“What are you doing New Year’s Eve?”

New Year’s Eve is often a time for looking back at the year that’s been and, sometimes, setting goals and acknowledging hopes for the year to come. While this can sometimes be a useful and fun exercise, such reflection and projection, like anything to do with time, can also be accompanied by a bit of melancholy. Resolutions in particular (eg. I will eat healthier, or get thinner, or richer, or do more yoga) can even carry a bit of harmful self-aggression. While I am all for setting goals and observing the rituals we use to mark the passage of the year (gathering with friends, drinking some bubbly, or my personal favorite, eating a dozen grapes at midnight—one for good luck in each month of the year to come), I always have to remind myself of the importance of staying grounded in the present moment. One of the great benefits of a yoga practice is the discipline of delving into the present moment, as deeply as we can. For it is in those glimpses of pure presence of body, mind, and awareness that we find true acceptance, openness, gentleness, and a place where there is no suffering. So, while I’m happy to wish you all a joyous, prosperous, and yoga-filled 2022, I’ll also wish you today and every day, a happy NOW.

P.S. If you plan on eating 12 grapes at midnight—buy seedless grapes. ;)