How is your new year starting off? Did you set intentions? What are you going to do differently this year? What seeds have you already planted that you want to see continue to grow? What are you ready to let go of and leave behind?
I returned to Los Angeles on Monday after a wonderful trip to Toronto and the surrounding area to see family and a few old friends and a very rejuvenating trip to New York to practice with my teacher Dharma Mittra and reconnect with some of the Dharma community.
I picked up a cold in Toronto and I’ve been fighting it since. It’s almost gone now but it was a bad one. It was kind of the physical manifestation of what I’ve been feeling a lot lately on a deeper level.
I was pretty exhausted at the end of last year. I did a lot of traveling and a lot of teaching and I was having a hard time finding time for my self. I got a couple of small injuries trying to push through my practice and not listening to my body. I wasn’t eating well. Way too much food. Way too much sugar.
The last few weeks have been very healing for me. Seeing my family was wonderful. Reconnecting with old friends from childhood was a lot of fun. Where has the time gone? How did we get so old? Can you believe that we are already 9 days into the new year? Incredible!
My trip to New York was wonderful. I always feel like I am coming home when I practice with my teacher, Dharma. It was very special to start the year off practicing with him and spending almost the whole week practicing daily at the Dharma Yoga Center.
While in New York, I was staying with my friend, Diana, another Dharma trained yoga teacher. We did some wonderful hiking on Long Island. She inspired me to start practicing the psychic development technique again — a special meditation practice that we learned to teach in Dharma’s 800hr program. I started practicing again with her on NYE and it’s been a part of my Sadhana the last few days. Diana is eating a very healthy vegan diet and she inspired me to eat healthier with her. I’ve had a challenging relationship with eating Vegan over the past few years. I was a vegan for almost 3 years and then I stopped and then I started again and was vegan for almost another year. I’m going to see how it goes again this time. I’ve been eating a vegan diet again since December 30th. I may add in some eggs and I also want to explore some raw milk, cheese, and ghee. At the end of last year I think the message of getting sick was that I need to do more self-care. I’ve started doing oil massage as part of my Sadhana in the morning. I’m so grateful to have taken an Ayurvedic workshop with Arun Deva in December, as part of my Yoga Therapy Rx program at LMU. This inspired me to add in oil pulling and oil massage to my daily morning ritual and some other great cleansing practices. During my stay in New York we also didn’t eat a lot of refined sugar and barely any processed foods. It’s amazing how clear my mind is without sugar. And how energized I am feeling. This will be a hard one to avoid because sugar is now being put into almost everything we eat but I’m going to do my best to eat more at home and cook more simple meals and try to avoid refined sugar. I also learned eating with Diana that I’m probably gluten intolerant too. Diana doesn’t eat gluten and I found it so easy to digest gluten free bread and pasta eating with her. I usually avoid a lot of breads and pasta because I the past they have made me feel terrible — bloated, tired, lethargic. My body feels great right now and I love that I don’t have to give up bread or pasta. I’m so excited about this year! We spent a lot of time working on presentation materials and updated training materials last year for my Shiva Yoga® program and I can’t wait to share these teachings this year. I have several programs coming up. I hope you can join me for one of the offerings.
As I let go of the last remnants of this cold that I’ve been fighting I also feel like a lot of other things have come to the surface for me in the last few months and are also washing over me and washing through me. Something has healed in me. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I noticed something feels different. I’ve let go of something. I’m ready for what is coming my way. I know what I want in my life and I’m heading in that direction. I’m grateful to be here and for all the blessings in my life. I’m grateful for this year and the awakening that I’m feeling. There’s some really special things that I’m working on right now and putting energy into and I can’t wait to share with you all news about each one of them. It’s going to be an exciting year!
Happy New Year, Everyone!
I hope our paths cross again soon. I hope this year brings you much peach, love, and happiness. Look ahead. What incredible life do you see for yourself? What are you going to manifest this year? What great things are you going to achieve? This is our time! Let’s make the most of it.
Namaste!
