Oh my gosh! Is summer really over? Is it really September? How did it get here so fast? The days are shorter and it’s now dark by 8:00 pm (or earlier!) Kids are back at school and all routines kick back in, including traffic patterns. Yikes! I noticed even my little commute going from a thrifty 10 minute breeze down I-280 to a 20 minute stop-and-go crawl! I bet many of you look at the balance of the year with some gusto, same as I do! Fired up and ready to change the world! Vacations are great, but something cool also happens when we come back into the comfy seat of our everyday lives. Maybe we are refreshed and rejuvenated, but mostly, we are grateful. Getting away is super, but our “wake up to this routine lifestyle” isn’t so bad either!
But what happened to our 2014 New Year’s resolutions? Didn’t it seem like a long time ago when you committed to eating better; more time with kids; more dates with your honey; up earlier; more yoga, etc. Uh oh. Me too. Apparently life got the best of me, and my focus for the year faded so fast that I can’t even remember when I lost touch with something that at one point was so precious. Okay folks, dust off that New Year’s resolution file and start again. Yep! Drop the judgment, drama, excuses, baggage…and whatever else, and go for it! Again!
I am a not so good sleeper. Most of you know that I am a night owl and what goes right along with that is eating late. I come from a family that enjoyed dinners out probably more than dinners in and they were usually at nice places so we were dressed up and out late. My restaurant career encouraged the same. It was usual to eat after 9 pm with the rest of the staff and the kitchen crew – great fun but not so good in the sleeping department. So this year, I thought that I would make it a goal to eat before 9 pm (most of you are probably thinking this is easy – lol) and get to bed by midnight and see if that doesn’t help me get up a little earlier with a bit more ease. Another one of my goals this year was to be more vulnerable. I have to say, I have done that one in spades (and good for another essay), including the openness and vulnerability in sharing with you my lackluster performance in eating before 9 pm and getting to bed before midnight. My sleep patterns are dismal, but by the grace of God I am just blessed to have good and high energy!
But, I am going to try again! Yep. It won’t bring world peace but it matters. Like you, I am not going to let the excuses win. This time, because I’ve tried before, I don’t care to have expectations or a carrot at the end of the brick road to reward myself with. Join me. We do it every day in the yoga room so I know you can do it, too. How many of us every day or at least three times a week, lift our leg up and try to hold it for one minute in Standing Head to Knee? How many of us try to sit our hips down and hold Triangle posture for the entire dialog and do it four times in a row?! We are not buying the excuses there to not try again and again, so why should we buy them here with something that is most likely way more significant to how we manage our lives?
Your yoga patterns play such a big role in the transcendence to a bigger life! As a teacher on the podium for over 14 years, I can now more easily see mine and your evolution of those “hold you back” headlines such as “I’m at a disadvantage doing this pose because of my knee,” or “the heat just stops me from doing the whole class,” or “my schedule doesn’t allow me to practice more than once a week so I will have to be satisfied with doing the pose mediocre,” to ones that now shift to more uplifting news flashes like “sucking in my stomach more really helps,” or “when I breathe deeper I can hold the pose longer,” or “I am going to ask the teacher after class how I can work with my injured knee.” You busted through the veil of doubt narration and heard the more powerful call to stand up and be counted! The path isn’t supposed to be pretty and come together nicely ready for a finish line worthy of a champagne celebration. Your journey to what you aspire to do and be is simply to illuminate the power in you when you persevere and have faith – you get to knock down one more time those unending disruptions that come in millions of shapes and sizes that prevent you from full engagement of your unique design.
You have four months to compassionately re-assign yourself to a New Year’s Resolution. Use it to jump the hurdles that stop you regardless if you really get to your goal or not. I have never believed that destiny is an arrival; it’s how clear we get in the attempts to move the stuff out of the way that prevents us from arriving where we feel most authentic – home!