Beyond New Year’s Resolutions: Designing and Keeping a Practice

With January drawing to an end, New Year’s resolutions are often already forgotten as the pace of the year begins to quicken , the frustration of not being able to follow through on those plans can cause a sense of overwhelm and futility.

The same often applies to practice, both formal assignments as well as self-chosen explorations. At the beginning of a new course, or the end of a transformative workshop, the motivation to integrate and deepen what has been learned is high.

Then over time, with life’s demands and shifting priorities the impetus to follow through diminishes and the excitement about having entered a new exploration often gets replaced by a niggling feeling of failure and self-doubt.

So how do you engage in practices that integrate and strengthen over time?