awareness - setting a goal
This year in yoga, our weekly focus comes from Thich Nhat Hanh’s book ‘The Sun My Heart’.
Thich Nhat Hanh was born in Vietnam and ordained as a monk at 16 years old. He is a Zen Buddhist Monk, scholar, a poet and peace activist. For a long time, he taught and wrote (at least 70 of his more than 100 books are in English) and gardened at Plum Village, the community he built in France. He also led retreats, on the art of mindful living, around the world and spent years lecturing in US universities. He is now 93 and living quietly, in his home town in Vietnam
My gorgeous yoga teacher, Helen, chose this book for our yoga curriculum back in 2011 and selected quotes that were nuggets of gold from the book to share with us that year. I now share them with you. .
Helen is still teaching and I’m blessed to call her my teacher. Her wisdom, keen intellect and extensive knowledge and passion for yoga are a gift to behold. While our yoga class sequence of poses comes from Margrit Segesman (founder of the Gita School of Yoga in Melbourne in the ‘50s), Helen has added a weekly focus and self-enquiry which I enjoy greatly and carry this addition on in my classes.
Now to our focus this week. It comes from the ‘The Sun My Heart’, one of over 100 books written by Thich Nhat Hahn .
This week, awareness, and setting a goal and expectation for the year ahead.
He writes of his teacher’s lesson:
“While buttoning my jacket
I hope that all beings
Will keep their hearts warm
And not lose themselves”
This is a simple reminder for us to continue to shine the light of our awareness on our physical actions, thoughts and feelings. To keep our heart warm and open, staying connected with our inner wisdom, and not getting lost in the mind’s wanderings; its aversions and desires… all interrupting us and distracting us from realising and living our true nature.
Taking the opportunity this week, to connect with yourself. Either planting the seed of awareness, or beginning to cultivate the quality that warms your heart.
Reflecting, what do I want to feel more of, or embody more of this year? Perhaps a word or phrase… and making this your personal aim for the year ahead. Setting yourself a goal, an intention and an expectation for how to live, how to behave, how to think, and how to act.
What quality will help keep your heart warm each day? How do you stay here, and not lose yourself.
Is there a quality or attitude my heart longs for, or desires most? Take time to be still, and to listen. It may come immediately, it may appear later. When it reveals itself, pause and notice the felt-sense this quality brings inside you. And savour this, committing it to memory, and inviting the body to remember this sense and experience.
Now set your intention, to focus on this quality in the year ahead. Consider ways to keep this way of being front of mind for you. How can you bringing more of this into your life this year?
I find this a helpful way to bring meaning to my life. By contemplating what’s most important to me, in particular what my heart most desires in this life, I can then be clear on this and set an intention to have this guide me in my decisions and actions.
One of the qualities I am cultivating more of this year is ease. Infusing ease into everything I do. It’s a far cry from an older version of me and there’s still a gap to get there, and it won’t be a matter of ‘arriving’ there and be done with it! As they say life is a journey, and our growth isn’t linear. Some days I bring ease in relatively effortlessly, other days the triggers and the stressors are more in the foreground. The key, I find, is to continue to remember my heart felt desire and set an intention to bring this quality of ease into everything I do, from work, to study, shopping, cleaning, socialising and more… did I mention it’s a lifelong practice 😂
Wishing you a week ahead connecting to your heart and living with awareness of your goal for this year.
Nicky’s yoga classes are a gentle, hatha style, suitable for beginners.
Along with teaching weekly yoga classes in Beaumaris, Bayside Melbourne, Nicky is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (PACFA), coach and mindfulness meditation teacher.
Get in touch with Nicky to find out more.