New Year, New Intentions?
Relating yogic wisdom to everyday life
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – though it’s fairly banal – January 1 seems an arbitrary date for an annual reset. If Europe had stuck with the Julian calendar, today would be Christmas – as it is in most Orthodox countries (despite some exceptions), with New Year next week…
In any case, each moment is as good as the next for marking time, so one can always restart when one feels so inclined. However, most of the world still counts down to midnight on December 31, with accompanying discussions about transformation (which may or may not manifest).
Here, it’s business as usual. I still plan to air podcasts twice a month – interspersed with some writing on alternating weeks. But you might notice changes. As last week’s podcast discussed, I’m keen to start answering listeners’ questions. I’m also writing a book, so there might be some snippets of that posted here – or I might occasionally share something briefer to stop me procrastinating.
I often talk about yoga in terms of attention. However, intentions are also important for orientation. That’s basically what I’m exploring in my book – how engaging with yogic ideas might give life meaning, whether or not people practise techniques. Not exactly Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It, but hopefully as catchy!
If you’d like to support me in this endeavour, I’d be really grateful if you’d consider becoming a paying subscriber, or making a one-off donation here. To make time to write, I’ll be keeping other work to a minimum – so any contributions will be very helpful. There’s no obligation, of course. I’m also very happy to have readers and listeners. But just to be transparent, barely 3% pay to subscribe.
I’m committed to carry on sharing here, with everything free at the time of posting. Full podcasts are paywalled for subscribers after three months, but preview versions keep about half of each conversation accessible to everyone. And if there’s an episode you want to hear in full, you can always email me to get it unlocked.
As an incentive, new annual subscribers will get 20% off any online course on yogic texts and traditions at truthofyoga.com. Sign up before January 14 and I’ll send you a code. For now, a few highlights from 2025, plus things to look forward to in 2026.
IN OTHER NEWS…
Although the book I mentioned is still a work in progress, another will be published soon. Here’s the cover – I’ll share more details about pre-ordering when I have them.
Next week marks the first anniversary of my mother’s death, so this conversation still feels very poignant, and the author’s book on caring is a wonderful read:
I’m presenting a paper at a conference in May (Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana in Paris), exploring some work I reviewed last year – this post shares a taste of it:
One of my podcast’s aims is to highlight new scholarship that helps to make sense of yoga history, as well as its relevance to modern practitioners – here’s a great example:
Finally, my year-long course The Path of Knowledge will reopen for enrolments in 2026. You can find out more about it here – sign up here to stay informed about the launch.
If you’d like to support what you find here, please consider paying to subscribe or donating…