Yoga With Kelly

"She smelled of sun and daisies with a hint of river water." - Kate Daisy Living Seasonally – Summer Edition Hello natural lovers , it is summer and I am way behind on getting this post out to you. We may think summer ends when the kiddos go back to school, but according to the natural world it goes until almost the end of September. So I guess I am not too far behind <wink> Summer is a time for fun, movement, energy and life. I have been a very busy bee on my end – working on projects, going on trips, and enjoying as much sunshine as I can get (before we lose it during those long winter months). Living seasonally involves the foods we eat, how we move our bodies, socialize, and sleep and the daily routine we adopt during each season. In this edition I’ll discuss summer foods, herbs, movement, socializing, and sleep. Join me on this fun summer adventure, won’t you? For me summer is all about outdoor activities, consuming cooling foods and herbs, and having fun! Sum...

"May the long time sun shine upon you, all the love surround you, and the pure light within you, guide you on your way." -unknown  Hello Herbal People, I have sat down to write a blog post about the summer solstice on practically the most gloomiest day we’ve had all week. All week the sun has been shining, opening up to blue skies for afternoon play time. It was a really lovely week. Now today there is no sun in sight, I know it’s there because it is lighter out than it was a few hours ago, but the glorious sun/son (the one we will celebrate tomorrow) is hidden behind ugly grey clouds. Tomorrow’s weather isn’t looking much better either. However maybe it is shining bright in the sky in your part of the world. <grin> What is the Summer Solstice? The summer solstice is a celebration of the return of the sun and light to the northern hemisphere. This year this celebration is on June 20, 2021. Summer Solstice is the longest day and shortest night of the year for the n...

" The promise of spring's arrival is enough to get anyone through the bitter winter." - Jen Selinsky   Hello Friends! I just love Spring! And today just happens to be a PERFECT day for the return of spring on this Spring Equinox. The sun is shining; it is going to be a bright, sunny day with warm temperatures! We Ohioans are grinning from ear to ear in glory of this gorgeous day! If you follow my blog you know that I enjoy celebrating the turning of the seasons. For me it is a way to show my gratitude toward this incredible event and celebrate what this new season will bring. Spring is a celebration of the "new", "fresh", and "birth/fertility" of our Mother Earth. The flowers begin pushing up through the thawing ground, the trees come alive with new buds, and the animals are shaking off their winter coats and popping their heads out of their burrows. It is a wonderful time of year, everything is coming back to life after a cold, wet winter. W...

It has been a busy time for me over at my homestead. The past couple of weeks I have slowly been preparing my home for winter. Last week I prepared a large batch of chicken and vegetable soup. I also did an in-depth clean of my apartment and put away the Halloween decorations. However my Christmas decorations are not up yet, but the fall decorations remain. I got out my stuffed turkey and he sits perched on top of my bookshelf. I organized and cleaned up a bit as I cleaned and at the end of the day I collapsed into bed for a nap and wind down for the evening. I worked on some drawings for projects, ate two big bowls of chicken and vegetable soup and watched The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix, which was just spooky enough to give me nightmares. In the morning I did my herbal studies, worked on my drawings some more and then made a trip to the craft store and book store. Sunday evening I celebrated the November new moon with a moon bath for my crystals and a refreshing yoga sequence. ...

Recently I was asked what my motivation is for getting on my yoga mat. I took a minute to think this question over. What was my motivation? Because I often find myself struggling to get on the mat, especially recently, since I’ve been having a hard time at my new job. It has been a tough, emotional transition. However I still make time to get on my mat and I wanted to share with this person my motivation for showing up and now I am going to share it with all of you. Yoga for me is what you make it. I told them; living daily with purpose and intention. For me yoga is more than just the poses, whether it be coming home and cooking a delicious meal with love, intention, and purpose or laying in bed knitting while watching a movie or getting lost in a show. For me these are yoga practices. These actions for you will look different, but what matters is how you do them. Setting your focus and attention on every action and how you perform those actions. The dictionary defines intention as: ...

“I hold in my heart as a gourd filled with love, ready to pour upon humanity.” – Jessica Powers This past week I was studying compassion. It is a part of my continuing spiritual work; I am using the book The Cup of Our Life: A Guide for Spiritual Growth by: Joyce Rupp. It is a wonderful book that I have enjoyed working with. It is broken up into six weeks; on the fifth week is when compassion comes into play. One the first day the lesson was learning compassion. Compassion, I learned, is very demanding. For some people it is not easy to know and feel the hurt and pain of another. For some they can easily feel this. For both of these people compassion can be a heavy weight to bear. And sometimes we get so lost in ourselves that we forget to extend compassion to others. We must also make sure we are not giving compassion for our own egocentric needs. Compassion must be given lovingly, to ourselves and to others. Compassionate people, however, can often inspire other people to ...

Gratitude is defined as: the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.* In the month of November we find ourselves thinking about all of the things we are grateful for. Maybe we do extra kind acts during this month, maybe we practice a little more yoga, maybe we thank a higher power for all of the things in our lives. But what about the rest of the year? Why is it that we are make a bigger deal about being more grateful during the month of November than we do any other time? Is it because of the Holiday? The one that we as a society have chosen to overlook? We make the giving holiday a holiday all about me, me, me... about shopping and buying the latest high tech gadget and once those doors open we do not care about anyone else. We only care about being the first to get that new gadget. We fight people over it, we are rude to sales people and our fellow citizens, and we fork out tons of money for something we ultimately may not n...