Reflections on 2025...

Reflections on MY 2025... How about yours?

"Come, come, whoever you are.

Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.

It doesn't matter.

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Come, even if you have broken your vows

a thousand times.

Come, yet again, come, come."

Rumi

(13th-century Persian poet, scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic.)

2025 is slowly coming to a close, like a candle burning down to it’s last bit of wax, but still burning bravely and brightly. As we come to the pause in-between the calendar years, time for reflection and introspection.

Now is a good time then, to pause and ask yourself:

* Which part of my life am I willing to let go of as the calendar turns?

Make space for something new …

* Where have I grown; learned something new about myself?

Hold on to that …

* Where have I let life get in the way of my well-being and my deepest joy?!

Breathe into that …

* Where have I broken my vow to myself?

Come, yet again, come, come ….

2025 has been, for me, a year of growth, renewal, surrender and dreaming.

GROWTH & RENEWAL

In January I started a weekly yoga class with local teacher Mary Freeman. It is almost 13 years since I started teaching and a long while since I was a weekly student at a class - and I have loved being back on the mat as a humble student once again.

Committing to a weekly class has reminded me of all the reasons we create in our minds NOT to keep going to class, week after week.

Firstly new habits are hard to establish - you have to really want something to keep the momentum going - and to feel you are receiving that which feeds you in some way. Showing up on my mat and receiving Mary’s teaching has renewed and enhanced my love of yoga, stretched me mentally and physically and brought me into the growth I knew I was longing for.

Secondly - LIFE!! - it just pushes and pulls us in so many different directions and I experienced the inner voice telling me - TOO BUSY!! TOO MUCH TO DO THIS WEEK!!

But I hit the override button on those thoughts, grabbed my yoga kit bag and headed down the A55 to the cosy village hall above Bethesda.

SURRENDER

I turned up on my mat, even when I was exhausted, tearful and had hardly slept. I rolled out my mat when my Dad was so so poorly and after he passed away. Some weeks, I missed bits of the class and just rested in Childs pose and let the tears fall. Some weeks I felt distracted and too much in my head and other weeks, I felt a deep presence - in my body, the opening, the holding, the breath and the transitions.

My practice has grown and evolved to new depths. I am so grateful for the safe space that Mary creates in her classes and events. It has moulded me into a better teacher too I think.

Putting myself back in the shoes of the student has been a powerful reminder for me, that sometimes it is hard for you too, for so many reasons, to show up on your mat. But please know that it is always a safe place for you to unravel, unwind, laugh, cry, move, breathe and rest. So that you can get back to your whole self, again and again. Your mat is your sanctuary, your class is your community and your experience is your own. In the words of Yung Pueblo “Do what is right for you. do it over and over again. lean into the light. Keep going when it is hard, especially when it is hard.”

Finally… DREAMING

2026 holds the promise and vision of a new dream.

I will share more of that with you in January…