I hope you’re having a happy holiday season! This time a year is perfect to reflect on the past year and project ourselves into the future to envision and create what you want to experience. Did you feel like 2020 was a year of ruined plans, a strange waiting game where everything felt out of your control? I know I did…

So we can start to move forward, I sat down for this episode with Elena Brower. Elena is a Mama, teacher, artist, poet, bestselling author, and Podcast Host of Practice You, Elena has taught yoga and meditation since 1999. Her first book, Art of Attention, has been translated into seven languages, her Essential Mentorship is beloved for bringing analog creativity to online coursework, and her third book, Being You, will be released in early 2021. With all the work focusing on reflection and contemplation, I thought she would be a great guest to talk about envisioning our new year.

If you want to go further in this or you’re wondering how to envision your new year and move forward when all you feel is held back, I’ve planned a 5-day New Year group-challenge. Together we’ll get clear on your intention and your priorities. We’ll look at the area of your life that need the most attention, and set goals to move the needle forward towards what you’ve been longing to experience. We’ll plan step by step how to get there and give you the support you need to stay on track and make it happen. If you want to know more, go to www.erikalanger.com or send me an email at erika.belanger@gmail.com.

Listen to the episode here:

MY 5 BIGGEST TAKEAWAY FROM THIS EPISODE

1. Personal integrity and making promises to ourselves is at the base of our transformation. Everything you are enjoying right now is the result of previous thoughts or actions. That’s very good news because those all things that are changeable.
2. How you handle your circumstances, no matter how horrific they are, how you choose to show up, determines the rest of your day, week, month, year and life. Make one vision for each area of your life. Rate it on a scale of 1-10. Ask yourself how close are you to your ideal? For anything below and 8, look into your life and see what is perpetuating this distance, what is stopping you? what structure is not in place to help you get there? Then, you have to put into place the structures you need to create that vision and dismantle the structures that are keeping you from it.
3. Right your vision in the present tense. Do not mention anything you do not want. Give yourself permission to dream big enough to actually create tangible change in your life.
4. To keep the promises you make to yourself, give yourself a consequence that is cross-purposes, so as it keeps you from doing the behavior you want to stop, and also affects positively another area of your life. It’s a positive way to keep you on track where to need accountability.
5. Reflection and contemplation are ways to learn to trust your intuition and know you have the answers you are seeking.

QUESTIONS SHE ANSWERED DURING THIS EPISODE

• Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your yoga journey?
• What n your life made you want to become a teacher?
• Why did you decide to close your yoga studio?
• Where does the love of art have to start?
• You have your own story of recovery and I wanted to ask you about your path towards recovery and what helped you in the process?
• How has yoga supported you in your recovery?
• How has the Handel method helped you?
• How do we show up in a state of empowerment to have an agency in our life?
• How do we envision?
• How do we act in alignment with what we want and keep the promises we make to ourselves?
• What’s the place of our past experience?
• What is the importance of reflection and contemplation? How does it serve us?
• What’s one thing you have learned this year? What can we take away from this year?
• What do you want to see more of in the world?

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ABOUT OUR GUEST

Mama, teacher, artist, Double Diamond leader with doTERRA, bestselling author and Podcast Host of Practice You, Elena has taught yoga and meditation since 1999. Her first book, Art of Attention, has been translated into seven languages, her Essential Mentorship is beloved for bringing analog creativity to online coursework, and her third book, Being You, will be released in early 2021. Her spoken word poetry can be heard on Above & Beyond’s Flow State albums.  Listen to her renowned Practice You Podcast at practiceyou.com, and experience yoga with Elena on Glo.com.

Her website: https://elenabrower.com