While we have the opportunity to start fresh, anew, and be more present with each breath each day, week, and month, there is something symbolic about a new year. Sometimes we set intentions and goals and feel inspired in a different way. We have a vision, create plans, and start the journey. We make positive changes and feel good…until we don’t. This is life. And it’s all part of the path. Without sadness there is no happiness, without inertia and pause there is no momentum and motivation, without discomfort and pain, there is no ease, freedom, and delight.
Love and be gentle with yourself and others as you move into the year ahead. Whether you are enthusiastically striding along the path, falling off the path, getting back on the path, offering a hand or hug along the path, or maybe even trailblazing a path, it’s all part of life’s path.
Have a beautiful new year and enjoy this excerpt from the book, Finding Joy by Charlotte Davis Kasl.
Accept Yourself, Remembering and Forgetting
“You get on the path of exercising, saying affirmations, paying the bills on time, not criticizing your partner, and then…yikes! You revert to old behavior. You can’t seem to drag yourself out to exercise, you start carping at your partner, you gorge on food. In short, you forget to do all the things that are good for you.
On the path to joy, it is important to accept that we wax and wane like the moon. We remember, we forget—and it’s all part of the dance. We push through our fears, get organized, take a risk, then retreat for awhile. After a break, we once again push through inertia, and get going again…
So, if you fall off track, get up and try again. Tell yourself you get to love yourself. Find a balance, nudge yourself, practice, but be gentle…
The important thing is to watch yourself play the remembering and forgetting game and be gentle at all times. It’s easy to love yourself when you’re winning. The real test is maintaining that love on the tough days. So keep remembering (until you forget) that it’s all drama, it’s all a dance, and it’s all okay.”
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Anna Ferguson is the author of World Peace Yoga: Yoga for People Who Breathe, a book on yoga that inspires peace in action, developing intuition, deepening empathy, and expanding compassion. Connect with Anna via Instagram @annafergusonpeace or via Facebook or join her for a class online at worldpeaceyogaonline.com.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases which supports the peace work that we do.
