Dear Friends in Yoga,

I hope this email finds you well and thriving!! Last Saturday, March 20th at 1:29 in the afternoon, marked the Spring Equinox, the time when the sun crosses the equator making the time of day and and the time of night everywhere of nearly equal lengths everywhere in the world. The Equinox marks the threshold that the entire Northern Hemisphere passes through as it makes its way into the season of light and expansion and the whole world comes alive with the exhilaration and excitement of springtime.
Right now the whole universe is getting ready to burst open. In this early phase of spring, the bulbs are getting ready to explode out of the hard covering that’s protected them all winter, the earth is melting the snow and getting ready to allow seeds to germinate, the body is naturally throwing off the stuck, congealed energy of winter, the sap is flowing in the trees and creative juices everywhere are starting to thrive.

In the weeks leading up to the Spring Equinox, I noticed that my body was very naturally beginning a process of easeful detoxification. Everyday I could feel my body asking me for simple things to fulfill its desire to melt and release the holding and contraction that accumulated over the cold months of winter, and open to the season of expansion with the onset of spring. I noticed the desire to drink more water, to increase sour foods, to eat lighter foods that are easier to digest. I also noticed a daily increase of enthusiasm and desire to exercise vigorously and get my heart rate up. Maybe you've noticed these cravings too, and perhaps you've had the time to heed the deeper calls of your body and soul to meet the turning of the earth's rotation toward the light of the sun. All these subtle signals represent our body's natural, easeful process of detoxification, a process that the body, when healthy is able to do quite well.

Along with this natural detoxification process happening in the body, you may have also noticed an increase in reactivity in the mind, as if the mind were similarly going through a process of detoxification, throwing out the contractions built up over winter. Just as the body needs a bit of assistance in throwing out winter's accumulated toxins, so also does the mind because the mind has such a tendency to harden, congeal, contract and form ice crystals of old limited belief and frozen ground of misunderstanding.

Spring is the time of freshness, exhilaration. Spring is the time to breathe new life into the old structures. So, today, I offer here my spring detox process as a way of assisting all of us in opening to the true expansion that our path holds out to us: the capacity to embrace our intrinsic goodness and open to the greatness that lies within!

Whether you choose to sit quietly for meditation or pranayama, chant the names of the Divine, take vigorous walks, or practice Hatha Yoga postures, the practice remains the same. It’s time, today, to pick one belief that has crystallized inside of you, that has frozen you into a limited way of viewing and experiencing your world. This belief should be one that you are truly ready to release, truly ready to meld, truly ready to be free of. For the practice to work, it must be something that your heart immediately says yes to - yes, today, you are willing to be free of this thought, this belief about yourself or another.
Turn this into a conscious practice, that with every exhalation that you breathe in the sacred atmosphere of consecrated awareness, with every exhalation release a little more of that frozen belief that’s stuck inside of you: The story of your unworthiness, the story of your limitations, the story of your suffering, the story of what you deserve the story of how someone did you wrong, the story of what someone told you you were, whatever that is for you, today, I invite each of us to release even a tiny fragment of that limited belief system so we can be more free to open to greater possibilities.

When we practice Hatha Yoga, we always extend on the inhalation and soften or twist on the exhalation. Every movement we make is accompanied by the breath. Every inhalation you breathe in the sacred atmosphere of consecrated awareness is an opportunity to open to the springtime of new understanding; to blossom the flowers of true fulfillment and to welcome the dawn of satisfied expectation. To do so, every exhalation is consecrated as a sacred offering, offer the flower of your unworthiness to the benevolent power of grace that heartily receives all offerings. Offer the frozen ground of anger, the ice crystals of self doubt, and the harsh winds of judgement and self criticism. Offer these to the benevolent power of Grace that receives all and transforms all. Don't be in a hurry to understand what will replace this frozen ground, or who you will be when you release this negativity. Simply offer.

Practice opening the various sections of your body like you're throwing open the doors and windows in the house open on that first warm spring day. Let the house of your understanding breathe again. Release the stale air of winter’s accumulation and open to freshness and freedom.

This spring, each of us has the opportunity to open with freshness and freedom to a vibrant new life. Today, you have the power to make a new choice. This spring, you have the opportunity to release the old ways of thinking and being that limit your life before you even wake up in the morning. Every morning resolve to step boldly into a new chapter, a new destiny a new vision a new dream.

For this kind of transformation, you'll need a point of stability inside. That point of stability inside is your conviction that it is possible to open to something greater, that something truly great does live inside of you and it is possible to expand that essence. Keep melting into that. How far your essence can expand is unknown. Who you’ll be when you release the old, there’s no way to know, and that’s the point. Practice as a way of invoking that essence inside, that is naturally free, naturally fresh, naturally filled with light and beauty. Practice as a call to release the contractions surrounding that vibrant inner essence. Practice as an expression of your deep desire that your dreams might actually be in alignment with the dreams that the universe has for you.

I look forward to hearing from you on how your practice is transforming your heart and life!!

With heartfelt blessings of love, Happy Spring.

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Deb Neubauer