Yogi New Year Resolution 2020

Dear Yogis

Have you got your New Year’s Resolution ready? Yogis are brilliant at resolutions. In every yoga practice we try to be a better version of ourselves. This is truly our time of year.

Yogis have the Sanskrit word ‘Sankalpa’ to describe a resolve from the heart. It’s “an intention that forces your mental energies... towards a specific end”.  It is an aspiration pursued by setting a sincere intention. It’s really not about losing a couple of pounds or going to the gym. It doesn’t care if you give up chocolate. It’s about the authenticity of your life and what change you can make to get closer to your higher self. (Definition of the opposite might help: imagine lack of setting a goal or intention, living with an assortment of aims, confusion, aimlessness... and other terms that sound alarmingly like the higgledy piggledy of daily life.)

A Sankalpa is about creating the life you are meant to have. To find your Sankalpa, imagine the life that you aspire to live and then set your intention. Act as that person and pursue long-term interests rather than short-term, confused desires.

Yoga Retreat

OK. Hands up who resolves to come on our Magical Greek Yoga retreat next September – the third week in September! If you’re stuck for a resolution for New Year’s Eve, a Kapsali Retreat could be just the thing! Let me know. As before, we can get the early flight, 06.40, out from Heathrow on Sunday 13th September 2020 and catch the late flight, 19.55, back from Athens on Saturday 19th. See here. To get to the island, we hook up with the Olympic Airlines fights: 16.10 from Athens and 17.20 return on the Saturday. You could also ch

Home Studio

This coming Monday, the 30th, I’ve added another class at 4.00pm. The 6.00 and 7.30 classes are full. See attached for the week’s class availability. For those of you who have been coming for a while, please click here to write a small review.

I’m also covering a class at Eden at 11.30 on’ Thursday 2nd January 2020. I might wear this, a Christmas present.

Yoga in the News

Telegraph.co.uk has: Midlife Fitness Files: yoga expert Bridget Woods Kramer on fake vegans and the power of ayurveda. She says about her energy secret: “Fresh vegetable juice or standing on my head for 5-10 minutes. You can do it against a wall or get a special headstand stool online or just lie down with a bolster or cushions across your lower back and your legs up the wall.  Going upside down daily is invigorating and relaxing at once and, some say, anti-ageing”

With NY Resolution timing, Psychology Today gives us: The Practice and Habit of Happiness. ‘In short, breaking undesired habits and starting desired habits is hard and usually somewhat unpleasant. So, what if we replaced “discipline” with more “delight” and character development as a motivator?’ Read about how to change the neural pathways in your brain.