waving the white flag
...and wiping the slate clean
Yep 2024 I surrender to you.
Each year dishes up, what Donna Ashworth says, a mosaic of everything.
All the bits - the good, the joyful, the stuff that brings you to your knees, the elation - it’s all in there. If we are honest, every day does that. That’s why life is always a balancing act and the more we wish for things to be as we want them to be, the more friction we get damnit! I am ALWAYS banging on about the ‘thing’ not being the issue, instead, it is our relationship to it that creates either suffering or ease, and boy oh boy I am NOT listening to my own teachings these past 10 days.
You know one of the best lessons I get to remember every time I step on my mat is that Yoga is a practice of beginnings. This is why I rinse and repeat every day.
Every class is a clean slate, every breath is a fresh one, teaching us to loosen our grip on what has come before and what may come next and instead, connect with the reality of what is happening right now.
The practice asks us to sit and explore everything within us - from our love to our pain, discomfort & delight. Yes it’s confronting, but it is always an invitation and not an insistence to the way we show up, which in turn yields awareness, insight & action, ultimately leading to transformation. Yes, it is all well and good to have these practices - the art IS in the practicing - despite what’s going on … but sometimes … it’s alot.
However, this is the very reason why we must keep going back to all the things that keep us steady. The practices, the rituals, continue to give us hope not despair that things can change. This is why, even after decades of practice and teaching, I am always a student first, teacher second. Always learning never knowing.
Being in a place of not knowing & also be curious about what might be possible, is wisdom in action. Our senses and awareness are supercharged in these states. We are our own works in progress, and dialling up and listening in attunes us to what we need, not what the world says we need.
"Opportunities are grains of sand. They slide right past drooping fingers, but an active palm can gather whatever is within reach and shape it into a little castle. It is the act of engaging with the material that gives it shape." James Clear
We shape our world. I know sometimes it seems as though the Universe has other ideas, but we have a say too. Look back at the joys and the challenges of your year. Do what you want with them, but I implore you to really leave behind what doesn’t need to be dragged into this new one like the proverbial cat.
I will run an online workshop later this week once the new year has been and gone, when we usually make declarations that don’t stick. It’s my job to help them stick, so we move with intentionality to up the joy barometer. Lord knows I need a little bit more of that this coming year. The workshop will include a little bit of this and little bit of that, where we do some simple stretches and breathe to settle ourselves and get quiet. Bring a notebook and I will give some prompts to help you create a map to move in the right direction. In fact I might make up a pretty PDF to print off. All up, about 45 minutes plus your own quiet time afterwards. If we are always leading with our intellect, we diminish who we are, and as we find resonance between our heart and mind we establish our own relevance to our self & amplify our contribution to our world.
Let’s take the time to establish our own terms and conditions. Change begins with action, and nothing shifts if we are passive. Taking a moment to reflect on how we can actively shape our role in the world helps reduce the influence of the world shaping it for us.
See ya next year
As always, thanks for being here
Love Me x
