I'm sitting at my little desk in my home yoga studio, and I'm thinking about the mind-body connection.  Nick and I just talked for a couple hours about what chakras are and why I work with them, etc.  And it's not because I was explaining things to him.  He was doing most of the talking, and it's everything I needed to hear.  

You see, I have been learning and thinking about the chakras for so long, I see the complicated interplay, I know the history, I know they're not something to "fix," and you can't poke them with a stick.  And yet there they are.  A beautiful map of...of what? I was having trouble getting to the basic idea of what's going on here and why it works.

Nick said it: mind-body connection.  

BAM.

If you've reached adulthood and have any amount of personal reflection and self awareness, you know you have patterns.  You know you keep doing something that isn't helpful, and is possibly...

Are you feeling that forward motion energy out there?  The New Year brings such new hope and bright ideas to the surface. There's something about flipping that virtual calendar to a new year that feels like a clean slate.  

And yet, we never really are clean slates, no matter what the calendar says.

Our patterns, memories, identities, and ego structures follow us from calendar year to calendar year. This is only a problem, however, if it's a problem. Some of our patterns are really good!  You might have a pattern of stopping and thinking before you respond to someone.  Your pattern might be early bedtimes and rising at dawn to meditate and journal.  You might see yourself for what you truly are (which is perfect, whole, and complete).  You might show up right away when a friend is in distress or there's a pet that needs adopting.  Heck, hopefully you at least have the pattern of brushing your teeth every day.  

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