New Year Intentions
The new year is a time to set intentions for the year and perhaps rather than making the same ones that you always do. Whether that's to be healthier / lose weight / drink less / exercise more / improve work-life balance or something else. Perhaps instead listen to what you really want.
A couple of weeks ago on the phone with my sister she was telling me how her lasagne had gone wrong. There were hardly any vegetables in it — it was mainly white sauce, and her partner had told her that she mustn't say anything to the guests and just let them eat it. She would prefer to just own up to it. I told her everyone's favourite bit of the lasagne is the sauce — well it's mine! And I felt myself getting annoyed at her partner for dictating what she should do. And then I promptly started telling her what she should do — what she should say to her partner, what she should say to her guests, what food she should add. Haha!
Seriously though, I think it is one of the most difficult things to do — at least for me — to not try to control or fix the people around you. This is especially hard when their values clash with yours. My sister has always had a gift for allowing people to be themselves which I believe is one of the greatest gifts you can give anyone — space to be themselves.
It is my intention for this year (along with doing everything with love and having fun) to allow people to be themselves, accepting them as they are, giving them that space. Luckily this includes allowing me to be myself which I'm sure will occasionally include telling people what to do... Space to be me too. 😀
So what do you really want for yourself this year? If you had a blank slate what would you choose? Or maybe it's not about the what, maybe it's about the how you want to live. How do you want to be? How do you want to relate to yourself? to others? to life? What quality or emotion do you want more of in your life?
And don't look at others for the answers, your own body will tell you when you're on the right track. Take some time to connect with how it feels, find the breath and center yourself in the body and then ask the questions and feel which questions the body responds to. You may not get direct answers but you will know which question has the most impact, which has the most excitement or longing in it for you. And then you can try out some answers and see how they feel in the body.
Then write it down and make sure you put it somewhere you will see it every day so that you can set it as your intention every day.
If you are focused on this it is more than likely that life will bring you some challenges to help you learn (if you are learning to be more patient you are likely to spend more time waiting for delayed trains and seeing sometimes just how impatient you can be). So remember — you're human and it's not about success or failure — it's practice, learning and beginning again. And kindness, always kindness.
“In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher”
Wishing you peace and happiness in 2018 and a little time to sit or walk and listen to yourself every day. To feel your feet and your breath and your sense of being alive and the mystery of it. To feel the peace that is always there at the very heart of you.
Love, Amrit x
ps Everyone loved the lasagne, I told her it was because it was made with love