New Year's Resolutions for Yogis

Hello, my dear friend,

If your 2018 has been anything like mine, it's been a real rollercoaster, full of ups and downs and lots of surprises.

Rollercoasters can be exhilarating, but they can also be exhausting. So as the end of 2018 draws near and we look forward to 2019, I'm thinking about how to (re)cultivate some peace and calm in this adventure of life. And as a practitioner of yoga, many of my New Year's Resolutions are rooted in the wisdom of yogis who came before me.

1. Rededication to Daily Yoga Practice
Life gets busy and it's easy to fall off the yoga wagon, but based on personal experience I *know* that everything's better when I'm practicing yoga daily. I'm more patient, I see more clearly, and I'm more productive. It's time to reestablish my daily practice, including physical postures as well as breathing and meditation.

Regardless of what your practice looks like, I strongly encourage you to invest some time thinking about *how* you can consistently fit yoga into your schedule. What works best for me is to make sure I go to bed on time, wake up early, and make time for my practice in that precious quiet time before everyone else wakes up.

2. Rededication to Good Sleep
According to Ayurveda, high quality sleep is one of the three keys to good health, and it's important to establish a good sleep routine. For me, that means going to bed at 9:30, lights out at 10:00, and waking up at 5:00. High quality sleep is deep sleep that is dreamless and uninterrupted. You should wake up feeling fresh and you should remember nothing about what happened during the hours you were sleeping.

3. Rededication to Good Eating Habits
Food is the second key to good health, according to Ayurveda. We should eat 3 meals of high quality food per day, and at each meal we should fill the stomach's capacity 50% with food, 25% with water, and 25% with "air" or space. Also important is that we should eat on a consistent schedule. Correct eating is paramount to a strong digestive fire, good absorption of nutrition, and good digestion.

4. Minimizing
Too much "stuff" can be a real distraction to one's peace and calm. This year I'm focusing not only on reducing unneeded material possessions (hello, pantry items!), but also reducing other unneeded "stuff", like excessive use of social media and other sneaky time- and energy-wasters.

5. Mono-tasking and Being Present
It's so, so easy to get caught up in the fast pace of our modern lives. We're socialized to believe that in order to be productive we need to reply to emails while eating our lunch, or catch up on social media while helping our kids with their homework.

This year I'm making a renewed effort to mono-task and be fully present in my daily activities, especially when I'm spending time with friends or loved ones, or when I'm confronted with the beauty of nature, like this sunset below.

What are your plans for 2019? Are you interested in cultivating some peace and calm in your life, too? If you're nodding your head right now, I hope we'll see you at The Yoga Room soon and often. Let us all help motivate and support each other in being present and cultivating healthy habits so 2019 will be a year of peace and calm (at least as much as is under our own control!).

If you've been thinking about trying yoga, now's the time! Enroll in a Beginners Series.

If you'd like to establish a consistent studio practice, study our Class Schedule and then book your classes on your personal calendar, just like you'd reserve time for an important meeting.

If you'd like to practice at home, book a monthly Individual Instruction session so we can design a customized practice for you and help you stay on track.

If you're looking to deepen or re-inspire your practice, sign up for one or more of our upcoming Workshops.

And if you have any questions, please email me. I'd love to chat, learn about your goals, and point you in the right direction.

To fresh beginnings,

Real Life Yoga Philosophy: Kindness

The concept of Ahimsa has been coming up frequently in my recent interactions with students. It's a very useful concept in the practice of yoga (both on and off the mat) and I'd like to take the opportunity to explore this concept with you. Ahimsa (ah-him-sah) is a Sanskrit word that means non-harm or kindness.

We can think of ahimsa in an obvious way, like don't steal or don't hit. But the concept becomes much more interesting when we think about it at a subtle level.

For example, during a pause in my Beginners Series class last week, a woman told me she was thirsty and asked if it's allowed to drink water during the yoga class. What do you think my response was? I told her about the concept of ahimsa, and how we should always be kind to our own bodies. Withholding water from a person who is thirsty causes them harm, so I told her that yes, she should definitely drink water if she is thirsty during class.

And then, during my class for teenagers at RRISD last week, a boy complained that a yoga sequence hurt his body. It was a triangle pose sequence, and I saw that he was trying to stretch farther than was appropriate for him. I took that opportunity to teach my young students about ahimsa and explained that they should do all the āsanas in a way that's comfortable for their bodies. I think self-kindness a great lesson for young people.

Today, as I listened to the tense and emotional testimony in the Kavanaugh Confirmation hearings, I realized that I myself was becoming tense and emotional. Listening to the testimony was causing me harm. Recognizing that fact was the first step in being kind to myself. Then I took an additional step of taking a break from the hearing and doing a short mid-afternoon conscious breathing practice to help calm my mind and my nervous system.

We have countless opportunities every day to recognize our state and choose ahimsa.

Stressful day? Take a nice soak in the bathtub.
Grouchy kids? Send them to take a nice soak in the bathtub.
Painful shoes? Get rid of them.
Need to pee? Don't hold it, go pee.
Hate your job? Start looking for a new one.

We can also practice ahimsa with other people, and even the planet. Being kind to others is being kind to yourself.

Allow cars to merge in front of you.
Hold a door or elevator.
Listen.
Recycle.

How do you practice ahimsa in your life? Can you think of new, more subtle ways to practice ahimsa with yourself and others?

Sending love to you today,