Get out of your comfort zone in 2017!

Yoga Resolution #6: Try Something New

These three words are an invitation to awaken fresh insights and experiences into your life.  They sound simple enough, however it can be challenging to break the mold of our familiar patterns and activities.  Your brain is literally wired to feel safe with familiar circumstances, for many good reasons.

However, our brain is also possesses the capacity to rewire itself, to let go of past associations and find new meaning. The technical work for this is “neuroplasticity”.  Yoga has been clinically proven to break up old, stuck neurological patterns within the brain, and create new pathways of perception.  Yoga has the power to move someone from addiction to liberation.  You are your own best neurosurgeon!

Trying something new is a powerful way to exercise your brain, and develop appreciation for the wondrous world that we live in.  It does not have to be overly complicated. You do not have wait for skydiving season, or until you get your permit to climb mount everest to get started.

The important thing is to begin your process of exploration.  Often times, the gateway to new vitalizing experiences, is just a few degrees outside of our normal routine.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

• Make yoga a priority in your life! Start a home practice.  Even go as far as signing up for yoga teacher training (whether to decide to teach or not). Practicing yoga is a way of sewing positive, benevolent seeds in your heart and mind, that will continue to spout; so long as you continue to water them.

• Change your environment.  Clearing out any clutter is a great way to invite new energy into your life.  Consider creating a dedicated space for yoga practice.

• Create time for meditation, to clear your mind of noisy static and open it to new possibilities.  Meditation will stimulate direct insights as well as gradually condition your mind to see life in a new light.

• Go Dancing :)

• Find support.  Changing habits in isolation can be unnecessarily challenging.  Is there some circle, even a virtual circle, you can tap into guide you more gracefully into whatever change you are wishing to make.  Or start your own circle!

• Have honest talks.  Make a (new) habit of making time for meaningful connections with your fellow humans.  This could look as simple as an honest talk in a coffee shop or going for a hike.

Go Big.  What is your resolve for ‘17?  Continue to feed your resolve on a daily basis with incremental decisions, create time for bonus adventures, and put some stakes in the ground to express your resolve in a big way (even if you do not know how you will get there, yet). Is a trip on the horizon? Will you meet the love of your life?  Is it time to make yoga teacher training a priority?

Carpe Diem.  Even if our adventure into a new decision turns out to be so-so, we are that much wiser for having made the effort and can pat ourselves on the back for trying something new. Keep the flame of your resolve alive, accept the challenges as they come, and continue to take the next meaningful step.

 

 

200-hr. Yoga Teacher Training Open House – Sun. Jan. 22 at 9:30am

Come find out more about Axis Yoga’s ongoing yoga teacher trainings. This will be a great opportunity to experience a class, meet graduates, get your questions answered and get a taste of what Axis is all about! Click here to learn more.