Why I Rang in the New Year In Silence
Why I Rang in the New Year In Silence
I have a strange New Year’s tradition…
Around 9:30pm on New Year’s Eve (yes, that’s an entirely reasonable and even exciting bedtime as an adult, Ayurveda say so 😅), I turn off my phone, unplug my wifi router, and turn my clocks around so I can’t see them. I go to bed with my house in technology free mode.
New Year’s day begins peacefully, without an alarm clock, and I block off the day to stay at home, totally in silence, and vow not to turn any of the technology back on until January 2nd.
And I LOVE it.
If you follow Vira Bhava, you probably yearn for a deeper understanding of Yoga and Tantra. You want to not just understand, but also embody these practices. I throw some Ayurveda into the mix to solidify the mind/body connection even further. The result? You do some things that might at times seem counter-culture or downright weird. So while mainstream culture says you should stay up drinking until Midnight to usher in the New Year, the ancient practices invite us to have a little more intentionality. In a culture addicted to the little boxes in our pockets that feed us dopamine all day, how much more counter culture does it get than willfully CHOOSING to ignore it for a day? Well, the weirdness continues...
I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. More on what I do instead here.
But I do have a LOT of intentionality surrounding how I ring in the New Year.
My intentions and desires for each year vary, but some strongholds are always there- peace, clarity, and connection to Source.
When I start the year by eliminating as many distractions as I can, it’s one way to embody this intention. And don’t worry- I don’t spend the entire day in meditation and contemplation, although you totally could! This is my 3rd year doing it, and what normally ends up happening is I deep clean some part of my house and then end up in the woods for a hike.
So, why are these weird practices of benefit, and why do I highly recommend them?
Pratyahara
One of Patanjali’s 8 limbs of Yoga- Pratyahara roughly translates to “withdrawal of the sense organs”. It’s a stark contrast to our daily lives. It’s taking in less. Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, all just less. Turning all of that energy instead INWARD. Listed as the 5th limb of Yoga, you can argue that the 8 limbs of Yoga build upon each other, and withdrawal of the sense organs is a prerequisite to meditation and self-actualization. Or not. In Tantra we like to throw some rules out the window and play with what happens next. But this day of silence includes not listening to music or podcasts (the computer, phone, bluetooth speaker, radio, they are all off!), not talking to anyone or listening to anyone talk. I do read some days, but really my sense organs get to take a big giant breath or relief. The sounds I hear are the water running over the dishes, the dog sighing as he falls asleep, and the birds outside my window.
The practice of tuning in instead of tuning out.
Did you know in Ayurveda, a major cause of disease is misuse of our sense organs?
Agni
Speaking of how much we take in- our digestive capacity (agni) has a big job. It is responsible for breaking down, digesting, absorbing, and assimilating much more than just our food- anything we take in through our sense organs also has to be broken down in the flame of agni and come out in its constituent digestible parts on the other side. So this means that by taking in less, you’re also supporting your digestion in general. Ayurveda always finds a way to make it about digestion :) Most folks living in the modern world have an overworked agni. We take in too much and overwhelm our body’s capacity to digest just based on sheer volume. Fasting from technology may not seem related, but it really can improve your health.
Sankalpa
Because the practice means you are taking in less, it means your rich inner world gets to take center stage. You probably have had this experience in a really great yoga class (or I hope you have, if you are a VBY teacher or student)- you slow down, sink in, get quiet, and that’s when things get JUICY. You can feel connected to yourself and hear the things that your body, mind, and spirit had been whispering to you, but you had to sit down and shut up to be able to hear. The business of our day to day keeps a lot of the more subtle messages from deeper parts of ourselves unheard; they are overshadowed by the constant influx of news, information, and near constant dopamine from our technology.
And so I relish in this practice of slowing down and sinking in, because that’s what can help bring clarity. Everything divine is still a paradox, and you can still find the clarity among the chaos. But sometimes in Ayurveda, we seek to balance an excess or imbalance in one direction with the exact opposite qualities. If your life is constantly busy, teetering on burnout and overwhelm, or maybe you stay busy to avoid feeling the deep stuff, the medicine might be to press the pause button.
And when you can hear the subtle messages, when you let the dust settle long enough, you can start to find some clarity. So instead of using New Year’s day as an arbitrary day to make some diet or lifestyle change fueled from a place of self-hatred or remorse, what would it be like to instead slow down enough to find what is our true intention? Our sankalpa?
A sankalpa is a much more powerful thing to bring with you into the New Year than a Resolution is. It comes from a much deeper part of you. It’s your highest wish. Perhaps you give it a shot to connect to this deepest truest desire with your best interest at its core. Then you can practice in any way you feel called to with this sankalpa. Traditional yoga would say bring this sankalpa into a yoga nidra practice. But maybe there is a ritual, maybe there’s art, maybe there’s just a deep knowing that can’t be undone.
Traditionally, a sankalpa is spoken in the affirmative, and as if it has already happened. For example, instead of “I am going to get off this medication” it could be “I am healed” or instead of “I’m not letting my anxiety get the best of me anymore” it could be “I am peaceful”. What’s your Sankalpa for the New Year?
So yeah, I love these counter culture practices, and I think you might, too. I try to have at least a technology free day once a month, even if there is talking involved on those days. Try it out for yourself. See for yourself how much more present and focused and in touch you are afterwards. You just might be hooked.
Cheers to 2025 VBY family!