Joy-Filled January
“…Find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all.”
Hello dear friends,
We’re back to our regularly scheduled programming in the new year. The holidays are behind us and (perhaps!) we’ve re-packed the decorations and are settling into the routines of January.
According to my news and media feeds, we’re also supposed to pack up the alcohol (Dry January) and start on a diet and join a gym. In addition to all of that, the skies where I live have shifted into permafrost gray for the past week or so. I think that the sun went on vacation.
January seems pretty miserable on all counts.
Let’s change the story. Instead of dry January, instead of ‘new year/new you’ diet and exercise programs, let’s call it Joy-Filled January.
When we put that spin on it, it sounds a lot more fun!
A joy-filled January has so much more to offer us. January is the time to look for those moments of wonder and hope in the gray cold days. Let’s keep our eyes open and find the joy that’s hiding in plain sight. Find a cardinal in the bare branches. Enjoy the flakes of snow as they float around you. Dance and sing indoors as the temperatures plummet.
January can be the time to find the joy, and to share the joy, even though there isn’t anyone banging us over the head with that message.
How can it translate to our yoga practice? We’ll come to the mat to release the tension that is intrinsic in the body and then we make room for the joy that’s around us.
Think about it. When you feel joyful, doesn’t it just take over your body? Don’t you feel like dancing, smiling, skipping? We’ll take the joy that we feel and let it move us. Joy is in our minds, our hearts, our whole body! Let’s notice that sensation of joy filling us up and then take that joy-filled feeling and reach out to others.
Let’s embody joy.
Joy-filled January might become a thing - then we’ll move it into February!
Please join me on your mat.
Love & joy,
Nina G