This entry was posted on Dec 31, 2025 by Charlotte Bell.
It’s that point once more—time to set our intentions for the brand new 12 months. Some 30 to 40 p.c of People make resolutions every year. Judging by the ebb and movement of yoga class attendance, that appears about proper. I all the time count on an inflow on the first of the 12 months. This often ranges out because the months go, however yoga resolutions are definitely a factor.
New 12 months’s Resolutions Have a Historical past
In line with a narrative on NPR’s web site, New 12 months’s resolutions could have originated way back to yoga itself. Right here’s an excerpt:
“One of many first appearances of the phrase “new 12 months resolutions” was in a Boston newspaper in 1813, in accordance with Merriam-Webster:
“And but, I consider there are multitudes of individuals, accustomed to obtain injunctions of recent 12 months resolutions, who will sin all of the month of December, with a severe dedication of starting the brand new 12 months with new resolutions and new behaviour, and with the total perception that they shall thus expiate and wipe away all their former faults — Unknown, 1813
“However diary entries present that individuals had been practising the idea properly earlier than then — like English author Anne Halkett, who wrote a listing of Bible-inspired pledges on Jan. 2, 1671, titled “Resolutions.”
“Historians hint the phenomenon even farther again: to 2000 B.C., when Babylonians celebrated the brand new 12 months with a 12-day springtime competition known as Akitu. They marked the arrival of the farming season by crowning a brand new king, thanking deities for a bountiful harvest and, in accordance with The Outdated Farmer’s Almanac, resolving to return neighbors’ borrowed agricultural tools.”
Why Resolutions Are Generally Difficult to Preserve
Maybe we keep away from making yoga resolutions as a result of we’re too busy and preoccupied to ponder our objectives. Or perhaps it’s as a result of we’ve discovered that these resolutions are fairly exhausting to maintain after the preliminary bloom has worn off. The identical ballot says that whereas roughly 30 p.c of People make resolutions, solely half of these declare to maintain them. Not nice odds.
Nonetheless, the brand new 12 months looks like an acceptable time to evaluate the place you’ve been and the way you’d prefer to steer your life. I feel the trick is to make resolutions that you’ve got an opportunity of conserving. You’ll have a greater probability of conserving your resolutions for those who first work out how one can match them into your life. Preserve it easy. Begin with one, the one that the majority evokes you. See the place that goes earlier than you try any extra. Practising one heartfelt decision is actually lots!
I like to consider yoga observe—together with meditation—as my time to examine in and observe who I need to be in the remainder of my life. It’s the time once I give myself permission not solely to replenish my energies, however to see the place my physique and thoughts are in integrity and the place they aren’t. Listed below are a number of of the intentions I’ve practiced with for years which have remodeled my life on many ranges:
4 Yoga Resolutions to Nourish Your Apply
Cease Judging Your Apply
I’m not saying this can be straightforward. I feel the best problem in Western yoga observe is to recover from the deeply ingrained concept that asana observe is about reaching “excellent” or fancy poses. Even when our intellects realize it’s not about competitors, the roots of evaluating bore deep into our beings. Typically we don’t have a clue that we’re competing and evaluating; it simply occurs routinely. Right here’s the factor: our our bodies are genetically distinctive. As soon as we make our entrances into the world, the numerous inputs we expertise each second contribute to shaping who we’re. How will you probably evaluate your observe to anybody else’s? Please give your self a break. That is real-world ahimsa observe. It begins with you.
Resolve to Respect Your Physique
Asana shouldn’t be about conquering your physique or forcing it into fancy poses it isn’t designed to do. And even when you can also make your physique can carry out Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (Full Pigeon) or a number of the different fancy poses, you would possibly discover as time passes that it wasn’t such an amazing concept. Simply because you are able to do one thing doesn’t imply it’s best to. Right here’s one other real-life ahimsa observe: Consider your observe as a partnership along with your physique, one thing that thoughts and physique discover collectively in friendship.
Meet Your Physique The place it’s Every Day
Take a second in the beginning of every observe to sit down, stand or lie down and examine in. What’s the character of your vitality? Is it fast, sluggish, heavy, mild, agitated, calm, scorching, chilly or one thing else? Thirty-some years in the past I had the privilege of finding out for about six months with Richard Freeman, a instructor I respect implicitly. However I discovered that if I used to be trustworthy with myself, and respectful of my physique, I simply couldn’t do Ashtanga observe day by day. In actual fact, most days my physique craved one thing slower, quieter, much less agitating. If I felt sluggish or heavy, I’d do Ashtanga to boost my vata a bit. If I felt agitated already, Ashtanga would solely irritate it. So I discovered to satisfy my physique, and companion with it so that every day’s observe produced sattvic outcomes. Once you observe this manner, you’re additionally practising satya.
Bear in mind the Surprise
Acknowledge that each observe, each pose, each second is a brand new second. Irrespective of what number of instances you’ve accomplished canine pose, at present is the primary time you’ve accomplished this specific Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Going through Canine Pose) on this second. It is going to by no means be the identical as that killer one you probably did two weeks in the past. That one is gone. This one, right here on this second, is basically the one one which exists. Wishing for the previous or hoping for a “higher” pose someplace sooner or later solely serves to obscure the expertise of the pose you’re in. We miss an entire lot of on a regular basis magic after we assume that the place we’re shouldn’t be adequate.
These are only a few of the intentions I’ve set for observe which have reaped the richest rewards for me, not solely in my asana observe however in the remainder of my life. If considered one of these resolutions resonates for you, take it and run with it. If not, take into consideration what yoga resolutions you would possibly need to make.
What are your resolutions for yoga observe this 12 months?
About Charlotte Bell
Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced educating in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third e book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Purple Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards.