Setting yoga intentions for the new year

Hello and happy 2025 to you all!

I hope this finds you well and your festive summer season has been enjoyable so far. 

What a start to the year!

Now more than ever, it's important to practice yoga. It's extra-super-duper important during times of change, uncertainty, stress or instability. 

If you're keen to make resolutions or set intentions for the new year, I hope you have included yoga for your health and wellbeing. I hope you have committed to continue practicing diligently and consistently. 

Why? 

Because yoga helps us:

• Feel better in our body

• Calmer in our nervous system

• Quieter in our mind

• Develop greater self-regulation and self-knowledge.

Perhaps these reminders can help you set some yoga intentions:

• In your personal practice or in a class, you don't have to be able to 'do' every pose or run through every sequence perfectly. The expectations we set for ourselves are usually way too high. Do what you can, when you can, and practice sensibly. That's plenty.

• Make it a priority to find the time and space to practice - unroll your mat, clear your head, regulate your nervous system, and be with whatever is present within. That's it.

• Focus on building strength, control, and proprioception (that's when your body can sense position and movement - not just by looking but by feeling)

• Keep moving with your breath - it helps you minimise rumination, maximise self-regulation, and find a little peace in the storm

• Build in more time to get some head space. It’s great to practice flow sequences and challenge asanas and creating fun shapes with a focus on movement and breath. But what about finding time to practice pranayama - to stop, sit and breathe? Or meditation - to stop, sit and observe? That’s when yoga REALLY gets interesting.

Of course it can seem overwhelming to consider adding more to your to-do list. Finding time for yourself is easier said than done. But if you KNOW, deep in your weary bones, that yoga is something that brings you some relief, satisfaction, joy, peace, comfort or fun, then what are you waiting for?

Drop the excuses. Let go of stories or narratives that hold you back. Let go of what doesn’t serve you.

Commit to finding time to prioritise what’s important for you.

I’ll see you soon on the mat.