a new year’s practice that truly creates the future — our future
I’ll let you in on something…
In the last few weeks, I’ve been so eager—ok, angsty and downright grippy!—to just get into 2024 already. I suppose I’m feeling the desire to find some relief, imagining there is possibly something better taking place over the threshold of a new year.
It’s probably quite common for all of us to pin our hopes to a vague place nestled in the horizon. Remember in 2019 when we were all looking forward to what 2020 would bring? Just saying... it’s human to look to the future for a time in which things will somehow be different. And yet the turn of the calendar doesn’t necessarily wave a magic wand on our conditions.
Many spiritual lineages teach us that living intentionally is not a once-a-year affair, as well as that the most important outcomes of our practice don’t happen on the mat or a meditation cushion. There is no magical moment when we are done with the past or arrive somewhere brand new. Our practice takes place moment-to-moment in our daily lives. Things begin to shift when we truly begin living our practice. The way we shape the future is how we show up today. The way we shape our future is in the quality of our presence in the here and now.
I’d like to highlight that our practice isn’t making us “get better” at being present. What we’re truly doing is getting better at noticing when we’re not present. We’re training in returning to begin again, over and over again, into the here and now. When we bring presence to our practice and our lives, when we remember how to return to presence over and over again, it gives us more of an experience of aliveness of being here with what is — so we may participate in each moment with more consciousness.
In each moment, we have the ability to construct our future.
a new year’s prayer & practice for all
May we take a moment to allow our body weight land on the earth and acknowledge the support of the ground.
May we hold the hand of the beloved breath.
Now is the only time; now is the only time.
How we relate to it creates the future.
The future is a result of what we do here, now.
May you be safe.
May you be well.
May all beings be safe and well.
May all beings be at peace and ease.
May all beings be happy.
May it be so.
Happy New Year.
I hope you’ll enjoy this New Year’s Dharma Talk and Meditation to bring us back to presence. (Over and over again.)
Interested in further exploring the nervous system and accessing practices that help you or your students tap into the relaxation response? Here are a few quick links:
My Anatomy of Rest & Digest practice series (now available on demand) supports us in working through the brain-gut axis to improve GI function and initiate a state of neurological relaxation—rest and digest. This workshop-style series dives into the sceince of rest and digest and working with stress and relaxation through practices that focus on the psoas, diaphragm, and vagus nerve.
My upcoming new series, Presencing: Heart Practices for Hard Times, will continue this work with practices that support our nervous system, i service of allowing us to show up in our lives and connect with the world around us, particularly during these overwhelming times. Learn more here.
Finally, if you’re interested in a deep dive of the science and application of these practices, so you can share them with your students or clients, my Restorative Yoga Teacher Training starts on January 24. Learn more here.