It is the 8th of January today and there has been a surprising "Spring" feel to the air this last few days. In fact not only are the daffodils already blooming, but we have seen primroses and cherry blossom too. It is so mild for this time of year that I am not surprised nature has been thrown off track a little. Mind you, hoorah that we have had no rain these last few days, although I do believe a little may be on its way, clearing in time for the New Moon on Friday.
Evidently things are a little unsettled out there at the moment, relationships strained as people find their new footing in the new year. I do not feel it so much myself, I am attempting to begin the year as I intend to continue, taking as much time out as possible to be quiet, to converse with nature (!), to write and, top priority, immerse myself in my Yoga practice both on and off the mat.
I do love intentions, they have so much power. I am hoping that the New Year's class I taught last week encouraged those who attended to set their own intentions for the year ahead and let go of the willful nature of New Year's resolutions, which often just add to the "failure" mentality of our ego. For more on this I have posted two articles on my website, one is a general article on the power of intention and another about the power of intention in action in my own life.
It has been refreshing to see so many people at Yoga over the last week, a lot of students practicing more than once a week, which is pretty huge in terms of the transformative capacity and also in terms of enhancing one's sense of general wellbeing and outlook on life. E has been getting back into the flow of his Yoga practice, to help him heal his injured back again. He was inspired a little by a teacher who taught a class we attended in TriYoga's Chelsea studio a few weeks ago. This teacher has begun Yoga due to severe knee and back injuries and was blown away by his healing to the extent that he immersed himself in Yoga around the world and trained as a teacher, a good one too.
I must admit that it is rather special to be able to immerse oneself in Yoga for a dedicated period of time. There was a 6 year period of my life where I was doing this rather regularly, a few months on Guernsey working and saving money and a few months off travelling and practicing Yoga every day. Not so now, life changes and what we want from it changes too. I shall always remember sitting beside another British traveller on a bus from Pokhara to Kathmandu and her commenting on the anchor tattoo she had on her arm, saying she had had this done because it was time to anchor down, but now she was going to get a kite, as it was time to lift up and be free again. I have loved that analogy ever since. Sometimes we need to anchor and sometimes we need to fly. The challenge is knowing when one should move on from one to the other. The wind is coming, should you anchor, or fly with it?!
The heart knows all. The key is to be quiet enough to hear. that is where Yoga helps, gets us out of the thinking mind, and if we are lucky, creates space between the thoughts for the light of the divine to shine.
Om shanti, shanti, shanti,
Emma x
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