S I M P L I C I T Y

Hmmm it’s a lot, is it not? 

This time of year - so much going on whilst what we really need is a moment to adjust. 

Adjusting to the shorter hours of daylight, the end of summer and the imminent winter. 

The run up to Christmas, which seems to start before summer is over, not to mention half term already, Halloween, Bonfire night and a frantic diary that’s filling up fast as we (over) commit to seasonal activities with friends/family/work.

Or for some it's none of the above, but we see and hear all that’s going on around us without feeling part of it, which can be overwhelmingly isolating. 

Either way it's just…. A    L  O  T

Familiarly for me this time of year, I feel I’m chasing my tail, finding it hard to gather or focus my thoughts, and therefore to compile some sort of theme, blog or plan for our practice this term.

These blogs are perhaps a window to my state of mind (ha ha) and for full transparency it’s been a challenging few weeks! I often find that when I’m struggling, others are too - similar seasonal shifts and similar human challenges. Almost always someone will get in touch to say, oh my goodness, your blog really resonated, I’ve been feeling the same.

During these times I often lose hold of what supports and nourishes me, it requires a lot more effort to do the things that keep me on track.

I caught sight of this beautiful leaf on my walk earlier this week. ‘Walk’  is rather a generous term for what was a very brief, nipping into the local country park, having completely run out of time. 

It’s incredible how just 10-15 mins out amongst the trees and the elements, away from ‘day-to-day busyness’, slows my pace and slows my breath. 

It significantly switched my nervous system down a notch or two, slowed my heart rate and settled my busy thoughts, just enough. 

This leaf sparked a few different thoughts and feelings for me. Rather than over-think these things, I like to take a photo and let it percolate.

I really identified with the leaf - not feeling whole and complete, full of holes and ready to drop!!!

However this play on words made me realise that I was focused too much on the leaf. 

The leaf essentially represented the surface busyness, the temporary experiences going on for me recently. To be whole is so much more than that. The whole is the leaf, the stalk, the branches, the trunk and the mass of roots beneath my feet. The leaf is just a temporary but essential part of the whole tree.

My fascination with this leaf meant I stopped, I paused and was able to pull back to see the bigger picture. The holes in fact enabled me to see through the leaf to the trunk of another tree behind it. The whole is more than the tree, it’s all the trees, all the mycelium, all the expanding connections, it’s ALL of it. Slowing down allowed me to widen my perspective, to see the bigger picture and feel whole, even if just for a moment.

Initially being able to see through the leaf connected me to the Celtic Wheel, to this point in the year when they say the veil is thin: All hallows eve, Hallowe’en, All Souls’ Day. 

Drawing me again to step back a little and explore the whole, rather than the small but essential part we play in the whole universe of pulsing energy, however that manifests!

“It is widely believed that many Hallowe'en traditions have evolved from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain which was Christianised by the early Church. 

Pronounced sow-in, Samhain is a Gaelic word meaning 'end of the summer'. This festival is believed to have been a celebration of the end of the harvest, and a time of preparation for the coming winter. Samhain has been celebrated in Britain for centuries and has its origin in Pagan Celtic traditions. It was the time of year when the veils between this world and the Otherworld were believed to be at their thinnest: when the spirits of the dead could most readily mingle with the living once again. Later, when the festival was adopted by Christians, they celebrated it as All Hallows' Eve, followed by All Saints Day, though it still retained elements of remembering and honouring the dead.”https://adrianadellis.pages.dev/agsud-celtic-wheel-of-the-year-2025-fmlza/

Still in the conditioned mindset of walking ‘somewhere’ in those 10 mins, I stood in the clearing trying to decide which path to take. 

It’s not especially clear in this photo but there is a well worn path to the left through an arch in the shrubs, then to the right there is a sign posted path over a bridge out into the field. 

I’d been pondering on paths recently, both suggested and instinctively guided (that was originally where I thought this blog would go)

The bridge on the right hand path has three planks and in a previous blog had drawn me to the Buddhist principle of The Middle Way.

I then realised, or rather intuitively ‘felt’, which path. 

In fact it was neither, what I was being called to do was stop, to just be here, soaking up the strength and rootedness of the tree. 

Not moving or going anywhere but pausing, breathing and connecting with it all.

Life is complicated and we have a wonderful knack for complicating it further, the invitation this term is to keep it simple.

Moments of simplicity can feel magical, they have the power to ground and anchor us in the moment, absorbed by something very simple.

When it comes to our yoga practice, we can over complicate things, we might get on our mats and not do anything because we don’t know what to do or where to start. 

If you’ve attempted to delve into yoga philosophy it can feel so complicated that perhaps we don’t explore it further. 

I certainly feel like the more I learn the less I know! 

Ultimately I feel, at the risk of sounding reductionist, it comes down to experiencing one-ness and then that experience guiding us how to live our lives.

Yoga practices, in the form we’re familiar with in the West, were originally developed to help students find a way back to that simple truth. However, particularly here in the West, our lives have become so busy that we’ve got so distracted and so disconnected from that one-ness, that we’re focused on the practices rather than the simplicity beneath them.

In times of chaos I'm always drawn back to structure, in fact in Ayurveda it’s an essential principle especially during seasons of change such as Autumn.

For me that structure comes in the form of working with circadian rhythms: nature's cycles of day and night, the cycle of the moon and of the seasons, but I’m also drawn to the structure of Yoga Philosophy in the form of Patanjali’s ‘8 limbs of yoga’. 

1. YAMA - Restraints, moral disciplines or moral vows

2. NIYAMA - Positive duties or observances

3. ASANA - Posture

4. PRANAYAMA - Breathing Techniques

5. PRATYAHARA - Sense withdrawal

6. DHARANA - Focused Concentration

7. DHYANA - Meditative absorption 

8. SAMADHI - Bliss or Enlightenment

Many of us know the word  samadhi  as meaning 'bliss' or 'enlightenment', Breaking the word in half, we see that this final stage is made up of two words; 'sama' meaning 'same' or 'equal', and 'dhi' meaning 'to see'. There's a reason it's called  realization . It's because achieving Samadhi is not about escapism, floating away or being abundantly joyful; it's about  realizing  the very life that lies in front of us. The ability to 'see equally' and without disturbance from the mind, without our experience being conditioned by likes, dislikes or habits, without a need to judge or become attached to any particular aspect;  that  is bliss.- Emma Newlyn

Autumn shows us colour, movement and change, it reveals stark silhouettes of the trees, and allows us to see things differently.

All the images I connected with on the walk invited me to see things differently. (seeing through the holes in the leaf, seeing the tree as the middle way rather than following a path and the inverted image on the raindrop.)

To do that we pause, take time to let go of preconceived ideas and get ready to stir up our beliefs, open ourselves up to a different perspective or just to get out of our busy minds so that we can step back, get a better perspective and see things more clearly. 

Nothing remains fixed, it’s only our minds that like to stay fixed, to label ourselves and others a certain way. Autumn reminds us to let go and embrace change.

The theologian Meister Eckhart used the word  isticheit  meaning 'is-ness' as referring to the pure knowledge of seeing and realizing just 'what is', this stage is not about attaching to happiness or a sensation of 'bliss', but instead it's about seeing life and reality for exactly what it is, without our thoughts, emotions, likes, dislikes, pleasure and pain fluctuating and governing it. Not necessarily a state of feeling or being, or a fixed way of thinking; just pure 'I-am-ness'.

Like a gusty breeze sending colourful leaves swirling into the air before scattering them to the earth, this time of year can feel chaotic and colourful, but at some point we need to drop and land, let go and rest. 

So I invite you to light a candle tonight. 

Whisper gratitude for what's passing.

Then ask yourself  what am I ready to release? 

What can I lay down so that something new may grow?

It’s an invitation to slow down. 

To listen inwards.

To trust the beauty and purpose of letting go.

Take a moment to connect with loved ones that have passed and ask for love and protection to be sent to those who are suffering at this time.

Samhain prayer to ancestors:

This is the night when the gateway between

our world and the spirit world is thinnest.

Tonight is a night to call out those who came before.

Tonight I honour my ancestors.

Spirits of my fathers and mothers, I call to you,

and welcome you to join me for this night.

You watch over me always,

protecting and guiding me,

and tonight I thank you.

Your blood runs in my veins,

your spirit is in my heart,

your memories are in my soul.

With the gift of remembrance.

I remember all of you.

You are dead but never forgotten,

and you live on within me,

and within those who are yet to come.

I look forward to practicing with you this term and exploring simplicity and structure to gently find our way into the darkness of Autumn and Winter.

Om shanti

🍂🙏🍂

Sophia