#183 The Year of Boundaries

(Reminder: How to Meditate starts today/tomorrow!)

Reminder: the next How to Meditate 3 Day course starts today/tomorrow. Join us online here.

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This is a screenshot from New Years Eve Yoga!

Every year, I invite the members of the Mindful Life Practice, and my family, to choose a word of the year: one word that defines how they want to live.

Before the New Year’s Eve yoga class this year (you can watch it on demand here!) my family asked me on a Zoom call what my word was going to be.

A word immediately popped into my head.

I didn’t want to say it.

It felt too harsh. Too rigid. Too much like a wall instead of a bridge.
So I didn’t say it. I just thought it.

Boundaries.

I told them I hadn’t decided on a word yet.

Later that night, during the New Year’s Eve yoga class, I told the community my word was rest.

That word felt softer. Kinder. Easier to receive.

And it’s also true.

But rest is not my root word, it’s the fruit.

The root is boundaries.

(It’s kind of like how in 2023, my word was ritual, and I forgot that and then at the end of the year thought my word was joy. The rituals of early morning yoga brought me joy. Ritual was the root, joy was the fruit).

Boundaries.

I am creating boundaries around my life, my work, my relationships, and the ways I give and share energy so that rest becomes possible.

Maybe my words are both boundaries and rest - which is fascinating, because for the last six years my words have been about striving, expansion, becoming, building, achieving.

This year is different.

Later on in the day yesterday, I went to a New Year’s Eve festival with someone, and he asked if I had a word for the year. (It seems as though it’s a very Ubudian thing to ask someone, lol).

This time, I said it.

“Boundaries.”

I explained that I wanted clearer edges around my time, my relationships, my work, what I share, and what I don’t. A container.

He told me he didn’t think what I was describing was actually a boundary. To him, boundaries were about what other people do that affect his freedom. He suggested words like intention or guiding principles instead.

I disagreed.

I don’t want intentions.

I’ve been setting intentions for seven years.

I’m sick of intentions.

To me, Intentions are aspirational.
Boundaries are embodied.

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Last January, a friend came to stay with me for three nights. She watched my life from the inside.

I had reduced my Zoom schedule because of her visit, but still took two calls - one at 11pm and one at 6am the next morning. She watched me shuffle between roles, screens, and time zones.

Later that day, she said,
“Alex… what are you doing? You need time to meditate before you work. You need time to decompress before you sleep.”

She wasn’t judging me, she was witnessing the chaos from the inside. The striving. The pressure I placed upon myself to do more, achieve more. It helped me realize that something needed to change.

(That same friend also fired me from a job five months later, and it was one of the greatest gifts I received in 2025. I loved teaching yoga. It was a 2 hour commute for me to teach the class. I would never have quit on my own.)

During that same short visit with her, I also decided to change how I introduced myself - from Alex to Alexandra. Every time I communicate to people that I prefer to be called Alexandra over Alex, that’s a boundary too.

It took me a long time to reduce my working hours. Almost the entire year. I had committed to year-long programs scheduled at 10pm at night (honestly… what was I thinking?). Because I work with students from Australia to California, I kept reshuffling my life so everyone else could stay comfortable.

Instead of asking people to watch recordings of classes, I kept bending.

That’s how I ended up teaching:

• Sober Girls Yoga at 9pm on Sundays

• Entrepreneurship at 10pm on Mondays

• Yoga Sutras at 10pm on Fridays

(And this was my reduced late night schedule from a few years ago!)

I almost added a Bhagavad Gita class at 10pm too in January 2025, until a student stopped me and said,
“No. You’re breaking your own rule. Just run it later when more people can join.”

I think I let go of my last 10pm class in April, and my last 9pm class in December. From now on I’ll only be teaching on Zoom in the mornings/afternoons. Boundaries. (But it took a whole year from when the idea was thought of to set it in motion!)

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I’ve taught the New Year’s Eve Zoom yoga class for six years. For five of those years, it ran from 10pm to midnight.

A fun idea, a decision made by a 28-year-old version of me in 2020 that a 32-year-old version of me was quietly resenting.

But I kept going, for tradition’s sake.

Last year, three people signed up for the class.

This year, I changed the time - even though it meant it wouldn’t work for everyone. For one long-time student, it became 3am in her time zone.

And still, more than five times as many people signed up.

That’s the quiet power of boundaries.

When I honour what works for me, the world reorganizes itself around it. The student who had to do the class at 3am did it on demand. And it was fine for her. She sent a really sweet voice note about the impact of the class on her.

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This year has already begun asking me to practice boundaries and rest, not as concepts, but as lived choices.

I’ve been reducing commitments. Choosing joy. Sleeping more. Saying no faster. Cleaning my home with care. Limiting social media. Being honest about what work I will and won’t do.

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During the New Year’s Eve class, I shared about desiring more rest, and how I slowly reduced more and more throughout 2025. One student said something that landed deeply:

“It’s almost like we need a whole year of practice of our word first before we can truly embody it the next year.”

She was right. Almost everyone in the class who had shared their words for 2025 and 2026 had some kind of link between them. They’d solidified their word in 2025 and then they wanted to continue to build on that word in 2026.

Yoga is repetition. You don’t just show up to one yoga class once a month or a week - it has to be an embodied, consistent practice.

And the same is boundaries. You don’t decide to have boundaries. You practice them.

So yes.

My word for 2026 is boundaries.

Something I will continue to practice.

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Reminder: the next How to Meditate 3 Day course starts today/tomorrow. Join us online here.

Also! I decided to give the Sober Girls Yoga Challenge away for free this January. Sign up for the challenge here. and feel free to share it with anyone you think would benefit!