Winter Solstice

"By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness." -Yoga Sutras 1:33

It has been my observation that the Winter Solstice awakens two types of people each year: the Scrooges and the "Buddy the Elves". Each are very distinct in their behavior and attitude toward the world and both trigger distinct reactions from people that interact with them. The sutras tell us that to calm the chatter of the mind we must maintain an attitude of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the sad, delight in the virtuous and ignore the mean spirited.

The Holiday season is very stressful for most people because of family visits, lack of family, work deadlines, etc. People tend to be working with shorter fuses than usual because of this at this time. It is our job as yogis to cultivate a spirit of calm, ease and non-judgment to help everyone through this time.

This week's yoga is about non-judgment and compassion. We can't control how everyone is going to behave over the holiday season, but we can control how we react to that behavior. By choosing to not react and to act without judgment toward those around us, we will find the holidays will pass by more peacefully for everyone.

Happy Holidays!