Author: Alex Jade

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Top of the roller coaster!

Fall is coming, the equinox approaches. Quite literally, this is that fantastic balance point when daylight roughly equals night, when the plane of the earth’s equator bisects the center of the sun (or, if viewed from the good old earth-centric point of view, we go from the north pole being tipped towards the sun to it being tipped away).
I like to imagine a collective planetary “whoohoo!” at this peak of the interstellar roller coaster ride. We’re about to hit that point where up and down are balanced, where we hang momentarily in space as both and neither, before the exhilarating decent into winter towards the solstice.
And do we feel this in our bodies? In part because of the fantastic capacity of proprioception or the senses that allow us to know where our bodies are in space. Alex and I have been thinking about this as we work on the coloring book. In fact, here’s a little sneak peak . . .
Enjoy this tipping point!
xo,
Amy
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What do you like to do with your body?

While we were hiking along the edge of the Pacific Ocean in Olympic National Park, my kid started to say that she couldn’t take another step because  “I don’t like to walk”.  I paused.  Walking is such a pleasure for me, it surprised me that she didn’t feel the same.  So I asked that question, “what do you like to do with your body?”
Together with our hiking companions we generated a long list, then it was my quest to “do things we like with our bodies”  all afternoon.
Here are some things that we stated and then did on our list:
Singing
Dancing
Jumping in the Pacific Ocean
Eating gummy bears
Touching others softly
Peeing in the woods
Imagine the possibilities with this question:
What Do You Like To Do With Your Body?
With love,
Alex

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Diaphragmatic Breathing

Diaphragmatic breathing is a foundational breath practice to support resilience and potency. Our theme this month is potency and basic to potency is the breath-it’s nourishment, focalizes attention, creates resilience and is a passage into various states of consciousness. Diaphragmatic Breathing is among one of the essential breath practices of tantra.
How to do this breath:
-Notice your posture.
Sit, stand or lay down so that your spine is stacked on itself.
-Place your hands on the side on your torso, touching the lower ribs.
-Breath deeply, focusing on the place where your hands are touching your ribs.
-Notice the pace of your breath, and if you are holding it at the end of inhalation or exhalation. Iron out your breath, so that it is a cycle without pause.
-Expand your breath, following your diaphragm
to all points of contact it makes with your front, side and back ribs.
*You are now breathing with diaphragmatic fullness!
This breath practice can be used for body awareness, with a meditation practice and to shift anxiety. Play with it and see how it shifts the way you understand your breath.
Love,
Alex

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Gratitude for Soil Composters
Gratitude for Soil Composters
Today, I acknowledge and celebrate the soil composters, which are microbes such as Bacteria, Fungi, Actinomycetes, Algae, Protozoa, and Nematodes. These characters breakdown the dying and dead, and work together to create nourishing environments.
I am grateful for these forces that I cannot see continue their steadfast focus of alchemical change. The living experience of composters consuming, transforming and offering, an ongoing cycle. This sustains the soils, and the foundation for food production.
On this late winter day, let’s take a moment of awareness and contribute in some way to our net of earth microbes, offering our dead to the compost bin or pile, turning over the compost heap or noticing the new green shoots peaking out.
—Alex

How about you? What are you composting this month? What are your tools of alchemy?