Yoga for a Bright New Year

My practice lately has naturally been drawn to the heart chakra and it’s qualities of compassion and universal oneness. As I look back at this last year, I see myself with compassion and realize that I am woven into the greater fabric of my community, my planet, and the Universe. I take that compassion and allow the soothing and calming waters of the fourth chakra to open my heart to myself and others. “I love” is the mantra for the heart. I love the anticipation for what can happen next in the year to come.

All around me people are cramming in everything they can before the end of 2010. I stopped making lists full of goals I knew I wouldn’t accomplish years ago and so for me, the end of the year is a time to relax, reflect, and prepare for the imminent new beginning. If there is something I didn’t get a chance to do this year, I can add it to my vision for the New Year. And note, I say “vision” not “resolution”. To me, resolutions were lofty goals I made to somehow make up for the areas in which I thought I was lacking. Visioning gives me something tangible to look at everyday which gives me purpose to take action. When I want something to become real, I vision instead of resolve.

I use the tool of vision boards. I go through magazines and rip out pictures and words that express what I’m feeling inside. I paste them on a board and hang the board on my wall where I can see it everyday. I then get to stare at my vision and it makes me accountable for it. I am reminded of small steps I can take to make those visions a reality.

We’re at the doorway of a new season, a new year, and a new age. This can be a time for us to reflect on the recent past and create our visions for the future. The mantra that comes to mind is “om gum ganapatayei namaha” which is the mantra to remove all obstacles standing in the way of my progress. As I hear those words over and over I can see myself accomplishing things I never before thought possible. I see myself in a handstand without the wall. I see myself being accepted to graduate school and earning the degree which will allow me to work in the profession I feel will allow me to express my place in the universe as I help people get in touch with their bodies and with their health. I see myself growing old with the woman I love as we devote our lives to each other.

As I take my place on the mat on hands and knees, I place my hands squarely under my shoulders; my knees under my hips. My back is neutral and my breath is even. Inhaling, I engage mula bhanda (root lock) by lifting all the muscles of the pelvic floor and I draw my navel towards the earth beneath me. My heart reaches forward, out, and up and my gaze draws to the ceiling—reaching not with my chin but with my brow. Feeling myself full of new breath, new ideas, new life I exhale and start to point my tail to the ground as my spine waves, my back arches, and my gazes falls in to my navel. When the breath is complete, I begin the cycle again. Each end is a new beginning. When once breath empties from my body, I do not mourn the end of a powerful exhale; rather, I rejoice in the opportunity to sip in a new breath and to experience what is in store for me.

Breathing through cat and cow is a wonderful way for me to be reminded of the cycles we live each day. And of the fact that they are, indeed, cycles. Life is not a haphazard collection of parallel and intersecting lines that stop and start. Life is a pattern of continuing circles that overlap sometimes and go off in new directions other times. Even as my pattern spins off in a direction I did not anticipate, there are moments I do recognize or moments I did plan. There is a certain peace and acceptance in that for me.

As we cross the doorway into a new season, into a new year and into a new age, we can enter our own period of enlightenment and true living. What’s your vision?

Namasté and Happy Holidays.