December 2023 Week 1

Welcome to December and the holidays!!! Our intention this month is: “I am open to unexpected moments of joy” and we are continuing our path through the yoga sutras to the 2nd one - Sutra 1.2 - Yoga is stilling the fluctuations of the mind.
This sutra gets right to the heart of why we practice yoga. We learn right away what yoga is and why we practice it, while the rest of the Sutras expands on the topic and offers ways to go about calming these modifications of the mind.
So what are modifications of the mind? Simply put, it’s the mind chatter that draws our attention away from the present moment. When you are in yoga class, focusing on your breath while feeling the movement of your body and suddenly you wonder what you’ll have for lunch, or you remember a conversation you need to have with someone, or you look over at the person next to you and wish that your pose looked like hers, your mind is fluctuating—you are no longer present. These are the modifications of the mind that yoga is trying to quiet. This can also happen for me off the mat during my busy days and oh boy if I wake in the middle of the night, watch out! Haha.
This goal of yoga is simple but not always easy. Our minds are so conditioned to follow thought strands that take us from topic to topic, anywhere but where we currently are. Becoming caught up in our thoughts feels natural to us because we do it almost all the time. Quieting this chatter, using the tools of the yoga practice, can feel almost impossible at times. This is one reason why many people find meditation to be intimidating. “I could never sit still and do nothing,” they say.
But with practice, over time, quieting these fluctuations starts to feel natural, even effortless. Space opens up in our minds as we learn to remain focused on the breath, the body, the moment. And in this space can be planted the seeds of insight—those realizations that bring us closer to our true nature.
(Some of the above taken from yogasanctuary.com)

As this passage says, simple but not easy. This month we all have added responsibilities of possibly things to buy, things to bake, places to gather, etc and our mind can spin from thing to thing taking us out of the present moment and out of the joy of the moment. What a great focus for all of us - to try to still the fluctuations of the mind and then open ourselves up for the possibility of experiencing unexpected moments of joy!