Late New Year's Eve With a Paper Hat On Your Head

I have been implored, nagged, hassled, and downright demanded to write in this old thing. Zen Muffin, the prosecutor, rests all her cases on the idea that I'm teaching all this yoga. But for the defense, I offer the holidays, laziness, my mother. Yes, she was here and in the past two weeks the only class I taught was one to her, and it lasted all of thirty minutes. My other peeps, the ones who pay me, are either on vacation or just chilling with their families in Shanghai. So there's been little to no yoga happening. In fact, just yesterday I rolled my mat out and did a few rounds of sun salutations, and only because tonight's New Year's Eve and I planned on shimmying my ass into a tiny black number. (I know, I know--a few sun salutes won't do anything after two weeks of Chinese food and umbrella sized bottles of Tsing Tsaos..but Toast must try.)

So it's now New Year's Eve, I'm in my tiny black number, sipping (gulping) red wine and researching places for sushi. Before slipping into said black number, I did a few chatarungas because I'm painfully aware of my armpit fat getting the full squeeze from the top of this dress (EDIT i totally typed the word 'TRAP' instead of 'dress'!! Subconscious mind, as always, speaking the truth.) and a few push ups seemed to appease the languid muscles of my arms and shoulders.

But truthfully, dear Readers, I have not been doing any yoga because I've not been inspired to do any yoga. No great teacher pushing me, no amazing classes to attend, no students to prep. I've learned not a few things in my life, but one of the big ones that keeps coming back is that I do not know how to rely on myself for inspiration. I am the very definition of inertia at times; and furthermore, like the Sinead O'Connor song says, I could sleep all day and go out all night. So without any students to teach this holiday, with no classes to attend, I found myself floundering on my mat and watching too many episodes of Fringe instead.

I'm not one for new year's resolutions; two years ago, I vowed to my now boyfriend in a cheeky email my resolutions were to "get buff, play more Halo(a super violent video game) and eat doughnuts". Three years ago, I resolved to stop kissing so many boys, and boy, did that not last long. (ha, ha!) So this year I'll break tradition and actually make a resolution I can stand behind: to practice more yoga.

Tell me, dear Readers, what are your resolutions? What keeps you inspired to practice? To the comments we go! Happy 2010!