Holly

"The Holly's prominence at Christmas is actually meant to represent a culminating experience within the soul life."- Patricia Kaminski

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Holly flower essence is all about love, the love that grows from the strength of a solid self within, a self that is conditioned by the seasons and harmonized with the integrity of the soul. This is a love that recognizes and honors the stark struggle of existence, and from this, breeds compassion and joy. Holly is very much involved in a "tension of opposites, a seeming paradox for the soul"--  as holly germinates in the dark, it is said to relate to the downward earth pole, a desire to bring the light energy of the sun into the deep darkness, illuminating the soul's journey from dark into light. 

Holly flower essence helps the energy body to come back into one with our dark and our light, helping us to embrace our paradoxical nature that allows for true compassion, understanding of one another, and love. 

indications for out of balance holly type: jealousy, envy, bitterness, anger, ill-humor, fear, hatred

+excellent flower study for holly+

Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most freindship if feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky,
That does not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As a friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly. 

-shakespeare

Mighty Mind, mighty body

After going through the letting-go season of autumn, we come into winter. This winter,  I'm experiencing a great urge and need to better practice conditioning my mind. The mind can be tricky if we don't take the time to really see what the mind is going through. This practice is especially applicable in winter, as winter's presiding element is water. Water carries the potential for the negative of fear when out of balance or the positive of confidence when properly distributed and utilized in the body and mind. Winter is the dark time of nourishing a seed and providing this seed with the conditions to germinate. This seed is your sankalpa; your will, purpose, or determination. When the energy of the mind is not contained by a strong sankalpa,  it becomes disorganized, fearful, and makes us highly inefficient at carrying out our intentions.

Working with the mind, letting it reveal to us it's patterns of imbalance, we can gain a great deal of information about how to change our habits in order to increase our ojas, vital life nectar, vigor, and juice for a strong sankalpa. Maintaining a watchful soft, supple mind creates a vessle for energy to distribute where it can best be utilized for our highest good and health.

*importance of mind temperment
In Ayurveda, the mind is not exclusively located in the head. The mind lives in every marma point of the body. Where there is a pulse, a sensation, or a meeting point of two or more flows of energy, there is a mind, a consciousness, the main disperser of prana. An important quality of mind is chitta, the storehouse of memory where samskaras or impressions are imbedded. Negative samskaras are the cause of scattered energy of the mind, limiting confidence to efficiently carry out sankalpa. When the mind is bombarded with negative impressions that motivate our behavior to be self-destructive, these patterns are stored not only in our mind, making us emotionally unstable, but in vital parts of our body that respectively become weak and diseased. 

So how do we go about this?!
It maybe seems slightly corny, but for me, the most important first step for being able learn from mind how to act is to foster gratitude for having a mind that is fully capable of supporting my sankalpa and moving me into clarity. When mind feels loved, mind loves back and it becomes easier to work with mind. From here, start with just 5 minutes each morning to observe your mind. Focus on your inhalations and exhalations. Don't feel like you're failing if you are distracted from the breath. Try not to judge the thoughts that arise, but take inventory of them- this is the start of gaining information from mind. If 5 minutes becomes easy, increase the time.

In honor of supporting our sankalpas this winter, I've put together a new tea blend for mind support :)


+Mighty MIND meditation+  Tea blend

gotu kola mind protecting, memory, nervine, alterative, energy building, clearing & strengthening

calamus nervine, memory, joint comfort, builds tissue, mind nourishing

rosemary memory, has stimulating effect for blend

hops nervine, anodyne: lessens oversensitivity for comfort and ease of non-judgement for witnessing the mind

dandelion root detoxification to help build ojas

licorice root  helps to balance and harmonize the blend, calms mind and increases cranial fluid

spearmint relaxes body and clears mind and senses, helps to balance and harmonize the blend

on a good day

stones 

tree agate- fill

azurite- manifest

rose quartz- soften + heal

flourite-flush

fuchsite-behold

Bean Salad

Mung Beans-Release (from paul pitchford: "one of the most important beans therapeutically, they are particularly useful because of their capacity to cleanse the heart and vascular system and reduce toxicity.")

Small red beans- Expel 

pinto beans- Settle

fall

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FOR WOMEN WHO ARE TIED TO THE MOON, LOVE ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH. WE INSIST EACH DAY WRAP IT’S KNUCKLES THROUGH OUR HEART STRINGS AND PULL. THE LOWS. THE JOY. THE POETRY. WE DANCE AT THE EDGE OF A CLIFF, YOU HAVE FALLEN OFF. SO IT GOES. YOU WILL CLIMB UP AGAIN.

YOU RARE GIRL, ONCE AGAIN, YOU HAVE A BODY THAT BELONGS TO NO LOVER, TO NO FATHER, BELONGS TO NO ONE BUT YOU. WEAR YOUR SORROW LIKE THE LINES ON YOUR PALM. LIKE A SHAWL TO KEEP YOU WARM AT NIGHT. DON’T MOURN THE LOVE THAT IS LOST TO YOU NOW. IT IS A BOOK OF POEMS WHOSE METERS WORKED THEIR WAY INTO YOUR PULSE. EVEN IF IT HAS SLIPPED FROM YOUR HANDS, IT WILL STAY IN YOUR BODY.

YOU LOVED A MAN WHO TREATED YOU LIKE ABSINTHE, HALF POISON AND HALF GOD. HE TRIED TO SWEETEN YOU, TO WATER YOU DOWN. SO YOU LEFT. AND NOW YOU HAVE YOUR HEART ALL TO YOURSELF AGAIN. A HEART LIKE A STONE COTTAGE. HEART LIKE A LOVER’S DIARY. HOPE LIKE AN OCEAN.

~   LETTER FROM ANAIS NIN TO CLEMENTINE VON RADICS (After Marty McConnel)

and then there was you