Create Space for New Beginnings
In the summer of 2015, my mom and I helped to teach a 100-hour immersion class for prospective yoga teachers. At the end of the course, our beloved students gave us each an air plant. Since my mom’s death of cancer in 2018, it has brought me comfort to keep our two air plants side by side, feeling like that special time teaching together wasn’t so long ago.
But of course, nothing lasts forever, and about a month ago, well past their average life expectancy of two to five years, the air plants’ minty green faded to brown. I held on trying to review them until mid-December, when I released the dead plants into my backyard. (My son asked if we could keep them in the closet forever. I told him we could not.)
I am honored every January 1 to continue my mom’s annual tradition of teaching a New Year’s Day yoga class that includes intention setting. One of the biggest reasons that New Year’s intentions so often fall short is that we resist letting go of old habits or ways of being. Something might have served its purpose, and its release makes space for new growth.
A year ago, I knew my family needed a new place to live, and I set an intention to find us a perfect home — but I was only willing to look in our existing neighborhood. One offer fell through, and then another. I resisted the idea of moving somewhere further away, but as I started to visualize what I really wanted, it was grass. A backyard. A dedicated area for yoga and. I wanted to feel spaciousness and quiet. Which would involve leaving our dense urban community. It was hard to let go of a place we loved dearly, but looking just six miles east opened the door to exactly what I wanted and many new opportunities for my sons.
In the meditation I'm sharing with you today, my mom asks us to release old attachment patterns that no longer serve us. Look for the file called MEDITATION Releasing Attachment in the Right Side Up library. (Get free access here.) It is a 20-minute practice, and I hope it serves you in making space for whatever you wish to create this year.
Happy new year!
Love,
Sara
Journal prompts to help manifest your dreams this year
Whether or not you're able to join the yoga class this morning, I'd like to share some powerful journaling prompts to use in setting your vision for the year.
-- What were your accomplishments in 2023? What is going well in your life already, and how can you build on that?
-- What are you grateful for in your life as it is? What blessings in your life can you identify that grew out of loss or challenge?
-- What patterns have blocked you in the past? What do you need to let go of to create space for something new?
-- What would you love to create in 2024 and (critically) why? How will it make you feel to get it? Can you allow yourself to feel that emotion as if your vision is already a reality?
-- Yes or no: Are you surrounding yourself with people who will support your vision?
-- What is a small doable step you can do to move toward your goal? Can you dream big but start small, allowing success to build on itself?
-- Looking back at the feelings you wish to create, choose one word (i.e. peace, bravery, freedom) to fill in this blank: 2024 is my year of _______________.
It is easy to overcommit to personal transformation right now. Starting with a small habit change you can stick with — say, five minutes a day of meditation or exercise — goes a lot further than a lofty goal of an hour that’s abandoned by February. And getting clear on why you want what you do provides the fuel to keep going. Do you want to get fit so you can play ball with your grandchild? Allow yourself to feel what that would be like.
A great phase to keep ourselves from getting too attached to a specific outcome: “This or something better is on the way.” Put out to the universe what you want and why you want it. Then give up any attachment to how and when it will happen.
If you'd like to share any of these journal responses with me, I'd love to hold space for your vision.
Simple ways to feel better
Some of the tutorials I shared on social media in December:
-- How to prevent wrist pain in downward dog.
-- A favorite low back release.
-- Take one minute to release jaw tension.
-- Off the mat: Remember the 4 gates of speech.
If you don't have Instagram, these videos are also available on my Facebook and Tik Tok pages.