New Year - Sowing Seeds

Dear Friends Happy New Year and big hearty hugs to you - and a warm welcome to this collection of ideas and offerings. I find the period after christmas and New Year to be a little like that silence after the snow has settled - the noise has died down, there is a sense of newness and of the opportunity to admire a cleaner, simpler landscape. It can become easier to see how much there is to settle into and be grateful for, and where the space is for change to come in.... Perhaps not the type of guilt and angst-driven change that the self-improvement machine enforces every new year, but you know - it doesn't have to be that way. Surely it will feel and taste more sukha sweet, and be more real and long lasting in our lives if it is embodied with kindness, and it comes from us, in truth, and at the right time. For this reason, I appreciate the yogic practice of Sankalpa (resolve)

A simple, effective concept that lends itself to various practices and although apt for this time of year, it can be observed at any time... You can read more about it in this great, accessible article by Yoga International(thanks YI).

https://yogainternational.com/article/view/how-to-create-a-sankalpa

We'll be observing this practice in the upcoming DAYTOX RETREAT at the end of the month (SEE EVENTS) - and I'm also infusing my weekly classes with this concept.

I've been making some gentle changes myself, focusing on self care first (the precursor to any successful shift). Better quality of sleep which has meant changing our habits as a family as well as looking at food and technology consumption. I have been enjoying healthy portions of the healing Ayurvedic dish Kitchari (also known as kitchdi or kitchri) for my lunches and dinner for over a week now, and my body and brain feel cleaner, calmer and lighter. A whole food source, and cooked with plenty of healthy ghee fat, this dish is far from being a lean and faddish feed and I'm already feeling the glow. I recognise that at this time of year the seeds are sown for growth come Spring, so I am envisioning what I would like to see and gently drawing it in so it may take and grow from there.....