In the last few weeks I have lost count and I don’t seem to be able to keep track of how many days I have been doing my yoga challenge. With the business of December, I don’t have any bandwidth for the information. I try to count–I admit it, sometimes during Shavasana, but I can’t really hold onto the thought. Somewhere between 50 and 70 it just stopped mattering. I am just showing up every day as a practice. It feels a little like free-falling and maybe a little crazy. Yoga is definitely a part of my daily practice. I can’t imagine not having it. I had been “banking” some classes–my goal has been to complete 100 classes in 100 days–and I will be out of town for 6 nights in early January. I had 2 classes “banked” when we had an ice storm and the studio was closed for a day and I missed a class. Then I missed a class the next day because I got there without my yoga top and had to leave. I couldn’t picture doing hot yoga in my sweater. I actually had tears as I drove home. I love yoga and in that moment it felt like a loss. I wonder about being too attached to my yoga practice, but I figure it is early days. I am happy I have found exercise that I love, and happy I like the studio and have a place to practice that gives me joy. And it does. It is a lovely place. I need to start counting the days. I will need to pay attention in order to make my 100 classes– or I will need to do some yoga while I am at Disneyworld. I am planning to take my mat. I think that practicing some yoga on my own would make it more my own. If I count that practice toward my 100 days of yoga, my goal will be easier. Maybe easier is perfect for me...
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Today is Day 60. I am noticing more changes and I have been musing on some things. Here’s what I have noticed: 1. My midsection feels “weird” when I touch it. I think it is muscle. It feels kind of hard. 2. I notice when I am in the studio I need much less space around me than I did when I started. I am really happy to find a little corner of the room where my mat will fit and about 6 inches on one side for my blocks and strap. 3. There were a couple of mornings this week that were hard to wake up for yoga. One because I was out late the night before, and one because it was cold. I notice there is a two minute “choice” period when I decide to go or not go. Holding myself to the daily yoga construct makes my choice for me. I like the structure of daily yoga. It gets rid of the need to have self control or initiative. 4. My core muscles are still less strong than I want them to be. This is obvious in all the balance poses. 5. The longer I do this, the harder it can be to quiet my mind during yoga. For me it was easy to quiet my mind in the beginning. Now it is more challenging. 6. I have some “yoga friends”. People I say hi to in the change room. As an extrovert, I like this. 7. It takes a long time to get fit when you aren’t. I started working with a trainer 19 months ago and then switched to Yoga 60 days ago. Last night we walked around at a night festival and I got tired and sore. I still have a long way to go. 8. I love my mat. It feels important to me. 9. I signed up for the mat cleaning service at the studio. This means I get to leave it on the floor and...
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It is early in the morning. I am awake. One of the dogs woke me up and now I am enjoying writing–trying not to think about how tired I am going to be if I don’t get back to bed. I’ll go to yoga in a little while but for now, it is so quiet and peaceful that I am loving writing. Tomorrow is my 50th day of yoga in a row. It has been such a lovely journey. This week I finished Moksha Yoga studio’s 30 day challenge, but because I began a 21 day challenge that overlapped, tomorrow will be 50 days for me. It has been fun to be on a shared journey with my new yoga friends. But now I feel like I am back on my own journey–isn’t exercise always a solitary journey? It seems I am always trying to find my way with exercise and peace in my soul. One of the best parts of this 50 days of yoga, is that for the last 49 days I have never felt guilty about not exercising. I haven’t felt like I “should” be doing something different. I have known what fitness I am doing and when every day. It has worked for me and has lightened the psychic load for me. My parents tithe financially, that is, they give a set amount each year to charity based on their income. I once asked my dad why they did it. He said, “I never have to wonder if I give enough.” The idea of that is fascinating and I have experienced this 50 days of yoga with parallel peace of mind about exercise. I never have to wonder if I am doing enough. Knowing I am doing enough has illuminated some of the bad advice I sometimes get, too. I saw a kinesiologist who suggested I do some cardio. “But I do yoga every day,” I said, stunned. “Yes, but that is just stretching,” he replied. “Have you ever taken...
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After day 42, I admit it, I am tired. I don’t want to be tired. I like the daily practice. In my head, I want to keep going and going on this extended challenge. I want to do 50 days and then extend it to 100 days and then maybe do 365 days of yoga. The reality is, I am tired. It is the sort of tired that doesn’t seem to go away. As I am better at yoga, I work harder, try harder classes, and my body pushes more and more. And I am tired and I don’t know how to get un-tired. I am also noticing the impact of me devoting so much time and energy to something in my home. It is messy. The boys have been busy and between me being tired and the boys being busy our home needs some attention. All that said, I am not sure if this will all work its way out and I will be able to keep going. There is something about the daily practice that really works for me. I don’t know if I have ever done anything for 50 days straight before (other than school and my parents got me there every day). I feel empowered and I love seeing the changes happening to my body. It feels so good. As far as weight loss goes, I can report I am down 10 pounds. I check daily to see where I have new muscles showing up. I am most impressed by the muscles in my back, forearms, hamstrings, and belly. I am still wondering if my triceps are getting enough workout and I think my calf muscles are smaller than when I started. They may just be well stretched and not as “tight” as before. My state of mind is solid, even though I have been feeling the stress of our busy lives. **My initial 21 day yoga challenge turned into a 200 day yoga challenge – share the journey with...
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I have been doing daily yoga for 5 weeks straight. Slow steady change continues to happen. I am still down about 6 or 7 pounds. I am noticing muscles all over my body. I went to a more advanced classes this week and I was able to follow along. I wasn’t able to do the entire class but I was able to get a fantastic work-out and I can see why those classes are so popular. The Moksha 60 class is still my very favorite. It is an amazing marker of my progress in the last 35 days. I haven’t ever done anything like this before and it is mind blowing to see what daily practice can achieve–although the word “achieve” isn’t quite right because the practice and showing up daily are my only goals. I really try to listen to my body each class. I still can’t do the postures on my knees: the reclining hero series just doesn’t work for me when I can’t sit on my heels. My knees just don’t bend that much…yet. I am working on them and hope there will be a time I can do them. When I am in child’s pose, I push back on my heels and “work on” sitting back. I am sore almost every day in my muscles. I feel so grateful to be able to exercise at this level. Especially when I think that 2 years ago we were having conversations about getting a wheel chair to use when I needed to walk a long way. I am starting to know many of the teachers and a few other people at the studio, mostly by sight. I say hello to the teachers and I am so impressed by how many remember my name. I have met a few people. It is a pretty quiet place and I don’t feel called to step out of the quiet to talk to people very often. I think about having completed the 30 day...
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I just completed a 30 day challenge at the Moksha Yoga Hamilton studio. I don’t know if I have ever fallen so hard for a brand before. This brand has stolen my heart. It all started when I found myself suddenly at loose ends with my exercise program, as I had stopped one thing and was looking for something else. I decided to sign up for 21 days of yoga at Moksha Yoga for $30. (I think the price may be even better now) I didn’t really plan to join, but it seemed to be a great thing to do and then I would have 21 more days to figure out what I wanted to do next. That was all well and good, but then they gave me a little card with prizes to be won and I figured out that if I attended 21 times in 21 days, my first month was free. Hmmm! That would be awesome! And I like a challenge. Jordan, the woman who led my first class, gave me great information about lying down on the mat when I was too hot. She helped me to feel safe and welcome and like I belonged there. I won’t talk about my yoga journey here. You can read that here if you want to. Right now, I want to talk about my experience with the Moksha Brand. After the first day, I felt like coming back the next day. I also learned that I never wanted to leave hot yoga again without showering first… UGHH! I came back again and again. Each teacher was welcoming, kind, loving, and seemed genuinely excited by my journey. This summer we went to a French Immersion Family Language School in Sancerre, France. While we were there, my family talked about the skill the teachers had of acting genuinely impressed by our French, which drove us forward and helped us try things that felt new or foreign without feeling self-conscious. The teachers at Moksha have this...
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