I sat at the beach on Thursday on a blanket reading my book. For the first hour the sun beat down on my shoulders and I was hot. My right shoulder itches when I get too much sun. Then the breeze picked up, wind actually, and that was it. Summer was gone. By the end of the next hour, I was chilly biking home. Bye summer 2020. I felt the shift.

When I take a yoga class, I normally spend the first 5-10 minutes distracted. I have an internal commentary about everything. I wonder if I should have just picked up the dry cleaning and gone out for coffee. Then there is a shift. It occurs around the second sun salutation for those that are familiar. My brain settles to the task at hand and there is no more wondering what time it is or feeling like I should be elsewhere. My husband describes the same thing running and cycling. The first mile or two he is getting things sorted out, the breathing and the pace, and then he feels a shift. All the chatter fades away and he is just in motion.

The moments before the shift can drive you mad. Barriers and doubts come in all shapes and sizes and can be mental, physical and emotional. Questions and doubt tend to linger. I know that for some of the biggest decisions in my life there was the turmoil in my heart and often in my gut. But when you can be patient, there will be a shift, and all of the sudden the answer or the best plan of action will reveal itself.

When I practice and teach yoga, I refer to it sometimes as Shape Shifting. In these yoga forms, the slightest shift of weight from the inside of your foot to the outside of your foot can be the difference between balancing tall or falling over. The slightest shift of weight in your hands might could protect your shoulder and allow you to develop deeper strength and resiliency. I like to think that practicing with this mindset allows our brains to become more sensitive to the subtleties, both in the physical body and in an energetic sense.

Perhaps then we become keener at noticing the shifts in our everyday life? Noticing the right moment to say something, sensing it is time to step up, time to pack it up, time to kiss summer good bye.

May the shift into Autumn bring beauty and peace. The invitations to shape shift below.