It’s that time of year when we often look back at the year ending & look forward to the year ahead. Often making new year resolutions to be better people, maybe to be healthier or more patient. To spend more time being active, to do more yoga or to eat better. I have my new year resolutions for 2007 on my wall in my little office….they make me smile for they are a lifetimes work yet I have also made progress in every one of them 🙂
When I look back over 2015 I am pretty proud of myself. I have made it successfully through challenges such as a spinal operation. I have built friendships & spent time with family. I have continued to build my little business into more areas where I get to do what I love. I have even learnt to relax a little more! My constant intention to be less busy had allowed me to open pockets of me space in every day. Time to be me; to read or do yoga, to stand with my little dog or friends, or just to be….to wander up the river Mersey and enjoy watching the wildlife enjoy their beautiful home. I have learnt to find pleasure in smaller things…in being rather than doing. I hope to spend my year ahead being grateful, loving & giving hope.
It may be a strange resolution for many. When I see people’s posts on social media they seem to be about exercising more or eating healthier. Or about this being a year to fall in love or to build something. Maybe for me these are day to day things rather than those to consider annually. Or maybe I find my pleasure in the challenge of doing less.
I am currently sat on a balcony in beautiful Thailand looking over an ocean & thinking back over my last few weeks. I realise it is easier to relax when away form everyday pressure though for me I have often needed to plan even my holidays around doing.
This time I planned a gentle slope into relaxing. Arriving to train in foot massage & acupressure reflexology. Then spending time with friends & seeing things. Then time to just be…not worrying if I slept for long periods or I ate at strange times. If I read fiction or learnt something new, or if I just daydreamed or pottered through the waves along the beach. Sometimes being alone in solitude, sometimes spending time in conversation, sometimes finding happiness in befriending a cheeky bird or watching ants go about their day! Every day I compared to last years pain & restriction. The tightness in my back muscles symbolic of how the pain restricted my life & being thankful for a combination of modern medicine & yoga giving me more freedom of movement & life. Every day I find something I can now do which a year ago I struggled with. I am so thankful that for me, it would seem to be a lesson of a few years not a lifetime. Yet also aware that this is another resolution that will last a lifetime….one of being grateful everyday for a lack of pain & a need for yoga.
So this blog is a blog about my pleasure in relaxing. How I’m learning to find pleasure in the small things as well as the big things. How every time I climb down steps I’m thankful for legs that confidently support me, every night I sleep comfortably pain free. The small joys on my yoga mat of child’s pose where I can rest my forehead on the floor & breathing into a forward bend that then doesn’t result in hours of increased pain. This new year I plan to be grateful everyday. To spend more time appreciating space. Space for me to relax, space in my spine so my muscles can relax, space for possibility, for love, for gratitude, for fun!
This year I plan to have fun 🙂 , do more yoga, meditate more, to smile 🙂 to share love & to provide hope.
