Resting in stillness and silence - is yoga more impressive when it looks impressive to the outside world? How does your practice feel in you?

Usually with the new year comes new resolutions. What does this mean for you? If you have chosen to follow through with a resolution, is there sincerity in your reasoning? Can you stay committed to sincerity? If you have no resolution, what about committing to inner stillness sincerely?

Why is it that we give up on our resolutions or a commitment? Is it because we become disappointed or discouraged, and then can’t find the motivation to continue?

What do we do when we get discouraged by our own faults, or by life stories that are challenging or disappointing and we feel we can only give up? Read this extract from Looking from within, gleanings from the work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother: “The purest lily can spring out of a heap of rubbish by the wayside. That is to say, there is nothing so rotten that it cannot give birth to the purest realization. Whatever may be the past, whatever may be the faults committed, whatever the ignorance in which one might have lived, one carries deep within oneself the supreme purity which can translate itself into a wonderful realization. The whole point is to think of that, to concentrate on that and not to be concerned with all the difficulties and obstacles and hindrances. Concentrate exclusively on what you want to be, forget as entirely as possible what you do not want to be.” The Mother

Even when challenging situations seem beyond our control, what if we place a small spark of goodwill, lightness and sincerity in this darkness, in whatever form it takes? The challenges can be within us (resistance to change from various parts) and/or a universal force from outside of our control. As Sri Aurobindo says, “..one must try to keep a part of the mind conscious which will refuse to admit the suggestions or share in the depression and the trouble, - which will say firmly ‘I know what this is and I know that it will pass and I can resume my way to the goal which nothing can prevent me from reaching, since my soul’s will is and will always be for that.’ You have to reach the point where you can do that always; then the power of the Forces to disturb will begin to diminish and fall away.”

Let’s celebrate being true to ourselves and our practice. Small moments to sincerely drop-in...

Here’s to a year filled with inspiring moments...

Om Shanti.