It's a new year and that's always a good time to evaluate where we are, who we are, and where and who we'd like to be. Feeling the desire to go inward before the count down, I ventured out to Spirit Rock last weekend to do a one-day retreat called Out With the Old. It was on the same day as my sister's birthday, so we went together to celebrate.

The retreat was led by two of Spirit Rock's highly regarded teachers, Nina Wise (who regularly contributes to Yoga Journal) and Wes Nisker. It was a combination of seated vipassana (or insight) meditation, poetry, and dharma talks.

If you've never been to Spirit Rock, it's a lovely place to spend some time. The meditation center is smack in the middle of a sprawling piece of wooded land. It was a gloomy day when we were there, so we didn't spend much time outside, but we were still in touch with nature: The surrounding trees were always visible and there were several deer who kept coming only feet from the windows of the meditation hall.

This retreat wasn't specifically centered on yoga (some of them are) but seated meditation is a great compliment to asana practice and Nina did lead us through a couple of short series of yoga postures just to get our blood moving.

Nina and Wes talked a lot about releasing judgment or goals from meditation. They also talked about the idea of stuff, and how the abundance of material things in our lives puts stress on us and even poses a threat to the planet. Inside this talk about stuff that we own was also a deeper message—about the stuff we carry with us. For me, the day held a lot of introspection, but was made lighter by the warm tone of the teachings and my sister's company.

At the end of the day, we did a ritual for the new year: We wrote down all that we wanted to leave behind, all that we wanted to welcome in, the people we wanted to forgive, and those we wanted to send love to. We then threw our lists into a giant metal bowl in the front of the room. Wes read a few anonymously (he said there was a lot of "more yoga!"), and then took them outside and lit fire to them. The group gathered around and watched as 2007 slowly went up in flames, and 2008 was slowly ignited.