Forget New Year’s resolutions that hint of restrictions — 2010 is a year of abundance! Intentions for better health, more balanced wellness or personal fine-tuning that leads to an expanded experience of your own radiance? Surprise! It’s about feasting, not fasting. Although this moment in the season might mean fewer vegetables at the farmers markets, the opportunities for local feasting abound, and there’s never been a better time to focus on personal nourishment. This magical pocket of time at the beginning of a new cycle in the calendar year invites us to look at our lives more macroscopically, to reflect on the whole of our earthly experience in ways that invite change and ever-deepening understanding of our interconnectedness. It welcomes a more universal perspective, both in the attunement of our awareness to what’s happening planetarily and of how to feed ourselves more holistically.
Enhancing wellbeing by physically eating (locally grown goodness, of course) is important, but feeding ourselves on other levels expands wellness possibilities exponentially. Fortunately for us, there’s a local smorgasbord of opportunities for such nourishment. So where do we begin?
First, let’s a take a look at what’s going on in the stars to enhance our understanding of the cosmic support flooding the planet at this time. The beginning of a new year is a juicy time for transformation, but right now we have the additional potency of a full blue moon lunar eclipse as we dance from 2009 into 2010. Because the sun, moon and Earth align during a lunar eclipse, the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow, and the lunar flow of electromagnetic energies is temporarily interrupted. Fortunately for us, this short disconnect opens up a magical window of opportunity to refine our lives in ways that more fully support the divine light sparkling within each of us. This refinement might mean the release of old patterns or behaviors that no longer support us, expanding how we accept ourselves and others, or embracing new habits that illuminate our love and beauty more deeply. Awareness and intention are the first steps in embracing this incredible opportunity for personal and global transformation, but we can take it a step further by cultivating harmony in ourselves. Since the cosmos alter the energetic make-up of our entire planet, we are invited to participate in this beautiful flow of change, and giving ourselves the energetic nourishment to best integrate this shifting can profoundly enhance the experience.
As this transformation affects us on all levels, expanding how we feed ourselves by opening to energetic possibilities for sustenance is essential. What we choose to put into our bodies affects everything, so eating well is important. Inextricably intertwined with physical health is creating harmony in our expanded self (including our soul and spirit), as we’re so much more than just our physical structures. Whether it’s through chanting, meditation, journaling, music, yoga, prayerful intention, laughter, intimacy, time in nature, or anything and everything else, you deserve it.
It’s no coincidence that we are focused on issues of health care, as this dialogue epitomizes the transformation we’re experiencing. We see that the old system no longer supports who we’re becoming, and a new one is evolving. Emerging is the understanding that planetary wellness involves a holistic approach — one that not only acknowledges but is founded on a paradigm of wholeness. Nourishing our spirits, minds and psyches through aromatherapy, massage, reiki and other energy-balancing therapies contributes to our overall personal wellbeing. As holistic healing addresses all parts of the person, it invites an ongoing odyssey of self-discovery.
So how does what’s happening in the cosmos connect with our earthly experience? In a nutshell, this shifting is transforming the electromagnetic field of the Earth very quickly, so our energetic environment is different. The dissolution of this old matrix is welcoming a new one (we’re transitioning from the Piscean Age to the Aquarian Age), and the impact of this evolution on our physical, mental and emotional selves is very real. As all beings are united by universal energies, we’re all benefiting from this shift, and we have an opportunity to actively participate by personally and collectively releasing dysfunctional patterns and creating new ways of living together in the world. Essential to this alignment is becoming aware of the interconnectedness of our inner and outer realities; thus, by weeding out old patterns and behaviors that no longer support our highest good, we begin co-creating from the heart. Since the Aquarian Age is founded on a heart-centered paradigm of love, our fear and anger-based habits are no longer working, and finding support for releasing those patterns is important.
So how can feasting help us release something we’ve spent a lifetime hanging onto? Our experience includes so much more than what we can see with our eyes. Our individual being has layers of energy that extend far beyond the physical body. Holistic therapies such as massage, energy balancing, nature-based work and a wide array of other similar modalities help energy flow more freely. When stuck energy begins to flow, old patterns will be released. We tend to think of feeding ourselves only in terms of what we swallow, but as the skin is the largest organ in the human body, we are fed by much more than what goes into our mouths. Taking time to nourish ourselves more universally is a gift we all deserve.
As testimony to both the abundance of the world we’re living in and to locavore livin’, our beautiful bioregion holds myriad opportunities to feast our way along this joyous journey. The Louisville Green List highlights local offerings that cover a variety of healing modalities, and the Natural Awakenings publications highlight opportunities in different cities around Kentucky and Indiana. Both publications are free, which leads to another spoke in this wonderful wheel of transformation: In the past, holistic therapies were often viewed as luxuries available to only a few; however, that’s evolving, too. More community spaces are offering holistic therapies for free, for trade or barter, or on a sliding scale. Also, people are finally buying into this level of self-care, and an ever-widening spiderweb of support, connection and wholeness is spreading. We’re becoming the change we wish to see — wouldn’t Gandhi be proud? And we can make it even more local by not even leaving the house — give your sweetheart a long foot rub, take a hot detox bath with Epsom salts and baking soda, incorporate a few yoga stretches into your wake-up routine, try a short daily meditation, breathe more consciously. As we take time to nourish ourselves more lovingly, this self-healing energy contributes to the nourishment of all beings everywhere, and we begin living into a world where wellness possibilities expand tangentially.
This moment in time welcomes an abundance of energy supportive of the positive intentions we have for personal and collective wholeness and balance. As awareness is always the first step in the manifestation of any dream, happy holidays and happy everydays, LEO readers! Now you know what opportunities the heavens are bestowing upon our sweet little planet, so revel in the possibilities! Go forth and spread your light, love yourself, get yourself some reiki, gift your great uncle some flower essences, breathe deeply of the clear winter air, set your intentions from your heart, and leap into this dawning age of love with ever-deepening awareness of your own divinity and oneness within our global community. And buy Kentucky Proud.