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Posts Tagged "Yoga"
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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alarm contacts on weigh myself get dressed in the dark find shoes in the dark grab clean clothes for later go downstairs let the dog out grab a food bar fill my water bottle with ice and water drink some water refill the bottle coat on pack my clothes in my yoga bag get in the car drive to yoga eating 1/2 a food bar and drinking water while I drive sometimes playing music anticipation finding a parking place driving all the way through the spaces so I am ready to leave later grabbing my bag pulling my keys out of my pocket to scan my yoga tag taking off my shoes and finding a cubby stashing my stuff in the locker room getting my mat, yoga mat, and extra towel refilling my water bottle again here I...
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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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