Day 30: My Hot Yoga Finish Line

Me: “Mom, I completed the 30-day challenge! Awesome, huh?”

Mum: “Cool. What did you get?”

Me: “Uh...pride.  Oh, and some wicked obliques.”

Mum: “Great, keep doing it then.”

Time to reflect on it all and I’m not going to lie...I feel hugely dehydrated, and I feel like I’ve been on the verge of getting sick, but I also feel like the yoga has been preventing me from getting sick.

My acne got better...then it got worse...then it got better.

I ate a lot of chocolate. 

I  got super ripped abs ( I call them my “chocolate abs”.)

I am proud of crossing the finish line.

So often in life I am impatient; I wanted the 30-day challenge to be over at the end of Day 5. I also hate practicing my music lessons, I just want to have a great voice. But things don't necessarily happen instantly. 

There’s a very real reward in completing a challenge like this.  Maybe it’s the ‘delayed gratification‘ of actually having to wait 30 days, or that I dragged my ass out of bed EVERY DAY even when I really really didn’t want to go.  Either way, I feel stronger mentally and physically, and yes, I’m excited for the next one to begin.  

Bring it on. Bring ALL the challenges on. I did 30 days of hot yoga; I can take whatever you got next.

Day 29: 90% of Success is Just Showing Up

So close! One day left!

Today I didn’t mind going to yoga.  I have been taking it a bit easier for the last couple of days, and today I was able to rock yoga in my own way.

It has become less of a competition between how far I can stretch myself, and more of an actual “practice”.

The word “practice” always brought up thoughts of boredom and redundancy, but I feel like I learned a new way to get through it after this 30-day challenge.

I have come to realize that ‘practice’ doesn’t have to be boring, and tedious, and that it doesn’t have to improve every day to be meaningful.  I have come to find that ‘to practice’ is to dive into the study of a subject- whether it’s yoga, music, art, or math, it’s all the same.

The trick is to find a way to enjoy the practice- to bring an inner peace, and understanding that to get better is to constantly be stepping forward (even when sometimes if feels like one step forward, and three steps back).

It really comes down to the idea that “the most important part is just showing up”.

Day 28: KRisten GRouchy, ThiRSTY, and TiRED!!!

I’m not going to lie...after the last couple of days, I’m starting to get sore, thirsty and whiny more often.

I just can’t seem to get enough fluid back into me, and with all the stuff in my schedule, I”m starting to look forward to a day when I can go for a walk, instead of running out the door like a crazy woman, speeding to get to yoga so I can ‘fit it in’.

I like it when I have time.

I like when I can drive to the yoga studio early, and relax in Shavasna before class.  I don’t think that this has happened since Day 10 though. 

So, only 2 days left, and although I am tired, stiff, grouchy, hungry, and thirsty, I am still enjoying the sweating, and how flexible I have become.  My balance is off for some reason, but I can hold poses for longer...as long as I don’t fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes and make a large noise, everything should be fine.

Day 27: Double Class (make-up day)

I’m soooo tired today.
Yesterday I did 2 yoga classes to catch up for the SNOW DAY! when I missed one, so today I was hurting, and fully did NOT want to go to yoga, especially now that they are out of Spiderman stickers.

Why they’ve taken away my main inspiration, right at the end of the challenge is beyond me.  It’s like they’re really seeing how far we can push ourselves!!!

I decided all I was going to do today was teach my art course in the morning, go to yoga, then go home and crash, but after yoga I had a bit more energy...sooooo 4 hours later I’m still at the library.

That’s it! It’s time to rest my body, and indulge in some ME-time.

Plus they just started to flicker the lights in the library to tell all of us nerdy-birds studying on a Saturday that they’re closing, and to “get out”. 

HOME TIME! Relax Time!

mmm...

Chocolate time!

Day 26: Is yoga making me a better person?

Could it be?
Is yoga actually making me nicer, and more patient?
Is yoga making me a better person?

You tell me:
Last night I got home, and my husband, Josh, had made some pasta.
I was super excited, but when I went to go eat it I found out that instead of normal pasta, he used Vermicelli (aka: really thin white rice noodles, normally in Thai dishes).  It was a blend of East meets West.  Thai meets Italian.

I started to get really mad, because I had been putting off buying groceries since we didn’t have any money, but today I had gone and done a huge grocery trip, under the trust that the money will show up...and the knowledge that I need food to survive.  Anyways, I came home to find Thai/Italian food, and got mad that he was wasting food, because he didn’t look in the next cupboard over for the real pasta.

Then it was like a little light switch went on inside of me.

I suddenly realized that I was overreacting, and that REALLY, who gives a crap?  IT’S PASTA!  I told him I was sorry, and that I was just super grateful that he had come home and made dinner in the first place, since I know he’s exhausted from working all day.

We laughed, we ate, we watched a ridiculous movie, and I went to sleep happy.

In some ways it felt like some crazy ‘Incredible Hulk’ shift in reverse.

I feel and see shifts all around me now, like when I’m upset or feeling anxious, it’s a LOT easier now to just ‘decide’ that I’m not going to feel like that anymore.

I’m more aware of how I’m feeling, how I’m moving, and how I’m breathing on a moment to moment basis.

So, when it comes down to it...YES! Yoga is absolutely making me a better person?