We get older in illogical increments. Birthdays pass and pass, but there are some years, months, seasons or weeks in which you suddenly grow older, you feel older, much like the growth spurts of adolescents. “She just shot up overnight,” we always say.
Despite the plausibility of good intentions, the yoga industries emphasis on transformation around the new year feels a bit too opportunistic. Personal transformation may come as a natural progression in the context of yoga practice but the process is greatly hindered when the concept is used as a dangling carrot to sell memberships.
For many of us, simply caring for ourselves is a counterintuitive and confusing process. We may equate kindness with material goods, and so buy ourselves clothes or goods to quench dissatisfaction; or we might believe an indulgence will make us feel good, and so "treat" ourselves to rich foods or overeat; or we may feel that drinking or drugs will rid us of our anxiet
I am back in New York for a few weeks and noticing my angry thought patterns as I wait for buses in the bone chilling cold, as I stare at passer-by and pout about my to-do list. The truth is, I do this in Seattle to. Sometimes I am just seething and sad.
We give up what makes us feel bad about ourselves, at least in retrospect, and take on what makes us feel good about ourselves. Practicing the precepts is said to result in the bliss of blameless.
Is it just me or did 2011 feel like a complete wash? Nothing particularly horrible or great stands out. The small triumph of not letting daily mundane tribulations get the best of me may not rank high on a scorecard but I am nonetheless grateful for having managed to get through relatively unscathed.
Flipping through the catalog for a big name yoga and retreat center, I was shocked to notice that they advertised their yoga teacher training programs as “Yoga Alliance Approved.” Misrepresentations like this are the dirty little secret of the yoga industry. No one really wants to admit there is no accreditation for Yoga.
For many of us, simply caring for ourselves is a counterintuitive and confusing process. We may equate kindness with material goods, and so buy ourselves clothes or goods to quench dissatisfaction; or we might believe an indulgence will make us feel good, and so "treat" ourselves to rich foods or overeat; or we may feel that drinking or drugs will rid us of our anxiet 
