It's been awhile my friends, but Happy New Year!
While much of the yoga world has been busy over the holiday season gearing up for the January rush, I took a different approach than usual.
It began with a restful Winter Solstice trip to the island of Nantucket (where I took the pictures in this post). This beautiful place off the coast of Cape Cod is a busy tourist destination in the summer. In the colder months it transforms into a quiet and perfect environment to get away and spend time reading, meditating and enjoying the local food, music and warm company.
At night Steve and our friend Matthew built a fire for us to sit around and talk about our plans and dreams for the year ahead. We also spent time considering what might be holding us back and what we each wanted to let go of to start the new year.
No resolutions were named (those usually don't work anyway), just simple ideas for what we wanted to see happen in our lives and the space needed to create it.
And what came of the adventure is that I realized my focus for 2015 is you and your success.
You see, my desire for the new year is to positively impact more people than ever before and since you are part of this community, you are the person I want to help thrive.
This dream has been on my mind constantly weaving itself into many of my interactions of the past few weeks. I was lucky enough to spend a few days with my friends and family in Hamilton, ON (when my travel documents arrived in Boston just two days before Christmas).
Being at home in the place where I built two successful businesses and a huge network of amazing friends and students, the key ingredients to success whether at work, in love and life became so clear to me. They are each more powerful than any lofty resolution you could make. With them you become solid and empowered to achieve our goals, without them, things can quickly fall apart.
1) Support
If you have a goal or a dream and no one supports you, you may be able to pull it off, but chances are it won't be easy or fun. Knowing you have a stable foundation whether it is a cheering section of friends and family or your own deep study and preparation gives you confidence to take on bigger and better things.
2) Accountability
It is no shock to anyone that most resolutions fail due to lack of accountability. Typically, you make a promise to yourself about what you will (or will not) do in the coming year and at the first sign of inner resistance, let it slide. Many feel that breaking this commitment isn't a big deal to anyone else because, after all, it's personal. However, what if you put money on it? What if you made it a public? What if someone else is counting on you? Accountability is more powerful than any lofty promise because sometimes we need the threat of losing something or disappointing another in order to act.
3) Experience
This last ingredient is so powerful because by on the most basic human level, you want more of what feels good and less of what feels bad. Focusing on a desired experience is truly motivating. For instance, I love feeling strong but I hate working out. For years my only physical practice was yoga and while I love it, I knew it was important to change things up for my body in order to stay healthy.
The challenge? I detest the way things like running make me feel and don't enjoy self-led gym programs. Focusing on how I want to feel, has helped guide me to different exercise classes and group programs where I have a a teacher or trainer and a social setting to push me to a new level of strength.
Each one of these ingredients is important to help you succeed and achieve whatever goals you have set for yourself.
Over the next twelve months, I am going to do everything in my power to provide you with all the support, accountability and positive experience I can. We are going to make life better than ever by enhancing your yoga practice, feeding your body and soul and having a lot of fun along the way. First, there are a few upcoming events and offerings I have been working on couldn't wait to share. Each are steeped in the ingredients for success.
The Expansion Experiment, is a month long challenge. For the month of January (starting today in fact), the focus is to expand optimism and gratitude. For the next four weeks, we will explore how to be an emotionally healthier person, not through outdated affirmations or "Pollyanna" thinking, but by building real habits to make you feel better and find a more positive perspective.
The Miracle of Meditation 5-Day Summer Retreat - My dear friend and power-house teacher Jeff Carreira is leading a five day retreat outside of Philadelphia this July. I will be leading the retreat participants through a daily yoga practice in addition to attending the retreat myself! If you have been thinking of a summer retreat, do not wait on this. July may seem far away,but this retreat is already one third sold out and I don't want you to miss it.
For my beloved yoga instructors: The Yoga Teacher Survival Course is back! Any teacher who is serious about making a greater impact in their community without going broke or burning out needs this course, plain and simple. Following this six week program has turned many struggling part-time teachers into happy, self-sustained full-time instructors.
There is so much more to come and I am thrilled to share space with this incredible community that we are building together.
What do you want to see happen on these pages in 2015? Tell me how I can support your practice, goals and health this year in the comments below.
