Happy Lunar new year!
Posted by Dr. Alda Ngo
Beginning Anew
In Vietnamese, we say, ” Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! “
The lunar year begins anew bringing Water Rabbit energy (or Water Cat energy in the Vietnamese zodiac).
I love lunar new year activities & how they carry meaning & intention for beginning anew. We often look at the new year with hope, making resolutions & promises for improvement.
As the new year is an opportunity to begin anew – so is every moment. Each present moment is like none before & it’s an opportunity to start fresh.
The Seeds Within Us
Everything within us can be viewed as a seed. In this way, we can see that our inner seeds of joy, peace, happiness, as well as depression, anger & jealousy, etc… all arise through being nourished in some way.
With all of these seeds within us, we see that some are bigger than others. Most of them are watered more often by habit energies.
What seeds within us have we been habitually watering & what other seeds are available for us to water instead?
If we see that our physical body, thoughts & emotions all exist through nutriment, perhaps we have more choice in what we nourish & how.
Everything that we take in can be viewed as either nourishing or depleting. The foods we eat, the sense impressions we take in (sounds, sights, sensations through touch, smells). Even our motivations can be either nourishing or depleting. Stopping to become aware of the underlying motivations to our speech & actions, which can also arise from habit energy creates space for us to water a new seed of motivation.
Watering Seeds for the Lunar New Year
Here’s a practice to help you intentionally water seeds for the new year:
- Make a list of all of the things in your life that are currently nourishing to you.
- Make a list of all of the things in your life that are depleting to you.
- Make a concrete plan to remove the depleting activities & prioritize making time & space for that which is nourishing.
May we all begin anew beautifully in this new lunar year!
More Mindfulness
To learn more ways to bring mindfulness into your life & to support your fertility journey, check out @mindfulnessforfertility or mindfulnessforfertility.com
Our next online program begins Jan 30th, we hope to see you then!
