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.
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.
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