Meditation Is Seasonal... Here's Why

Meditation for me is a practice. A practice that moves in waves; that fluctuates and brings me exactly what I need at exactly the time my Soul is calling for it.

Recently, I have found my practice leading me into a place of deep prayer. I'm finding that my life seems to replicate the aura of a meditative practice; as I wake up in the morning I crave the presence of silence as I witness the Sun rise over the buildings; I long to feel the bliss of the quiet, morning air as I fold the laundry of the night before; I wake up excited to experience the serenity of a day before the world awakes.

I say meditation is seasonal because often we have this idea that our practice must be rigid. But I have come to learn that there is a stark difference between discipline and force. The former I see as synonymous to having an unwavering committment to oneself; within that comes the knowledge that the way this committment plays out is not stagnant. It will flow with us through life and vary through our seasons, our emotional waves, our life's circumstances and what we need. And, in truth, we seldom really ask ourselves in any given moment, what it is that we truly, honestly, need.

Since I began to accept the natural ebbs and flows of my meditation practice and how, when I let go of attachment to how my daily practice "should" look like, I feel like a flower that has been trying to bloom for so long, finally opening up to the unknown around her, trusting that the outside world will give me the nutrients that I need to continue to thrive. And that's what so much of it is about: releasing control to an idea that we have conceived in our head and watching as something else, perhaps uncomfortable, perhaps unexpected, blooms.

An example of this acceptance of change in my own life is the shift between August and September. During the month of August the desire to go DEEP in my meditation practice was fervent. I had this itching in my bones, from the moment I opened my eyes, to sink into a deep, meditative practice and witness what comes up. I was craving a sense of discomfort, to see where an hour of profundity could take me and I can safely say that I got everything I needed, and nothing that I'd anticipated.

This month, however, I've born witness to a new side of me: of integration. At first this was extremely uncomfortable; I racked my brain to try and comprehend why I wasn't feeling the depth of last month; grappling to understand why I didn't feel, deep down, the ignition of August that brought me to my mat for 45 minutes to an hour each day. Once I realised that I was not resisting my practice, the reality set in... I remembered that this, too, is an intrinsic part of my practice and where I am being lead.

And so much has come through for me during this time, the moment that I surrendered to what is right now. September is the 9th month of the year; in numerology, the number 9 is significant of renewal, rebirth, transformation, doors closing and new beginnings. I have been embracing this period of integration and trusting fully in the process. It's enabled me to awake with excitement; to make my morning elixirs and place them on my windowsill as the energy of the morning Sun embeds itself into their nutrients; to meditate with my eyes open and experience gratitude with every step that I take as I walk through my morning; it's enabled me to understand that meditation is seasonal, and so much more than sitting, eyes closed, hours on end, just because that's what it ought to look like.

These moments of sheer presence are meditation. My life is a meditation. Meditation is truly not constricted to what you do on the mat, but is reflected in the integration process that happens in your daily life. And that is what I'm experiencing in the very crux of my morning practice, now.

Ultimately, meditation is a Human construct designed to connect us deeper with our Souls. Perhaps the goal, after all of this practice, is, in fact, to be able to bring it into our lives, to the point where we no longer need the practice, because our life is a pure embodiment of it, and we are able to embrace present moment for what it is, as we are.

So if your practice is in the midst of an ebb or flow; if you're unsure of where it's leading you; if you are in the middle of a seasonal shift, allow your meditation practice to guide you. Be open to surprise and try your very best to relinquish the judgement that may come when you arrive at your destination. This is where your practice truly happens. This is where it is up to you - to put your learnings from your practice, into practice.

Love, blessings and light, Claudia.