Day 22: Stronger, smarter, happier

Day 22 – 6:45 pm hot yoga class... thanks Yoga teacher Arielle; your faster paced class kept my mind on the poses, helping me make it through the standing and balancing series without one pose off!

That’s a first. I still have a long way to go, but half the battle is just staying with it. 

It was a very busy day for me yesterday and I contemplated the consequences of putting my classwork ahead of yoga, I’m glad that I didn’t because I came home and still got the online homework and quiz done and at the end of the day I felt stronger, smarter, and happier.

Day 21: Singing in the Rain

Hot yoga class at 4:30 pm left me feeling and ike a butterfly busting out of my cocoon, then a flower dancing in the rain!

My natural spirit is flowing very free within me.

We finished another excellent class, and our teacher, Carly, told us she was heading out while we were in Savasana to dance around in the rain. After a few breaths in rest, I joined her.

We stood together in the rain, arms up and laughing a bit because it felt so cool and refreshing; it was pure delight.

There we were in the parking lot just standing in the rain, already soaked with sweat and getting wetter!  It was heavenly; clear cool water rolled down the hill creating a mini river calling me to stand it and let the water rush over my toes! I was having so much fun. Like a little kid I bent down and splashed the water with my hands, laughing and feeling the cool refreshing rain; it brought out the happy little child within me. 

Hot Yoga will do that for you. 

The plus side was that I “could” bend down and pat my palms down on the ground and splash away - that would have been difficult do a few weeks ago. This is a metamorphosis in so many ways. I am glad I choose this challenge...or did it choose me?

Almost Halfway There

Day 20 – 4:30 pm, and I was looking forward to  hot yoga class today; my energy is coming back after a few low days.

I am almost half way to the end of the challenge! I am really looking forward to the final results, to see how I look and feel at the end of the challenge. I am glowing and I do have some nice physical changes in my body and how I feel about myself, and as I look deep into the mirror every day for 90 minutes I see a reflection, a person and I wonder who are you.

On graduation day, I will find out.  I will still be doing yoga after the challenge; my goal is 3 - 4 times a week for the next year.

I also pumped myself up reading a yoga blog from Australia by Gabrielle Raiz, the Hot Yoga Doctor.  I love all the input from folks all over the world, and her kit with detailed instructions is so helpful.  It doesn’t replace class, it refines it so you get the information in your head too. Class is a must for the heat, the humidity, and the discipline.  I am sure class will be another sweaty success, for me in my practice.

So as I continue on, I wish the same for you.

She's Gumby, Dammit!

Day 19 – 10:30 am hot yoga class, I was next to an inspiration; this yogini genie could magically do those yoga poses all the way, as she was sweating away!

After class I asked “Gumby” to remind me not to sit next to her next time! She laughed, and shared, if I only knew how long she had been practicing. I took a guess at ten years; it was nine. Her best advice: just keeping coming.

When she first started she could not even touch her toes!  “Gumby” has tried running and biking, etc., but it’s Hot Yoga that she stays with because it’s the one thing that always works!

She is an inspiration, and so I realize that ten years from now I will still have an awesome workout, no matter how I master the poses. Hmm yoga at 60, bet my life is going to get hotter!

The human thread



Day 18- 4:30 pm hot yoga class, and today I am human.

My body is needing more rest than usual today; it may be cycling the end of a long hot week or the pepperoni pizza I ate last night, or my online stat course that takes hours and hours to just get part of a chapter done.

Hot yoga class was hot as usual, but it’s even hotter outside, which may be the cause of my feeling an ehnahced human factor.

There could be lots of reason, but as advised, it’s best not to try and figure out why, it just is.

A humanizing thread seems to be everywhere. Like when you buy a new car, you start to see the same brand everywhere!  Humanizing for me is kind of new.  I was always trying to do it all myself. My role was to stand strong and be steady, to be independent and resourceful.  But now the Universe is shouting at me, telling me I don’t have to always make it,  to do it alone, I can learn to receive.  In fact to receive is the smartest and best way to go.

I am asking purposely for what I need and allowing it to come. This is the base of my Christian faith and a very real principle. Those things we speak aloud do come to pass. Ask for something and test it out yourself, ask for something simple and believe it will be. This is the whole principle of “The Secret” but it’s really there for anyone. 

So in yoga I am growing, it’s taking some time and changes and effects are in motion.

After class today, I was going to join the fireworks, but changed my plans to go home and rest a bit. It’s unusual for me to just lie on the sofa and watch TV, but today after class that’s exactly what I did right up to bed time.

I usually go for the public broadcast channels, 12, 35 and some 60 or Retro TV and yes, I am that person, and yes I do donate. I choose not to subscribe to cable; I find that 700 channels does not offer me anything more interesting than I can already find on the dozen channels I receive free by antenna. And for a treat there is always Netflix to entertain the kids or find a new documentary topic. 

As I reclined in the AC, a show about Super Humans was on Channel 6, there was a guy climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro using a bicycle powered only by his arms. He made it the whole way on his own power, but on the last 100 yards to the top, he just couldn’t do it. He felt like he failed. He came so far and just could not get to the top.

Then his coach reminded him, “that nobody climbs a mountain alone.”  This brought our hero back to the goal and allowed him to find the real meaning of his quest.  That it is okay to ask for help and we don’t have to go alone. How fitting an answer to his challenge, his disability might have limited him in some physical ways but his spirit was determined and he had friends, team mates. This is the real joy in living.

I needed a little friendly help today, a little pep, and it came. Thanks for the encouraging words from fellow class mate, who said, hey “you are here!” and doesn’t that say it all. And for the yummy coconut juice treat Rhonda offered to rejuvenate me. 

 

I lingered in the lobby acknowledging in my mind as I sipped that coconut coolie, that not every day is an “all pose” day, and that today I did some poses in more defined ways that soared my limits, leaving me weaker in the legs than I ever did before, and on other poses I quietly listened in savasana practicing my breathing and calming my racing heart.

We all do some poses better than others and really that’s how life is, we all do something’s better than others, but no matter what you do it’s always better when you do the best you can and reach further each time. What truly makes life better is sharing the quest.  Until tomorrow fellow humans, peace and rest be with you and with me.