(And why your practice matters most right now)
Before we dive in — here’s what you’ll get if you stick with this post (and trust me, you’ll want to):
✔ A grounded, seasonal understanding of why this time of year feels chaotic
✔ How your practice can hold you steady (without needing to “do more”)
✔ A simple holiday practice guide you can print and keep
✔ How Fan the Flames supports you beautifully right now
✔ A gentle, devotional bridge into Offer the Ghee and the New Year
If December already feels like it’s going to be three months squeezed into one… you’re in the right place.
🌪️ Life Speeds Up. Your Energy Slows Down.
We’ve hit that strange time of year where everything external accelerates — parties, planning, shopping, “just quickly doing this thing”…
…and internally, you feel pulled in the opposite direction.
More rest.
More quiet.
More space.
You’re not broken. You’re seasonal.
And that mismatch — outer speed vs. inner slowdown — is what creates the stress, the overwhelm, the fog, and the “CBA” energy.
This is exactly why practice matters most now — not to escape the season, but to stay steady within it.
🔥 You’re in Exactly the Right Sadhana for This Season
Right now, we’re moving through Fan the Flames — and honestly, it couldn’t be better timed.
This part of the Fire Trilogy is all about:
- lifting heaviness
- clearing stagnation
- reconnecting with energy
- digesting the year so far
- rebuilding lightness and clarity
Pretty perfect for December, right?
Everything you built during Chop the Wood laid the foundation for this — the rhythm, the discipline, the steadiness.
Fan the Flames now helps you stay bright, grounded and centred without burning out as the world gets louder.
And as we move toward January, the energy shifts again — gently, naturally — into Offer the Ghee, where fire becomes devotion and effort becomes offering.
No backtracking.
No redoing.
You’re right where you’re meant to be.
🌙 Tradition Says: Meet the Season, Don’t Reject It
In the yogic tradition, you don’t run away from life to practice.
You practice inside your life.
This season — with all its noise, food, family dynamics, pressure, distraction, and social commitments — isn’t something you need to escape.
It’s something you learn to move through with steadiness, presence, and devotion.
Tradition would say:
“Stay close to the flame.”
Not as force, but as focus.
Not as perfection, but as presence.
This is where your practice stops being something you “do”
and becomes something that holds you.
🔥🪵🕯️ The Fire Trilogy as Your Seasonal Map
(You’re exactly where you need to be, but it’s useful to see the whole arc.)
🪵 1. Chop the Wood Sadhana — Discipline & Steadiness
You’ve already done this.
It’s what got you here.
It planted the rhythm that’s helping you stay grounded during the busiest season of the year.
This is the December foundation —
the muscle memory of practice that steadies you, even now.
🔥 2. Fan the Flames Sadhana — Lightness, Clarity, Uplift
This is your current Sadhana.
And its timing is chef’s kiss perfection. 😘
Fan the Flames supports you by:
- clearing heaviness from overdoing and overthinking
- lifting fogginess
- stoking your energy without burning you out
- reconnecting you to your sparkle
- helping you digest emotion, food, distraction, and pressure
Exactly the energy we need mid-December:
strong enough to hold you,
light enough to keep you sane.
🕯️ 3. Offer the Ghee Sadhana — Devotion & New Year Integration
This is what’s coming.
While the world screams “New Year, New You!”
tradition quietly whispers:
“Begin again. But begin from devotion, not pressure.”
Offer the Ghee is where your fire becomes offering,
where your practice becomes prayer,
where you cross the threshold into 2026 with clarity, warmth and meaning.
🍪 Real Talk About the Season
Let’s not pretend this time of year is easy.
Relatives are… a lot.
Food is… everywhere.
Screens are… constant.
The emotional stuff you thought you’d outgrown… returns for its annual cameo.
You don’t need to be a glowing, saintly yogi floating through December.
You don’t need to nail every practice.
You don’t need to rise at 5am, chant, meditate, journal, and drink herbal tea.
You just need to stay close.
Close to your breath.
Close to your body.
Close to the flame you’ve built.
Because when everything else pulls you outward,
practice will pull you back in.
✨ Your Practical Holiday Practice Guide
(Print this, screenshot it, stick it somewhere you’ll see it.)
1. One practice a day.
Ten minutes is fine.
Five minutes is fine.
Consistency beats intensity.
2. Repeat one thing.
Don’t scatter your prana.
Pick one class from the Vault and replay it all week.
3. Let the energy guide you.
- Low? Moon.
- Foggy? Sun.
- Scattered? Fire.
4. Pause before reacting.
Especially with family.
A single, slow exhale works miracles.
5. End the day with gratitude.
One sentence.
One breath.
One offering.
6. Rest doesn’t mean regress.
Rest is part of the ritual.
Part of the fire.
Part of the work.
🔥 Why This Season Matters for Your Practice
This isn’t the time to disappear from yourself.
It’s the time to stay close.
Close to what you’ve built.
Close to the rhythm you’ve created.
Close to the energy you’ve worked so hard to cultivate.
Fan the Flames is lighting the way right now —
gently, steadily, without the pressure of resolutions or reinvention.
And Offer the Ghee is waiting to carry you into the New Year with devotion,
not shoulds,
not guilt,
not pressure.
Just presence.
Just fire.
Just the quiet, sacred “yes” of beginning again.
🕯️ In Closing
Rest when you need to.
Practice when you can.
Laugh.
Eat.
Walk.
Breathe.
Stay close to the flame.
The world will pull you outward —
your practice will pull you back in.
And that is more than enough.
Josie x
🔗 Helpful Links
- 🕯️ Join Fan the Flames (40-Day Sadhana) →
- 🌙 Explore Seasonal Practices in the Vault → Members Onlyhttps://yogalocal.co.uk/class-packs/#tmup=/p/2620513-yoga-local/memberships/
- 🔥 Check out our Live Stream and In Person Classes
🧠 FAQ
Q: How can I practise when December is chaotic?
A: Shrink the scope, keep the rhythm. One practice a day (even 5–10 minutes), repeat the same class, let Moon/Sun/Fire match your state.
Q: What is Fan the Flames in the Fire Trilogy?
A: A Sadhana designed to lift heaviness, clear stagnation and rekindle clarity—ideal mid-December—before flowing into Offer the Ghee.
Q: Does rest derail progress?
A: Rest is part of the ritual. It’s how fire stays bright without burning out.