Self-reflection on New Year's Day: what's despicable and a challenge can also be a triumph

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I spend several hours participating in a New Year's Day workshop (led by Becky Klett) thinking about and documenting how I want to live my days and get the most out of my experiences. I'll share some of it here, however it's more powerful to do this in community with others.

Becky asks, "How do you want to move through the year? What seeds do you want to plant? What do you want to clear out? What are you dreaming?" 

The process is reflective. I go inward without judgement (hard to do, try it).

I list my triumphs and challenges from the past year on a piece of paper. When I do, I notice that some of my challenges are also listed as my triumphs.

Then I tear up the paper and let go of these two lists, of the past! This is a practice of making space to allow for new.

After writing, I look and see where I might want to plant a new seed or transfer what I learned to another area of my life.  

I stretch and do asanas between my writing. 

Some poses remind me of times I feel open-hearted and capable, other poses I notice I tighten and close down. 

I try the asana flying half moon (very hard for me) and remember that life is by nature difficult. I lose my balance. 

Becky encourages us to fall out of a pose and getting right back up as a practice to take into my everyday life.

I take breaths and begin to envision and dream how the new year will look for me. 

I make up statements to support how I want to be as well as what I want to accomplish and experience. For example, "I will smile to myself when I walk, I will write every day, I will meditate, I will travel to..., I will spend time with..., I will study..., I will read...." 

There are some statements that appear on my list every year. Such as "I will practice unconditional caring about the happiness of another and let go of any thought of what I might get" and "I will not hide my mistakes, flaws, or fears--I will tell the truth." 

I write statements in these categories--intellectual, spiritual, emotional, physical. 

I'm specific.

I identify and write the way I'll aspire to live my new year dreams using one-word or simple phrases. 

For example, I write, "I will live with...

love
curiosity
mindfully
wide-eyes
reverence
a tree's strength and flexibility
commitment
rigor
vigor
tranquility
luminosity
compassion
elegance
friendliness (with all aspects of myself and life)
openness
warmth
tenderness
focus
gentleness
connection
spaciousness
freshness
joyfully."

From that list I'll circle one or a few words that will be my words for the year. 

My word last year was light as in Leonard Cohen's song, Anthem, where he says, "Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

This year my word is mindful.  

What is your guiding word this year?

You don't have to wait for the new year. These questions are for daily reflection also. 

Intention: the how of what I think, say, and do

Intention Circle at Londolozi Private Game Reserve*


On New Year's Day I took a workshop led by my yoga teacher (Becky Klett). On this day, she teaches yoga with a broad, reflective stroke. She incorporates ideas about how to live with pose practice. 

I bring a notebook to respond to her questions. Here are a few:

Between poses she asks, "Think and write about challenges and gratitudes this past year." Not surprising, many of my challenges are also my gratitudes. 

Then, "Think anew, and with an innocence or ability to let go and not judge your past, set a tone for the coming year." She says, "Intention is not about setting goals, it's the attitude or underlying feeling in what we think and how we act." 

And that's where we're headed: to consider personal intention.

Setting intention is different than goal setting. 

Intention is not about future outcome. It is a way to focus on being in the present moment. It's an aspiration or how I want to be. It's an alignment of what I care about with how I live what I care about. 

Being grounded in intention offers me integrity and unity in my interactions.

Becky ends the workshop by inviting us to put our intention into one word. 

For example, if I consider setting limits as a goal, an intention would be a purposeful direction of my mind as I set it. It's the HOW of what I think, say, or do. A few of my (intention) words for the year are loving, kindness, consistent. So, I will set limits (a goal) with love, kindness, and consistency (intention). 

What are your intention words?

*Artist Simon ‘Max’ Bannister created Intention Circle at Londolozi Private Game Reserve. This ‘Land Art’ is made from discarded strips of rusty game fencing. The same wires that once separated wild animals, including elephants, from each other are now two enormous ‘tusks.’ Facing west towards the Spring/Autumn equinox, the ‘tusks’ represent the intent to create an elephant corridor connecting the The Limpopo Transfrontier Park to the Blyde River Canyon.