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

Barefoot tribe

Practicing in a solitary way makes me treasure connections to like minded people via the internet, for me Twitter has been a place where I have connected to some people that have become very important to me in terms of my spiritual development.  In fact it was a connection made through Twitter that first helped me understand my spirituality & set me on my Pagan path.  It was the natural connections I made once my heart was open that led me to understand my soul's purpose & set me on a 'hedgewitch' path.

One thing that is a huge blessing is my connection to Jackie & Jason of Essence of Wild.  I was fortunate to be able to meet up with Jason at a time when I needed a little guidance & reassurance & I feel his spirit walking with me strongly.  I have yet to meet Jackie in person, but I feel almost as though I don't need to, her loving, nurturing aura touches me regardless of the physical distance between us.  I can't wait for my Essence of Wild newsletters to come pinging into my inbox, each one is my little sanctuary of inspiration, learning, healing & connection.

The Solstice newsletter brought with it an invitation to join the Barefoot Tribe, to kick off my shoes & connect more deeply to the Earth.  Being a bit of a hippy, unless I'm in my trusty wellies, I regularly walk barefoot.  But this was perfectly timed.  I had undergone an operation & was in need of some support in my healing.  I kicked off my sandals, lit some incense & settled beneath my beautiful holly tree for a barefoot meditation.

I concentrated on my breath & felt the familiar peace of meditation flood through me.  My dogs felt it too & came & cuddled against me interrupting the stillness, but they felt my need for quietness & went & found shady corners of the garden to dose in. The grass beneath my bare feet that at first felt prickly, became a soft, supportive carpet beneath me, the sun's heat warmed me to my core & with my eyes closed & palms turned towards the sky my brow chakra became open.  At first the Earth's energies travelled through my bare feet & lifted my face towards the Sun.  Still with my eyes closed I began to see my landscape instinctively.  I saw my holly tree by it's protective energy, I saw each bird around me by it's pretty heart song, I sensed every beautiful flower in my garden & the life forms around me.  I felt uplifted & free.  As love poured into my heart, so I poured love out to the skies, to the Goddess.  Even in this peaceful connection I could feel a sense of the pain of the Goddess, the pain of all the harm we are doing to our beautiful planet. After a time, I gently turned my inner focus away from the skies, placed my palms face down on the grass & let my base chakra gently open to receive healing from my Mother the Earth. Earth energy flowed through me, roots grew from my feet & took me further down into the heart of my Mother.  My body began to slowly curl downwards towards the earth.  I felt that Mother Earth was taking me into her own womb to offer me healing.  I sent waves of love & gratitude & let myself sink further downwards into her arms.  I had the sense that as well as offering me healing, my Mother was accepting my soul seed into her heart & that each time I returned to this meditation she would help me to grow spiritually.

When I was ready to gently come out of my meditation I was surprised, as I always am, by the things I had seen & felt.  I'm still new to these experiences, I have no preconceptions or expectations when I begin a meditation or cast a magic circle.  That's why I know the things I feel to be true.  Gradually I'm becoming more confident & less awkward about sharing them.

After my meditation I took time to walk barefoot around my little garden, giving thanks for the beautiful things   around me.

My hug from my Mother the Earth was like a healing hug from my beloved birth mother. <3 <3 <3