5 Autumn Meditations to Lighten Up Your Mood

As autumn turns to winter, do you feel a grey cloud hanging over you and a sense of dread at the onset of the shorter, darker, cooler days? If so, help is at hand to fight off those winter blues and avoid descending into the winter slump. In this article I’ll outline 5 Seasonal Yoga inspired meditations and mindfulness practices that will lighten up your mood and bring sunshine into the darkest of winter days.

1. Invite the Sun to Power Your Yoga Practice. Introducing images of the sun into a yoga session is uplifting, empowering and expands your sense of what is possible. At the start of your yoga practice, spend some time either lying or sitting and picture the sun in the sky. Feel the warmth of the sun. Next, imagine the sun within your own body, at the solar plexus, radiating warmth and healing light all around your body. Then, as you do your yoga practice, keep bringing your awareness back to this part of the body and visualize a sun radiating warmth and light there.
2. Mindfully Plant Spring Flowering Bulbs. Although the autumn-winter season is not a good time for action, however, it’s a great time for incubating plans for next growing season. You can either mindfully plant the bulbs outside in the soil, or inside in a pot. As you place your bulb in the soil, imagine all the wonderful things that you wish to grow more of in your life, such as love, courage, and self-compassion. Or picture a project that you’ll be incubating over winter and imagine it sending up green shoots and blossoming next spring. Remember, that you, like the bulb in the soil, can use this autumn-winter period to put down strong roots; to find rest and renewal; and to incubate ideas which will come to fruition next spring and summer.
3. Smiling Meditation... 
   

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