Every year, for quite some time, I’ve chosen a little word-of-the-year for the 12 months to follow. At the beginning of 2013, I chose “self-awareness” as my word(s) of the year. These words were chosen from the stand point of injury prevention but also with the broader view of the Noble Eightfold Path from where right intentions (thoughts, words, and actions) are aspired to be followed. With the year coming to an end, it is time for me to look back and take a closer look at the year from the vantage point of self-awareness and following a path of rights.
A trend which I have noticed in the past couple of years is that choosing a word of the year in no way guarantees that the year will be filled with the virtue of the selected word. Take last year for an example: At the close of 2012, my year-in-review exercise revealed that not only was 2012 a year of “balance” but that the quest for balance had the a component of “self-preservation” included with it. This was similar to the previous year (2011) where my chosen word “health” went hand-in-hand with “patience.” There seems to be a hidden twist in my word-of-the-year activity which makes the exercise a bit more tenuous than previously thought; quite honestly, it makes me wonder if I should risk choosing a word for 2014.
The year 2013 was trying for sure. Rather than avoiding injuries, it was a year laced with a chronic pain and a multitude of injuries revealing my areas of vulnerability due to scoliotic curves, weak joints, muscles, etc. The pain and injuries did force me to go within and assess whether I was following the right path or whether I was headed down a path of misinformation and misaligned actions. All of this served well in becoming more self-aware albeit trying.
With the year coming to an end, I shake my head as I look back through my posts, here and on Keeping Balance (the companion blog). There are a few words I could use to summarize what my quest for self-awareness brought to me, but today I choose “contentment” for all the frustration and awareness of my shortcomings, misaligned priorities, wants, and yoga postures, as well as a tendency to push the edge when I shouldn’t have forced me to be content …or suffer.