New Year, Same Goals

Greetings and Welcome to 2010!

I decided this year to bring in the year quietly and with a ritual. Having just acquired a new cauldron on the last day of 2009. I was determined to use the energy of the full/wishing/blue moon to my advantage and bring forth opportunity and abundance. Rituals are very important to the maintenance of balance and as I prepared and then performed, I found a peace and stillness that is often absent in my daily life. The goal for this year is the same as last year: expansion and abundance. The only difference is that this year, instead of being carried by the waves, I will ride them.

What exactly does that mean you ask? It means that I am making more space for me and using the seasons to help me along my busy path, This is the time for hibernation. Even as I write this it is a blustery cold day that has kept me indoors. In a few however, I will brave the elements to go to yoga and reassert my 30 in 30 challenge. I am on a mission to to do 30 sessions of Bikram yoga in 30 days. I have gone for 15 straight days and took an unplanned break yesterday, which means that in order to complete the challenge, I will have to do a "double" or two sessions in one day. The yoga has opened me up in amazing ways and while it has been hard to stay motivated, all I need to do is get to the studio and I am aligned with spirit. I realize that it has become a ritual that grounds me. The wrong food, the wrong time, not enough sleep, too much partying, etc and my practice becomes strenuous for that day. The beauty of it is that I can go back the next day and regroup for another try.

This week's lesson has been all about taking baby steps and humbling the self for spirit. In the studio it is you and the heat. The same postures are repeated every time, so you are able to gauge your growth. You are also forced to look at yourself in the mirror, something I absolutely don't do. In the space of yoga, I am slowly chipping away at years of tightness and pressure. I am releasing the "shoulds" in favor of "dos" and finding that even in the most difficult poses, where my breath is short and and my muscles are tight, there is peace.

I engage in the practice ultimately as a tool for peace and want to learn how to take that peace out of the studio into the world as I go about receiving the abundance, I conjured as we moved into a new decade. Welcome to 2010, let's see what she has in store.

Ese

IA