Waning
Gibbous

The waning gibbous moon is a time to step into your wholeness. By widening your scope to include all of humanity into focus, we acknowledge that we're all having a human experience together on the earth. The waning gibbous and upcoming last quarter moon is a great time to examine the Yamas and Niyamas. They're the lighthouse and compass pointing you toward your authentic self.

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The First Limb of Yoga, the Yamas, are the five moral guidelines that create the foundation and setpoint of your true north. Not as a purity test but rather a loving observation of your heart and ethics. These guidelines help to create a life of goodness for all living things. Over the following week, we will be focusing on our wholeness and connectedness. We'll examine the Yamas by setting our moral compass externally with truth-seeking questions like:

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"Are my beliefs non-harming/compassionate? Honest? Non-stealing/giving? 

Balanced/moderate? Non-attached/sharing?" 

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These are the values that we choose to communicate through our actions, as well as where our energy flows. You'll be strengthening your foundation with the Yamas as you build your relationships with Earth and others. We become stronger as we support and accept support from others. This leads to more universal harmony and goodness in our lives.

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Over the next week, take note of any rigid rules, patterns, or irritability that have formed. They can give you a false sense of control and become your focus when your Yamas are not aligned with a loving heart. Notice if you're making life choices and creating boundaries out of fear. Now is the time to align your worldview with your wisdom by taking inventory of your thoughts, words, and actions.

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Are your values pointing you toward truth and an authentic life? 

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The first chakra, the root, is located at the base of the spine and pelvic floor. This chakra provides the foundation of your energy and security and is strongly connected to your physical body, family, and tribe. Eastern Body, Western Mind explains that "our bodies are the home of our spirit," and it is here in the root chakra where we "build the foundation for the temple of the body-the anchor for the rainbow bridge."

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When the root chakra is out of balance, we can feel anxious, fearful, and stuck in patterns, with an imbalanced drive leading to over and under-eating, poor choices, low sex drive, anger, and irritability. Dig up these weeds through the Yamas and carry them through the Eight Limbs of Yoga to be transformed. With each full moon, more structure and balance are born, leading the way to our true, authentic selves.  

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All chakras rely on the strength of this foundation; therefore, we must create an environment that's conducive to growth. The waning gibbous moon is a great time to explore our environments, as this phase represents those vital moments from delivery to the third stage of labor, called afterbirth. The umbilical cord is clamped and cut, beginning a new kind of breathing, nourishment, and survival.  We become completely independent of our Mother's placenta yet totally dependent upon our caretakers.

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The waning gibbous moon holds the essence of Lughnasadh, the ancient Gaelic feast in August that marks the beginning of the harvest season. Celebrate this time, also known as Lammas, with a hike and reflection of your gratitude. Create a path to healing and restoration for the root chakra through your meditation practice. As each chakra is a color within the rainbow, the root chakra is associated with the color red. Welcome red into your life through physical reminders like clothing, art, crystals, food, drink, and flowers. Lay your beautiful crystals on your altar, like carnelian, ruby, garnet, black tourmaline, bloodstone, meteorite, obsidian, onyx, and red jasper.

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Kris Carr says in her book Crazy Sexy Diet, "If your body is a temple, then your mouth is the altar. From this day forward, vow to treat yourself like a divine Being." Carr points us in the direction of health by "keeping an overall direction of health." Challenge your beliefs surrounding health this week by aligning your diet with "ecology, spirit, passion, and culture," as suggested by Kris Carr.

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Nourish your body with root veggies this week, as well as red foods that activate your blood flow. Eat cayenne pepper, cinnamon, pomegranate, and beets, and drink postpartum teas like rose and red raspberry leaf. Do grounding exercises like walking barefoot, spending time in nature, and activating your feet through stomping and jumping. Breathe in essential oils like cedarwood, myrrh, vetiver, sandalwood, and patchouli. Practice root-strengthening yoga poses like Warrior 1 and 2, triangle, tree, chair, forward fold, and eagle for strength and renewal.

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Day 1: Ahimsa (Nonviolence)

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Some limiting beliefs come from unhealthy boundaries; therefore, this week, we'll be aligning the Yamas (moral guidelines) with our relationships. The Dalai Lama said, “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” Consider how your thoughts, words, and actions are affecting your life and your environment. Understand that your thoughts are your foundation. If you have a solid foundation, like a cutting board under a knife, when something cuts you, there is something beneath you to protect what you care about.

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The goal of Ahimsa is to create more space in your life for compassion and to let love become your foundation.

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Psychologist Carl Jung said, “Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.” If you are a parent, you will one day learn that you cannot control your child. You can only create the conditions for them to thrive, which is done by first thriving yourself. Whether you're a parent or not, we all carry dreams waiting to be born.

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Consider Ahimsa, "non-injury," and your actions, thoughts, and words.

 

Journal Prompt:

1. Am I setting the environment up in a manner that promotes harmony or disharmony?   

2. How is my communication? Am I using passive and/or aggressive communication to express my needs, wants, and desires?

3. How can I put justice into action?

4. How can I create a nurturing environment with Ahimsa for myself, my family, my tribe, and my newly born dreams? 

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Affirmation: I cause no harm by thought, word, or action.

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Day 2: Satya (Truthfulness)

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Reach into your higher awareness and authentic self and ask: Am I living an authentic life?  As we release the full moon and step into wholeness, let's consider how perfectionism is a root planted in inauthenticity. Jay Shetty says in his podcast, "It's not about sharing your perfection, it's about sharing your truth...when you bring your confusion and curiosity into your work, that's what people are connecting and resonating with." Shine the light of the moon upon your root of perfection, the lies that keep you in prison, and use your truth to sever the root from your growing garden.

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Some roots need to be pulled up, but some are there to bring life and beauty to your garden. Grant the Yamas access to your garden and let them guide you in the cultivating process. Not as a legalistic moral checklist but to reinforce values and actions that lead you to your authentic selves. If you're living into your wholeness, then you are naturally seeking justice and defending the oppressed, but only if you have first freed yourself. Not living your truth creates an unsettled heart, which leads to big emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger, and sadness. Let these emotions guide you to where your attention needs to go, and they will lead you to your roots of truthfulness.

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Journal Prompt:

1. When you open your eyes in the morning, what do you know without a doubt?

2. When the night falls, do you feel anxious or guilty about all that was left undone?

3. Make a list of all the things that are important to you and note what you've been avoiding.

4. Align truth with your authentic self by making goals to put truth into action.

5. Take an honest inventory of what is truly important.

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Affirmation: I step into my wholeness and release my urge to be perfect. 

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Day 3: Asteya (Non Stealing):

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Spend the next few days focusing on gratitude. Reflect on the past two weeks and journal about what felt aligned with your goals and what didn’t. Refine these goals, making minor adjustments. This is a time to show your love and gratitude to yourself and others by checking in with your boundaries. Their purpose is to support you, not to keep people out (unless removing someone from your life is crucial to your well-being).

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Boundaries are not a checklist created from a list of demands. They're created as a form of self-love to reinforce what is weak and to protect what is strong. Keep your boundaries in mind this week as you reflect on the foundation that supports you. The impulse to steal has deep emotional roots in envy, jealousy, and compulsion for perfection. Let these emotions guide you to your truth, as they are your heart's boundaries. Prune your toxic emotions and transplant your growing garden into a more loving and grateful environment.     

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Journal Prompt:

1. What excites you right now?

2. How can you share this excitement in the form of gratitude?

3. Create boundaries around your list of what's important to you.

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Affirmation: I am grateful for the abundance of my loving heart.       

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Day 4: Brahmacharya (A Pure Way of Life)

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Brahmacharya is about finding balance and moderation. Traditionally, Hinduism honors four stages of life, and Brahmacharya represents a stage when one's focus should be on education, not "sewing wild oats" through sexual desires. This Yama doesn't teach repression but rather that we are more than our animalistic desires. Our joy and desires can get trapped by excess, not that desire itself is "bad," but rather the suffering that excess leads to.  

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Brahmacharya aligns our truths with our joy and corrects the "good vs bad" extreme beliefs of our dualistic society.  Attachments that were created out of dysfunction brought us out of our suffering, but Brahmacharya invites our joy to carry us the rest of the way forward. As the Eight Limbs of Yoga provide a path to Liberation, Brahmacharya directs our focus to the suffering that our attachments caused.  

Brahmacharya reminds us that a pure way of life is possible for all, as it asks, "How am I using my mind, body, and spirit?" and "How's my energy?" Now is the time to check in with our body and ask what it needs. Do you feel connected and mentally charged? 

Your intentions are everything when creating your self-care practice. Revisit your list created earlier this week from Satya, truthfulness that defines who you are. Allow your intentions and your deep knowledge of self to create your Brahmacharya.

 

Create your way of life out of an abundance of joy, one that supports your goals, desires, values, dreams, and passions. Check in with your self-care practice today and ask: How are my habits? Are they forming addiction? How is my digestion? Take a truthful inventory of the following list, which are core behaviors associated with longer, healthier living. They are also behaviors created out of dysfunction and are normalized as stress responses in a consumer-driven society.  Let the list guide you, not shame you into living a pure life! They each hold wisdom about your Yamas and the state of your root chakra:  

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*Avoid/quit tobacco

*Regular exercise, limit sedentary behavior

*Healthy diet with an array of plant-based foods

*Limit alcohol

*Maintain a healthy weight, especially around the stomach

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Journal Prompt: Where is your energy going? Are you managing chaos?

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Here are some helpful resources on addiction, food, and nutrition:

*Read my blog post, Measure of Health 

*Geneen Roth books about Woman, Food and God and our relationship with food.

*Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr

*The Blue Zone

*Learn how to live naturally through diet and lifestyle according to your Dosha. "Idiot's" Guide to Ayurveda by Sahara Rose Ketabi is a great place to begin your Ayurvedic journey.  

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Affirmation: I create a thriving life with the wisdom that I have available to me.

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Day 5: Aparigraha (Non-Attachment)

Share your gifts as you practice letting go of fear and greed. Be more flexible in your routines, but hold strong boundaries around your energy and what matters most to you. The Body Keeps the Score says that "Hiding your core feelings takes an enormous amount of energy." Be mindful of where your energy is going. Our greed and attachments are a reflection of our struggle with living in the present moment. This manifests in many ways, but numbing is one of our greatest default behaviors. Daily Om explains it best in an article about Ways We Numb Ourselves. They write: "Numbing yourself prevents you from confronting your issues and keeps you from ever finding resolution or peace."

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As we move into the shadows of the last quarter moon, consider your core emotions and all that you work so hard to stuff and hide. The Body Keeps the Score says, "As long as you keep secrets and suppress information you are fundamentally at war with yourself." We'll be moving into our shadow side as we push into the next phases leading up to the New Moon, so pay close attention to the emotions that arise. Having observed your Yamas, align your heart to the truth by asking: "What kind of life do I want to have? Keep this life at the center of all that you do moving forward.

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Journal Prompt:

1. In what ways am I not living in the present?

2. What are ways that I numb my emotions?

3. Am I holding any grudges?

4. How is perfectionism preventing my true self from being born? 

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*Call upon your root chakra and your divine wisdom to gently lead you into the shadows. Capture your truth and give it a heart and voice. Prepare for radical self-care as you move into the Third Quarter Moon. Reach out to your support system at this time and know that you are not alone.

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Affirmation: I am love and light.