We are not separate.

November 2025

"We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we've lost our connection to ourselves."

-Andy Goldsworthy

"She's always talking about nature." 🙄

I often wonder if this is what you're all saying in your minds when you see my newsletters!

I can't help it. It's the stuff we're made of. It's the energy and rhythm that animates us. It's the womb and the playground of life. And we often forget or actively avoid its truth and entreaty.

There is no yoga therapy without unconditional embrace of all that comprises us, moves us, and conditions us. The roots of yoga therapy are outside. Thousands of years ago, people went to nature with open hearts and minds, listened closely to its wisdom, and understood the echoes of that wisdom in their bodies. That is the foundation of the philosophies we employ in our practice together.

We evolved as a people not only to partner with our bodies for our wellness and thriving, but to partner with the more-than-human world. It is our world, and it's more than just ours. Like the people we hold dear, they are ours, and they are more than just ours. Their purpose and value exist beyond us and also for us.

The more we turn our senses toward the environment and our more-than-human kin, the more we understand what's moving within us and informing how we move through the world.

We are moving into (many of us have already entered) a season of cold and less light. Some don't realize that they are turning away from the natural effects and invitation of this season, and some are actively running from it.

If we are made of nature and moved by nature, to resist it is to resist ourselves. We have dark and cold with all layers of our being. Like all things, those parts of us can be medicine or unwelcome when in or out of balance. What are we neglecting when we ignore our wholeness?

Resistance is also a form of attachment. It binds us tighter to that which we'd prefer to avoid because we are actively engaging with it by intentionally turning away from it. What happens when we instead accept it with softness and allow it to be? Do we find ourselves in a more easeful flow with the rhythms we evolved to ride?

Whenever I'm unsure what to do, I look outside. What are the trees and the creatures telling us right now?

• Let go of what you don't need.

• Take up less space and move inward.

• Reserve your energy for what is most important to you and let go of the "extra."

• Go to the light when it's available. Get outside!! Turn your face toward the sun. Breathe down into your belly! Let yourself feel what's real.

• Allow the darkness to move in when it's time. Turn off cold, white overhead lights and move into the warm light of candles and lamps. Delight in the fertile nature of darkness.

• Pull your closest people closer. Gather around tables and warm food or tea, laugh heartily, talk softly, let a cold guard down to let warmth in.

• Do less and be more. This is the call. This is what all of nature and all of our bodies and nervous systems are asking us to do in this annual cycle of heating up, taking action, cooling down, and restoring. To fight it can be to fight deep healing.

This can be the year you welcome the season with enthusiasm and relief and find a deep sense of peace and restoration. I used to cringe at the winter, the weather, the dry skin, the night that started in the afternoon! Now, I'm hungry for the quiet, the spaciousness, watching my breath, and doing less.

If you need more practical ideas for ways to engage the season, let's talk.