Begin Again

The cycle is self evident...we take a breath in and we breathe out. It happens millions of times throughout our life and each and every time it's an example of my thought for the week, that of beginning again.

Perhaps this is the time of year we think more about what's next as we flip the calendar from 2013 to 2014.  This time of the year many are asking themselves a familiar question: "What is my New Year's Resolution?"  Is this the year that whatever has been sitting on my to-do list finally makes it off the list and into manifestation?   
We ring in the New Year often with great expectations and find ourselves in a puddle of disappointment that whatever it was that felt so compelling at midnight on January 1, seems to have fizzled just like our glasses of champagne.  The oomph is gone and we are back in the dance with the familiar.  Do we really need to change that much?

As I have written in the past regarding the New Year, I want to honor what has evolved and acknowledge how it came about. Often, we are ready to let go of things before their time, thinking that the grass might be greener if we do. Take a moment to consider ONE thing that you've added into your life this past year that has made it unquestionably better. That one thing began as an inclination that something needed to change and you stepped onto a path of creating that change. And now...here you are in the present moment with what now seems to be quite a normal part of your life, although it didn't begin that way.

I'm all for living in the present moment and practice it daily. But I also recognize how our past is a magnificent teacher. If we're paying attention to our actions and how they echo first within and then beyond us, we begin to become better attuned to what is truly working. It's a dynamic process that will forever be unfolding, yet I hope that with acknowledging what's working that I get more efficient at finding out what's worth keeping and what is not.

And this leads me back to my thought for the week, beginning again.  As we travel along our own path of self-discovery and transformation, many of us use the practices of yoga, meditation, prayer and contemplation.  These practices are all part of us peeling back our layers of illusion which are fraught with endless stories of self-doubt, judgment, criticism and expectation.  We also learn that when we cling to our stories, we move away from the direction we desire and sit in the lap of suffering.  So, we begin again.

When we notice that we have grabbed onto a thought and followed its wild ride, it's in THAT moment that we begin again, that we recognize this as the opportunity to let go.  We can come back to the moment, we can come back to THIS breath, to this very inhale and this very next exhale.  We may have to do this 700,000 times in our practice because that IS the journey of surrendering.

With that being said, my intention for this moment, which just happens to be the new year of 2014 is to begin again...over and over and over again.  When I come back to that place of the beginning, I have nothing but spaciousness and in that spaciousness, there is no suffering.

Begin again.