Calm

Yesterday had that delicious Autumn eeriness about it; that stillness & sense of suspended animation & slight melancholy.  The nights are drawing in, the first skeins of geese have traced their way across the sky & the fires of Autumn sunsets & gold & russet leaves are replacing the fiery heat of the Summer sun.  To me, despite the blustery weather it can bring, Autumn is the most calming of the Seasons.

Calmness & inner peace is something I really appreciate but often find difficult to obtain, as I suspect we all do.  Our lives seem to be so busy & crowded; our roles are many & human emotions are difficult to keep in check.   We may constantly mull over the past,  wishing we had done things differently, cringing at actions or deeds that might have caused others pain or licking unhealed wounds inflicted upon us which still haunt & torment.  We may stress about the future, wondering what tomorrow will bring, wondering if things will get better or whether worse is to come.  Round & round it goes, causing stress, blocking us from achieving inner peace & being the beautiful souls we are meant to be.

Here are a few of the ways I intend to invoke the calm of Autumn in my life:

I always feel calm & serene under the light of a Full Moon.  I take every opportunity to sit under her beautiful silver light & let it wash over me.  I find it soothing, cleansing & restorative.  The Lady Moon seems to me to be an orb of pure love & infinite wisdom.  Ask her a question from deep in your heart & she will answer.  You just need to listen.

Getting in touch with Mother Nature always help me feel nurtured, helps melt away the stresses & tensions of modern life & takes me to a simpler place.  Time spent wandering my little garden or walking out into the countryside soon brings to me what I need to feel better.  A conversation with the heart of a beautiful rose,  a pow-wow with a butterfly as it sits awhile to drink nectar, the sweetness of a blackberry freshly picked from the hedgerow or time spent simply cloud gazing can be immensely healing & soothing things.  Just kicking off my shoes & wriggling my toes down deeper into the grass brings a sense of relief & calm at the end of a working day.  Breathing deep down into my lungs, flinging my senses wide open & just absorbing all the Nature energy on offer is more powerful at beating a tension headache than any pill.  All that gorgeousness is there, available to us each & every day, just as soon as we step outdoors.

Learning to live in the moment is another important lesson I'm trying to embrace.  To value the beauty & possibilities in the here & now & be free of the past & future.  When I achieve it it is immensely liberating, bringing a sense of lightness to my soul & opening gateways which allow more love to flow into my heart.  Bliss!

Other things I use to relax are flower essences, aromatherapy, meditation & crystals.  Each brings its own unique healing to the senses & to the chakras, helping to release negativity, restore balance & enhance well being.  I find if I take time out to heal myself I am much more open to the message of Spirit & less likely to be confused by the voice of Ego.  

Sleep & rest are obvious, but often neglected aids to a calm, refreshed mind. Pushing ourselves too hard physically or failing to get enough sleep are as harmful to our inner, spiritual workings as to our physical bodies.  Here's a little sleep charm / spell that I recently made for my mum when she had trouble sleeping after a period of stress in her life.  I'm was so happy when it worked for her :)

You will need a drawstring bag made of a material lightweight enough to release the smell of the herbs you're going to pop into it - cotton for example.  To make mine extra magical I used a silver material - the colour of the Moon & the Goddess.

Add to the bag a good pinch of amethyst chips (to soothe), a pinch of rosemary (to protect against bad dreams), a few pink rose leaves (loving & comforting) & then fill to the top with a mixture of approx 2/3rds hops to 1/3 lavender. As you fill your bag imagine the person who it is intended for enjoying a restful night's sleep & awaking refreshed in the morning. Most importantly, don't forget that vital ingredient for your bag - LOVE.  The bag can be hung by the bed or popped under a pillow. Taking a good few deep breaths of the herbs before lying down to sleep will help bring the most gorgeous night's sleep.

What methods do you use for achieving that illusive sense of inner calm? 

With love & bright blessings

Sara xx

Buddleia blessings

I wandered my garden barefoot today needing to connect to Nature & shake off the stress of the week.  My beautiful pink buddleia bush called me to her & drew me to her heart.

She showed me some of the spirits she was nurturing & offered to nurture me too.  I stepped close to her & quietly soaked up her energies & just as the butterflies & bees were thankful for her sweet nectar I was grateful to her for feeding my soul.

I left her side to light incense for some barefoot meditation & was taken on a journey skywards with the bees & butterflies.  I felt light & free, carried on soft breezes.  It was just the release I needed.

This evening I was careful to make sure I watered my buddleia especially well & soon I will have some 'liquid gold' from my wormery to feed her in return.

May Buddleia blessings be with you too xxx

Summer landscape

When we moved out to the countryside on June 20th 8 years ago, the significance of Summer Solstice had only vague meaning to me. Since embracing a more spiritual path it has a myriad meanings to my heart.  This year my Solstice celebrations were a little muted due to the unfortunate timing of some surgery, but never the less I was very aware of the many blessings brought to my Summer landscape at this mid point in the year.

We are very lucky to have a bridle path literally on our doorstep which meanders for a mile across open fields.  It's a safe place to walk our dogs off the lead & we walk that path there & back,morning & evening, every day, almost without fail.  The landscape is stunning.  To the left the beautiful Malvern Hills dominate the horizon.  The Hills never look the same twice, no matter how many times we walk the path.  Some days the sun shines so brightly on them you can pick out incredible detail on the hillsides.  Some days fog rolls in & the Hills disappear altogether. Every evening you know that if conditions are right you will be met with the most stunning sunsets, sometimes bringing fire & passion to your soul, sometimes bringing incredible peace to your heart.

In the last couple of years the farmer has adopted an organic approach to farming.  It has really had a positive affect on the wildlife this year.  We have seen a far greater variety of butterflies, birds, insects, flowers & bees.  At this mid point of the year the landscape, fueled by the Sun's energies, is a virile tangle of tall seeded grasses, foliage & wild flowers.  The air is alive with the humming of busy bees, chirruping crickets & bird song.  If you breathe deep down into your lungs you can smell the lushness of the grass, the perfume of the flowers, the dustiness of hot days & the freshness of rainy days.  If you look, really look, your eyes are met with so many treasures - new tree saplings, wild flowers hidden away in the grass, tiny beetles scurrying here & there & tell tale signs of mammal activity, like badger tracks & fox fur caught in bramble branches.

The landscape is burgeoning with vitality, & if you tune into it the energies are powerfully uplifting & invigorating.  Just by kicking off my shoes & walking the path barefoot, ruffling the grass with my hands, tracing the curve of a petal with my fingertips or stepping into the shade of a tree to lean against it's bark I  become more deeply connected to the landscape.  My heart swells with joy at seeing the deeper harmony around me brought by the farmer's organic farming methods.  The wholesomeness of it all filters into every pore of my being & it brings a powerful desire to mimic more fully the precious & delicate balances of Nature in my life.  To take more action, however simple, however small to make sure I tread lightly on Mother Earth's surface.

I truly believe that if we all took time to tune into Mother Nature she would breathe the same message into all of our hearts & then maybe, just maybe, the subtle shifts in people's attitudes to their environment that I can see happen all around me will become seismic.

Like this little sapling, we all have the potential within us to root ourselves deeply to the Earth & become mighty oaks