Episode 5 - New Year's Intentions: How a Mystic Sets 2020 Up for Success
At the beginning of the year, it is tempting to make new years resolutions. But, why would you do that when they only lead to heartache and disappointment! The mystic has another way, a way of greater hope and positive change. Let Alanna illuminate for you the path of least resistance, and help you set 2020 up for the most successful (and happy) year (and decade) possible!
how do we do resolutions? We do it mystic style. And I know that it is such a big deal to write out your resolutions or figure out what you want the next year to be, and I think it’s just so funny how we try to pack this all into the end of the year like suddenly, for some reason on January 1, something magical occurs, and we actually have a new chance to do things differently. The reality is we could do that any day of the week, or any day of the year, doesn’t have to happen on January 1. But I do, of course, recognize the psychological and, of course, the astrological impacts and influences that this time of year does have. So I do wanna honor that.
The Buddha has a pretty big teaching which is that suffering is optional.
I do understand why this time of year brings up this need, this desire to refresh things. Psychologically speaking, we do have that winter solstice, the longest night moving towards darkness that just happened on December 21. I’m getting way ahead of myself. And the solstice gives us a moment to pause, to give some insight, to take some time to relax and restore before the light starts to return, the days begin to get longer. And we do actually have to take stock of what we still have in the stores in order to get through the rest of the winter. We have to really plan carefully how we wanna plan things in the coming spring you know and those are old school ways of looking at it, but we still have to do that in this day and age in our own ways. So taking this time to decide what you want the next year to look at look like rather, I think, is a really important thing to do. So I don’t begrudge anybody that. However, what I do wanna caution against is the suffering that often comes when resolutions are not met.
So, resolutions are pretty lame, honestly. They’re simply expectations. Resolutions are expectations that we set upon ourselves for things that we don’t already do. We expect ourselves to suddenly work out five days a week. We expect ourselves to suddenly do something differently in our relationship. We expect ourselves to make this particular change in our career. That’s what resolutions are: These giant expectations, these weighty expectations we place on ourselves. So I wanna share with you my favorite definition of expectations, which is that expectations are pre-meditated disappointments. I remember the first time I heard this many years ago. It just rang so true for me, that any time we have expectations of ourselves, or of someone else, they are simply just disappointments waiting to happen. And to release ourself from the pressure of expectations, to release ourself from the potential pain of disappointments, is actually really easy. We just don’t set ourselves up for that.
Resources mentioned on this podcast:
HigherEducation.Yoga Membership
