Episode Transcript
[00:00:11] Hello friends. Welcome back to another episode of Deepen your yoga practice. I'm Lauren Leduc, the owner and founder of True Love Yoga in Kansas City, Missouri, and this is the last episode of 2024. I just launched this podcast in September and it's really been so much fun diving into these deeper yogic concepts. And I'd love to say before we begin, if you've enjoyed this podcast, if you could please rate and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, it would be really meaningful for me and for the podcast as well, helping us to reach new listeners. And also if there are any specific yogic themes, concepts, ideas that you would like to learn more about in the new year, please email me laurenruloveyogacie.com I'm here truly to serve you, and I would love to steward this practice of yoga through this podcast in the way that serves your needs the best in the new year. So thank you for listening. I would recommend if you have not listened to last week's episode yet, which was sort of a ritual in closing out 2024, to do that as a companion to this episode. So that was all about closing out 2024, and today's episode is all about welcoming in 2025 with a yogic approach and in the spirit of intention, setting and of growth. So as we close out 2025, so as we close out 2024, we are looking forward to 2025 with focus and intention. So welcome back. I do want to say before we get into the meat of this episode, that I have a workshop at True Love Yoga in Kansas City January 1st. I do this every year. It's move, flow and set your intention. So we'll breathe, we'll flow with vinyasa, and we'll do some crystal clear intention sett.
[00:02:22] So that you're starting off 2025 with the Drishti. Right? If you're not familiar with Drishti, it's a focal point, so we often use it in our physical yoga practice by choosing maybe a point on the wall or somewhere in front of us that isn't moving, which helps us balance, it helps us focus, and we can do the same thing with our year. So here we go. First, I want to talk about the yogic concept of Sankalpa. Sankalpa. So Sankalpa is a yogic pract practice of setting heartfelt intentions that align with your deeper purpose. So heartfelt intentions that align with your deeper purpose. If you go to yoga classes or you teach yoga, you're probably pretty familiar with this Concept of intention setting. Oftentimes, before a class, you'll choose maybe a word or phrase or feeling that you would like to cultivate during the journey of your practice. Or maybe you're dedicating your efforts to someone or something else. So we can do this for our life as well, because almost everything we do on the mat is meant to be practiced and then done off the mat. Right. And I do want to say that you don't necessarily need to know your deeper purpose to set your sankalpa, or intention for the year. I think that purpose is sort of a loose phrase. When we're talking about dharma, the yogic concept of purpose. We're talking about a couple things. One is universal law. So this is about following ethics through your thoughts, words, and actions. So one way that you can align with your deeper purpose is to consider what is important to you, what your ethics are, and then aligning with that. Right. If we go a little bit to a more individualized definition, we're looking at svadharma, which is like an individual purpose. So it's to me, maybe a thing like, okay, my purpose is to be a mom and to own True Love Yoga in Kansas City. But for me, it's more of a vibe, right?
[00:04:35] Like, I hold this vibration, in my opinion, of a creator and a visionary and a nurturer, and everything I do tends to fit within that umbrella. And I'm not trying to do that. It's just naturally who I am. I've done a lot of work to allow these qualities to really shine in my life and to work for me. So you might consider what some of your superpowers are, what your vibe is, and then how to align your intention with that as well as your personal ethics. Okay. So a word might pop up for you right away when you think of 2025. I think it can be fun, you know, to pick a word for the year, but if it doesn't right away, that's okay. You might take a little bit of time to think about, you know, who you are, what you believe, and what your vibe is as far as purpose goes before setting an intention. So it's different than a resolution. Right. We're not looking like an intention isn't to lose ten pounds. Right. And most resolutions, they don't work. We set them and then fall back into old habits. We might start going really hard, like, I'm going to go to yoga every single day.
[00:05:58] And then, you know, three weeks in, we start burnout and we stop going something like that.
[00:06:04] It's not a resolution like that. It's an intention. It's a word, it's a phrase, it's a feeling. And we align our actions throughout the year with that to maintain this vibrational energy, this forward momentum of whatever that intention is. And we think about maybe how our actions can align through that by creating really meaningful, true commitments that are sustainable and by committing to self care and community care and our own growth rather than finding super rigid goals that we may or may not meet. So I'll invite you to similar in the past episode to reflect on 2024 with gratitude with this sense of Santosha, which is this mix of acceptance and gratitude. It's a radical acceptance of the reality of whatever happened this year, while finding gratitude for it. And not just for the easy stuff, but for the highs and the lows, if possible. And as you consider what you're grateful for from the past year, you might have some ideas on what you'd like to build on for the next year. Sarah Kucera, who's local to Kansas City and is an Ayurvedic author, has this concept in her book the Ayurvedic Self Care Handbook of the Prana Piggy Bank. So Prana is life force energy, and she has an exercise in there of considering what brings energy into your life and what takes energy away and really making a list. What brings energy, what takes it away? Some things that take it away are non negotiables in our life. They're responsibilities, they're duties, they're just things that we have to do. And some of them are just time suckers that aren't necessary. Right. So you might consider this concept of the Prana Piggy bank as you look back at what you're grateful for and you think about how to build on that for the next year. So what gives you energy and what is taking away your energy? And this is such a yoga teacher thing to say, I think. But you can look at all this data that you have now. What gives me energy? What takes it away with gratitude for all of it, the highs and the lows. Lows because it gives us wisdom for moving forward, for growing, for aligning more with who we are. So I have a journaling prompt for you and you're welcome to pause and journal on it. Or you might just take a moment to think about it or consider it just depending on where you are and what you're doing right now. But this question is what are the most fulfilling and meaningful moments of 2024? How have these shaped your current self and intentions. So what are the most fulfilling and meaningful moments of 2024? And how have these shaped your current self and intentions? Next, I want to talk about finding some clarity in the new year. And to do that, it often takes the removal of obstacles, right? What is clouding our vision? And I think we all want to go into new phases with eyes open and with a sense of knowing, right?
[00:09:20] Like going into the unknown, I guess, with a. With a flashlight. And that flashlight is our clarity and intention. And we can look to the yogic principle of Aparigraha or non attachment and its role in shedding limiting beliefs or attachments that might hold one back from authentic growth. Aparigraha is a yama, so in the first limb of yoga, and it's a recommendation on really on how to live a good life. And besides non attachment, it's more specifically non greed or non possessiveness. I think that in a world full of consumerism and distraction, our lives can be cluttered, often cluttered with things that don't matter. And I mean that both in the physical sense and in the emotional and mental sense. Think about, like scrolling through your phone, even how much information you take in and how much space that takes up in your brain. It's almost like we're hoarding information in that way. And Aparigraha encourages us to let go of that, to find more of a sense of simplicity. So this can be letting go of physical things that might mean, like a full house declutter.
[00:10:36] It might mean letting go of relationships that no longer service. It might mean letting go of habits that no longer serve us, of thought patterns that no longer serve us. And in that shedding, in that letting go, there's a sense of spaciousness and clarity. So by letting go again, of limiting beliefs or attachments that might hold us back, we're able to find our center, find what's authentic, find what is real, find that vibe or Svadharma I was talking about and move forward with that as your flashlight, as your torch, as your light, as your guide into the new year. So my next question would be, what habits or mindsets from 2024 do you wish to release and why? So again, you can journal on this question or take a moment to think about it, but what habits or mindsets from 2024 do you wish to release and why? Next, I want to talk about cultivating positivity and radical presence in 2025. So first we can explore the yogic concept of Saucha, which is a niyama in the Yoga Sutras.
[00:11:58] Which means purity. And this hearkens back to what I was talking about with the parigrah of shedding, of letting things go. And Saucha really invites, I think, our purest, most authentic self to shine so we can think about Saucha in different ways. It might mean, yes, cleaning our space. And I don't know about you, but when I clean my house, when I dust the shelves, or when I clean the altar at the studio, whatever it might be, I feel that reflected inside of me. I feel some of the mental noise, some of the emotional baggage I might have felt releasing from me. So it's doing something physical that can have a deep effect emotionally, mentally, internally, in general. I also like finding Saucha through different meditative practices. I really like mantra for this because I think about the chitta vritti, which is the whirling impressions and thoughts in the mind. I talk about that in, in episode one of this podcast.
[00:13:09] And focusing in on a mantra can really help clear some of that clutter and help me find my calm, my center, my peace, and my clarity as well. So you might think of ways where you feel pure. Maybe it's washing the hands, maybe it's taking a bath, maybe it's cleaning your space, maybe it's doing mantras. And by pure, just to be really clear, I don't mean this in like a puritanical or religious sense in any way. It's more the most authentic version of you. And that's the light and the shadow, right? It's. It's all of us. But what makes you feel most in touch with your soul, your spirit, your vibe, your purpose. And we can combine that saucha or purity with santosha, the niyama of contentment, which is both acceptance and gratitude, in order to foster a sense of positivity and peace. So it's allowing accepting what has happened, the present moment, even the future, while also finding this sense of gratitude and then navigating it with our inner light with this sense of purity and peace. So bringing a sense of lightness and acceptance to your intention setting can really guide this very fulfilling and aligned path forward. So here's another journaling prompt for you. How can I cultivate more contentment and presence in 2025, both on and off the mat? How can I cultivate more contentment and presence in 2025, both on and off the mat? So, so far we've talked kind of more about the mental and emotional and spiritual approach to things. And next we're really going to talk more about action so taking our intentions and filling them with action, making them manifest. Right.
[00:15:07] And we can do that with a couple more niyamas, the first being tapas. So tapas in yogic philosophy is discipline. And when I teach this concept to people, sometimes I feel a resistance to it because we associate discipline with punishment. And if that's an association for you, I'd like you to perhaps reframe discipline with devotion. So it's taking action toward whatever it is you're devoted to in your life. And that action should be consistent and enthusiastic. For instance, I'm really devoted to my daughter more than most things or maybe anything in my life. And it's very important to me to show up consistently for her every day because of how much I love her, how much I wish for her to grow up with a sense of self, love, autonomy, power and strength, compassion, et cetera. And do I feel like getting up at 5:36am every day because she wakes up at the crack of dawn and playing toys? No, I don't feel like doing that.
[00:16:20] Not always. I, you know, have needs for sleep and things like that. And I don't always wake up happy. But I show up for her every day anyway, no matter how I'm feeling because of that sense of devotion. And that's one example. But tapas allows us to, I think, gain clarity on what we're devoted to. It asks us to consider our why and then to align our consistent actions with that. And those actions are not dependent on our whims, they're not dependent on mood. They are heart driven, they are consistent, they require a sense of inner fire that sometimes we have to dig as deeply as we possibly can, for in moments that are hard. So it asks us to remember our why and to align our actions with our why. How this relates to intention setting is how do we actually create a plan of action? I think there are these spiritual ideals, these days of manifestation of like, oh, if I visualize it, it will happen. But there's more than that. You're a co creator with the universe, so an action plan is needed. So yes, you might think, is there this gold? Is this, is there, is there sankalpa? But what does that actually look like in our day to day actions, in our habits, in our interactions in our inner world. So it's very important with this concept of tapas to think about what this intention, what this sankalpa looks like in your life, and then think about the small things you can do on a consistent basis to show up for it. That is how you Become aligned. Align isn't just some word that we throw out there that sounds spiritual and cool. It takes hard work. So how do we work toward this feeling, toward this goal, toward this vibe, toward this Sankalpa? On the other hand, while we have some control through this action, there is a lot in this world that is beyond our control. Right? And that's where the next yogic concept comes in.
[00:18:31] The last niyama of Ishwara Pranidhana. And this is surrender to the divine. When I say the divine, that is, however you define it, that might be a deity for you. That might mean your spirit. That might mean the universe. I'm not here to define that for you, but I am here to offer this practice of giving something over to a higher power, of realizing that not everything is within your control and cultivating a certain sense of trust with divine. Not that things are going to go exactly as you want all the time, but that maybe, just maybe, some things are going to work out in your favor in ways known and unknown, expected and unexpected.
[00:19:25] And I do this practice in different ways. I'll go back to parenting because for me, it is like the ultimate yoga. It is so hard. It is so hard. It is such a practice. But yes. Are there tools and techniques I want to use? Of course. Do I have my daughter on a schedule? Do we have rituals and rhythms? Yes. But things happen that are beyond my control all the time. And for me, my relationship for the divine means that I have this open communication. So I like to pray at night. It's what I grew up with in more of a religious sense. And now I do it on my own terms.
[00:20:01] But my main prayer is just to be the mother that my daughter needs. Please, please let me be the mother that my daughter needs. And when I'm doing that, I'm surrendering. I am giving space within myself for the divine to do its work.
[00:20:20] I am setting my ego aside in a way because I know I do not have control over everything. If I think I'm going to, it's going to drive me crazy.
[00:20:31] Instead, I can try. That's the tapas. Try as hard as I can while letting go of what I cannot control. And that is the Ishvara Pranidhana. So you can even consider, like the serenity prayer with these two concepts of, you know, I wasn't planning on talking about it, so I don't have it written out in front of me. I probably will get it wrong. But it's grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
[00:20:59] The things that I can and for the wisdom to know the difference. And you can think about what you want from your life in 2025 while holding these two concepts, one in each hand, right? Holding them with both with equal weight and reverence.
[00:21:15] So your journaling prompt is, what small, consistent actions can I take in 2025 to align with my Sankalpa? How can I balance discipline with surrender? If you don't know your Sankalpa yet, that's okay. But what are some small, consistent actions you can take in 2025 to meet your goals?
[00:21:39] And how can you balance the sense of discipline with surrender? So if you haven't yet, maybe consider what your Sankalpa is for 2025. What is your intention? How would you like to feel? How would you like to affect others in the world around you? What aligns with your ethics? What aligns with your vision? And I want to say it can be as simple as, I want to have fun. I want to care for myself better. And for me, it's usually a whole handful of things. It can be really hard to pick one word for 2024. It was drishti, or focus.
[00:22:28] And looking back, I can see many of the actions I took and even the surrender that needed to happen, the letting go to align with that goal or to align with that Sankalpa. And I'm glad that I had that guiding me through the year because there were some hard decisions to make. So consider what your Sankalpa might be. And I'll say if you're in Kansas City and you would like even more support, because I think it's really important to move some of this work through the body, through the breath, to gain the clarity that we were talking about. You can join me on January 1st. Move flow. I keep forgetting the name of this workshop. Breathe, Flow, and set your intention at True Love Yoga.
[00:23:11] And I want to wish you a peaceful, purposeful, and joyous start to the new year.
[00:23:21] And I do again, want to remind you that purpose is a vibe.
[00:23:26] And yes, you might have, like, a really specific occupation or role in life to fulfill, but I also bet that there is this overarching feeling, vibration in your purpose that almost everything you do can fall under.
[00:23:45] I'll digress here for a moment before I wrap up, but my daughter really loves the movie Soul, the Pixar movie. And in it, this jazz musician gets an opportunity of a lifetime.
[00:23:59] And he's been so focused on this opportunity his whole life, and it finally manifests. And right before he can fulfill it, he falls in a manhole and essentially dies at least temporarily in the movie.
[00:24:13] And I will spare you the entire plot, but there's this part at the end that always makes me cry. Because he realizes that he's met this biggest goal in his life and he still feels the same, right? He's been so focused on this outcome that he has lost some appreciation for the small beauties and joys in life. And there's this beautiful moment in the movie where there's this montage, sort of small, beautiful moments, and I'm going to cry. My daughter's only four. She's like, mommy, why are you crying? But, you know, it's just seeing the leaves or seeing the light through the leaves, spending time with those he loves, you know, moments of laughter, even beautiful moments of grief. And I think in this montage, this idea of purpose for him shifts in that it's not about this one goal, it's about life itself. And I'm so grateful from my journey that yoga has given me the tools to appreciate and accept my life more, to show myself more compassion, to affect positive change. Oftentimes really small positive change, but who knows what the ripples might be? And it's allowed me to be in the moment where all this beauty and magic is happening that can be so hard to miss. Sorry. So easy to miss. So I'll drive the point home that as you're setting this Sankalpa, this intention, it doesn't have to be lofty. It needs to be authentic to you. And you deserve to align with it through the year. The world deserves it.
[00:25:47] And I cannot wait to see what beauty in each moment unfolds and manifests. Because you have taken this time to be more intentional, more present, more purposeful, more loving.
[00:26:02] So let's approach 2025, the light heart and open mind, practicing compassion for ourselves and others. I'm so grateful for each and every one of you. I'm looking forward to such a beautiful, intentional, focused year. So much love. Om Shanti Om. Peace.
