Happy New Year Cottage Yogis!  As always yoga is a powerful practice, but the gift of a new year can bring about reflection and New Year resolutions.  Its common practice in yoga to set an intention for your time on the mat. Like a new year's resolution an intention names something you'd like to attain. I'm not talking about goal setting, but aiming more of your focus on the journey itself. So a goal might be to loose weight but your intention will be how to get there (eg: taking a yoga class once a week ) Start small and build to something bigger.

I read this amazing book called 'Living With Intent' by Mallika Chopra & Deepak Chopra last year while struggling to even attempt a meager endeavor at a meditation practice LOL  My mind is always racing and never wants to shut off   This book helped me learn to start slowly and if all I get is 5 minutes, Hey guess what? I got 5 minutes! It's a great read if you get the time

So in light of all this talk about about intent and meditation (I know it's such a scary word) I would like to start off with a simple yet valuable pose for pose of the month:

Easy Seated Pose- to get into easy seated, sit down and cross your legs and place your hands on your knees. If sitting cross legged is not comfortable for you, extend your legs out in front of you with your knees slightly bent and hands relaxed on your thighs. Now imagine a string is attached to the top of your head and being pulled upward lengthening your spine. Your shoulders, knees and hips are relaxed. Now here's the tricky part... Breathe... Nice deep breathes. Fill those lungs of yours, they will love you for it. Start off slow with maybe 10-20 breathes and work your way up to longer if like you'd like. But remember if you aren't used to deep breathing you may get light headed and if that's the case, shorten your breathe just a little or take small breaks in between.

Fun little fact: Did you know the average person only uses 1/3 of their lung capacity? It's no wonder we love the feeling of a good sigh!

Let's move on to include a little bit of nourishment, shall we? Who doesn't love a good yummy recipe.

Now I love Roasted Vegetables so let's start of with these bad boys

Now doesn't that look delish? (insert drooling here)

I could eat a huge bowl of just these, but the rest of my family frown's upon it and I'm forced to include some protein on their plates *sigh*

These are so simple and so yummy and you can use all your favorite veggies. Mine are as follows

3 Carrots peeled & chopped

3 Parsnips peeled & chopped

1 small bag of small potatoes chopped (I leave the skin on)

1 Red Pepper chopped

1 Onion chopped or sliced whatever you prefer

1 butternut squash chopped

Pre heat oven to 425 degrees. Toss them all together in a bowl with about 1-2 tbs olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Bake 45min-1 hr.

Now since my family likes their protein, I dice up some chicken breast and add it to the pan to soak up all those amazing veggie flavors.

Did you make it all the way to the end? Congrats! You're awesome and amazing and make sure you tell yourself that. You deserve it!

Here's to hoping I see you soon at The Yoga Cottage

XO Shannon Hawman