The Yi in Me: Where Heaven Meets Earth

Today is the 14th day of my 30-day hot yoga challenge.  And on day 14, I feel like a superwoman. 

Let me rewind for a second. It's not the yoga that has me soaring. Ok... it IS partly the yoga.  My back feels lengthened and tall. Instead of slumping my shoulders, I'm walking with my heart extended forward-  vulnerable, exposed and unafraid. I can actually feel

energy in parts of my body that were once numb and uninhabited.  Even my ovaries are talking.  

But more then the yummy goodness I feel from the yoga practice, there's the extraordinary joy I've discovered that comes with my intentions and my actions being in alignment.The self-satisfaction of following through with doing exactly what I said I would do and honoring my commitment to myself.  And that, my friends, is what the ancient Taoists called the Yi. 

Every element in Chinese Medicine has a spiritual component, and the spirit of the Earth Element is called the Yi. The glyph for the Yi is both poetic and powerful.  It depicts a heart with a musical note above it, asking us, "Are we singing the song of our hearts?"The Yi resides at the horizon of the earth, and is responsible for making sure our inspiration from heaven is empowered and animated with the energies of the earth. It's that crucial link that I often bypass when I am trying to manifest something. 

Bleeding Heart Flower Essence: The Wounded Lover

Photo Credit: Richard Katz

Positive qualities:  Loving others unconditionally, with an open heart; emotional freedom

Patterns of imbalance: Forming relationships based on fear or possessiveness; emotional co-dependence

(from The Flower Essence Repertory by Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz)

Planetary Influences:  Venus, Moon
Elemental Alchemy:  Earth, Fire

Bleeding Heart is by far one of the most used flower essences in my practice.  Why?  Because so many of our wounds- and much of our personal evolution- comes through our intimate relationships!  The flower actually looks like a little heart.  Read on to learn more about this amazing flower essence and it's role in relationships...

Keep Calm & Love Your Body

 

The other day I had a moment of truth.   I was complaining about my hair, how my locks weren't locking the way I expected them to, how frustrated I was, and blah blah blah.  And then I caught my daughter watching me.  She wasn't saying anything, she was just sort of...  studying me...  as she twisted a braid of hair around her finger.  And I could almost hear her saying to herself, "is this how i should feel about me?"

Keep in mind,  I have spent countless hours researching the right books, television shows, and even words to affirm my daughter's fluffy 'fro, her beautiful eyes, her kind heart, her brilliance and creativity.  I promise you, its no easy task with popular media telling young girls at every corner what 'pretty' should be. Girls with kinky hair want curly hair, girls with straight hair want curly hair, girls with fair skin want a tan, girls with dark skin hide from the sun, big girls want to be thin and thin girls want to be thick.  No one is really satisfied with themselves.  (And as Stewart Ewan points out in Captains of Consciousness, consumerism can't really exist in a world where we are all satisfied with ourselves.  But I digress... )

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The point is, in that moment, I had an image of all the times my daughter watched me get dressed, looking for the right undergarment to hide my postpartum belly.   (sidenote:  yes, I know my daughter is now six years old.  but I didn't have this belly before she was born so technically it is a postpartum belly, thank you very much).  I had an image of every time I threw on a wig 'cuz I just didn't feel like being bothered with "the hair", and the countless times she's heard me ask, "does this make me look fat?" 

And I realized, its not just what we say to our daughters about themselves that effects their self esteem. Rather, its what we say about ourselves- to ourselves- that leaves a lasting imprint. 

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