Seasonal Change: Part Two
The Body
Image Credit: Unsplash- Chris Jarvis @hypethat
Changing our mind, body and spirit rituals with the seasons reinvigorates and inspires your life with intention.
Continuing to look at why using the pillars of mind, body and spirit are a great framework for creating a life full of magick and meaning, this week we look at the body. As we have just entered Virgo season, the archetype of the Priestess, it’s a perfect time to look at the rituals we have to support our body - the temple that houses our priestess energy.
As someone who spent nearly forty years of her life in an adversarial relationship with her body, I want to start with what I feel are the two most important elements in supporting our bodies, kindness and self compassion. Our patriarchal culture has rendered female bodies a commodity that are valued most as beautiful when they are young, unreasonably thin and fit the ideal of “effortless perfection”*. Thankfully, some of this is beginning to change but being raised in this environment leads to internalization of these messages. Most of us still have a lot of baggage to get rid of when it comes to how we feel about our own bodies.
I certainly am not immune to these messages. In the past, my body has had her calories restricted, been over-exercised, fed diet pills, had her fat froze and suffered countless other self inflicted assaults all to force her closer in line with society’s ideal. Thankfully through yoga, body positive practices and shadow work, I have learned to befriend my body and treat her much more kindly in recent years.
Practices that help support your body start with kindness and compassion and include eating for health and nourishment, daily movement, play, pleasure, strength, flexibility & balance training, embodiment practices, adequate sleep, and water.
How you choose to incorporate these practices into your lifestyle will vary. While all bodies need movement and nourishment, no one combination of what you eat and how you move will work the same for any two women so figuring out what works for you is an important individualized process. It can help to work with someone if you feel you are struggling in creating a well rounded body supportive routine that makes you feel good. Allowing these practices to be flexible and change as you and the seasons change is also key.
What to eat and how to move? Coming from a Holistic Health perspective, we know that eating high quality, unprocessed foods focusing on fresh fruits, vegetables and healthy proteins is the best for overall health. When it comes to movement, a combination of cardio with practices that help build strength, flexibility and balance make a complete package. Although as a certified Holistic Health & Nutrition Coach, I could go on about this, that is not the point of this post and again best looked at on an individual basis. Overall, I advocate for eating and moving in the way that makes you feel your best in your body.
At this point, my relationship with my body is the best it has been, but that’s not to say I have it all figured out or don’t still have negative thoughts creep in. I will say it does get easier the older you get to not care so much about what other people think - but there is always still the matter of what you think about yourself to consider. I find if I view my body as my beloved home during this lifetime, it helps me to see her with compassion and treat her better. I want to keep my home as comfortable as possible for as long as possible.
To feel comfortable, my body needs to move and prefers walking, hiking, yoga and dancing. She feels best eating a mostly pescatarian menu, drinking plenty of water and getting an average of eight hours of sleep. My daily & seasonal rituals and practices help support me in keeping her happy and healthy and include many additional things such as pampering her with ritual baths, abhyangas (Ayurvedic self-oiling), and occasional pedicures and massages. (I will share more of what my other practices look like in later posts). I won’t say I am at the point where I consider my body a temple, but it is certainly a much more comfortable home for this priestess to live in now that have these rituals and practices in place.
Take a moment and consider what practices you have in place to help support your bodies. Do the tools you have in place help you feel good in your body or do they need to change? Thinking about how you have experienced the fall season in the past, are the practices 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 bodies and be kind to them. You can reach me at lara@intentionallivingwithlara.com. In part three of the series, I will look at the third pillar, the mind.
Intentionally Yours,
Lara
🌟 If you want to go deeper, consider working with me privately in one on one coaching, or 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.🌟
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*I first heard of ‘Effortless Perfection’ from Courtney Martin in her book Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters. ‘The phrase refers to the expectation that young women at Duke University should be smart, accomplished, fit, beautiful, and popular, and that all this would happen without visible effort.’ p.6
ABOUT LARA: Lara Spell-Worsham is an Intuitive Coach, E-RYT 500 Yoga & Meditation teacher, Ayurvedic Counselor, Holistic Health & Wellness Coach 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.