Seasonal Change: Part One
The Mind
Changing our mind, body and spirit rituals with the seasons reinvigorates and inspires your life with intention.
Why use the pillars of mind, body and spirit? We hear the ‘phrase mind, body & spirit’ everywhere these days - so much so that it has almost become a cliche; however, from an intentional living and holistic health perspective, there are important reasons to remember to take all three into consideration for creating a life full of magick and meaning.
Over the past fifteen plus years, I have been studying yoga, Ayurveda, seasonal living, mental health, and holistic health and nutrition to deepen my understanding of how the mind, body and spirit work together to achieve overall well-being. The research and tenets of holistic health support that for overall wellness, you need to address all three pillars in order to create optimal living. In this four part blog series, I will look at why these three areas are so important and some of the tools and practices that support them.
This week, let’s look at the pillar of the mind. The mind’s power to influence our physiological and emotional states makes it key in helping to support our efforts in all areas. From creating the mindset for successful change, developing healthy habits and setting goals, to increasing resiliency and identifying supportive daily routines and rituals, the mind is a pivotal starting place for health and wellness.
The mind, where our consciousness, our ‘I’-ness exists, is the command center of our lives. Understanding the mental processes behind our actions and how to best work with those processes helps us in all our other efforts in creating an intentional life. Practice is required for the mind to begin to master new habits and routines, so consistency and even accountability are helpful in making changes and creating new rituals.
To gain deeper self knowledge, perhaps consider using some of the multitude of personality tests/paradigms available as they can help us better understand how our minds work. Tools such as Human Design, the Enneagram, the Four Tendencies, and Myers-Briggs* can provide insight into how we can better work with our minds and individual personalities if you use them as guides and reflect on their implications for your life and behaviors. On a magical note, even the house you would be placed in at Hogwarts can be enlightening, and I have found intuitive Shamanic/Seasonal astrology (based on archetypes) helpful for understanding myself better as well.
I first used the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator during the fifteen years I worked in the corporate world in Organizational & Leadership Development where I used personality tests to help leaders better understand themselves and their leadership styles. From that experience, I also learned that if you didn’t apply what you were learning, the information was about as impactful as reading a generic newspaper horoscope. Fun to read but otherwise useless in creating change in your life and behaviors. I encourage you to not only read the results from these tools but to reflect on and apply the knowledge. Having a coach or mentor available to work with you on integrating the information can be helpful, too. I also want to mention that the results you receive may not be a fit for you. In all cases, take what resonates and leave the rest behind.
Practices that help support your mind include following routines, meditation, experimentation, learning, self inquiry, journaling, spending time in nature, having a pet, breathing techniques, cognitive behavioral and other therapies, stress reduction, visualization, guided imagery and even good sleep hygiene.
Take a moment and consider what practices you have in place to help support your overall mind and mental health. Are these best supporting you now or do they need to change? Thinking about how you have experienced the fall season in the past, are the tools sufficient to support you until winter? We will look at how to consider the seasons and their impact on your practices in Part Four of this series.
I would love to hear your thoughts and what practices you use to support your mind and mental health. You can reach me at lara@intentionallivingwithlara.com. In part two of the series, I will look at the second pillar, the body.
Intentionally Yours,
Lara
🌟 If you want to go deeper, consider working with me privately in one on one coaching, join our free FB group, The Intentional Living Collective, where for the month of September, we will focus on re-setting our Mind, Body & Spirit habits for fall.🌟
For more information and/ or to take the personality tests mentioned, visit the following websites:
* Myers-Briggs: https://www.themyersbriggs.com/en-US/Products-and-Services/Myers-Briggs
*Enneagram: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions/
*The Four Tendencies: https://quiz.gretchenrubin.com/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=popoutmenu
*What Hogwarts House are you in? https://www.wizardingworld.com/quiz/the-first-year-hogwarts-houses-quiz
*I learned Astrology from Tenae Stewart. Her style is a seasonal, archetypal, shamanic one. Learn more about her Celestial Alchemy here: https://witchoflupinehollow.com .
* For Human Design, you can get your chart from Jovian Archives here: https://www.jovianarchive.com . I take classes in understanding my Human Design from Ashley Wilhite - https://www.ashleydevin.com
ABOUT LARA: Lara Spell-Worsham is an Intuitive Coach, E-RYT 500 Yoga & Meditation teacher, Ayurvedic Counselor, Health & Wellness Guide and a certified Wild Woman Project Circle leader. A lover of nature, the elements and animals, she loves to hike and enjoy time outdoors. The founder of Intentional Living with Lara she focuses on empowering women to find meaning and magick by nurturing their mind, body & spirits. She offers one on one intuitive coaching and Private and Public Women's circles both in person and online.