I’d like to wish all my readers and fellow yogis a very happy new year, with the hope that you all had a wonderful and safe start to the year. I don’t want to bore you with a New Year resolution list here, but I do feel that we can all find inspiration in the New Year and in new beginnings. This time of year can be an opportunity to reflect on past misgivings while focusing on new hope.
You can find inspiration anywhere, even in a movie
Inspiration and encouragement and hope are all around us; we simply need to perceive these for what they are. Like a lot of people, Dangal was the last movie I watched in 2016; just a couple of days short of the New Year (if you haven’t watched it, I urge you to do so for several reasons). And while I enjoyed it as a highly entertaining and emotionally engaging film, I marveled at the many positive takeaways from the movie as well.
Nothing is perfect and some might think this movie has its share of faults. However consider the many positive messages it delivers; messages the yogi may do well to heed: pain is temporary and if there is pain in the path of a larger quest, that pain dissolves to make way for the sense of achievement that follows. Hard work and consistency have no substitutes and can be their own rewards. Success is an amalgam of many different things: sweat, grit, tears, small achievements, major setbacks and lessons learnt from all of those. Just because something has never been done before is no reason not to embark on a brand new road (the Phogats paved the way for so many Indian girls to enter the wrestling arena).
Reflect but don’t dwell in the past
As you leave the old year behind, do give a thought to what you did right and what you did wrong. Think about goals set, targets met and setbacks suffered. Do this only because our failures and mistakes are our best teachers. Think about the past only so that you don’t repeat your mistakes and so that you are able to identify instances and efforts that yielded positive results for you. Has your health improved or deteriorated? Why? What can you do differently to become a healthier, more positive person in the year to come?
Looking forward
Rather than make a list of resolutions (notorious for falling by the wayside, let’s face it) aim for some life affirming, lifestyle changes that will help create a healthier, more positive you. Perhaps the answers you seek are to be found at a yoga class near you, perhaps it’s a morning walk every day, perhaps diet modifications and perhaps it is coping mechanisms to deal with stress.
Since I can speak only for myself, I want to urge you to give yoga a try in this coming year (if you’re not already into it). It’s never been easier to find a yoga class near you, since the popularity of this mind body discipline has grown exponentially in the past few years; the wellness industry in India being worth nearly 50,000 crores. Even the WHO is working with India to incorporate yoga into universal healthcare. Since yoga is a safe and effective discipline that can be modified to suit everyone from children to seniors to people with any level of fitness, it is seen to work for practically everyone. So let me wish everyone a happy and fruitful new year once again with the hope that you are able to achieve all that you set out to (your own version of the Commonwealth gold that Geeta Phogat aimed for); while overcoming all the seeming obstacles in your way.