The Power of One: A New Moon in Virgo Practice for Deep Self-Care. 7 Small Steps to Reset, Refine & Set Your Intention
There's Power in One: Why the Smallest Seed Creates the Biggest Change
There is great POWER in ONE. There is GREAT power in SMALL.
Tomorrow’s New Moon in Virgo gives us a very important message:
The smallest changes are the most meaningful.
Choosing to plant ONE seed invokes the forest or the garden in depth and breadth.
Choosing that one small seed with discernment instead of as the arrow of perfection sets us up to be more of the all we are.
Every New Moon, I do SOMETHING to support my dreams, my work, my everything. Over the years, I’ve been inspired by my Coach Jacqueline Gates and by Moon Omens to savor this Dark Moon (today—change your bed linens!) with deep self care.
I’m told that the sky is rich right now with multiple bodies supporting our efforts to release, reset, and begin fresh.
So, here, I’m sharing my preparation, my practice of seven (7) steps to welcome the New Moon in Virgo. I invite you to make it your own!
Clear Your Physical Space: Make Room for What's Coming
Clear a physical space, any space—could be a corner of a room or a corner of desk or a shelf. Create room for what’s coming, known and not known. Virgo encourages us to simplify, declutter, reorganize our outer and inner selves. THIS space is for you to do as feels right to you. YOU decide what is clutter, what is reorganized, what is simplified.
And leave some space in this space for the new.
Give your full attention to this place you’re working with. Be deliberate and intentional in asking, “Does this belong in the life I’m creating right now?” “OLD” does NOT mean it needs to go. The question is does it fit you right here right now and/or where you’re going?
As you place the things you choose in this place, plant this seed in your mind (because we’ll come back to it!): What small change could I make in my every day life that will support what I’m creating, that will make my life feel more intentional?
Clear Your Inner Environment: Practicing Energy Hygiene
Clear your inner environment. Do some “energy hygiene.” Ayurveda believes that everything we see, hear, eat, drink…becomes part of who we are. We digest everything and it is, then in our cells. So, what you watch and listen to in the morning and at night becomes…you. What are you watching/reading/listening to that NOURISHES you? What are you watching/reading/listening to that undermines you, sucks your energy away from you? leaves you feeling flat and tired?
Do you start your day with coffee? What if you drank a cup of warm lemon and lime water before you consume anything else as a way of cleansing? What if—before you even do that—you scrape (NOT brush) your tongue of all the gunk that settles there while you sleep and your body-mind-spirit processes everything from your day?
What one thing might you do morning, noon or night between now and the next New Moon that would set you on a trajectory more aligned with how you want to feel?
Tend to Your Sacred Fire: Reconnect With What Deserves Your Devotion
Tend to your Sacred Fire.
Virgo is the sign of the Vestal Virgins, the keepers of the sacred fire in ancient Rome. Remind yourself to remember what fire in you deserves your devotion. Remind yourself to remember that our daily life IS our practice.
It’s not an accident and it’s not by chance: The sacred survives and thrives because someone takes care of it, someone tends the fire, the spark.
What spark in YOU do you want to focus on right here right now? What spark in you feels sacred right now?
Where do you feel you’ve perhaps lost a spark that was meaningful to you? Do you want focus on this spark or another?
What ONE teeny tiny thing can you do every day that feeds this beautiful spark in you?
Choose One Thing to Refine (Not Everything to Change)
Choose one thing to refine
I’m aware that I have been misunderstanding Virgo for a long time. What I knew was really the shadow of Virgo, examples of when Virgo gets overplayed, overdone, lost in her own quests for perfection.
What I’m learning is that Virgo is as much an advocate as I am for not changing every single thing about every single thing. We’re not seeking to change in monumental ways. We need, instead, to let things breathe, like wine. We need to shift and parry in little amounts. We’re refining, not throwing everything away.
I can ALWAYS refine. Because “refining” means I’m responding to what’s in and around me.
The life we love (and deserve) is built through what we repeatedly do. The smallest changes become the meaningful ones. And the smallest changes are the ones that we are able to do repeatedly. So we set ourself up for success when we choose ONE SMALL THING.
Will Durant wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit.”
What ONE teeny tiny thing will you do every day to shift yourself in the direction you want to go, to be? Let your physical space that you’re arranging be a metaphor for the one thing in you around you about you that you choose to refine…and then let yourself do every day this lunar cycle the one teeny tiny thing that lets you see: You ARE who you say you want to be.
Deliberately. Intentionally.
Listen to Your Body: The Place Where Your Whole Life Has Happened
Listen to your body.
“Our body is the place where our entire life has happened.” (Nina at Moon Omens)
As a yoga student and then as a yoga teacher, I’ve been (or have myself) encouraged, exhorted 10 million times to listen to my body. Until you FEEL your body, you can’t know what this means. You THINK you’re listening to your body when you’re forcing yourself into a twist that does not fit your body. You THINK you’re listening to your body when you push just a little more to get your nose to the floor.
You are not. (I know this because for the first 15 years that I practiced and taught yoga, my practice was in my head, in where I wanted to be, in how I wanted to be…and not where I actually felt. This is how I got injured so often.)
Listening to your body teaches you to trust yourself. Ask your body as you consider which of your intentions to choose. Your body will tell you which one is a better choice for you right here right now.
Find Your Right Measure: What Nourishes You, and When Is Enough?
Find your Right Measure
The same herb can heal and it can kill. It depends on the amount administered. As you’re selecting your intention for this month, listen to your body and discern: what nourishes you and when is enough?
Plant Your New Moon Seed: Trust the Process, Trust Yourself
Plant Your New Moon Seed
Choose one thing. Write your intention. Plant a seed as a metaphor for your one thing. When you cover it with dirt, remind yourself to remember that there won’t be immediate proof; that the darkness and the elements work on the seed to coax it out into the dirt to sprout, to grow, to flourish…just like your intention…just like you.
Trust the process. Trust yourself.
Set Your Intention: A Simple New Moon Reflection to Complete
And now I invite you to summarize what you’ve explored, discovered and chosen so that you may set your intention and sit with it for a bit.
During this lunar cycle, I am devoted to (what’s your choice?) ……….
I will nurture this intention by (what one thing will you do each day to guard this sacred fire? ………
I will create space for it by (what one thing will you release/do daily to make space? This can literally be anything done with the intention to release/make space—dishes, laundry, listening to Himalayan bowls, walking)…………
My first small step is……………
Finally,
Celebrate You
Celebrate your work, your commitment, your desire…Celebrate YOU!
New Moon (and Always) Blessings,
