Note: This Blog Post Does Not Contain Any Resolutions

It is officially January 1st, 2011--Happy New Year, all! Blizzard conditions on the east coast caused flight cancellations in the Manchester-Boston Airport as well as many other airports in that part of the country. I was unexpectedly delayed by 6 days from returning to Spokane, which provided additional time (albeit unplanned) with my family. I enjoyed quality time with my family, good home-cooking, great dining out, a lot of laughs, a lot of pets, and a lot of fun. That being said, if it were not 10 degrees Fahrenheit out there, I'd have kissed the ground when I got home tonight! As I made it through my long day of airport terminals, ticket counters, take-offs and landings, I remembered the old adage that what you do on New Year's Day is what you will do for the year to follow. While I have no intentions of spending this entire year in airports, constantly going back in time zones, I did ask myself somewhere over the Rocky Mountains what meaning could be found from this experience?
I thought, I am thousands of feet above land, traveling Home. From up here, everything is tiny, minuscule, insignificant. I have a bird's eye view of the world below me; beneath the cloud cover life carries on at its usual pace. However, from up here, time has all but come to a standstill. It is not what I chose, but it is what is. From up here, I can only surrender to the stillness. In that is a parallel to my journey toward Wellness. There is nothing I can do about canceled flights, screaming children, rude airline personnel. I can choose, instead, to let go, to open my hands and receive the gifts of stillness-to cultivate patience. I can keep my eye on the prize. I can hold my focus on my final destination. And if sitting back and enjoying the flight seems impossible, I can at least resolve to be present through the journey.

I will keep to my word and refrain from making any New Year's resolutions. I do believe in the motivating power of a change in calendar, but more importantly, I see that every moment provides an opportunity to live, grow, and learn. What I do look forward to is taking a seat in the cockpit now in my journey toward wellness. Having received uplifting news from a doctor in Boston and having made the decision to take some time off from my degree, I am focused on and empowered by the idea of revisiting my interest in yoga and cultivating that into more regular practice both on and off the mat.
To (gracefully) jump right into things, I am going to focus this month on Virasana, or Hero Pose.
For instructions on proper alignment of this seated pose, click here and view Virasana and other asanas on Yoga Journal's online pose index. I am intrigued by the contrast of the image I have in my mind of a hero taking action versus the image I have in my mind of Hero Pose as a still, passive, yet engaged posture. Virasana is described in an article from Yoga Journal's February, 2011 magazine:
"This is how the hero begins to experience peace; not from having to react to every external stimulus as an irritant or feeling the need to fix things. The hero includes each itch or mental fantasy or foot that falls asleep or traffic sound as part of the experience. Rather than try to control everything or respond to everything, can you merely observe what comes up and let it pass, without attachment or aversion? This is also how we as yogis can begin to create peace in the world...we can't create peace outside if we don't have peace within."
Perhaps heroism exists as much within the act of non-action, stillness and compassion as it does within active attack. My focus this month as I embark on this yogic journey toward wellness is on The Hero Pose. May I continue to be and become the heroine in the story of my own life.