Drop the negative, Love the positive: Setting your intention for the New Year

Happy New Year! I sincerely hope that you all have a phenomenal 2013 and it brings out the best in you, in all you do. 2012 was a year full of learning experiences for me – lots of ups and downs, job and career changes, paths to follow that I never knew existed, and , of course, the start of The House of Healthy! You all have been such a wonderful part of my year. You have filled me with inspiration each and every day and I hope that I can at least begin to do the same for you. I appreciate you all from the very bottom of my heart.
Now on to those pesky resolutions…
Around the end of December and beginning of January, I speak a lot in my Yoga classes about setting intentions. It is a common practice in a yoga class to set your intention for what you wish to gain from the class – it can be completely vain or on a much deeper level, as long as it is true to where you are at that moment and what you need. Near the beginning of a New Year, we can take this concept on a much larger note and use it to address what we wish to cultivate in the year ahead. When you set an intention, it allows you to speak from a place of positivity, rather than negative, which is what a resolution often does. When we resolve to change ourselves, we are focusing on the “bad” things about us, and the things we don’t like. Much like anything we don’t like, we tend to run away from it or simply ignore it, because the work is too hard to make it better. By setting an intention, we look at what we wish to bring in to our lives, what good things we will strive to cultivate in the year ahead. This way, we can focus on the journey of it, see the cultivation in all things, and use our intentions for good when the work gets too hard.
So my challenge for you (and myself) is to focus on what you wish to bring in to your life. Set your intention. Love it. Let it grow with ease. Come back to it when things get a little rough. Know that lasting change – good change- comes from a place of peace and love, deep within us. So find that place and allow yourself to bring forth your intention. Not a new you, just a more balanced you. Let 2013 be your greatest year yet, just with the simple act of dropping the negative and adding the positive.

Peace and love in the New Year,
Jessi