The bracket of dates that goes from Christmas Eve till a week or two after New Year’s is traditionally break time in Australia. It’s such a sensible and compassionate approach and one of the things I love about this country.
If you are fortunate enough to enjoy time off work in this period, you will have probably found yourself looking forward to it well in advance of the holidays. You fantasised about all the books you were going to read, the walks on the beach, the afternoon naps, and even leisurely cups of tea with too-long-neglected friends.
However here I am on Boxing Day – December 26th – and I’m noticing I’ve lost my momentum, a difficulty that’s exacerbated by having had two weeks vacation in New Zealand before Xmas. So, this morning I didn’t organise myself to do yoga practice, I haven’t picked up a book to read, and I feel a little queasy in my stomach from the combination and amount of food and drink I had for Xmas dinner. Hopefully, I’ll get in enough structure over the next weeks to be able to better enjoy my time off from structure 🙂
What does it mean to have free time? What does it mean to live without structure? What is ‘personal freedom’? Is that figure of speech an oxymoron?
As we move into the end of 2012, we have arrived at the last chapter of Patanjali’s Sutra, which is all about freedom (kaivalya). Having studied the ways that one’s mind can be refined through the practices of yoga, we will be looking at the possibilities that present for such a liberated mind – possibilities that ‘defuse the dramas of consciousness.’*
How very exciting!
*The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali, translation and commentary by Chip Hartranft.