Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

In our day-to-day lives, it’s all too easy to get caught up in what others want for us. Well-meaning or not, these “other voices” can stick in your head, and if you’re not careful, you won’t be able to recognize your own, at least not as readily. By now you probably know that yoga is about the process of listening to your wisest self. It starts by hearing our bodies— hearing the knee that is out of alignment, stopping yourself from forcing a joint that just won’t bend that way. But eventually, that act gives way to a deeper listening, one where you can hear your own, deepest wants.

I was first introduced to the sankalpa during my 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program during a Yoga Nidra practice. This practice forever changed the trajectory of my life. By listening to my teacher guide me into a state between consciousness and unconsciousness, I was able to create my sankalpa by crystallizing what my heart’s true desire was and begin to allow it to manifest and unfold in my life.

Samskaras are impressions imprinted in the mind, created by our life experiences. They form together and create habitual patterns that can be experienced physically, mentally, or emotionally.

In the latter part of December, I found myself completely underwhelmed in yoga class as another teacher themed on the trials and tribulations of holiday stress. I'm talking about the self-induced stress from busyness, not true emotional strife due to current or past, uncontrollable circumstances magnified around this time of year. We bowed our heads in child’s pose commiserating over our burdened schedules, practiced twisting postures to detox from the holiday parties the weekend prior, and were asked to put our “to-do” Christmas lists aside for the hour.

I’m definitely dealing with a little Peter Pan syndrome as I face the stigma of turning the big 4-0. I certainly don’t feel old, but when my father turned forty I remember buying old fart pills from Spencer’s at the mall, and giving him a card with a picture of an old man using a walker. I have watched the movie This is Forty many times and deeply identify with Leslie Mann’s character when she says, “I don't wanna shop at old lady stores. I don't wanna go to J. Jill and Chico's and Ann Taylor Loft. I’m not ready yet."