The dark days at this time of the year fly by filled with the flurry of activity. Between Christmas and New Year’s day pause and align with the rhythms of the day and the season. Do the exploration, identify opportunities to promote balance and health. We just passed through the darkest day of the year — time to get ready to grow into the light.
How Does The Dark Help You Grow Into The Light
Seasonally in Ayurveda, the dark is cave time, for introspection planning and rest. Examine what presented challenges as well as what flowed smoothly in your life what you are attracted to and want to pursue. The long night’s give you space to examine deep desires, measure progress, and set goals. Use the darkness to prepare to expand into the light.
Set Goals To Grow Into The Light
It is easy to focus on the forward, not to look back over your successes and failures last year. But I invite you to forget about the guilt. Skip the negative self-talk “woulda, shoulda, could haves,” and dig in for gold to help you look forward. I sometimes struggle to get clear on my goals and follow a steady course and default to what is easy or safe. I keep busy but don’t stay in integrity with myself. So I need to change how I approach my goals and remember my successes.
Regrets and guilt keep you in a tamasic (dull and stagnant) mental loop that leads nowhere. Ask yourself some simple questions to move out of this loop and take new actions that bring you joy and into integrity with yourself in the coming year.
Do you accomplish the goals you set for yourself? Many of us give an honest answer of no. If no, why not? Too many goals or ones that are too big, too abstract, don’t connect to a critical why or deliver a reward you value can be doomed to fail. If you set a goal that sits there and has no doorway in, this is a problem. Goals need to have an accessible start point to get acted on, a time frame and measurable objectives along the way.
Build Success Into Your 2020 Goals
Make the goals you set matter. Goals need to be specific to you right now. Our goals ideally, help us reveal our best self and help the world at large. I have three friends last year who set a goal to start a new business, another friend who went back to school and finally a friend who walked across Europe from Spain to Germany. I am happy to say all these goals were precious and all my friends succeeded and I look to these friends as a models in actualizing potential.
How about you? Try a goal setting exercise where you put goals on sticky notes onto a card or whiteboard. Take a few minutes to breathe or meditate. Look at the goals tune in and listen to what calls you to narrow the list. State each intention out loud. Does it go ping have a high vibration or thud? I believe that tuning into spirit is a critical first step when deciding action steps.
Take the top 3 pings and ask yourself the essential question – why. Why this goal and why is it important to me in my life? A goal may be noble, but if it does not support forward progress in your life, it may not be the best way to spend your limited time and energy.
Create A Path Towards Success
Once you zero in and decide on your goal. Make the goal “SMART.” This acronym stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. You may want to reword your goals to help it have smart characteristics.
Set actionable goals with rewards that you value in or out of Ayurveda. Goals you can build on and improve upon in a step-wise fashion. Take the time to figure the way into the change you are looking to achieve. Set up some check-in points to understand if you are acting in alignment with and making progress to your objectives and goals.
Invite a friend over for tea and do the goal identification process or do it as a family. Help each other to work towards objectives or become accountability partners. Set joint rewards like a trip together or spa day based on meeting objectives. Have some fun uncovering your best self. Grow into the light in 2020.
Ayurselfcare’s purpose is to educate on the benefits of Ayurveda. This article is not a substitute for professional medical care, treatment, or advice. All the material here is for learning purposes only. Always share strategy and work with your health care team.