Happy New Year! Here we come 2019.
How are those resolutions? I quit setting New Years resolutions a few years ago after reading the dismal research that only 6% of resolutions are kept.
Despite not writing down formal things I want to fix or change, a new year always feels optimistic to me – a chance for a fresh start and the beckoning of change. Change….we all have a different relationship to it. For some, we seek it and love new adventure. For others, change is scary and stepping out of our comfort zone creates fear.
Some of the most subtle and yet powerful change I experience is the inner transformation that occurs each time I get on my mat. I don’t get on my mat for exercise, I get on it for transformation. As Desiree Rumbaugh writes in her book “Fearless After Fifty”, “We don’t get on our mats because we want to be better at yoga. We get on our mats so we can be better at life.”
Yes we are all seeking something better. It might be as tangible as a better job, a better living situation, a better work-life balance, or a better state of health. We all know that complacency is the kiss of death. It’s been said that the tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities.
Human kind is evolving, and yoga and meditation speeds this process. May 2019 awaken a beautiful inner evolution.
“Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit of adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”
-John O-Donohue
