Goodbye 2016 I am done with you AND welcome 2017

Since you are reading my blog I am going to make the assumption that you have taken a yoga class, and you then know the emphasis placed on your breath.  In yoga, connecting to your breath gets you from one pose to the next, enabling you to hold a pose longer.  In life, I have learned that the simple act of “coming back to the breath” can help guide you when you are struggling with something physically, emotionally or spiritually.

As 2016 is about to become or already has become a part of our past, I want to reflect on how many times I have had to connect to my breath to simply keep moving forward, through a rather heartbreaking 2016 for many people.  I have been thinking what I would want to write or say in my last blog for 2016.  I knew one thing, to encourage us all to pause and come back to our breath, even for a moment.  Last night as I walked home from dinner with Brian, Hailey and my in-laws we all stopped to look at this incredibly large twinkling bright star (or so we thought it was a star).  I wonder what each one of us was thinking as we gazed above.  Possibly reflecting on this past year and looking forward to what we hope to be a brighter 2017?  Perhaps as bright of a year as that star we were luckily enough to see?

The smaller light above the moon to the right is Venus, Moon looks pretty good too!

As terrible as 2016 may have been I prefer to turn to the positive rather than the negative.  What have I accomplished?  Have I been a good friend to those I love and cherish?  Have I been a good mother and wife? Have my relationships gotten stronger and deeper?  Can I check off a few things on my bucket list of life? As I ask myself all these questions I ended up accomplishing a lot more then I had previously given myself credit for.  Even further, putting this type of “to do list of perfection” aside, I am mostly proud of myself for being good to me, for slowing down on this merry-go-round we call life, stopping to breathe and appreciate all that I do have rather then what I don’t have.

I am grateful that we took that moment together, as a family to simply look at that twinkling star that ending up being Venus, in its simple beauty. What a wonderful way to end 2016 looking above at the stars.

Happy New Year - xoxo