Ibiza life coaching: End of season s-l-o-w down…

October is here, the closing parties are coming to an end and as the annual end-of-season rains give our dusty hot island a gorgeous cleanse, the green shoots soften the rust red fields and after being ‘on’ for so long…  its time to empty the monkey mind! 

If you are living here in Ibiza, have your last guests left the island? If you have been holidaying here, have you ticked off the ‘people to see, places to go, things I’ve just got to experience and be part of?’ part of your experience?

When we are ‘in’ the summer whirlwind, we can easily find ourselves overriding the body’s inner-signals to stop and rest. There is so much bubbling, effervescent energy in Ibiza that the island’s natural charge can carry you up and over a lot of sleep deprivation! Yet now autumn is upon us and our kidneys are asking for loving tender care. They are the organs that, according to Chinese Medicine, filter our anxieties and the neighboring adrenals, which can be overstimulated by too much thinking, too much getting on it or too much being ‘switched on’ to our devices and social networks – both face to face and via Facebook.

* As you feel the space clearing to offer you more time, can you create some healthy dates with yourself, where your only responsibility is you?

* What helps you relax and reconnect the most? Walking through pine-scented forests, or along a more tranquil Salinas beach? Indulge in that.

* Can you start to take more morning exercise again and work a jog or a cycle or swim or yoga class back into your daily rhythm?

* Eat adzuki beans in warm soups and veggie stews, drink dandelion tea and remove caffeine completely for a week, your kidneys and adrenal glands will love you for it.

* Complete your day by getting your legs up the wall (or knees bent over a chair) with some relaxing music on and, ideally, some calming essential oil in a burner. This is the restorative yoga pose: Viparita Karini, which will flush your organs with fresh, oxygenated blood as you bring your hands to your belly to encourage your system to breath deep.  Use a hot water bottle under the base of your spine to help your kidneys feel even more loved and your spine and nervous system can relax and realign.

Do what feels good… again, rather than what you feel you ought to: simple as it is, the greatest secret to recreating balance is to listen to yourself, tune out of the buzz of the world’s many stimulants and slow down enough to be able to hear what you need…