HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We wish each of you, your families, friends, communities & our World a most Wonderful New Year!
May your year be Abundantly Blessed with deep Peace, Love, Joy, Growth and Healing. May you manifest your heart's deepest desires.
In yoga, a word for resolutions is "sankalpa." A significant difference between a new year's resolution & a "sankalpa" is that a resolution often views ourselves as imperfect, not good enough & needing fixing. Whereas a sankalpa starts from a place of
remembering our wholeness, goodness & worthiness.
A sankalpa is "sans"- an idea formed & created from our heart- our heart's yearning! Another way of thinking of "sans" "is a connection with our highest truth." (Rod Stryker, international yoga teacher.) "Kalpa" refers to the path to manifest the heart's yearning. We can also think of kalpa as a vow or promise we make to ourselves to honor & manifest the yearnings of our hearts. Stryker further elaborates: "[a] sankalpa speaks to the larger arc of our lives, our dharma—our overriding purpose for being here. The sankalpa becomes a statement you can call upon to remind you of your true nature and guide your choices."
Breathe, Open and Begin
Again and Again
It is a New Year. An opportunity for growth! Where do we start? We start each day exactly where we are. Life teaches us that to live with openness and peace, we meet life on life's terms. And from there we OPEN. Look for the openings for growing in Awareness and Grace.
As Danna Faulds reminds us in her poem "The Open Door"
A door opens. Maybe I've been standing here shuffling my weight from foot to foot for decades, or maybe I only knocked once. In truth, it doesn't matter. A door opens and I walk through without a backward glance. This is it, then, one moment of truth in a lifetime of truth; a choice made, a path taken, the gravitational pull of Spirit too compelling to ignore any longer. I am received by something far too vast to see. It has roots in antiquity but speaks clearly in the present tense. "Be," the vastness says. "Be without adverbs, descriptors, or qualities.
Be so alive that awareness bares itself uncloaked and unadorned.
Then go forth to give what you alone can give, awake to love and suffering, unburdened by the weight of expectations.
Go forth to see and be seen, blossoming, always blossoming into your magnificence."
The practices of yoga, breath and meditation help us to awaken to our heart's deepest desires. We take it one step, one breath, one pose at a time. Not knowing, feeling stuck or uncertain will eventually lead us to where we are intended to go. it doesn't feel good to be in these places of uncertainty and unknowing but it invites us to a world of growth, possibilities and deepening our relationship with the Divine.
Wendell Barry invites us to remember:
"It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings."
The Real Work
We make aware steady efforts. If you are tired of feeling sick and tired, how about trying something different? How about signing up for a massage and/or craniosacral treatment with John to ease your stress and stiffness? (see all offers below).
It's a NEW YEAR!! Get excited. Take charge of your health. Sign up for yoga classes with J and/or sign up for private yoga sessions. Or how about doing a semi-private yoga session with your spouse or partner, another family member or friend. It's a great way to connect, nourish your relationship and take care of yourself! (see all offers below)
For women who want to feel more content and respond to your emotions more skillfully, take TIMBO
with J! (See all details below.)
Remember,
"nothing changes if nothing changes
."
You may have thought about engaging in self-care many times but life keeps distracting you. Or perhaps your out of your habit of self-care. Reality is life can always be distracting. Remember, we can choose to begin again. We choose to make an effort. Then we trust our efforts to help us honor our commitment to our effort (honoring our sankalpas!)
one day at a time
. Each day we do the best we can and that is good enough. This is why we call yoga, breath and meditation "practices." We trust our practices to help us heal and grow.
In "What I Have Learned So Far" by Mary Oliver, she reminds us that
Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don't think so.
All summations have a beginning,
all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads - of indolence, or action.
Be ignited, or be gone.
We look forward to connect with you and support you on your journey of
health, growth, healing and spiritual awakening! Breathe, Open and Begin Again and Again.
