We're Brightening the Brain Through the Kidneys.
As the season shifts from autumn to winter, my lower back starts to ache a bit more.
I've had chronic lower back pain for years and years; it's why I have to do yoga every day.
My chronic pain is the mud that nourishes the lotus of my daily practice. If I didn't have it, I wouldn't practice as much. This is how I've come to appreciate the benefits of my pain.
Once I'm on my mat, my breath deepens, my mind clears, and the movement starts to synch with the breath. Then the magic starts to happen.
Not only do I manage the chronic pain, but the biggest boon is what it does to my mind. It becomes peaceful.
Moving into the winter, my exhales lengthen.
I stay in forward bends longer to open the kidney bandwidth and stretch the bladder meridian running down the back body.
As the season shifts, our physical practices, breathwork, and meditations do too. To coexist with these patterns is to live harmoniously with nature.
The winter water element corresponds to the kidney energy, I'm always working on strengthening my kidney chi, as the kidneys reside in the lower back. Lower back pain is a symptom of depleted kidney chi.
The kidney chi (energy) is like our bio battery; our life force energy is stored in the kidneys. It’s expressed in our hair, bones, vitality, and brain health.
The kidneys govern the endocrine system and store the JIng, our life essence, and our ancestral chi.
The practices of Meridian yoga and qigong are about restoring our kidney chi and Jing, so we can increase the kidney battery voltage as we age.
This will express itself in the balance of the endocrine system, in the bones and bone density, in the head hair, and in our cognitive abilities, as well as the overall pliability of our body and mind.
To have the ability to change and flow with ease and grace are the qualities of the water element, which run the strongest in the winter.
Water is adaptable.
It can fit into every container it’s poured into and is able to flow with any situation.
The water energy is associated with the sage wisdom mind.
It takes intuition to be still and clear; we can start seeing the patterns and be able to navigate the moment mindfully.
To learn these concepts is to understand the water element of contemplation and meditation. This cultivates wisdom which will control the fear, the emotion that’s prevalent when the kidneys are depleted and out of balance.
The Meridian Flow, kundalini, and qigong practices that we will be doing this weekend foster willpower and wisdom, which will help us through the long cold days of winter ahead
Join the 'staycation' mini-retreat to build KIDNEY CHI! It will be a fun weekend of dynamic yoga, meditation, qigong, and communal lunch on Saturday, and Sunday will start with Sacred Sunday and finish with the Wisdom of Yin, which includes a deep discussion on the yoga sutras.
Come for the entire weekend, or drop in for a workshop.
If you'd like to join a community of like-minded yogis, consider the Master's Path or 300-hour Teacher Training, who will all be a part of this dynamic, fun weekend!
Hope to breathe, sweat, smile, chant, connect and release the issues in our tissues together!
Blessings,
Maggie