Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash
“Your body is precious. It is your vehicle for awakening.
Treat it with care.”
~~ Buddha
Greetings to all my precious people!!
November has arrived. The trees are bare. The leaves have fallen. Nature shows us clearly: this is the season of letting go.
We are in Metal season now – autumn in Chinese Medicine, the element that governs release, refinement, and the grief that clears the way for new growth. Metal asks us to examine what we’re holding onto and why. To distinguish between what’s essential and what has simply accumulated.
But this is not about productivity. This is not about organizing your life into neat boxes.
This is about something far more sacred: returning to your original vessel.
The body you arrived with. The one that knew how to breathe, how to feel, how to trust its own rhythms before you were taught to ignore it, override it, perform through it.
Homecoming begins here – in the body. In the physical space you inhabit.
The Body as Sacred Vessel
In every wisdom tradition – Buddhist, Daoist, Indigenous, Celtic – the body is understood as sacred. Not as a problem to fix or a machine to optimize, but as the vehicle through which spirit moves in this world.
The Buddha taught: “Your body is precious. It is your vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care.”
In Daoist philosophy, the body houses the Three Treasures: Jing (essence), Qi (life force), and Shen (spirit). To cultivate these is to honor the sacredness of embodiment.
Indigenous traditions worldwide speak of the body as belonging to the Earth – literally made from her elements, eventually returning to her soil. We are not separate from nature; we ARE nature.
Celtic wisdom recognizes the body as a threshold place – where the material and spiritual worlds meet. Where the sacred becomes tangible.
And yet – somewhere along the way, we forgot this.
We learned to see our bodies as:
- Objects to be judged
- Machines to be productive
- Problems to be solved
- Enemies to be controlled
We learned to ignore our body’s signals – hunger, exhaustion, pain, pleasure, intuition. We learned to override its wisdom in service of productivity, perfectionism, or others’ needs.
By midlife, many of us are living at war with our own bodies.
And the body – patient, persistent, wise – keeps trying to bring us home. Through pain. Through illness. Through the exhaustion that says “Stop. Come back. Remember who you are.”
Metal Season’s Invitation: Clear to Reveal
Metal season asks: What has accumulated OVER your original self?
Not just physical clutter (though that’s part of it). But the layers of conditioning, trauma, expectation, performance that have built up over decades until you can barely remember what was underneath.
In Chinese Medicine, Metal governs the Lungs (breath, the first and last thing we do in this body) and the Large Intestine (elimination, release, boundaries about what stays and what goes).
Metal’s work is to REFINE. To clear away what’s not essential so the pure gold remains.
Gold ore doesn’t need to become gold – it already IS gold. But it needs the dross cleared away to shine.
You don’t need to become something you’re not. You need to clear away what’s covering who you’ve always been.
This is why homecoming starts with physical space. Because your environment reflects your inner landscape. The clutter in your home is often the clutter in your heart, your mind, your soul.
When you clear external space, you create room for internal remembering.
This Week’s Practice: Sacred Clearing Ritual
This is not Marie Kondo. This is not “get organized so you can be more productive.”
This is a ritual of honoring your body as sacred vessel by creating sacred space around it.
What you’ll need:
- One hour of uninterrupted time
- A space in your home that feels heavy or cluttered
- A candle
- Sage, palo santo, or incense (optional)
- Your journal
Part 1: The Invocation (5 minutes)
Before you touch anything, sit in the cluttered space. Light your candle.
Place your hand on your heart and say:
“My body is the original vessel I arrived with.
It is sacred. It is precious. It is my vehicle for awakening.
I honor it by creating space around it.
I honor it by releasing what no longer serves.
I clear this space as an act of devotion – to my body, to my spirit, to the life force that moves through me.”
Take three deep breaths. Feel your body – this miraculous vessel that has carried you through everything.
Part 2: The Inquiry (10 minutes)
Before clearing anything, ask yourself:
“What is this clutter protecting me from feeling?”
Are you avoiding grief by keeping your mother’s things?
Are you avoiding change by holding onto your smaller clothes?
Are you avoiding failure by keeping supplies for projects you’ll never start?
Are you avoiding emptiness by filling every space?
Write what comes. Don’t judge it. Just witness.
Clutter is often a guardian – protecting us from feelings we’re not ready to face. Thank it for its service. Tell it you’re ready now.
Part 3: The Clearing (30 minutes)
Now begin. But do it slowly, mindfully, with reverence.
Hold each item. Ask:
- “Does this honor my body as sacred vessel?”
- “Does this reflect who I am NOW, not who I was or who I thought I should be?”
- “Does this serve my aliveness or just take up space?”
Three piles:
- Keep (truly serves you)
- Release (donate, discard, or pass on)
- Uncertain (set aside for now)
As you release items, say:
“Thank you for your service. I release you with gratitude. You are not mine to carry anymore.”
This is not just decluttering. This is energetic release. This is making space for what wants to come.
Part 4: The Blessing (10 minutes)
When the space is cleared, clean it physically. Wipe surfaces. Sweep or vacuum. Open a window to let fresh air move through.
If you’re using sage or palo santo, smudge the space now. Move clockwise around the room, paying attention to corners where energy can get stuck.
Stand in the center of the cleared space. Place both hands on your heart. Say:
“This space is sacred because my body is sacred.
I have cleared what no longer serves.
I have made room for what wants to emerge.
I honor the vessel I arrived with.
I am coming home.”
Blow out the candle. Notice how the space FEELS now. Notice how YOUR BODY feels now.
Often, when we clear external space, our breath deepens. Our shoulders drop. Something inside us relaxes.
This is your body saying: “Yes. Thank you. This is what I needed.”
Part 5: Journal (5 minutes)
Write:
- What did you notice in your body as you cleared?
- What emotions arose?
- What does this cleared space make possible?
- What is your body asking for now?
The Deeper Truth
Physical homecoming is about more than a clean house. It’s about honoring the original vessel you arrived with.
The body that knew, before you were taught to doubt.
The body that felt, before you were taught to suppress.
The body that moved with its own rhythm, before you were taught to perform.
That body is still here. Under all the accumulated layers. Waiting for you to come home.
And homecoming? It begins by creating space. By clearing away what’s covering the sacred. By treating your environment – and therefore your embodiment – with the reverence it deserves.
This is not self-care. This is soul-care. This is honoring the vehicle of your awakening.
An Invitation
If this work of homecoming calls to you – if you recognize that you’ve been at war with your body, living in clutter (internal or external), disconnected from the original vessel you arrived with – know that you don’t have to do this alone.
This is the work I do with women through the C.O.A.C.H. Method framework. Not fixing. Not rescuing. But midwifing your return to yourself.
I have a few spots available for 1:1 intensive work beginning in late November or December. If you feel called, let’s talk. Reply to this email and we will set a time to have a Conversation for Curiosity.
For now: clear one space this week. Honor your body as sacred. Notice what becomes possible when you create room to breathe.
Homecoming begins in the body. Let it begin now.
P.S. Next week: Ancestral Homecoming – what you inherited, what you’re carrying that isn’t yours, and the emotional clearing that honors both your lineage and your sovereignty. This gets deeper.
“Mindfulness helps you come home to the present.
Life is available only in the present….
When you get free from views and words,
reality reveals itself to you and that is Nirvana..”
~~ Thich Nhat Hanh
