Today is the last day of 2024. I sit and mentally reveiw the year. This (almost) past year has offered so many judged ups and downs of events that unfolded. I write judged because we are hardwired to give events ratings on the scale of good and bad. Even if we don't verbalize the scale it is almost always the case that we mentally rate situations, experiences, etc. on some level of Good or Bad. Rating terms may include "fantastic", "awesome", "alright", "pretty good', "not my favorite" and "horrible".
In one of my last yoga classes of this year I encouraged practitioners at the beginning of the class to recall an event or two from the year that they considered Good. And then sit with the positive emotions and color the thoughts or mental images (as they recalled) brightly with even more joy, love, and laughter. To take the event or experience by memory and make it exponentially more in their minds to experience all the good feelings over again, raising their inner level of joy, peace and love.
A practice such as this is important. It is a counter pose for our minds which all too often hold on to more negative or "bad" aspects of life. Our primal brain is set up to hold the negative in efforts to keep us safe and from harm. A recall of any experience that we judge as bad will hopefully keep us from repeating or enable us to flight, fight, etc. On the ready to move away from anything that would hurt us. It is not a "bad" (haha!) mechanism, at all. And yet, we must work to counter it with positives! Otherwise we may swirl the drain of negativism which in turn would eventually drain us physically as well as emotionally and spiritually.
A practice such as this even just for a minute or two a day works wonders to keep our internal selves happier and healthier!
So, as you review your 2024 year focus on the Good! Color it brightly and soak in the positive feelings. Visualize this for yourself and then others. And let that carry over into your new. year.
Happy New Year! with love, Let It Be Yoga
Comentarios