Yoga Teacher Training Journeys

Celebrating the season with Yoga

It’s December and there’s high tension in the air. It’s not just the ever bubbling and changing political landscape which has dominated recent time here in Australia. Rather, it’s that feeling of extra demands on our time and yet not enough time to spend on our own as we otherwise might like to. It’s a time when it becomes a little more challenging to maintain our regular personal practice of yoga, meditation and healthy diet. No wonder we need a holiday to get over the holiday! It’s also timely we review our commitment to our yoga practice with a view to a fresh start to the New Year on retreat. It’s our yoga practice which is increasingly important at this time, helping us cope with the added pressure and expectation the season can bring to bear.

Christmas is a truly wonderful time of year. For many, it’s an occasion to reunite with family and other loved ones often from afar for a few hours or days of catch up and sharing. It’s a time of feasting too, with often more get togethers and official functions than one can possibly attend, squeezed into a few short days or weeks. It’s an opportunity to express our love for one another with the giving of gifts, and it’s a time to relax and bend the routine which so dominates much of our waking hours for most of the year.

We know also that Christmas is a time of sadness, loneliness and despair for some within our community. It’s an emotional time, as anyone who’s been alone at Christmas can testify. It seems the heightened sense of expectation exacerbated by a Western culture of excessive consumerism has a lot to answer for!

Our yoga practice helps guide us at this time of year. With much feasting going on, it’s good to know yoga can offer choice when it comes to a diet that’s balanced and nurturing. It’s summer in Australia so it’s the season of pitta. As ayurvedic teacher Jacinta McEwen writes in the it’s the time to enjoy cooling foods with plenty of fresh green leafy vegetables and seasonal fruit taken raw or as a cold liquid refreshment. In a warm climate, it’s the time to avoid hot spicy additives such as chilli and garlic in our Christmas cooking. Ensure you get sufficient detox time as well which means ‘look after your liver’! It’s likely even the most ardent teetotaller will be tempted towards a celebratory glass of champagne so have a look at how to avoid unpleasant and unfamiliar headaches, or worse.

We’re approaching a new year (and decade) and an opportunity to re-affirm steps to take towards a more yogic lifestyle. While our yoga practice can sometimes diminish during December, we have a wonderful opportunity to regain and realign soon after. One of my most memorable times has been spent chanting and meditating the hours towards midnight new year. It not only sat well with my desire to ‘get away from it all’, I enjoyed the comfort and company of like minded individuals in a supported environment enhanced by a beautiful natural setting and the most delicious ayurvedic food. We have a wonderful opportunity to do the same this season with Byron Yoga Centre’s January retreat program or similar, wherever we may be. Spending the early days of the New Year in such a place presents a chance to re-focus and re-align through meditation, contemplation, and a renewed dedication to regular yoga practice. It’s an opportunity to engage in added spiritual inquiry, wholesome balanced food and steady rest as well. If we’re able, such retreats will take us to a place of natural beauty as well, where the physical environment further enhances our steady steps towards a peaceful New Year.

It’s fun to celebrate at this time of year. But try to do so in such a way that you don’t compromise balance in mind, body and spirit. Such an approach helps curb the added stress and expectation Christmas can sometimes bring to bear.

Let’s also try to reach out to those less fortunate or alone. You might consider helping in a local soup kitchen or a homeless shelter or choosing cards and gifts from charities or aid organisations which assist the disadvantaged. Then spoil yourself with the spiritual nourishment of a new year retreat. Indulge in the grace of our teachers and others and begin the new year with a sense of renewed strength and focus. What a wonderful gift to ourselves!

Wishing you the happiness and joy of the season.

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