Why I don't 'do' New Year's Resolutions

There are two aspects to this musing. One aspect comes from what happens from a deepening of the practice. The other aspect comes from what feels natural to me, what I call The Natural New Year. The awareness of what’s natural comes from my practice, of course, but I’ve left them separate because that’s what feels most clear to me. I’ve started with the deepening of a practice.

Aspect One: The Deepening of the practice: Why I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions.

There’s something that happens when the practice deepens. When it moves from thoughts, mind and ideas rattling around in the head – sort of a striving to achieve a deeper aspect of the practice instead of the depth organically moving into being rooted into the being of who One is.

This is when the practice bubbles up from deep within and the mind gets used to sort out and clarify what is arising instead of trying to impose ideals and ways unto the self.

When the practice moves out of the head and in the deep sacred part of the self it no longer makes sense to take action because of a date, the rhythm and timing of things moves and flows through the days, the weeks, the months, the year.

When things arise naturally and are seen, then and only then, are resolutions organic. Otherwise they are more boundaries and boxes that the mind puts on the body, energy, emotion and life force.

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions because I don’t wait to do what is needed, there is no delay, no residue from waiting to create what is being asked to be expressed. This is both the gift and the curse of becoming more aware, of becoming more present.

Once it’s seen -whatever ‘it’ is – and the awareness is there combined with the skill to hold deep knowing within there can be no waiting because waiting creates karma. When there is no waiting, no inorganic delay as a way of life there needs to be no yearly resolutions to be kept because One is already living. When the resolutions arise in their own timing and from deep deep within, and as long as One remains anchored in that depth, that resolution will unfold without forcing the mind or ego, there will be no need for great shows or promises to self because it will resonate from a place so strong that choice is backed by knowing.

If we go against the knowingness and knowingly resist it with our mind, karma arises…

Karma isn’t an eye for an eye, or a divine scorecard of good deeds vs. bad deeds or cause and reaction. The karma of being angry is being angry…and the actions or non actions from that place. Will those actions be supportive or destructive? Or a bit of both? I don’t know that we ever really know the end result of our actions but we can navigate from a deep resonate place.

Something happens when the practices moves from mere knowledge into experience, when it moves from theory into wisdom and springs from the depth of being into knowingness…every practice could reveal a resolution that needs to be fulfilled…or none at all but the timing will always be One’s own. Vision boards a mere echo of the deep practice.

So the only resolution I make is the reminder to myself of why I am so passionate and dedicated to my practice, because whatever needs to be seen and expressed will arise when it’s time is right. Any other timing is mindful ego.

Aspect Two: The Natural New Year.

I’ve never thought of January 1st as the New Year. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always understood that that’s the societally accepted start. From an energetic point, I’ve even tried hard to contort the idea of gestation to make it fit, but it has never felt like the truth for me. There are no seeds being sowed, to me, this is the time the soil needs to rest to rejuvenate, and restructure so that it knows what seeds it wants to nourish.

Even with the solstice and the lengthening of days, this time of year still feels like the exhale, Nature’s savasana…or rather what we humans have drawn the wisdom of savasana from. The space to allow for the compilation of the year’s experiences to sink in. The time of year to integrate, to digest, to let the previous months settle in, sink in to one’s being. To rest in the exhale so that we can see what’s there.

To me, Natural New Year is when the breeze changes direction and brings a sweet subtle warmth of inspiration, when the geese point their beaks North and the thoughts of the curious crocus arise.

And so, for me, this not the time to make resolutions, this is the time to just be; the natural savasana. I will not rush the exhale away, I will not force the inhale in. I have no need to force the inspiration to come, for it comes when it’s time.

In the exhale there is deep rest, a quiet space to set down everything so that I may see what is ‘right’ for me to pick up again or to release.

Then, and only at the end of the exhale, there is a pause, when the quiet white blanket dissolves, and in that pause the seeds are beginning to be thought of and the inhale slowly begins to fill that space the exhale created with new, fresh, green, inspiration. That, to me, is a New Year.