Eat, Drink, Do Yoga!

We are knee deep in the holiday season.  Once Thanksgiving has hit, time seems to accelerate and before you know it, Christmas and the new year are upon us.  Whether you celebrate any of the Judeo-Christian holidays or not, they and their accompanying activities are nearly unavoidable during this time of year.  We can get caught up and bogged down in the preparations, gift buying and partying going of it all.

For some, it's a wonderful and magical time.  My dear friend Phil starts playing Christmas music really early, October maybe.  His partner, Mike had to lobby for pushing that out at least until Thanksgiving for his own sanity.    For others though, maybe you and me, the holidays can be overwhelming, tiresome and bring up unpleasant memories of holidays gone by.  To help us all enjoy this crazy busy time of the year, don't forget to practice your yoga!   Yoga can help keep us present and centered, reminding always who we are and connecting us to our authentic selves.  The disconnect from our true selves is probably the most common culprit for our holiday malaise.    We can feel pressured to spend too much, over schedule ourselves and end up resenting everyone and everything about December.  Okay maybe I'm sharing more about myself than you, but you get the idea.

By slowing down, practicing yoga at home or in class, you can take the time to center yourself.  For those 90 minutes (or even 5, 10 or 15 minutes!), connect with your breath, your body and shut out all the external noise of the holiday season.  Shut out the societal prescriptions of what you should be doing in December and how your holidays should be celebrated.  By doing this, you can remain true to yourself and therefore celebrate in a way that works for you and reflects who you are. 

If this time of year does not align with your spiritual beliefs, use your yoga to help you to make your own rituals.  Through pranayama (breath work) and asana (poses), explore how your own spirituality can factor into the holiday season whether through being grateful for the abundance in your life, by practicing seva or karma yoga by giving back to others or by spending time with family and loved ones.   Or go old school and create a winter solstice fest.  Basically, make the holidays your own!  Namaste and see you in class.