"New" Doesn't Have to Mean Bad

OFF THE MAT

Weekly Thought Offering:

Proximity breeds care, distance breeds fear (but it doesn't have to). -Emmanuel Acho (with an insert by NK ;))

Weekly Journal Prompts:

A time in my life when...

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Weekly Mantra:

One step...

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Hello Sadhakas!

This Sunday we leave behind a week that brought with it yet another moment this year where we have been faced with doing something new. Thanksgiving brought with it a very new and unfamiliar way of having a Holiday. Some of us were alone, some of us were with small groups (we would never have imagined last year) and still more of us were perhaps faced with a Holiday full of fear and unknowns in a way we could never have imagined having to spend this time of year. Now we turn our sites towards the Holidays ahead and more new ways of doing things to come. With such an opportunity for fear and anxiety- how do we choose light and stay in love? That's what we explore this week ON and OFF THE MAT.

Our natural response to "new" can often be fear and resistance. We push away that which we don't know. Perhaps, in a time gone by, that served us- it kept our ancestors safe to eat the plants they were familiar with vs eating the unknown ones that might have had a poisonous effect. That fear doesn't serve us now. Now we must evolve and to evolve we must be willing to do things differently. And different, by definition, requires a period where something is new.

New doesn't mean bad- it just means new. If we can make this response to newness conscious then we have a chance at allowing new ways of being into our lives and into our world. If rather than see something new and think "this is bad" but rather "this awkwardness is just my response to the newness of this thing" then we can consciously decide how is best to move forward vs shutting down something new just because we have a reaction to its "newness".

Are you with me?

ON THE MAT this week we explore this concept with the unveiling of the 2020 December Flow. For anyone who is new to working with me- every December I put together a set sequence of the past 11 months of poses that you have been working on. The set sequence for the month provides a lot of fertile ground for revisiting our lessons from the year both ON and OFF THE MAT all while giving your nervous system the great break of knowing what's coming in your physical practice and that knowingness let's you drop even deeper into your work ON THE MAT.

This first week is always about the "newness": it's hard, its awkward, you resist, you attach. All the while this week I ask you to observe rather than react. Perhaps even write down a few of your reactions. Reflecting on them at months end will be a great lesson!

I am excited for this journey together as we learn this flow and hopefully reflect on this crazy year and find some nuggets of light to carry us through. There is a light at the end of the tunnel- we just need to help each other get there!

With great respect and love,

Nicole