For the last few years I have always started the New Year by defining my vision, mission, and goals for the coming year. The difference between 2005 and 2006 is not that I desire less, or want to achieve less, but that I have found peace, balance, friendships, compassion, and kindness are just as important in life to achieve desired successes. My commitment to Bikram has deepened and clarified what I envision for myself: I will improve my practice, my friendships, and continue to seek balance and peace within by remembering to breathe.
When I came to my first class, at Joe Cole's nudging, I was very skeptical that yoga could replace my traditional workout or provide anything substantial to my life. It goes to show how dangerous it is to set the mind about people or things before giving them a fair shake. What I have learned and experienced in the last 7 months after starting yoga at BYD has been so much more than a physical experience, although that in itself has been a tremendous challenge and benefit.
Throughout my 13 year career in aerospace, I have struggled to keep perspective and balance. It seemed I was always finding myself at one end of the spectrum or the other: pursuing career and neglecting my friends and relationships, or focusing on the personal and struggling to keep my professional goals in check. Since beginning this yoga, I have found Bikram has become what centers me, keeps me focused, and gives me the opportunity to achieve that balance that has always seemed out of reach. Yoga is like the center of a wheel, the spokes are individual aspects of my life in career, hobbies, friends and family. No one area is more important than the other; rather each piece is what completes the circle.
As a busy adult, I also tend to get overly wrapped up in fighting the fires, and in the daily grind. My practice has brought me many things this year, but one for which I am most grateful has been a growing sense of inner peace. For 90 minutes I am purely focused on my mental being and connection with myself: no airplane emergency, space program, and/or client issue can steal my peace. I have also become increasingly intrigued by the last 5 minutes of savasna at the end of class. I have learned to use that time to connect with myself, acknowledge my day, connect spiritually with a higher being, and appreciate the life experiences I have been blessed with. Those 5 minutes are my time, and always will be.
I am very much looking forward to 2006. I am grateful to the wonderful instructors at BYD, Karen and David, and my fellow yogis. Armed with my practice, my family, my friends, and my BYD fellow yogis, I feel confident that this year I will continue to grow and learn. Even more thrilling, somehow this seems to just be the beginning.
