and the darkness will teach you much. Get comfortable knowing yourself more.
Enjoy your root vegetables. Enjoy your kitchen. Sweet potatoes are the perfect kaphic food to create desserts with. Feed yourself well from the heart.
Recently I roasted a butternut squash, a tulip of garlic, an onion, some carrots and an apple. Sprinkle some turmeric and paprika on the veggies. Take out of the oven and put them in your food processor for a yummy creamy stew. Add maple syrup to sweeten.
A large brown snake rests on a cold rock.
The dusk settles in.
The snake, coiled into itself, shapes itself like a circle.
And begins to churn.
And churn.
And churn.
I turn my cheek to the cold dark sky,
And when I return my gaze to the rock,
The serpent is gone.
What is left is a dry shedded skin.
She left death, to return to life.
I watch, I feel, I learn.
I surrender.
Om Shanti
As an Ayurvedic Health Counselor with 800 hours of training in this sister science to yoga, I am honored to share simple practices with you. As always, please check in with your physician or Doctor before moving forward into new practices that concern your well being.
Tina Chabot
Tina Chabot School of Yoga
e-RYT 500
Ayurvedic Wellness Coach
Ayurvedic Health Counselor
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