Happy New Year of 2018!
I absolutely love the new year. It's not my favorite holiday - that's a secret to most - but I love an excuse to celebrate fresh new starts and fresh new perspectives. Every day is a new day, every moment is a new moment... we can create change, reflect, and create intentions on a regular basis but there is something about the new year that simply is a new start.
I invite you to apply one of the main yogic principles, and principles of Ayurveda, that is also simply science: like attracts like. Is what you love really a love for you? Is the practice or habit that makes you feel the best the practice that is truly the best for you, to create balance? Quite often we are drawn to those actions and activities, and yoga practices, that create more imbalance rather than create balance in our bodies. Sometimes this can take time to understand truly for our own bodies. My own journey has definitely been, well, a journey.
So much of our life and our health is actually listening and understanding. Sometimes we don't listen. Sometimes we listen, but if we don't understand we may not know how to act on the listening. Some examples of what I am referencing: Being pitta I really want to push myself with activities, but have realized though I LOVE it so much, all it does is create imbalance. Think about the doshic imbalances in most of the students who love hot yoga? Is it fueling their imbalance or truly creating balance? :) Someone who has primarily a kaphic imbalance may want to relax a lot, or participate in chill activities or yoga practices that are more yin, but will this create balance, or only fuel imbalance? An activity that is vata (i.e. aerial arts) I found that I love so much, but all it did was fuel the fire in pitta. I have learned to listen and understand, thus do my best to not participate in activities that add to my imbalance but rather seek out those that create balance. The aerial simply exasperated my pitta. It's all about balance, and understanding how to truly find that balance in our bodies, minds, and souls.
Now, do I mean that everything we do and love fuels our imbalance? Absolutely not. It is something to reflect, to be mindful of. It is simply another tool to truly find balance. Yoga is a science, a brilliant science, at creating balance in body, mind, and spirit. We can use this reflection of 'like attracts like' in the yoga we practice, but also in our daily lives of the foods we eat, the relationships we have, the activities we participate in. Again, just another delightfully wonderful tool...
Happy New Year!