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Happy New Year!

I was in a class yesterday and the teacher was talking about numerology, something I know very little about, and of which I’m slightly wary. 2016 was a 9 (2+1+6=9) and life goes, apparently, in nine-year cycles; the end of a cycle can be tumultuous and full of grief, endings, and closing doors. 2017 is a 1, meaning a time of new beginnings and initiatives, which is a perfect way to think of the new year, in my opinion.

Here’s to new beginnings! January can be a bit of a grim month, what with the post-holidays blues and – in my case – the frigidly cold weather. But it can also be kind of exciting, what with fresh new things to think about. Plus, the theme for the month of January in my Horse Yoga calendar is “Strength,” which seems apt. It takes strength to get out of my warm cozy bed in the morning, into the cold. It takes strength to get out of the steamy shower, and strength to actually put on regular clothes. We can do it though, we can be like the horse in the funky headstand.

The quote on the bottom says “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

Some people pooh-pooh resolutions and goals and “words of intention” in January, and it is true, most resolutions are scrapped by mid-January. Exercise machines have a tendency to become clothes-hangers and healthy living cookbooks collect dust. Regardless of that, I love New Year’s resolutions. I love the idea that we are all hoping to turn a fresh leaf and better ourselves, to make the world a bit brighter and our bodies healthier. In the words of the movie version of Professor Bhaer, we are all hopelessly flawed, so why shouldn’t we turn to self-improvement? It’s never a waste of time. We need to harness the good energy, block out the bad.

We all know that when resolutions fail it is because of their extreme nature. If someone has never exercised in their life, then probably setting a goal of six two-hour workouts a week is not sustainable. There’s a reason people don’t stay on the Whole 30 for their entire lives. It’s not sustainable. Which is not to say there aren’t benefits to a new exercise program or eating regimen, it’s just that smaller steps towards healthier living are much better than an extreme lifestyle change.

Anyway, I have a few goals that I’m going to work towards; more piano playing and less social media-ing, writing down the books I finish so I can see what I read during the year, using the library more (so much easier now that I have the CPL app on my phone), continuing to do three cardio workouts a week, continuing to track all my expenses, continuing to find joy and happiness in little things, continuing to work on being more social and flexible in my thinking, and, finally, finding focus.

I often pride myself on my ability to multi-task, but lately it has occurred to me that this is nothing at all to be proud of. Multi-tasking just means I am not doing a good job at focusing on one thing at a time. Think about it: instead of doing one thing at a time well, I am attempting to do many things at the same time, not well. Flitting from task to task is not the most efficient or effective way to complete anything. How much better would it be if I sat down to write and instead of having ten tabs open with notifications popping up all the time, I simply used my time to write creatively? How much better would it be if I completed one thing before moving on to the next, instead of always restarting? How much better would it be if I wasn’t always interrupting myself to do something else, if I just focused on ONE THING? I AM NOT A HUMMINGBIRD, PEOPLE.

So that is what I’m going to do. When the kids or my husband talk to me, I am going to put down my phone or book and really listen and pay attention to what they have to say. When I am cooking, I am going to pay attention to what I am cooking and stay in the moment. When I’m reading, I’m not going to interrupt myself to make my grocery list and when I’m in savasana I’m not going to think, not for one second, about my daily to-do list. It’s going to be about staying in the moment and focusing, and it’s going to be hard, but as the horse yogi says, strength comes from an indomitable will. I can do it!