Time to Recalibrate with Nature 🌿
Finding Balance Between Ease and Effort as the Seasons Shift
Hello, hello!
Welcome to The Wednesday Pause—your midweek moment of reflection.
Happy Harvest Full Moon!
How’s your week going so far?
Perhaps it has been a whirlwind of appointments, tasks, and meetings, leaving you running from one thing to the next. Or maybe you're finding yourself in a quiet lull, where things feel a bit slower, whether that’s voluntary or forced.
Whatever your experience, it’s all valid.
The key is to pause, reflect, and be honest with yourself so that you can create pockets of space to balance that energy.
Have you been leaning more into effort or ease this week? How does that feel in your body, mind, and energy right now?
Balancing Ease and Effort
In yoga, we often talk about the balance between sukha (ease) and sthira (effort or steadiness).
These two principles are essential not just on the mat but in our daily lives as well.
Sukha is the quality of comfort, ease, and a sense of lightness, while sthira embodies steadiness, strength, and a sense of grounding.
Whether we’re talking about yoga postures or your life off the mat, there are days when sthira—the need for steadiness and resilience—is necessary to push through challenges. But equally important is sukha, finding moments of ease, gentleness, and self-compassion amidst the effort.
The dance between sukha and sthira is where we find harmony, both in our bodies and in our lives.
A Pause for Reflection
This next couple of days, I invite you to actively seek out both sukha and sthira in your daily routine.
Whether it’s allowing yourself a moment of rest when you need it or finding the strength to push through a challenging task, notice how these two qualities can coexist and support each other.
Take a moment each day to reflect on where you need more ease or more effort, and make a conscious choice to bring that balance into your life even if just 1% more than the day before.
Aligning with the Natural Cycles
We find ourselves in a powerful time in the natural world—the full moon, eclipse, and equinox— and this can be a chance to realign ourselves and regain balance.
I learned of the importance of constantly realigning with the natural cycles and my own as a result of living with the ups and downs of chronic illness, but I believe it can benefit many of us.
Harvest Full Moon & Lunar Eclipse 🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑
The full moon represents culmination and illumination, a time to shine our light, to acknowledge what we’ve accomplished in the last few weeks.
Coupled with an eclipse, this energy is amplified, offering a chance to shed old patterns and invite in new intentions.
Yesterday, I hosted a live class on Insight Timer to celebrate these two celestial events, and more than 100 folks joined in!
Thank you all for sharing your incredible energy. Community care matters.
Inner Circle Members have access to the Harvest Full Moon & Lunar Eclipse Practice full replay here.
Autumnal Equinox - A Moment of Equilibrium 🍂
The equinox, marking the balance between day and night, is a reminder of the importance of equilibrium in our lives.
Just as the Earth finds balance between light and dark, we too can use this time to recalibrate, ensuring that our own sukha and sthira are in harmony.
If you enjoyed the Harvest Full Moon Practice (or missed it) and would like to spend some time in community this week, here are my upcoming live events:
Wednesday 9 am EST (15:00 CET) - 2-Hour Cozy Productivity Session
Friday 9am EST (15:00 CET) - 2-Hour Cozy Productivity Session
Sunday 11 am EST (17:00 CET) - Equinox Gathering: Yoga for Balance
As Autumn arrives I find myself searching for more cozy spaces, both in the world and within myself.
Natural, cyclical events like Full Moons, Eclipses, and Equinoxes serve as gentle nudges to pause, offering us a moment to consider where we might need more ease or more effort, and how we can cultivate balance moving forward.
Balance is in each of us, and we all have a unique and ever-evolving recipe that like ourselves must shift, adapt, and grow with the cycles of nature and the seasons of life.
I hope you pause and create some time in the next couple of days to go outside and look at the bright Harvest Full Moon, to invoke the energy of the shifting seasons, and consider how you want to move into the next phase of your life.
Until we meet again pause often, breathe deeply, and be kind - especially to yourself.
Much love,
Laia.
What are you going to do to celebrate the changing seasons?