Late Winter Stirrings

Photo by Mary Ellis

In yoga there is a concept called swadhyaya (self-study). It is one of the niyamas; guides for living consciously, which in turn is one of the 8 limbs of yoga. The limbs are the 8 ways in which we can practice yoga in our lives. I often find that some of the deepest insights I have, from my practice of swadhyaya, come to me at night, just as I am about to sleep. I believe that is because it is a transitory state, the time when I am moving from waking consciousness to a dream state, and therefore the veils between realms are thinner. The movement from one season into another is also a transitional state, so the veils also thin around us as we prepare to pass from one season to the next. If this is true, then the veils are particularly thin this time of year. Especially at bedtime. I invite you to take advantage of this, as we energetically wrap up winter, to feel the stirrings within you and beyond you that will lead you to a deeper understanding and acceptance of self and Self. I’m including a poem that presented itself to me a couple of nights ago when the veils were at their thinnest.    

Late Winter Stirrings
I feel a quaking in my inner chambers 
A hollow echo trying to scream 
Where am I? Who have I become? 
This life, it feels like a dream 
I’m neither here, nor really there 
Still, I feel I am everywhere 
Unexpressed and yet exuberant
An inner essence trying to flow
Completely present and available
After years of not being allowed to grow
Like an un-inhaled breath, of fresh spring air
Softly tickling my untidy hair
Wanting to know I have a choice
Demanding to be given my own voice

​By Tawa Ranes