FOLLOW THE MOON.
THE FIRST FULL MOON OF 2022
On 17 January, the first full moon of 2022 will lighten up the skies and stay illuminated for around three days. In Europe it will reach its peak on 18 January at 00:49. The first full moon of the year is referred to as the Wolf Moon. It got its name passed down from the Native American tribes based on the season when wolves were more often heard howling outside villages during winter snows.
The full moon is a window of high energy. It increases your sensitivity, which can mean you feel more emotional than usual around this time. Many people have difficulty sleeping and have more intense dreams on nights when the moon is full.
This full moon in Cancer is filled with opportunities to help you sort through and release your emotional baggage and bring some serious deep-cleansing to your psyche. Similar to all full moons, it is time to take a pause, turn inward and reflect. The monthly full moon is prime for contemplation, as often the days around it are robust with change, insights, epiphanies and decisions.
With the energy of Cancer, the full moon encourages us to delve into our feelings, self nurture, work with our inner child and learn to create the emotional safety needed to operate at our full potential. It’s time to nurture yourself the way you’ve always wanted to be cared for.
Made of Oceans • Fine Art Print
Yoga AND JOURNALING
The full moon energy corresponds to the end of inhalation when the life force is greatest. Take a deep breath in, hold it, and feel the prana (energy) in your body. This is an expansive, upward moving force that makes us feel energetic and emotional, but not well grounded. During the full moon we tend to be more headstrong. The Ashtanga yoga tradition recommends honoring this natural moon cycle by abstaining from practice on the days of the full and new moon.
The full moon period is a vital process in manifestation because it creates space for fresh ideas, people and experiences to come into our lives and releases any wasted energy we’ve been holding on to. The full moon is in its most strong and powerful phase. This is the time to lit some candles and take your notebooks and pens out of your drawers.
On one page write down 5 things that you are grateful about, the things that you have received and learned, and all the ways you have experienced abundance.
On a separate page write down 5 things that no longer serve you and you want to leave behind. After you are done, tear this page out your notebook and with the full moon in sight, safely burn the page and
r e l e a s e .
🔥
Journaling is also a wonderful way to make sense of what’s showing up for you right now and choose your intentions. Write freely. Allow anything and everything to pour out of you. Resist the urge to censor yourself.
A few inquiries you could use to journal on:
What needs to be released?
What needs to be illuminated?
What am I celebrating this moon?
THE MOON CYCLES
A women’s menstrual cycle is often called a moon cycle due to its sync with the moon. An average moon cycle lasts around 29 days, just like the average time it takes a woman to complete a whole cycle. Before artificial light, endocrine disrupting diets (processed foods) and the rise of hormonal birth control, most women would experience their period together on the New Moon and would ovulate at the Full Moon. This cycle is our default setting and, until recently, it is what controlled our cycles of rest, work, creativity, and play.
In ancient times, a woman’s cycle was honored and celebrated, while her bleeding phase was ritualized. Women of all ages came together in sacred circles and moon lodges. Getting your moon (period) was seen as a beautiful gift. Women around the world today see their period as a hassle, a burden, and sometimes even a curse. Their sacred cycle has been belittled to no more than a means to reproduce.
But the energy is beginning to shift. Women are starting to fully awaken to the fierce power of their bodies and reclaim the magic of their moon. She is rising. For the men reading this, this is an invite to support the move against the patriarchy that made something that was once seen as beautiful and pure into something stigmatised and seen as taboo.
“As we become in tune with our natural cycles in the universe, we honour the rhythms of nature to live in greater harmony with it.”
When we can learn to live in alignment with these phases, we can truly start to flourish. Dear ladies, by learning about your sacred cycles, you can illuminate the essence of what it means to be a woman. Bleeding is both beautiful and sacred. It’s emotional and liberating. It’s power, and it’s magic. And it’s time we reclaim it.
SEE YOU ON THE MAT
Connect with Nature, to yourself and the community. These encounters are important, now more than ever. Register for the Spring Healing Yoga Journey, the Weekly Healing Yoga Classes or a 1:1 practice.
Namaste.
🙏🏻