Tanshi!

By: Tawny Stowe

Faith is crucial to our well-being, faith is one of the highest forms of self-care.

I am Tawny, a Metis business owner who works on the traditional lands of the Lanape, Anishnabeg, Haudenosaunee, Attawandaron, and Huron peoples now known as London, Ontario, Canada. I am a holistic health practitioner on a mission to re-connect people to the Earth through a remembering of the Mind-Body-Soul. I live out my passion by uniting science & spirituality through yoga and plant study while guiding people into holistic living to experience strength, flexibility, and inner calm.

I am a born storyteller here to help with regenerative living by sharing the wisdom of the Earth.

I connect with the Earth and celebrate all of her changing of seasons. This is often referred to as the Wheel of the Year. The Wheel of the Year celebrates:

Samhain (Halloween)

Yule (Winter Solstice)

Imbolc (Groundhog Day)

Ostara (Easter)

Beltane (May Day)

Litha (Summer Solstice)

Lammas

Mabon (Fall Equinox)

With my writing, I always I leave it to you to take what resonates and to leave the rest behind. I speak of these changing seasons from less of religious dogma, and more from a connection to the Earth. I do not wish to disrespect anyone’s beliefs - my intention is to share what feels right to me with each season.

Following the seasons has become a form of self-care for me.

I use the Wheel of the Year to keep me in tune with Nature's rhythms and to pause throughout the seasons to offer gratitude for the learning and growth each one affords.

With each season I lean into birth, death, and rebirth in ever-changing ways that humbly remind me of my spiritual existence in this Earthly body. The Wheel reminds me to be present. This presence aids me in caring for my body by eating seasonally and allowing my energy levels to ebb and flow as one with nature.

I was raised Roman Catholic until one day, my opinions and beliefs didn’t align with the Church’s values. The more I grew, the more I questioned until eventually, these questions led me away from the church. Eventually, I began to see God in other religious faiths, in other people, and especially in Nature.

The more time I spent in nature the freer I felt to question the spiritual teachings throughout humanity's past.

The more questions I asked the more one I felt with God. Time in nature became my spiritual practice and it helped heal my mind, body, and soul.

The more I embarked on a self-healing and self-growth path the more curious I became.

I started to define my self-care with spiritual living and I studied to become a Reiki Master (teaching me the chakras), a Medical Intuitive (learning from Caroline Myss and the 7 Chakras) and I learned about Earth medicine through Shamans and Herbalists.

When I became a yoga teacher I learned about the One divine God through his many aspects as shown through various deities in the Hindu faith. Many devotional practices intertwine with mantra and prayer in Yoga. This understanding of aspects of God has brought me closer to recognizing the divinity in the many aspects of all of us.

Today I celebrate the beauty in many faiths. I call myself spiritually curious, because I am. I play with words like sacred, reverence, Faith, and spiritual. And, the road before me continues to wind, always nourishing my mind, body, and soul. On this winding road of Faith I bend, I bow, I am humbled and brought to my knees. The journey is always evolving and requires me to surrender in pure trust.

I believe that we do not need to divide over our answers or over our beliefs, we simply need to love the diversity it brings out in our varying definitions of Faith.

I know that faith is crucial to our well-being, faith is one of the highest forms of self-care. The diversity in our faith weaves together the most beautiful tapestry of humanity, living beings as expressions of God. As we wind our way together over the next many months, I invite you to weave your beliefs alongside mine or interweave wherever it resonates.

Being spiritually curious has taken me on a journey of yoga and holistic healing that sometimes intersects with religion. Exploring my faith has helped me unleash the wisdom within. Although religion comes up from time to time reading and working with me seldom takes you there directly. If you are feeling spiritually curious, I invite you to travel the seasons with me as I explore the Chakras through the lens of the seasons as found on the Wheel of the Year. As I weave a tapestry of many faiths, my hope is to share my love of the Earth, chakras, and the human capacity to heal from within.

Nurturing Curiosity, Tawny Stowe tawnystowe.com