Clarity is needed for making healthy choices. Especially when it comes to making choices and resolutions for a New Year. Yet, if we are not anchored in our true self it becomes a nebulous concept. Our intuition shuts off. We begin to vacillate between “shoulds” and “shouldnts”. “What if” becomes our only point of inquiry. Fears build up, and we block mentally, emotionally and physically. What’s worse, we no longer trust ourselves.

Although, I am not a dubious person by nature, lately, I’ve had a hard time getting the clarity I need. And what’s even more unlikely for me – out of fear and insecurity I turned for guidance to one of those physic readers advertising their craft on the street. Of course, I heard what I already knew. I was living in constructs that were not my own. The link between my ego and my higher self had been distorted by judgment and conditioning. I needed to stop living in the illusion of separation that things should be one way or the other, and remember that every truth was simply an interval of possibilities.

In Yoga “lifting the veil” means transcending the duality of right or wrong, better or worse, good or bad. Duality means there are two opposites that are combined; they are somehow connected with one another. If you reject something that is negative, you are stuck with it… you actually, by simply looking at it, being afraid of it, you make it stronger, whereas if you have an acceptance of the negative, if you feel that it’s somehow, for some reason, it came into your life for a good purpose, for a good reason, then it starts changing for you, it turns into a positive and that turns you, that basically makes you feel you are in control, you are no longer victimized by it.

The infamous quantum formula stipulates that things are not what they appear to be, and most of the time we live in an illusion. Most of the things we believe in are mental constructs that are ingrained in our subconscious. They cloud our minds and we start to think that we must do things a certain way and if we fail we have to room for amendment. To pull out of this miserable situation Yoga encourages us to learn the art of making our mind steady, one-pointed and clear. The art of “Ekagrata” lends us a zoom into our soul purpose. We narrow the scope intentionally to pin down what we really want to do with our life. We pose the essential questions: What do we want to achieve? How do we wish to fit in this world? How do we want the people who are near and dear to you to fit into our life? What do we expect from them? How realistic are our expectations? What do we wish to give others, and how realistic is this wish?

The answers to these questions will help us replace the superfluous collection of tasks that we have undertaken with tasks that are in line with our priorities. Our false expectations will fade away, and we’ll get a clear perspective on our duties and responsibilities.

For me Ekagrata is the ability to focus on the essentials and pay attention to what matters. But this narrowing of the zoom contains a widening of the lens. It’s a little counterintuitive, but it works wonders. It is like finding an expansion in every contraction. And instead of following the yogic prescriptions on clarity and shutting the mind, when my thoughts turned foggy, instead of suspending the monkey mind, I opened it to a wider pool of possibilities. Here’s how it worked.

When the real insecurity kicked in and I wasn’t sure what to do in my life, I took a break from everything for a day. Everything, even thinking… I focused on the breath and observed my life as an impartial witness. From the different vantage points, I saw myself like a selfish brat trying to find clarity only for myself. So I opened up to others. Helping others did not give me time to wrap in my personal drama and take things too seriously.

So I revisited my life like a comics book, and saw many things that I could amend. I made an effort not to juggle too many tasks at the same time and to enjoy the simple activities that we often take for granted. Gratitude poured from my heart into everything I did. And all of a sudden, I felt needed, connected and valuable. I was centered in the moment and doing what I loved the most. Everything made sense and, I clearly saw where and how I fitted into the bigger picture. Helping others make healthy life-style choices helped me disentangle my personal knots. I felt relieved and inspired to create positive change in the world. And all because I dared to venture out of the cocoon and explore the myriads possibilities inherent in every situation. I stopped asking questions or seeking solutions. I let things arise spontaneously when they needed to. And I tried not to overthink. Strategizing less helped me harvest my intuition and act from a place of confidence and inner faith.

Now, when I catch myself doubting things, I remind myself that everything is magically orchestrated if we have the ears and eyes to listen to it and see it and decipher the messages that it conveys. The solutions to difficult situations are often the simplest and they are perched on the tip of our nose. We just have to bring the gaze inside to see them. It’s as simple and as complex as that.

And when my students come to me for counseling and advice, I always tell them about my visit to the street psychic with a smile. And we laugh…When things get unclear giggle and laugh, chill out and look at the tip of your nose…ha, ha, ha…

Perhaps, you can approach the New Year with a pinch of humor and spoonful of wonder…

Yogea meditation for clarity: Lifting The Veil

This meditation combines mudra and breathing to bring clarity at the end of a cycle and a beginning of a new one. A creative visualization takes you on a trip beyond the constructs of the mind – into a space of infinite possibilities. As you harvest your intuition, your place in the bigger puzzle of life shapes you.