Good Morning Yogis – Happy Monday! We are in the middle of our special Holiday Yamas Practices! December is the holiday season for many worldwide nations, cultures, and religions, so this ties in with most other holiday seasons our Yogis may celebrate. I will continue my research through the month and tie in our practices with world holidays if they tie in with our daily practices… please contact me if you have any requests or suggestions!
Holiday Yamas Practice Schedule
We are on our seventh day counting down the 5 Yamas with 5 days of Ahimsa (non-harming), 4 days of Satya (truthfulness), and 3 days of Asteya (non-stealing) before we have a full week of Brahmacharya for the week of Christmas in the United States.. a time that I will enjoy the focus on moderation! We will focus on a different way to practice each of these Yamas each day.
Holiday Season – Halcyon Days
Today is the second day of our Satya (truthfulness) practices, and we just ended 5 days of Ahimsa (non-harming) kindness practices. Today is also the start of Halcyon Days. Have you heard of this?! I had heard the name referenced by musicians, and it sounded vaguely familiar from my Classics classes especially Greek mythology, but never really knew. Well, I just learned so you will too 🙂
Halcyon Days nowadays refers to any calm period, but technically these are the 7 days before and after the winter solstice. This two week period is supposed to have particularly calm weather and seas, named after the Halcyon bird (European Kingfisher) which nests during this period. The Halcyon was thought to have the power to calm the seas, from the myth of Alcyone recorded by Ovid. I think random facts are cool…. maybe Halcyon Days will be a trivia question for you in the future!
Okay, back to Satya practice!
We will take the next three days of Satya practice to cover each Satya practice recommended by the 8-Fold Path – correct thoughts, speech, and actions. So today we will practice Satya (truthfulness) with our thoughts. Although this concept of correct thoughts from the 8-Fold Path is fairly complex, we are going to take a simple view for today’s practice – refraining from ill-will against oneself or others. If you do decide to look further into this concept of correct thoughts, you will find Ahimsa is frequently referenced in this kindness in thoughts towards oneself and others. As we discussed yesterday, Satya means KIND truth. So, today we will revisit our challenging Ahimsa of thoughts positive thinking practice for today’s Satya correct thoughts practice.
Today’s Daily Yogi Practice is to practice Satya / Truthfulness with correct thought from the 8-Fold Path!
- Remember the saying “if you do not have anything nice to say, it’s best to say nothing at all” and try to stop negative speech and thoughts in their track about yourself and others.
- To support kind thoughts about others, use this mental trick to be less affected by the negative behavior of others or check out this list for other ways to manage difficult situations and people.
- Check out this great article for 10 types of logical fallacies supporting negative thoughts, and how to correct each kind.
- Keep your inner dialogue today restricted to only kind thoughts about yourself, and do not say anything/think you would not say to a dear loved one! Check out this article if you struggle with negative self-talk.
- If you MUST give constructive criticism or other negative comments, make sure to give a compliment sandwich – positive statements before and after the gentle required critique or suggestion. PS whether this is an effective long-term management technique is debatable – but this is a special positivity practice today, so I am trying to counter any required negativity with a double dose of positivity.
Remember this can be a difficult practice, so be extra kind and patient with yourself today if today’s practice is difficult.. you have to start somewhere, check out some of the tools above for support!
Geminids Meteor Shower
I want to let everyone know tonight is the peak night of the Geminids meteor shower! I love shooting stars, and the Geminids meteor shower is considered the best of the year! Meteors will be visible throughout the sky, but primarily originating from the constellation Gemini (my sun sign). PS tonight is the peak, but if it is too cloudy you can try again for the next couple of days.
Want more on Positive Thinking?
Check our Positivity Board on Pinterest!
Please comment and share how your Satya practice went today. How did it make you feel? Always remember, be kind!