January 2024 Week 1

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Does that feel loaded to you? Make you feel like you have to dig in and get shit done, change, grow??? Ok well here is some relief from that, how about we pause this month or at least the first couple of weeks? You are not completely off the hook though as I would like us to do some work. Let’s look back over 2023 before we jump into what we want in 2024 and what we want to change. Think of a closet and you are bringing in a bunch of fresh items, it would be mass clutter if you didn’t first look at what was already in the closet and get rid of some items. So lets not clutter our minds, our nervous system and our intentions for ourselves. In week 3 of December we did a winter solstice exercise, I redid this in my Yin class this week (it is posted in the Yin section online if you want to take a slow flow. It is in 2 parts because one of my sons called during class - oh boy lol). If you have the time, take this slow flow and the journal prompts are repeated below.
I think a helpful intention to start the year off is simply: LET GO!!!!!!! Easier said than done though, right? Lets take it slow. First, lets reflect on the gratitude of 2023 - a friend mentioned a great way to do this, simply scroll your pictures of the past year. You will see all the amazing moments!!!!! Next start to reflect back, use the journal prompts at the end of this writing to help you, maybe even repeat the ritual of tearing up the parts of you and your life you would like to let go of in 2024. And finally this month we are going to keep it as simple as focusing on our breath. Play a meditation from the month or another one you enjoy, count your breath, talk during you breath - inhale say let, exhale say go, or anything else that helps you focus on your breath and make it long and deep. I was having a conversation in the hot tub post ocean dip with my husband and friend and we were talking about the anxieties of our lives and how we get stuck worrying about whatever is bothering us at the time, forgetting the past most pressing issue! How the heck do we stop that cycle? I truly believe it can be as simple as deliberately breathing to calm the nervous system, meditating, moving and FAITH!!! If we don’t have faith in something other than ourselves, then letting go is kind of like free falling without a net. If we have faith and more importantly TRUST in our own GOD (you know it can be anything as long as it is not you! - Great Out Doors, Grace Over Drama, or your religious God) - then we can let go. So don’t rush into the “new and improved” you of 2024, lets pause and reflect on the blessings and the messes of 2023. Use these slower, darker days for this work and add some inner light into January!!


Here are some journal prompts from the winter solstice:
What are you letting go of? What is falling away? Going to bed too late? Hanging around people who don’t support you? Self-doubt?

What’s the next chapter in your life? What needs more light? Starting a new career? Reading more books? Starting to compost or embracing a lifestyle that involves less waste?

How can you keep light alive even during the darker days of solstice, such as lighting candles throughout the house, watching the sunrise or the sunset? ( I LOVE THIS ONE - I daily chasing the sunrise, sunset or moonrise!)

Contemplate your Past year -
Do you have anything coming to an end?
Is there a part of your life you would like to end? A personality trait? A relationship? An attitude? A fear?
Write this all out on a piece of paper that you can remove and then shred it into little pieces or burn it

While you can make a manifestation list at any time, the winter solstice is a particularly powerful time to do so because it's when you have the most direct access to your subconscious mind:
What do you want to manifest?
Good health?
Better relationships?
Forgiveness of someone or yourself?
Self care and integrity?
Write this all out and keep it somewhere for you to read often.
Finally, we have moved onto Yoga Sutra 1.3: Then in a state of yoga, the seer rests in its true nature.
Following up on yoga sutra 1.2 (essentially, yoga is the cessation of mind chatter), yoga sutra 1.3 states, Tada drashtuh svarupevasthanam: then the seer abides in itself, resting in its true nature, also known as self-realization. This sutra explains the ultimate result of yoga—the discovery of one’s true nature.
Once we are able to calm the fluctuations of the mind, our perception of reality becomes clear. No longer clouded with thoughts of the past or the future, reality sharpens and we finally understand our true nature. We recognize our connection to all that is. We recognize that our current state is just as it should be.
What a relief to know that this practice—this work we do on and off the mat to find that place where our minds become quiet and we become more aware—will bring us back to a place where we can finally, and again, realize our being-ness. This shift from doing to being happens gradually (and can also happen at a moment’s notice)—and it has nothing to do with idleness. It is a perceptual shift that changes our very interaction with life and with the people and situations we encounter.
These early sutras help us to understand right away the profound nature of the yoga practice and how it can transform our lives for the better. With a clear mind, focused breath and some movement we can begin our journey inward to our own true self. Let’e keep seeking together. (Yoga sutra thoughts taken from yogasanctuary.biz)