Retreat & Reflection -Stepping Into Intentional Living

~Are you tired of feeling like you're juggling too many balls over your head?

~Are you longing for some rhyme and reason, some wisdom to your daily live?

~Are you ready to plan your schedule with a deeper sense of intuition, a connection to something larger than yourself? For many years now I've been living my life with more and more awareness of the phases of the moon and how they affects my life, my decisions, and my body. I've joined women's new moon circles, facilitated my own, and begun to teach my 5 year-old daughter about how the phases impact our life. This October marks a turning point in my life that I've been trying to get to for a long time.

At the end of September I sat down with my scheduling calendar, the phases of the moon for the next two months, and some information about how where the moon is impacts out moods, our actions, and our energy.

This is the site I used if you'd like to do this yourself:

http://www.lestout.com/article/religion-spirituality/spiritual-journeys/the-phases-of-the-moon-how-they-apply-to-your-life.html

Both October and November begin with the three days leading up to the new moon, which I use as a time to turn inwards, to reflect, organize, sort things out, and evaluate. These three days lead up to the dark of the New Moon which is the time for me to set goals for the next lunar month, to focus on what I want to accomplish, and to examine and gently release anything that I'm carrying or holding that might block me from my goals for the month.

The first few days of this October (the three days before the New Moon in Libra) I started a fall cleanse (drinking only fluids for three days), began eating in a way that makes my body feel much better (the Primal Blueprint: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/), cleaned and organized my bedroom, closet and desk-space (also buying some new lamps to brighten up my room as the sunlight fades each day), hired an assistant to help me organize my files and record-keeping systems, and started to journal deeper into the issue that I'm releasing this month.

On the third day of my cleanse and the day before the New Moon in Libra, two of my mama friends and I spent the whole morning at the Russian- Turkish Baths in the East Village. Wednesday mornings are women-only, and as we changed out of our clothes and put on our robes to descend to the no-frills bath house below us, I began to relax into the space held by the women. Most were Russian, many older, in all shapes, sizes and colors of bodies. It's a space without vanity, a space to breathe deeply in, exhale, sweat, not worry about how you looked or what the woman next to you look like. My friends and I stretched ourselves out in the first room (a redwood sauna) and began to relax into the heat. I mentioned that I was using this morning to release from every pore of my body, every cell, my fears around money and the ways they were holding me back. As I spoke the words and breathed in heat, I could feel something in my chest loosen ever so slightly. I breathed more deeply and started to imagine my cells opening up, all the cells that held my belief systems about money, just opening and slowly beginning to unclench.

One of my treats at the baths is a seaweed and sea salt scrub from an older Russian woman named Rosa. After I had gone into the room that we call the 7th Level of Hell (I think it's at least 187 degrees-really - your eyeballs and ears start to burn and as soon as you get in there sweat just comes running out of your body, so I always go in there right before my scrub), I climbed on Rosa's table. She does equal parts scrub and massage and she's old-school Russian - no qualms or shyness here. She's the only person who has scrubbed my armpits since I was about 3 years old, probably. She also washes and conditions your hair, and as I was getting scrubbed, rubbed and washed by her I could feel a release of tension and stagnant energy that had something to do with the work I had been doing. But it also really had something to do with my love for this woman whose hands were caring for my body, the community of women in my life who care for me and support me, who call me out on my issues, who help me care for my kid and my self, who make it clear in so many different, beautiful ways that they love me. The women in my life are part of the foundation of the work I do, part of the solid ground under me. And on that table under the ministering of this woman's hands, I felt the fear, I felt the block of the money issue just begin to melt until I had trouble even finding it in my mind. It's like it was replaced with new content - the new programs, new beliefs that I had spent the last 3 days uncovering and forming. The shift had happened. The next day was New Moon in Libra, the start of a new lunar month. Do you know much about the characteristics of Libra?

"(Libra) is ruled by Venus, planet of love, beauty, and harmony and the focus is on relationships, your physical presentation, aesthetic surroundings, balance, money, giving and receiving, creativity, and love...and Saturn (authority, structure, manifesting) requires that you be responsible for your decisions, as well as the structures that you create, and because it's in Libra (peace, balance, harmony), your relationships will mirror back to you what you are actually projecting into the world. This is the time for inquiry and course correction - empowerment is the ability to make use of whatever comes your way for your highest good!"

-from the amazing astrologist Lisa Zimmerman. For the whole New Moon report (I print it out and hang it from my desk every month), go to:

http://www.soullevelsolutions.com/category/current-astro-events/

Because of my new lunar schedule, for this New Moon in Libra, this is how I started my month:

*My space is clean, organized, and brightly lit.

*My body is clean, light, energized, and healthy.

*My work is prioritized, organized, and focused.

*My heart and soul feel supported and loved.

*My calendar is organized, color-coded (I LOVE color-coding!), and planned out for the next two months

*And best of all, I know that I have scheduled space for next month in which to dedicate to another Reflect and Retreat space, before the next new moon.

Much love and light, Britt

"We do not create every circumstance we experience, but we do create our experience of every circumstance we are in. We all have a response-ability." ~ Mary Manin Morrissey

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