Don't Just Set a Resolution...Be Resolutionary!

Most of us have realized from painful experience that lasting change rarely occurs as a result of a New Year's Resolution. Why is it that we are so often incapable of becoming the person we want to be? Too often, resolutions are inspired by fear and are set up as self-imposed expectations that reinforce the gulf between who we think we are and who we think we want to be. It is time to establish our resolutions from a deeper place; 2010 is a year of deepening. People are beginning to understand the profound nature of the present moment and will begin taking action from this place. Rather than another New Year's Resolution, now is the time to become Resolutionary.

Reaction or Resolution?

In many cases our resolution is inspired by a negative self-image adopted from society or an influential voice in our lives. For example, we compare our bodies to those we see in the media and decide the way we look is bad. The pain from this comparison becomes the fuel for our change. The resolution is not sustainable and we end up in that familiar negative spiral that reinforces the unworthiness that inspired the resolution in the first place.

Gratitude: The Power of the Resolutionary

The resolutionary recognizes gratitude as the true power behind sustainable transformation. Chis Walker told me once "Don't leave anything until you love it." This is great advice rooted in the awareness that love is more empowering than fear. Love and gratitude are intertwined. The Resolutionary uses self-love as the inspiration behind this path of living transformation. The traditional resolution is based on fear and limitation and lacks fundamental acceptance. Be grateful for the miracle of your body and and allow the spontaneous gratitude for this sacred mystery to fuel your growth and expansion in 2010.

From Expectation to Anticipation

The old-school resolution is a self-imposed expectation and expectation is the root of all evil. OK, that may be dramatic but spend some time contemplating the possibility the expectations you put on yourself and those you place on others are the heart of the suffering that creeps into your life day by day. Expectation states that we will be "happy when...". Expectation is one of the root problems with the New Year's resolution. Let me introduce a new word to replace the thorny and insidious seed of suffering known as expectation. This word frees us from the dependence on some future event to be OK with ourselves and instead brings us back to the present moment. To access the present moment there is a requirement for a deep sense of acceptance and honesty, this is the starting point for a life-altering New Year's Resolution. This new word that holds the seed of freedom and guides the Resolutionary back to the moment of now is ANTICIPATION. The official definition describes anticipation as "pre-sentiment or pre-knowledge". Anticipation brings us immediately into the experience of our resolution rather than emphasizing the gulf between where we are now and where we hope to be as is the case with expectation.

A Resolutionary Practice

In order to anticipate we must make the experience of fulfillment real in our minds and bodies. Consider this an invitation to imagine the greatest version of yourself for 2010. The Resolutionary takes time to sit in silence and practice gratitude. Give yourself the gift of 5 minutes per day to sit and breathe with awareness and simply be grateful. Let gratitude flood your body soaking every cell with liquid light. Even now, you can simply breathe with awareness, relax the body, allow the mind to be and reconnect with the Source of life, with your Beloved. Gratitude is the mystical power that fuels authentic transformation and is the direct experience of your own essence. Gratitude is the fuel of the Resolutionary, fill up every single day and soon you will be filling up with every single breath.

Don't wait for some future moment to be the highest version of yourself. The future is a fantasy and the past is over; the Resolutionary realizes their transformation here and now. May this year be full of transformative moments and big-time gratitude. To all the Resolutionaries out there, I wish you a very HAPPY NOW YEAR!!

CASTLE Principles: Love

Hello All,

Well the next step on our Conscious Leadership ladder is Love. It just so happens that today has been a contemplation of the Joy of Love in my own personal practice (related to a series of Mother Teresa prayers a good friend gave me, thank you). We have all heard so much about love and yet it is also full of attachment, conditioning and misunderstanding. One thing we can all agree on is that love is expansive. The experience of love is the opposite of contraction and tension. We often associate love with the pain of losing but the truth is that in the face of love there is only love.

Love is simple and is not a function of the mind. As you may know by now I like to call the yoga I practice and share Beloved Yoga. Hidden in that precious word is BE LOVED. A regular meditation practice may also be coined a self-love practice. Taking time each day to sit and feel unconditional love raining down on you, surrounding you, penetrating every cell until you become so full that for the rest of the day you are spilling over love. My teacher often said, "Love without looking to see who takes". I am so grateful for that example of unconditional love. If that is too tall an order than atleast notice your tendency to look for something in return for your acts of love and be gentle with yourself. We all do it!

In this very moment raise your chest forward and up and let the chin fall gently towards the chest, let the energy of the intelligence of your mind descend into the loving wisdom of the heart. Fall in love with your life and life will love you back...is that conditional? I think what really happens is you just start to notice the love all around you.

Practice loving without looking back. Be radiant because you are THAT!

Hope to love you (I mean see you) at the Boathouse tomorrow morning at 8:45am.

Namaste,

Jayanta

CASTLE Principles: Truthfulness

Hello All,

I hope your week is flowing with beauty and presence. As we continue through the Principles of Conscious Leadership we arrive at Truthfulness. This principle, like all of them, has an experience that is internal and an expression that is a bridge to those with whom you live, work and play. We all have moments where honesty is sacrificed out of fear and insecurity and those disempowering moments result in tension which becomes a knot in the mind-body system. This knot then obstructs the flow of energy in the body and also obstructs the quality of the emotional connection we enjoy with ourselves and/or individuals with whom we have been untruthful. On the yoga mat, we practice a deep honesty with our bodies by engaging in compassionate action and maintaining alignment in-spite of the mind's desire to go further and deeper. Patience is also a function of truthfulness.

Commit yourself this day to truthfulness as a path to relaxation and presence. Be vulnerable in your honesty and honest in your vulnerability. Allow others to be in their truth whether or not you agree, that is not the point. As you offer space to others to stand in their truth you too will find the courage, compassion, patience and power to stand in yours. As always, nature is a marvelous demonstration of this principle. Truthfulness is the simplicity of being who you are and yields tremendous freedom. The flower does not try to be anything it is not, it grows, blooms and dies with grace and simplicity. Truthfulness is the essence of your heart. Be in your beauty and you will begin to see that beauty reflected all around.

See you at the Boathouse tonight for yoga at 7pm and meditation at 8pm.

Love and Victory,

Jayanta