Interlude (Repost from 12/29/17)

I hate how suddenly and abruptly the holiday season ends. Its a slow wind-up starting around Halloween, building until fever pitch on Christmas Eve, the main event occurs for one day and then it ends so fast it could cause whip lash. December 25: Deck the Halls, Fa La La La La, tear the paper off, eat all the food, try not to be dysfunctional with the family. December 26: No more Christmas music, the stores are urging you to come buy the stuff you Really want because you certainly didn’t get it yesterday, leftovers, back to work and alarms and lists and due dates, and maybe thankfully you can check the spend-time-with-the-family box for a couple more months. Sigh 

While I have to also get back to work and juggle and referee the kids because they are home and bored, I’ve chosen to use this week as space between. Not doing nothing--instead, finding simple rituals which will help prepare for what is next. The same frustration that comes with Christmas ending exists with the New Year beginning. TODAY, January 1, I’m going to start a new lifestyle! Maybe it works for some but the likelihood for success over the long haul is low. In Sanskrit, the word for practice is abhyasa. Abhyasa is doing the work. Abhyasa’s twin spiritual practice is vairagya, or renunciation. For true transformation, you can’t have one without the other. Rolf Gates writes, “Practice without renunciation is avoidance. Renunciation without practice is not long-lived.” You may have seen my testing of this theory this last week on Facebook and Instagram. I can’t renounce spiderwebs without the action of clearing them out. I can’t renounce sugar and grain and Christmas cookies without the action of finding healthy alternatives. (I’m still working on not eating those cookies!) I can’t renounce make-up without the practice of feeling vulnerable and being seen without hiding anything. I can renounce make-up with my words all I want but if I’m still applying more and more in order to feel comfortable in my own skin I’m avoiding vulnerability. And if I don’t wear it and hide in my home in order to not be seen, it won’t be long-lived. None of these rituals will be forever, but taking this week after Christmas, before the new year seems a natural time of transition and preparation. Although I'm currently sitting in a living room that looks exactly the same as it did in the aftermath of Christmas morning, I’m also beginning to practice new rituals for the new year. Instead of setting a resolution, I’m setting a renunciation paired with practice. I hate mornings but a ritual to start the day lays a foundation that sleeping in can’t. So I’m renouncing sleeping in for the practice of reading, writing, breathing or moving. And there it is in black and white. Also abhyasa--putting it out there as a commitment for all to see. To be held accountable when the alarm is buzzing and the warm covers lay it on thick to stay in bed. May your New Year be a little bit of Christmas sprinkled in with abhyasa and vairagya, as you travel along the journey to your best version of your best self. Transformation, not determined by a date, but by intention and doing the work to make all your dreams possible.