 |
(773) 463-YOGA | info@bloomyogastudio.com 4663 N. Rockwell, Chicago, IL 60625 |
 |
|
The Thinking Yogi by Kerry Maiorca January 2005: Why Resolve when you can Evolve? If you’re like most Americans, over the past few weeks you’ve probably made one or more New Year’s resolutions. You may have decided that 2005 will be the year you’ll eat better and exercise more in an effort to live a happier, healthier, more peaceful life. But unfortunately, if you’re like most Americans you’ve probably already “broken” your resolutions or are well on your way. Resolutions are essentially efforts to achieve some bit of change or newness in our lives. But change is a slow, gradual, up and down process, not something that we can make happen simply because we’re hanging a new calendar up over our desks. When most of us “break” our New Year’s resolutions, we think, “Well, maybe next January.” But it’s impossible to change, to go from one type of behavior to another without having some slip ups. Let’s say you resolve to eat healthier. The first week you’re doing well and feeling great; nothing can stop you. But then you have a crummy day at work and you come home tired and there’s nothing in the fridge and you hear a little knock on your front door and it’s a mom and daughter selling girl scout cookies at a discount. True change is a day to day, minute to minute endeavor. If you eat a box of girl scout cookies tonight, that doesn’t mean that you should dive into a bucket of ice cream tomorrow. Instead, tomorrow begin again. The path towards a healthier diet is not going to be all brown rice and grains and tofu. There will be some girl scout cookies and pizza and potato chips mixed in there, too. It doesn’t matter if there are unhealthy blemishes on your resolution; what matters is that there is a balance. So break the cycle. Quit resolving and start evolving. Evolving requires not only that you keep coming back to your goal after slip ups, but also that you have compassion for yourself and resist the urge to judge your failures. Recognize that you will have days where you go back to the old habits, and in the beginning those days may outnumber the days where you act in the “new” way. But if you spend those difficult old habit days chastising yourself, you’re sure to give up the quest for evolution altogether. It can help to think about what you would do if you were trying to help someone you cared about to change her behavior. When she had a bad day you certainly wouldn’t say, “Well, now you’ve blown it. You should just give up.” You would tell her it’s okay to have that sort of day, and that you love her, and that you know it’s hard but that she can do it. It sounds hokey, but just try it: next time you have a slip up on your quest for evolution, try saying (or just think it – especially if there’s someone else in the room) those same things to yourself. The path to change is rocky. Don’t kid yourself, even after you have a great day or week or month or year with your new habits, know that there is no arriving at evolution. There is only constant practice mixed with intermittent failure. Until you can embrace this fact, until you can accept the true nature of change, change will continue to elude you. So take your evolution one step, one moment at a time. Leave the resolutions behind and take up year-round evolution instead. It takes practice and work, but gradual evolution is the path of balance, the path of moderation, the gentle path. Be firm and stick to it, and when you have a setback, simply start again. |
 |
   | ||||||
|
All Content Copyright 2005 Bloom Yoga Studio | Site design by Soleil Studios |
|