Winter has always been challenging for me. I remember this every year-the first day it gets below 40 degrees in Austin. I find it unbelievable that I was able to live in Massachusetts, where my hair would freeze when I stepped outside. My tendency during this season is to turn inward, stay indoors, hibernate-which, I know is highly common. I somehow seem to selectively forget the winter every year and how it makes me feel...until, it's here again.
This month's challenge: Yoga everyday-is a really good antidote for my winter blues, I've realized. It's only the second day of January-but already, I'm beginning to see yoga studios, classes and communities as a great solution to what could potentially, be a bitter problem.
Someone said recently that going to a yoga class is the perfect being alone while being together activity. So for the introspective, especially during winter, among us...a yoga class could be just the thing. We each have our own individual mats, and yet, we are united by a common goal or theme; to connect to our breath and to our bodies. Movement is a such a good and reliable healer.
Each day this week, I have planned out which class I'll be going to and have marked it in my calendar. If I put something in my phone as an appointment, I will make it happen---just as I would a class that I would be teaching myself. It's a self-care date and it will, I imagine, hold me accountable to my practice, my body and then in turn, my students and the people I am close with. I imagine it will be a journey and I'm looking forward to what unfolds in January.
The word I chose to represent 2018 is EMBODIED. I desire to live a more body-centered, body-appreciating life and as a result, encourage others to do the same. It is much different to strive for a more embodied life than, it would be to strive for a body that looks different or to have goals that are purely aesthetic (though, there is nothing wrong with that). To love my body and honor it for all that it can do. There is gratitude in that.
So, I hope you stay warm and are able to breathe and move through those winter blues if you have them. I'll be on my mat everyday this month! Join me?