The beginning of the year is a great time to get our thoughts and goals in order for the coming months and/or years ahead, we often call these goals new years resolutions. A common loosing point on a new years resolution is that we set ourselves up for failure by setting goals that are, in all actuality, really hard to be resolute about. We so often in our new years resolution bite off more than we can chew, and then we loose a taste for what it is we are working toward.
Perhaps this year you resolved to get more in shape and feel better. Perhaps you set this as a goal for yourself and to do it you told yourself you were going to get to yoga five days a week. Perhaps you are two weeks into the year and have already let yourself down by not making it to yoga at all this last week and now you have decided to give up on your resolution. Well, that is one way to handle the fall out, and another would be to modify your plan, adjust, and renew the pursuit of your goal. In life, just like on the mat, things are changing all the time. Whereas one day you may have done a cobra and saw the wall behind you, and the next day it’s possible you didn’t have the strength, or the space, to even get your bottom ribs off the floor. This is an extreme example, but life can sometimes be extreme, and when it comes to new years resolutions, we are almost always extreme. On the mat when a pose doesn’t feel right we modify, and we feel relief. In life we can do the same.
The most powerful ingredient that makes the difference in the long term for any purist we undertake is constancy. If we wish to do some crazy asana like scorpion handstand, than constantly returning to the pose and poses that enable it, will in time, lead to desired results. If we wish to become proficient at playing an instrument, constant return to the practice will make the world of difference. If we wish to experience more regular love in our lives, than constantly loving ourselves with less conditionality will pay off in a great fortune that is hard to describe in words. The thing about the constant measure is that it does not have to be a large one. Modify the formula for what works for you. Perhaps one yoga class a week. Over the course of a year that’s 52 classes, a lot of health can be gained in 52 classes. Perhaps 1 hour of guitar practice a week, that’s 52 hours in a year, and 520 in a decade, that’s on the way to being a Clapton. Perhaps five minutes of telling yourself you love yourself in the mirror everyday. I know it sounds pretty hippy dippy woo-woo, but over the course of a year that’s 30 hours of love, and 300 hours in a decade, and if you live to be 100 and start young that could be over 30,000 hours of pure, unadulterated, unconditional love in a lifetime, guaranteed.
So wherever you may be with the goals you would like to accomplish this year, or any year in your life, set them, and when life arrives, adjust. May the force be with you.
Love Always, In All Ways, For Giving,
Genevieve
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