{"id":23473,"date":"2020-12-30T14:17:41","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T14:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sayloveyoga.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/30\/resolution-re-think\/"},"modified":"2020-12-30T14:17:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T14:17:41","slug":"resolution-re-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sayloveyoga.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/30\/resolution-re-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Resolution Re-Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is a yoga new year\u2019s resolution?<\/h2>\n
\"Yoga
Photo by\u00a0Yoga and Photo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A resolution<\/a> is a promise to yourself to do or not do something. Every December, most of us make one or more of them, and by mid-January 90% of us have given them up<\/a>. As a yoga teacher I\u2019ve taught the packed January classes and beginner courses and tried not to take it too personally when classes diminished in size each week. Resolutions do not work!<\/p>\n

A yoga new year\u2019s resolution is often a measurable goal. It is placing faith in the belief that reaching some external marker will bring you happiness. In the yoga world, this might look like starting a practice, making a practice more consistent, or finally executing some difficult posture. My friend and colleague Sarah Scharf, in her book Holding Space<\/a>, differentiates these types of goals, which may or may not actually bring you contentment, from intentions which \u2018do not place the focus on outcome\u2019 but on the \u2018quality of the process\u2019 as \u2018simply wanting to be better at something creates layers of tension within us.\u2019<\/p>\n

So, resolution-making and seeking external goals probably won\u2019t make you as happy as you think and often doesn\u2019t work \u2013 yet we do it year after year. What\u2019s going on here? Can we re-direct this energy into a more helpful pathway?<\/p>\n

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Join me for an online new year\u2019s workshop<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Why do resolutions fail?<\/h2>\n

Without getting lost in neuroscience, it\u2019s important to understand the full-body process that is occurring when you try, successfully or not, to motivate yourself into achieving goals. Rick Hanson in Neurodharma<\/a> explains:<\/p>\n

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Top-down<\/em> intentions engage the prefrontal cortex behind the forehead. This part of the brain is the primary neural basis for the executive functions, including deliberate control of attention, emotion, and action. This kind of intention is very useful, but it is effortful and thus vulnerable to willpower fatigue<\/em>: it\u2019s tiring to have to keep telling yourself to do something. Additionally, the rewards of achieving the intention are deferred into the future, which can sap motivation. On the other hand, bottom-up<\/em> intention engages your emotions and sensations, drawing on older and therefore more fundamental neural structures below the cortex. In this form of intention, you find a felt sense of what it would be like to have already fulfilled the intention, and then give yourself over to it. This feels rewarding already, and therefore more motivating. Instead of struggling upstream, you feel carried along.<\/p>\n

Rick Hanson<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The list-making, the schedules, and the force of will-power, as the statistics and science tell us, will fizzle out. If we want to stay committed to our practice and fuelled by an enthusiasm that sustains it, we have to embody our intentions.<\/p>\n

\"Yoga
Photo by\u00a0Yoga and Photo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Try full-body intentions<\/h2>\n

I believe the sustaining of a disciplined and consistent practice and whatever shapes you make will emerge as a natural outcome of a commitment to your own compassionate care and well-being. This begins with continual intention-setting. When you are determining the direction, attitude, and intention of your practice, try this approach that incorporates not only a mental focus, but a variety of physical and emotional inputs.<\/p>\n