NOTE: This was originally published as part of my newsletter in December 2024. Subscribe to my newsletter to receive the next Om Letter direct to your inbox once a month.

Many moons ago I found myself listening to James Jean, one of my favourite illustrators, being interviewed about his collaboration with Prada. The company had given him carte blanche (meaning, complete creative freedom). For many illustrators this would be a daunting prospect as commercial artists are used to working within a set brief containing rules and requirements. Although restrictive, briefs often encourage creative thinking as artists find ways of working around them in unexpected ways, but if the constraints are removed entirely where do you begin?

The blank page is a daunting thing to creative people, but once James had found a way to light his creative spark himself, it was almost as if he had opened pandora’s box and it couldn’t be undone. It was a turning point in his career as he found himself unable to return to producing commercial work and instead found a way to sustain his practice on his own terms.

At the time, I myself was also facing a crossroad in life. Not because my work within the creative industry was unfulfilling to me, but because it had become obvious that this was a wholly unsustainable lifestyle for someone who was footloose and fancy free; let alone for someone who might one day have a partner or a family.

I’m willing to bet that some of you reading this are currently looking back on another year within a career path or lifestyle choice that, although fulfilling in many ways, feels completely off-balance in other ways. When we’re in the thick of these situations it’s not always so obvious how or where we might begin to restore equilibrium. The end of the year is often the first time we arrive at a pause. We reflect back, we look ahead and decide that something must change.

One of my students is moving to the Cayman Islands next year. Others are changing their job titles or work environments. Those wishing to make less drastic changes often look to yoga and meditation practices to guide them towards a more balanced version of themselves. This inevitably leads us to the age-old trouble of New Year’s resolutions. Statistically speaking over 88% of these resolutions will be given up on within the first two weeks of 2025. So what could we do to introduce new habits into our lives in a way that would make them sustainable in the long term?

Well, firstly we begin by keeping things simple. We introduce one small change at a time. This is two-fold; it’s more manageable than introducing multiple new ideas at once, but it also allows us to observe the impact that this one small change has had on the broader aspects of our life.

Let me illustrate this for you: a wonderful mensch and coach of mine, who also happens to be a particularly skilful olympic weightlifter, made the deceptively small change of always putting on his socks and shoes in standing over the past year. It forced him to repeatedly stand on one leg for short spurts on a daily basis. Over time he found his active mobility had noticeably improved (no small feat for a muscle-bound guy). His single-leg balance and stability were also improved, which eventually had a positive knock-on effect on his starting position and his overall performance.

Another big factor in successfully changing our habits is documenting our progress in a tangible way. Whatever that might look like for us, finding an appropriate documentation strategy is a worthwhile endeavour. In the footwear experiment I mentioned earlier for instance, my coach had documented the entire thing for the ‘gram. There is video evidence of him not really being able to lift his leg high enough to successfully put a shoe on his foot without falling sideways and, a year later there’s footage to show him doing the same movement effortlessly. So we know it worked and was worth persisting with.

Lastly, joining or creating a community of like-minded individuals can play a huge part in supporting us in turning these new choices into long-term changes. A sense of belonging is a powerful thing - it comes with a level of purpose and accountability that cannot exist when we try to walk the path on our own.

Lacking a sense of community (particularly for those of us who live in big, anonymous cities) can feel like such an abstract thing that it drops fairly low on our list of priorities. At other times we’ve been part of a certain community for such a long time that some of these newer parts of ourselves that we’re still growing into don’t feel as welcome. Making the effort to find new spaces where we can fully expand into ourselves can feel like a sigh of relief when we arrive in them.

When my favourite yoga studio closed down during the pandemic for instance, I had failed to realise how unique this community was, but I’ve never been able to find another studio quite like it. It wasn’t until I co-taught a retreat recently that I realised I had the agency to form my own community.

Most of you know me from teaching within a certain environment that places constraints on my teaching. At heart, I’m still a commercial artist so I enjoy the creative challenge of working around these restraints and there are so many things I appreciate about working in this way, but I’ve also caught glimpses of where my teaching could go if I set it free.

So this is my New Year’s resolution if you will… I would like to create space for those who wish to gather in conscious community. I’d like to offer this community the kind of yoga that I’m passionate about; the kind of yoga that is getting a little lost behind the aesthetically pleasing postures. This quieter version of yoga is more interested in exploring our inner world and gives us new ways of connecting to the sanctuary of our bodily experience. Equally, I would love for us to share our experiences with one another as we break bread, much like the ancient yogis did. You’ll find more details below for those wishing to join.

Thank you all for an insightful 2024 - my world is forever expanded by the moments we’ve shared and I’m deeply grateful to you. I look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

With love,

OM x