By Kathryn Boland
Many people set New Year’s Resolutions with optimism and a good plan in place. Some of the most common are to lose weight, quit smoking or drinking alcohol. Additionally, an effort to improve one’s relationships with loved ones and/or friends is popular. Unfortunately, however, come February, several of these individuals find themselves struggling to keep with their resolutions. Their best intentions are left behind, to return to business as usual, not long after.
Positive Change
Yoga has demonstrated its ability to lead individuals towards positive change, including behavioral changes for wellness-impacting habits. We focus on making more significant positive changes in our New Year’s resolutions with the coming of each new year out of cultural tradition. Yet, any time of the year is a good one to make a change. However, it is traditional to call upon yoga at this time of year. That said, yoga helps to support one’s self in moving towards and maintaining regular adjustments.
Postures
Yoga instructors can guide students to be more successful in keeping their New Year’s resolutions. Teachers can theme classes through specific practice designs, such as with postures that strengthen the Manipura (Solar Plexus) Chakra, the third of the seven. It is “responsible for the structure of the metabolic system,” describes intuitive healer Christopher Stewart (B.A., M.S.). It follows that postures that facilitate digestion and related processes will help. Poses like Twists and forward bends (Uttanasana and Paschimottanasa) are incredibly empowering for this chakra. These positive effects can also ultimately contribute to the better balance of the whole Chakra system.
Third Chakra
This third chakra “handles the energy of your power, self-esteem, and personality on emotional, mental, and behavioral levels. Your third chakra is where you learn to create boundaries for yourself. Issues such as trust, fear of rejection, and self-image are all part of this chakra. This is the center for action, energy, and power,” Stewart further explains. One can logically understand how those traits apply to setting and maintaining New Year’s Resolutions. For instance, self-esteem aids one in accomplishing goals because – arguably – we are often more likely to succeed when we believe we can.
Realistic Goals
On another level, knowing how to set boundaries can help us to set realistic goals – rather than setting ourselves up for failure by setting unattainable ones. Physically exerting postures and sequences, such as Warrior Postures and quick Sun Salutation flows, can help us to recognize such limits of our bodies – if we respectfully and mindfully step back when certain practice elements become too exerting. Such mindfulness and self-respect can certainly, and beneficially, translate to one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Self-Esteem
In more extensive yoga disciplines, Anusara Yoga is a form that can also be advantageous in accomplishing those goals through its unique focus to empower one’s heart and spirit and thus gain extra motivation to stay with resolutions. Anusara centers on finding positive mind-body connections through yoga as a “celebration of life,” explains FitDay.com. “Many medical experts and others would agree that a positive mind-body connection can accomplish a range of physical improvements in many individuals,” yet – further – such positivity is part of Anusara’s goals of increased “self-esteem [and] self-empowerment” (same source).
Adjustments
To support such an approach, FitDay further describes that Anusura instructors are trained to refrain from “fixing” students in postures, allowing them to use their physical and mental resources to make advantageous adjustments. That is the skill we need to succeed in making positive habitual life changes through concrete resolutions.
About Yin Yoga
Yin Yoga can be similarly powerful towards that goal by leading practitioners to greater comfort with staying with thoughts and sensations that may be temporarily distressing – yet will lead to significant positive growth in the long run. In Yin Yoga 101: What You Need to Know, certified instructor Hope Zvara explains how “it is a more meditative approach with a physical focus much deeper than Yang [more physically exerting, such as Vinyasa and Ashtanga] like practices. Here, the practitioner is trying to access the deeper tissues, such as the connective tissue, fascia, and many postures.”
Adaptability
She further explains how one powerfully beneficial result is most often practitioners’ significantly increased flexibility. As we understand gains in physical yoga practice most often translate to benefits for practitioners’ minds and hearts, we can surmise that much greater flexibility in the body could lead one to feel more open and flexible toward new ways of thinking and acting. Such adaptability is essential for succeeding in making and maintaining large-scale resolutions. Yin Yoga has the potential to access such deeper parts of ourselves, with its offering – yet growth-spurring challenge for many students – “to get intimate with the self, with feelings, sensations, and emotions” (Zvara) through its slower-paced and contemplative nature.
Sankalpa
During such deep work with one’s self, beyond the body, yoga philosophy, which is apart from physical asana practice. Yoga has a specific and potentially powerful approach to setting and succeeding at achieving goals. Within Yoga Journal’s “Resolve to Evolve,” Catherine Guthrie goes deep on this subject. Guthrie clarifies how yoga philosophy can help one to succeed at New Year’s Resolutions through its concept of Sankalpa. It is “a Sanskrit word, [which] means ‘will, purpose, or determination.’ To make a Sankalpa is to set an intention,” Guthrie explains. She challenges readers to celebrate this new year by trading in “[their] tired (and probably familiar) resolutions for a Sankalpa instead.”
Effective Approach
A positive, self-caring attitude is the difference between a Sankalpa and how many in our culture often enact New Year’s resolutions. Especially focusing on what we achieve rather than where we fall short. As a result, this approach is often more effective than berating ourselves for perceived failures. Significantly, this is because it increases our belief in ourselves to succeed and helps us keep open minds. Both of these, as previously described, is crucial for achieving or sustaining resolutions.
Positivity
As direct physical practices support this mental tactic, Anusara practice can further promote that positivity. A Yin practice can more profoundly connect us with our inner sensations, making us more available to recognize and carry out beneficial alternatives. All in all, yoga is a tool for helping those many people in our society who might struggle with keeping with their well-intentioned New Years’ Resolutions – or those made and attempted at any time of the year. Yoga instructors can be powerful facilitators in those processes through knowledgeable instruction tailored to each student’s needs and abilities.
© Copyright – Kathryn Boland / Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division
To see our selection of Yoga teacher training and continuing education courses, please visit the following link.
https://aurawellnesscenter.com/store/
Click here to see our online Yoga Nidra teacher training course.
Are you an experienced teacher looking for YACEP credits or continuing education?
Subscribe to Our Newsletter for Special Discounts and New Products
Related Resources
52 Essential Principles of Yoga Philosophy to Deepen your Practice
by Rina Jakubowicz
A Relaxing Way to De-stress, Re-energize, and Find Balance
by: Gail Boorstein Grossman
YOGA: THE PATH TO HOLISTIC HEALTH
by B.K.S. Iyengar
TEACHING YOGA: Essential Foundations and Techniques
By Mark Stephens
To see our complete selection of affordable yoga instructor certification programs, please click on the courses and products button in the navigation bar in the upper left section of this page.
The Purpose of Yoga: The Change We Wish to See
