The days are growing longer now, as we make our way closer to the Summer Solstice. Place your bare feet on the Earth outside this month, and feel the energy of her vitality. Gardens, plants, food, sensuality, and healing are the energies of Iyar, aka Taurus, the bull. Getting out in nature, on a hike, in a garden, or just simply going for a walk outside; it’s easy to connect with the vitality of living things all around us.
Pleasure and healing happen in the here and now. A wonderful way to ground ourselves in the present moment is through connecting with our 5 senses. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed, stamp your feet on the ground a couple of times, take a deep breath, and ask yourself:
What 5 things can I see with my eyes?
What 4 things can I feel with my sense of touch?
What 3 things can I hear with my ears?
What 2 things can I smell with my nose?
What 1 thing can I taste with my tongue?
Take a deep breath and stamp your feet on the ground once more. The sensations of your feet hitting the ground help bring your awareness further into your body, here and now.
How do you feel?
You don’t need to answer yourself in words. Just asking the question puts you in a receptive, listening frame of mind that pulls you into the present.
Our bodies are always in the present moment. It is only our minds that take our awareness to memories of the past or imaginings of the future. Ask yourself throughout the day: Where am I? Then connect with your breath and feel the answer in the sensations of the here and now.
What can you perceive and receive in this moment?
Lag B’Omer, the Hebrew holiday of Iyar, is all about reception. The Omer is the period of counting the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot. Lag B’Omer is the 33rd day of that counting, which commemorates the death of the great sage Shimon Bar Yochai. Rabbi Shimon lived in the 2nd century CE, and revealed great secrets of nature, life, human beings, and the cosmos. This wisdom was later written down as the Zohar, the main text of Kabbalah, which literally means “to receive”. The Kabbalistic Tree of Life is made up of 10 aspects, called sefirot, that correspond to the body, mind, and soul of a human being. These sefirot closely resemble the more well known Indian chakra system as follows:
Crown: Keter
Brow: Chochmah and Binah
Throat: Chesed and Gevurah
Heart: Tiferet
Solar Plexus: Netzach and Hod
Sacral: Yesod
Root: Malchut
While we may all be eternal souls, the most powerful place to be is right here in our bodies. If you feel yourself drifting away into past and future, you can come back to the present moment with a deep breath. Then tug on your ears. Believe it or not, massaging your ears is really good for you, and it feels really good too! Try to rub all the different parts of your ears between your thumb and fore finger. If you are unsure how to do this, just follow your body’s cues: if it feels good, keep doing it. If it feels painful or uncomfortable, stop. Savoring these simple pleasures in our bodies brings our awareness into the present moment, bringing a bit of Heaven down to Earth.
And we could all use more of that!
Energies of the Month
Element: Wood
Organ: Liver/Gallbladder
Emotion: Anger
Acupressure: Ear massage
Mazal/Sign: Iyar/Taurus (Fixed Earth)
Hebrew Holiday: Lag B’Omer
Important Dates
New Moon of Iyar/Taurus: April 30
Full Moon of Iyar/Taurus: May 16
Lag B'Omer: May 18-19
New Moon of Sivan/Gemini: May 30
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