Saucha might help us enter the new year!

The year 2010 is coming to a close. What would the yoga sutras tell us about releasing an old year and welcoming a new year? If we look at the Niyamas we might find that the first niyama Saucha, has some wisdom in the principle of cleansing and purifying body-mind-heart. I like the idea of entering the new year with a "clean slate" so to speak. Some of us make resolutions or goals to accomplish in the year to come. This makes us hopeful. Yet we have learned that it is the "heart's intention" that lays the ground for our goals and aspirations.
For me personally, I have chosen to ask myself what it is that I can release in my conditioning that will help me to enter this new year. Maybe there are fears or assumptions that are holding me back from opening my heart to deeper wisdom and my imagination to a fresh creativity.
I can start clearing my heart and soul by just cleaning and recreating some part of my environment. Open a drawer, a cupboard, a closet.... What can I let go of!!! What fear can I come face to face with, dissolve and see with clean awareness?
This is the way I will enter the new year. Will you join me?

185 Yoga Calendars

This year was a record for my total calendar order.
To date my total order is 185 calendars. They are all gone or spoken for.
Feedback has been great and the consensus is that it is the best calendar yet.
A great way to start the new year and enjoy "IMAGINE" 2011.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you.
I am already thinking up ideas for calendar 2012!!!

A Poem for Winter Solstice

I read this poem in our last class together this week. Some students asked if I would post it.
I think this is one of the most beautiful winter poems I have ever heard. I hope it touches you in some way.

Winter Solstice by Rebecca Parker
Perhaps for a moment the typewriters will stop clicking,
the wheels stop rolling,
the computers desist computing,
and a hush will fall over the city.
For an instant in the stillness,
the chiming of the celestial spheres will be heard
as earth hangs poised in the crystalline darkness, and then gracefully tilts.
Let this be a season when holiness is heard and the splendor of living is revealed.
Stunned to stillness by beauty
we remember who we are and why we are here.
There are inexplicable mysteries.
We are not alone.
In the universe there moves a Wild One whose gestures alter earth's axis toward love.
In the immense darkness everything spins with joy.
The cosmos enfolds us.
We are caught in a web of stars, cradled in a swaying embrace, rocked by the holy night, babes of the universe.
Let this be the time we wake to life, like spring wakes,
in the moment of winter solstice.

Freshen Holiday Traditions

Sometimes what has worked and been enjoyed in the past becomes tired and worn out.
What is important about traditions and rituals is that they have meaning. It seems that every year we may need to evaluate all the ways we celebrate the season and decide which ones we want to keep and which activities we can let go of. Most of us know we have limited energy and if we try to cram in too many activities and requests, we end up overwhelmed and exhausted.
"Choose" might be a mantra for the holidays. Choose the things that you truly savor and release some of the tasks that have become a burden. Every day remember why and what you are celebrating this year. I suspect you will find each day more fulfilling, some new discoveries and a fragrance of joy and peace.