New Beginnings

Thoughts on motivation for the new year.
Question everything.

In keeping with my new found openness to celebrating things that I have been resistant to celebrating in the past, I've been looking for ways in which I can feel honest in celebrating the new year. Finding a reason to get drunk is no longer enticing. It is interesting to see how things that we hold dear become arbitrary when you look at them on a grander scale. Rudolph the red nose reindeer was the product of the imagination of a Montgomery Ward marketing specialist in 1939. That's a nice way to distract from the world being at war and to sell things. The calendar year for me is just as arbitrary. Every great civilization has their own way of keeping track of the passage of time. However, I like the idea of celebrating new beginnings. We all have things that we want to change. Habitual thoughts, actions, thoughts about past actions. We all yearn for the clean slate. While the calendar page turning won't magically erase your habitual tendencies, January 1st has become something that symbolizes the idea of new beginnings and a fresh start.
I want you to think about the concept of motivation in your life and how it applies to getting a fresh start. Motivations applies to your life every minute of every day because everything you do has some basis in your mind for its completion. Being unable to resist scratching your face while in savasana is an indication of a mind that is resistant to relaxation. It may just seem like an itch but you're distracting yourself. If you don't scratch that itch it will eventually go away. Try it. Similarly, in uncomfortable social circumstances there are certain emotional cues that can be seen in your body language that you may not even notice or try to do purposefully. When you're anxious you're going to touch or scratch or move. It is one of the ways we express ourselves when we feel like we can't really express ourselves openly. There's always a reason why you do something and every time you say "I don't know why I did that" you're hiding something from yourself.
Our yoga practice is the way to get down to the bottom of some of the things we don't want to know about ourselves. 

When considering resolutions this year, first consider why. What is the foundation in your mind behind the drive to change that particular thing? Is it a result if outside pressure or an internal imperative? The hows are not as important. Deciding to make the change will help make the hows happen. But if you're not clear on the why you won't have the proper motivation to break deep seated habits. And that is definitely the only way to effect change. 

Samaskara is the sanskrit word for habits. They are the ruts that form when you repeat the same action many times. Here is an example of a phenomenon experienced in the ancient world being "proven" by modern science. It is an established fact of medicine that the more often you use a set of brains cells, the link between them strengthens and you're more likely to use that set of cells in the future. Neuroplasticity is the brains ability to create new links between previously unlinked brain cells. This is what is needed to break samaskaras. Its tricky to think about either way. A different language. Lately I've been imagining my ruts filled with water. That way from the top it looks as if they're filled. That way if I fall in I float to the top instead of hanging out at the bottom. 

New beginnings are possible you've just got to find the right tack. Let everyday hold the possibility of new beginnings. 

As you practice (live) be aware of why. Not to analyze but to know. 

Peace on Earth & Goodwill Toward Men

I was raised Roman Catholic but I have chosen not to believe in Jesus as my own personal savior. You can go ahead and pray for my soul if it makes you feel better. I believe in a lot of things but I don't like celebrating Christmas because Christmas is a celebration of Jesus and his birth. Not that I don't think Jesus deserves to be celebrated because he seems to have been a very good human being but it's not what I believe so I've really resisted celebrating for many years. But, I have kids and I'm prone to my own kind of peer pressure. I have come to enjoy buying gifts for people at this time of year. I needed to figure it out so that it made sense to me and I wasn't doing something just because everyone else was. 
This year I have been struck by signs that people have put up, decorations that bear the word peace. In my determination to not be swayed by the opinions of others and celebrate something that I don't really believe, I forgot some of what is really good about the holiday season. It does still gall me that these practices are not put in to practice during the year as often as they are at this time of year but I guess it's better that they are put into practice at all. 
I'd like to focus this week specifically on peace. It can be difficult concept to employ and I agree that peace needs to happen on an individual basis before there's any hope of it happening on a grander scale. 

What if we included the concept of peace in our gift giving this year. I don't mean that we don't buy gifts for anybody because I see how much fun that is. But what about including in our gifts something that helps make lives more peaceful.

I love giving massages and I don't mean physically handing out massages. I mean giving gift certificates so that people can go and get massages. I've discovered that getting them to use it is a different challenge altogether but I think a massage is something most of the people that I know need. 

So this week, not only am I thinking about all of the stuff that I have to wrap that I purchased for my children but the ways in which I can better myself to give their lives more peace. If they can grow up with that calm tranquility inside of themselves then they will diffuse it to the world and it will be a rarity to find young people with a sense of purpose, a sense of groundedness. That's not to say that they'll always have it. There will still be hormones and peer pressure. I'm sure we all still have those distractions and challenges in our lives from time to time, but if we took a moment to consider the possibilities of sharing peace in our lives we will take important steps toward spreading it and having the chance of making it stick.

We will practice asana in a way that lets the breath lead; allows the breath to be the peacemaker, as my teacher has said. Do not move in a way that compromises your breath. Allow your attitude toward your efforts in practice to be one of calm contemplation. You do not need to push harder, just breathe deeper. The choices you make that create shallow, erratic breath should be avoided, while anything you do that creates calm, deep, smooth breathing should be encouraged. There are practices that will push you to your limits and those practices have value, but that is not the goal this week. 

Keep What Inspires You in Front of You

My teacher says it is important to keep what inspires you in front of you. I submit that is doubly important at this time of year. When it is so much easier to sit down and stay, or to get overwhelmed by the holidays, it is increasingly important that you have whatever it is that inspires you to get up, that makes you more determined, in your way as much as possible.

This week we will take a moment to fix whatever it is that inspires you to continue to persevere in your practice against whatever is daunting squarely in your mind and keep it there as we practice.
It could be anything. Divine, family, friends, trees, animals, a phrase, a feeling. Think about what works for you and bring it with you (mentally). We will try to embody that inspiration as much as possible.

Being Very Present and Being Able to Act in the Moment

I was listening to the radio one day and heard musicians giving an interview. One said, of her collaboration with her partner, that you have to be very present and be able to react in the moment in order to play music with anybody. 

That speaks directly to what we touched upon last week in talking about the withdrawal of the senses. In order to be that focused, in order to be that present, you need to be able to focus. It helps to do something you love as much as musicians love music. The practice of pratyahara can be incredibly useful to your day-to-day life. The practice enables you to be more focused as you become less distracted by the world a large. You then have the opportunity and the resources to be able to know your internal states better. 

So, once you practice drawing your senses inside and the world is a little less in your face, so to speak, what do you do with all of the stuff that comes up from your mind now that you have a better ability to notice it?

The external distractions are only part of what can occupy your mind. There is also all of the internal states that seem to arise unbidden when you manage to find the time to sit still for any length of time. There is the possibility of moving past the seemingly random thoughts that flit through your mind. The ancients of yoga sat still quietly for long enough to discern several aspects of mind. One of which stores information, another which has the ability to direct our thoughts. 

It takes bravery to be able to cultivate the will to sit still and watch. The key word is watch. The ability to watch thoughts without having to engage the story line takes discipline. Luckily you have all the tools you need to do it. You just have to believe it. That may seem trite, but it is the only way its going to work. If you've been practicing for any length of time, you know this to be true. You begin to notice the increase in capability. That eventually sinks in and you believe in yourself more and more, which means you can do more than you thought possible.

Something I've been working on lately is giving myself the freedom from tomorrow. Similar to the idea that telling yourself to have sound sleep will help you have sound sleep, I have been taking time in the evenings to let go of the anticipation if tomorrow. There are always things I want to accomplish, particularly getting up before the kids to practice yoga. I find I am most successful at this endeavor when I purposefully let go of the tension I feel around whether or not I will accomplish it. 

The way you can be the most present is by taking time to contemplate your reactions, coupled with yoga and meditation to cultivate the will to move away from those reactions. And surround yourself with people who you want to be present with. Be choosy with who you spend your spare time with. It is precious, and if you can fill it with people who are supportive of your efforts, you will even more successful.