Mindful Living: A Connection of Mind, Body and Spirit
As we journey through the wheel of the year, we are going to connect that journey to our mindfulness practice. Our goal will be to explore ways that mindfulness and meditation can be woven into both our daily and magickal practices.
This turn of the wheel brings us to Ostara and the astrological sign of Aries. Together they represent newness and potential that is shown to us by the sprouts, blossoms and buds that being to awaken. Aries lends a drive and determination to the atmosphere that encourages moving forward and reviewing our goals, resolutions and plans.
Our mindfulness practice makes us aware of the shifts in energy as the Northern Hemisphere awakens with springs eagerness of life, love and potential. Many of us experience a drive to get outside and surround ourselves with fresh air and sounds of our environment. For some of us we will walk through the woods and feel the life returning. Others crave a walk dawn a crowded city street and feel the shift in the pulse and buzz of the foot traffic and vehicles.
A crave to reconnect with the world around us after the long winter months of being hunkered down in our homes and workplaces is perfectly normal to the ancient instincts that reside within us. Being aware of the cycles and seasons to the world around us and how our personal habits ebb and flow with seasonal changes is another form of mindfulness and self-care.
Journaling about your connection with the environment around you and your seasonal connection to it can be as simple or detailed as you are comfortable with. I recommend noting the season, weather, date, mood, whether you want to be indoors or out, with people or without and what you most feel like doing. This can be done before or after a meditation session, part of your evening self-care routine or as a reflection during an esbat or sabbat ritual.
Whatever frequency and detail work for you is what you should use in this exercise. The reason for this exercise is to be able to look back over time and track trends in your personality that correlate to the wheel of the year. A pattern will emerge on when you most want to be outside, socialize, productivity, etc. This mindful awareness will allow you to more understand your connection to the universe around you. When you deepen this understanding, you can deepen your life, dreams and your magic.
Spring season is often associated with planting. While planting is a necessary part of human life and many of us are drawn to gardens and plants, I know plenty of folk who rely on their green thumb friends and the local market for those needs. Planting is not just about the physical act with root and bulb, but a broader subject that can be used to describe what we wish to do with our goals, plans and energies.
At this time of the year, many people are sorting out summer schedules for faires, festivals and vacations. Ritual schedules are being planned and forwarded to groups to mark their calendars. Project deadlines have been passed down to meet deadlines. Each of these are examples of planting seeds for your future goals, ideas, resolutions and dreams.
When you plant these seeds, you are using energy to set intentions for the way you wish your year to go. How you wish to focus your time, energy and money. The more you are aware of your needs as an individual the easier it is to look at these future endeavors with a mindfulness to whether they are filling a necessity, want or need that will align with your body, mind and spirit.
Most of us have grown up doing spring cleaning. As you open windows to allow fresh air and ideas to freshen infuse you and your home there are things that you can do to intertwine your daily life with your mindfulness, meditation, spiritual and magical practices to further align your mind, body and spirit with your environment.
Seasonal color is one of the easiest ways to infuse our environment. The colors most associated with Spring are green, blue and pink. Infusing your home with these colors can be as simple as getting candles for your sacred and relaxing space in those colors to having sheets on your bed in these colors or throw pillows or curtains in your home with this theme.
Colors symbolize different ideas and have effects on the energy of our mind, body, spirit and environment. Each color is also associated with positive and negative aspects.
Green symbolizes harmony, safety, growth and health. Green effects energy to revitalize, balance, relax and encourage. The positive aspects of green are generosity, hope, prosperity and lucky. The negative aspects of green are judgmental, envy, materialism and inexperience.
Pink symbolizes compassion, love, femininity and playfulness. Pink effects energy to sympathize, calm, nurture and comfort. The positive aspects of pink are kindness, warmth, romance and intuition. Negative aspects of pink are emotional, timid, immature and unconfident.
Blue symbolizes security, trust, loyalty and responsibility. Blue effects energy to protect, calm, relax and support. Positive aspects of blue are confidence, peace, honesty and reliability. Negative aspects of blue are conservative, passive, depressed and predictable.
Spring is correlated with nature, growth and rebirth. For our garden loving friends: crocus are the first flowers of spring for many of us, as are clove, daffodil and tulips. Having potted, fresh or silk in your home or garden is a wonderful way to infuse reminders to stop and smell the flowers; allowing yourself to take mindfulness moments to reconnect with yourself.
Clover symbolizes good luck, prosperity and inner strength. The blossoms symbolize gentleness, subtlety and purity. Metaphysically clover flowers symbolize calm inner strength and innate prosperity consciousness. Folklore shows a long history of clover symbolizing love and marriage as well as being used in magic and divination to foresee and attract romance, marriage and love. Most people are familiar with the lore surrounding a 4-leaf clover, however there is lore from Wales that states if a 2 leaved clover is found and put under the pillow it would reveal a future lover through prophetic dreams. This makes clover a wonderful plant to have in your office, money drawing corner, bedroom or meditation space if you wish to have a physical reminder of what you wish to manifest and draw to your life. The physical plant would also be a great visual point during meditation for these purposes.
Daffodils symbolize hope, new beginnings, rebirth and prosperity. The Victorian language of daffodils spoke of unrequited love, chivalry, sunshine, prosperity and respect. When you are outside of the home and note daffodils springing forth this would be an excellent day to review your goals or begin plans, dreams or a practice that you have been putting off.
Crocus are the flowers we get very excited for each year. They are lovely shade of purple that often nestles among a last frost or the first blades of grass in the spring. Crocus represents passionate love, divine alchemy, spirituality, mystery, magic, success, pride and dignity. They are the first sign for us to stop what we are doing and honor the wheel is turning and rebirth and promise is here. This is a wonderful time to meditate or do divination for the coming time as well as a thank you for surviving the winter to be present for the bounty of spring.
Tulips have enthralled the world for centuries. They have traveled from Turkey to Amsterdam to the United States and most countries of the world. This indicates adaptability as well as symbolizing deep unconditional love, rebirth and new beginnings. If you have difficulty with change or a new situation that you find yourself in meditate upon the tulip and journal to connect to the Universe and your innate wisdom for ways to be adaptable to move forward with the plans and situations in your life.
Crystal, gemstone and jewelry lovers may wish to surround themselves with aquamarine, amethyst and rose quartz. Crystals may be worn, carried or placed in your environment to enhance the energy and align with your intentions.
Aquamarine also aligns with the sign of Aries (as does the spring season), Gemini and Pisces. This crystal ranges in color from light blue to green. Aquamarine helps you access stored information to achieve a perfection in body. This allows aquamarine to aid in healing, physical rehab and training. Meditating with aquamarine will help you access truth and inspiration. As a stone of courage it can aide you in moving through personal fears to the plans and dreams that you have for yourself.
During energy sessions it provides shielding to the aura and subtle bodies, stimulating and cleansing the throat chakra, attuning to more spiritual levels of awareness and enhanced connection with the higher self. The crystalline structure also allows one to access how you are to be of service to the world making it a wonderful stone to meditate with or wear when finding or working on your personal path.
Amethyst aligns with the astrological signs of Pisces, Virgo, Aquarius and Capricorn. It is a variety of quartz that ranges from deep purple to lavender. It represents spirituality and contentment as well as the principles of complete metamorphosis.
An excellent meditation stone it conducts calm and peaceful energy which allows one to more easily enter and maintain this state as well as opening and activating the crown chakra. It balances the mind, body and spirit to provide a clear connection between you and Universe. During healing sessions, it clears and stabilizes the aura and restores the feeling of Universal peace that is present within each of us from the time of birth. This is an excellent stone to place in your office and place where you tackle your responsibilities and make many of your decisions. This is a wonderful stone to make a permanent part of your meditation, spiritual or magickal practice.
Rose quartz aligns with the astrological signs of Taurus and Libra and is a soft pink in color. This stone works with all the chakras to remove negativity and realign you with love in all forms (self-love and Universal love). Aside from realigning your body, mind and spirit with love rose quartz balances the yin yang and realigns the energy of your chakras.
For those that have a stressful or chaotic job having a bowl of tumbled crystals or chips to run your hands through or a piece of rose quartz in your meditation space will aid you in decompressing and restoring harmony. This is an excellent stone to aid in healing emotional wounds.
Spring is a wonderful time to focus on:
How do you want to be?
What are your needs during this season?
How do you want to celebrate this cycle of life?
What does this turn of the wheel mean to you?
After you have decided on the goals that align with your mindfulness lifestyle you can incorporate mantras into your meditation practice. A mantra can be repeated during a meditation cycle. These are often useful to help focus on an ideal that one is working on within their self or to help quiet the monkey mind.
Suggested mantras are:
I practice intentional joy
I live a life of purpose
My life purpose is …
I give myself permission to create
I give myself permission to feel …
I am love
OM
Om Mani Padme Hum (The jewel is in the lotus). This mantra is believed to hold all of Buddha’s teachings.
Remember mindfulness is a journey of you. A way to deepen your awareness and connection to your body, mind and spirit. This deeper connection allows you to connect more deeply to the Universe. I believe that these are the keys to making both our lives and the world around us better. True connection to self must happen for us to have the truest connections to others. Each day is a new opportunity to practice mindfulness and connection.
Blessings,
Irisa
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About the Author:
Irisa MacKenzie joined PaganPages.org in 2022 writing the Mindful Living: A Connection of Body, Mind and Spirit column and book reviews. Irisa has taught meditation and mindfulness for 25 years. Her blog irisamackenzie.org continues her discussions on mindfulness, meditation and living a purpose driven life. The Esty shop Viking Woman Creations has products to support meditation, mindfulness and magic that support our body, mind and spirit connection to the Universe. This is a small woman owned new business that will be growing over the coming years.
