Traditionally the time for New Year resolutions, this year particularly potent as it is a new decade…Enter in 2020…a Universal year of perfect clear vision and accomplishment. A time which energetically beckons to move forward with purpose, confidence, and ease. To become fully invested in creating and manifesting your purpose and building something which withstands the test of time. To harvest the joys of peace, love and success.
Tall order! And those resolutions we are encouraged culturally to make? how can we possibly resolve to do all that?
New Years resolutions in our society tend to go something like “I’m going to eat healthier, lose ten pounds, get fit, not waste time on my phone, stop drinking so much, never yell at my kids” etc. etc. Very rarely do this resolutions seem to stick beyond the first few weeks of January when the Health Clubs are packed and the night life a little quieter.
Yogic traditions encourage us to resolve to change to grow, not all at once, and certainly not in a linear fashion. Real growth and change takes time compassion and practice. It is a process of moving forward and stepping back. Just when you think you may have authentically shifted, released a pattern or attachment, boom…something triggers you and you are right back faced with the same behavior or reaction. So you start again, and perhaps laugh a little at your very human self.
The practice of intention or Sankulpa mindful resolve to change, release or create gives us something to sink our teeth into and chew on. Creating an intention and working with it can and does produce the desired change. It takes constant reminding and awareness but this practice does allow us to grow.
Isn’t that the true purpose of Resolutions? To resolve to change towards growth? Rather than a sweeping one time concept at the beginning of the year, why not allow for an on-going process; starting with awareness followed by intention, taking action and surrendering to release. One pattern, one attachment, one thought at a time, gently with patience and humor. The key is to become aware of how and why you are suffering. Suffering as a manifestation of the human condition and the movements of the mind. We create our own suffering, in our heads, due to attachments and belief systems.
This work is deeper and yes harder than broad resolutions which rarely stick, but the results are woven into our intrinsic desire to change, to evolve and reduce our suffering.
Start with one intention. Find the words around this change you wish to manifest. Work with it, repeat it, check in and see how you are doing. Forgive yourself if you fail, try again, practice resolve to change.