My Non-New Year's Resolution

On Steve Pavlina's blog I recently read about the idea of trying something new (like starting a new positive habit or breaking an old negative one) for the entire month of January. The concept is that you use every ounce of willpower you have to keep up this new habit for 30 days. You can tell yourself it's not forever, just this one month.

By the end, the short term change can become a long term one that is easier to keep up.

I'm not really one for New Year's Resolutions, but as I read this article a couple of things kept popping into my head. The first was that I'd like to do yoga every day. The second is that I would like to get back to my morning ritual (tea, candle, short meditation) and have breakfast with the family. At the table. Together.



I know these things seem somewhat incongruous, but really, they are activities that I enjoy and, more importantly, activities that help me feel grounded. They are also things that I used to do regularly, but not so much lately. As my life expands to include more and more activities, I often find myself heading in 5 directions at once. Which really is my natural state and I've learned to be OK with it.

But, if I don't have some sort of solid foundation beneath (and within) me, it's just chaos and I don't really accomplish anything (though I'm still always busy- busily accomplishing nothing). When I do have that grounding, all of my random movements tend to coordinate somehow, to result in something that, ultimately, I knew I was creating, but just wasn't quite aware of at the time.

I don't need to (or like to) logically plan out my actions, I just need to access my intuition. And being grounded helps me with that.

Lately, I've been feeling anything but grounded. I've stopped doing yoga because almost every time I do it, I spend the entire time thinking how many other things I should also be doing. So, I either stop half way through to start a load of laundry and do dishes or I just don't come back to it the next day. It isn't until my lower back starts to hurt and I'm exhausted by the end of every day that I realize that I have to make time for yoga.

Taking the time in the morning to start things, the same way, day after day… well, it just helps. It keeps me from hitting the ground running. It slows me down just a bit, which, I guess, is what I'm after. And doing yoga feels fantastic. It's a moving meditation that I really enjoy. The more often I do it, the easier it is to fall into the simple awareness of the moment.

This is me reaching. This is me balancing. This is me breathing.

This is me.