Blossoming Lotus meditation

How do you plan to open yourself this year, and what ideas are pollinating?

I've gotten back into the habit of daily yoga, which has all but healed this persistent shoulder injury for which I've been doing PT exercises for months now with little relief. It's been helpful to get back into a habit of consistent movement. More than that, it's been grounding to reapproach my days with consistency and a dedication to turning inward and focusing on myself. As I reiterate in my Pedal and Prosody retreats, movement and conscientiously stepping away from the notebook or keyboard can help our creativity and our confidence in living in that creative space.

My favorite at-home yoga guidance these days comes from Yoga with Adriene, and it's where this month's meditation came to fruition. Despite doing yoga for about 20 years, I don't recall ever coming across the simple yet playful Blossoming Lotus pose. While balancing on my tailbone with my arms laced through my legs, I started thinking of the stages of a flower and how each is important. And it being a particularly grey day outside, with the snow falling but not yet sticking, it's hard to feel like a flower in full radiant bloom. But I can feel the sprout breaking through the seed shell, germinating. Just like the winter solstice is my favorite solstice because it signifies the coming of daylight, I love winter for it's allowance to grow and develop, to sprout in spring, so we can blossom in summer.

Meditation: If you wish, start in blossoming lotus pose (Vikasita Kamalasana). Sit on the ground with a flat back and feet together, with hands placed inside legs. Leaning back slightly, lift the legs off the ground and loop arms through the legs, so your forearms are sticking out and knees/elbows are locked together. Touch thumb and index fingers together, meanwhile push your heels together to create a V with your feet while toes are flexed and outstretched, and tighten your core muscles while stretching upward with your spine. Breathe here while you continue you balance on your tailbone.

Whether or not you are in this position, feel the modest, inward strength this pose cultivates. I talk about manifesting a lot and am usually joking, but there is scientific evidence to support its power (with limitations; manifesting won't stop a war or a genocide, etc.). The real power comes from envisioning goals and going deeper in those visions, more specific. What are the details of the destiny, what are the steps to get there? How do you see yourself making your way to those moments?

This is what I think and feel while little posing as a blossoming flower. The ideas germinate, the details start to come into focus like leaves starting to form on a stem as it breaks through the soil, then unfurl as the sun shifts direct.

I invite you to hold onto this energy — at once grounded in practice (not perfect), butt pressed firmly into the ground, feeling relatively safe and now overstretched, and expansive and brave, reaching into a position that doesn't come naturally, that is outside your comfort zone, that feels playful and generative — as you step into the new year.