Elemental Nature

I hope you are warm and finding nourishment in the winter months. I'm transitioning from a 5-week silent retreat I returned from earlier this month. I've been visiting Gaia House, a Buddhist Insight Meditation retreat centre, for 12 years now and each time I realise more fully that its not 'my' practice that allows me to see - in moments - the elemental nature of body-mind. Seeing our innate spaciousness, is somehow gifted to me in ways we don't yet fully understand; the spirit of a community with a shared intention. The presence among the meditators, teachers and volunteer staff - over time, decades of practice laid down in the structure of the house - makes a place which holds us and lends us eyes to see more clearly. The work then is to integrate the practice so that I can continue to lift up experience, however difficult, and hold it in the light of kind awareness.

It feels amusing to me that at times I need to do something unusual - spend 5-weeks in silence - just so that I can feel a bit more normal. Perhaps it's because our lives have travelled such a distance from the rhythms of the natural world we come from. It was tough at times, a hard learning, but re-shaping my mind, for a time, in supportive community, has been essential for me to remember the mystery of existence, and how intricate, precious and worth developing inner life is.

So I'm heeding the invitation of winter to slow down and enjoy the stillness of the natural world. This time of year can feel the hardest for me on some level, as if the light may never come back! - Solstice on the 21st is a good reminder that the daylight will make its gradual return, its only a matter of time. Christmas is a bustle of energy for many of us, with the mixture of loving warmth and difficulty we can have in our families. There is plenty of winter time after though - and moments in the midst - to sink in and listen to what's wanting to be known, through the depths of stillness. Enjoy candle light and reflect on what's been, before we start afresh on January 1st.

For some support with slowing down, self-nourishment and gathering moments of reflection, you can always book a shiatsu session.

here is lovely article from the Shiatsu Society about the element for the winter months - water - connected to the bladder and kidney channels.

The Thames just south of Sandford Lock