Feel Like You’re Holding It All? A Meditation to Remember Loving Support
Practice Now: In this time, while the natural world is turning inward, we become so busy attending to everything around us that we lose touch with what’s happening within us. This meditation will help us remember the loving support is that is always available to us.
Autumn is a season of great transition. There’s so much change so quickly. And as the natural world begins to turn inward, gathering nourishment back toward its roots, our lives often seem to be doing exactly the opposite.
Our calendars fill up. We're making plans, managing responsibilities, preparing for what's next. And we can feel that mismatch in our bodies. In our breath. Our nervous systems. Our minds. And our hearts.
We can become so busy responding to everything around us that we lose touch with what's happening within us.
In this practice, we’ll begin by Pausing and coming back into relationship with ourselves. Because sometimes what we need isn't something new to learn. It's something we've forgotten to remember.
One of the central themes of online yoga series is our relationship with the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a major communication pathway between the brain and body. It's involved in regulating the heart, the breath, digestion, and many of the functions that help us rest and recover.
What I find especially meaningful is that this communication is going in both directions. The brain is receiving information from the body all the time. Even without our conscious attention.
So when we practice feeling the body, noticing the breath, and sensing support, we're beginning to participate more consciously in that conversation.
We're not trying to force ourselves to be calm. We're creating conditions that may help the nervous system settle, and make room for deeper listening.
One of the simplest ways I know to begin is through my PAUSE practice.
Land. Arrive. Relax. In this practice, we're going to spend most of our time
with the first practice—LANDING. Because landing begins with sensing support.
The earth is already underneath us. The breath is already moving.
Our bodies have been carrying us through our lives. And yet we can move through our days barely noticing the support that's here.
We can find ourselves holding everything together. Carrying everything on our own. But nothing in nature grows alone. Trees receive nourishment from the soil, the rain, the sunlight. Everything exists in relationship.
And so do we.
Nothing flourishes alone. Neither do we.
So instead of trying to make ourselves calmer, let’s begin by remembering what is already supporting us. First through the body. Feeling our weight. Feeling the earth. Noticing that we don't have to hold ourselves up quite so tightly.
And then perhaps we'll begin to remember other forms of support in our lives. A person. A place. A practice. The natural world. Something that has been nourishing us all along.
Our practice isn't to become a different person, or achieve a particular state. It's to return to ourselves.
To remember the wisdom of this living body. And that there are resources and relationships we can return to that are always here.
So let's begin by landing and allowing ourselves to be here. Just as we are.
Autumn Alchemy: Vagus Nerve Practices—Start Now!
Autumn Alchemy
A Vagus Nerve Practice Series
Autumn invites us to slow down, gather inward, and remember that balance is not a fixed state. It is a living relationship between effort and rest, giving and receiving, and holding on and letting go.
In this online series, we’ll explore the vagus nerve as a pathway of communication, connection, reciprocity, and transformation—listening to the body, receiving its messages, and responding with greater presence and care.
Together, these practices can help us navigate transition with greater steadiness, receptivity, and trust.
Each week includes a 30-minute yoga practice along with a 30-minute community meditation, and the series culminates in a deep mini-retreat.