Allow Your Body to Release Like the Trees Do in Autumn

You may have noticed that I write a lot about the everyday habits that usually remain in the background of our lives - the same habits and activities that in our do-more-be-more culture we strive to actually spend less time on. I’ve been party to many conversations over the years where people (me included) shake their heads and then defend with a little pride how little sleep they get, how little time they take for quiet, for soothing, in the shower, on their meals, that they check emails in their beds. “I’d love to rest more but….”

We treat these simple but profound human everyday activities as if they are obstacles to run through so we can present to the world whatever we are called upon to give that day and every day. For the most part, people don’t treat the activities that keep them alive as if they are powerful. 

We’ve been convinced, partly through commercialism, through the commodification of our time and attention, through the growing needs apparent all around us, that the least time we can take with the “activities of daily living” (even abbreviated ADLs in the research and medical worlds) the better we might become. We’ll have more time to work out, to work, to grocery shop, to run the kids to practice, to go to movies, watch shows, read books about time management, scroll, clean the house and do it all again. 

What if we have it backwards? 

What if the things that keep us alive - eating, sleeping, washing ourselves, breathing, preparing food, taking counter-habitual movements (yoga) and counter-habitual mental stretches (meditation) - are the very foundation on which our health is built? What if the quality of our food, our attention to and joy in its preparation, are all powerful levers that could add to our vibrancy, energy, joy and longevity? 

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What if we could massively lower medical costs and diversions for treatment with attention to our basic routines? What if how we treat our skin has everything to do with how healthy our gut is? What if mindful breathing could calm and soothe us when the do-more-be-more cycle of activity threatens to leave us in the undertow?

I’m willing to bet that one response to this query floating around in many hearts right now is, “Yeah, I tried that alternate nostril breath thing. It doesn’t work for me.” And it really wouldn’t when pulled out during a time of crisis, probably all alone and going through the motions - which is all that’s possible the first couple of times, because you’re learning. You are not wrong. But you may have been misled by some glib articles touting “The end of anxiety” and showing the basic procedure. 

In our world, solutions happen fast, are usually objects that are bought and set up and work in the background. If you’re into fitness solutions, they are probably timed activities that you set goals for, create gains in and track those goals and gains. 

We leave behind the most basic human needs and activities because they can be met - at least temporarily - with purchased solutions designed to meet the target goal. Food is supposed to make you not hungry, taste good and be quick. Meditation is too much a diversion from the busy mind we rely upon to keep the categories straight, the schedule running and make sure we remember our grab and go lunch. The activities that slow us down are the very activities that even medical science is now saying we need. And so many feel that if they slow down they may never start back up again. 

At the other end of the spectrum are many others who feel that if they pay attention, really care about their own experience - not instead of but alongside that of others, they may not be able to bear the intensity of how life has felt so far. 

And both sides of the spectrum have been misled about how powerful the simple, everyday actions we take to maintain our bodies can be for feeling good, aligning with something that allows us our minds to slow down the constant scan and trust in our own being. 

This is not to say that the deepening of our attention and caring will be smooth sailing a hundred percent of the time. There are adjustments. As we begin to soften and dissolve the obstacles we’ve been living with in order to keep our attention going out, things tumble out for our attention and complicate things for a bit. These are the times that many people go back to the way they’re used to. “It doesn’t work for me.” When the whole point was that it did work. With support and practice, we learn how to stay the course, slow down a little, ease off, use that attention to attend to the complicated thing that came up and then return the habit that allowed it to ask for our attention so it could be released. 

We’re in a time of Fall Festivals - beginning with the Equinox in September, different parts of the world celebrate: Korea has Chuseok, Autumn’s Eve, celebrated with family and food. Loi Krathong in Thailand celebrates the gifts of nature, respect and forgiveness through light in late November. Dia De Los Muertos and All Souls day happen in the same 2 day period at the beginning of November, celebrating with color, dress, flowers and prayer our loved ones who have died. Hallowe’en, the day before in many Western countries, focuses on darkness, dressing as someone we’re not, exchange of sweets in the popular traditions. Navaratri right now (mid October) celebrates the triumph of Good over Evil, the returning of balance and alignment to our world with food and dedications known as Puja in Hindi households. Followed in a couple of weeks by the Festival of Lights, Diwali, in Hindi homes, the span of time from mid-October to early November is widely recognized as a turning point. 

While the anthropological reasons for this are many - harvest, a last hurrah, a return (hopefully) to cooler climes  - this is also the time the trees drop their leaves. This process happens because the nutritive fluids of the tree recede from the periphery as the light shortens, the angle is less direct and cooling becomes more prevalent. It’s just recently come to the Sandia Mountains where we live. 

As the trees let go of their light gathering leaves, carpeting the forest floor with biomass that will both insulate their roots and break down, organically, over time to feed them as well, they’re able to concentrate the processes that keep them alive, build root networks and rest. 

Our bodies have a similar potential at this time of year, if we notice and cooperate. This is the ideal time, according to the Charaka Samhita, a root Ayurvedic text among others, to pay extra attention to the basic, everyday processes that keep our bodies alive and well: what and how we eat; how we treat our skin; how we move to release habitual patterns; how we rest to allow internal obstacles to arise and dissolve. 

Ayurveda has a very intensive process, called Pancha Karma - the Five Actions - that is tailored to each individual and can reverse many disease processes with proper follow up. This is worth the time and attention depending on your needs and goals. This process includes involved body work, prescribed herbs and should be overseen by an Ayurvedic doctor. Let me know if you’d like a referral. 

Each year at this time, basically healthy people can invest in that health, ward off winter ails and blues, spring allergies, reset digestive function, enhance sleep and reverse some of the symptoms we attribute to “age” with a focus on a few basic habits: eating and preparation, skin care, breath, movement and rest. You can dive into this process as deeply or wade in as tentatively as you would like. 

I will be taking off a week for this process together with an intensive meditation week (Seshin) with the group I meditate with, called a Sangha (community of meditators). Daily, I will be eating simply (kitchari twice) with morning ghee to help my body release what daily life is too busy to allow for (hello stuff stored in our fat!), lengthening my habitual abhyanga, or oil massage in the shower with herbed oils, practicing breath techniques, yoga asana and of course the meditation and study of Sesshin. The week before, I’ll be eating a lot of apples and beets and drinking blended green veggies along with my kitchari to rest and prepare my gut. The week after, I’ll continue eating simply and have extra pre and probiotics. 

Next week, I’ll publish a menu of practices that anyone can choose from. If you’d like to invest in your health, let go of habits that get in your way, feel greater energy, sleep better and be kind to your belly, you might pick several to practice for a week. Experiment. Look at the data - all of it, your whole life and well being, not just productivity or your ability to stay awake. Adjust. 

The basic things that keep your body alive are gifts you give yourself: they are powerful. I call them everyday sacred. Do not mistake that because they are mundane they are less valuable: they are where the gold is buried.