Let the Challenge Begin

When faced with a challenge, I would do one of two things: decide it's not worth it, or complete the challenge and invalidate it. You know; it was no big deal.

30 consecutive days of hot yoga IS A BIG DEAL...I DID IT!

Here on Day 31 (no longer in challenge mode - just doing my morning hot yoga), my lower back started to twinge. WTF?  I have been praticing hot yoga for over 15 years, I just completed a 30 Day Challenge  and NOW my lower back hurts? I found forward bends impossible and Fixed Firm pose, one of my favorites, excruciating.

It was wonderful.

Why? Because now I newly appreciate the aches and pains of students, new and experienced, who tell me about their pains and hurts. Sometimes stuff hurts.  No excuses.

My 30 Day Challenge is reset: I challenge myself to actively create my life ,moment to moment, framing and reframing everything, one moment at a time. Bad stuff? Good lessons. Better me.

I am the author of my life story. Nothing happens to me; it's all happening because of me. My 30 Day Challenge was another exciting episode in a life worth writing about.

Day 27 Migraine Gift

Was this what a migraine felt like?

A full day meeting with clients, a drive to take my mother to visit with my brother, a huge effort to ignore their bickering, ended at 4:30 - plenty of time to get to 6:45 hot yoga. On the ride home I felt a twisting pain that started deep inside my right eye and knotted through my neck and shoulder. Then came the nausea, the sweats...the works. All I could think was, 'Please get me through this drive home.. to yoga."

I know this story...in fact, I wrote this story.

It goes something like this: I take on a challenge and, just as I approach the Finish Line, "something happens." I can't possibly make it. And I have a good reason - who could do 90 minutes of hot yoga with a migraine (or was this food poisoning? Didnt matter- they were both the same thing: an excuse) and who would blame me?

I had a choice. Have the excuse, or have my word mean something. No matter what.

I made it to the studio at 5:45 and went straight to the Migun bed. The creator of this miraculous table should get a free pass to heaven. Two 15 minute sessions on the table and I could breathe again. Still there was the pain and the nausea...and class was about to start. I noticed how I could think these two thought simultaneously without letting the one infect the other. Interesting.

I put myself on my mat.

90 minutes flew by. Every now and again I would think," I will take the next pose off." I heard my teacher's advice: "Do it NOW,  before you have a chance to think." Suddenly I knew what she meant. Again, both thoughts at once,  coming up at the same time...and me, keeping my word. No matter what.

Class ended quickly. I did every pose. I felt fulfilled.

Because this 30 Day Challenge is not just about hot yoga, or physical strength, or martyrdom. It's about doing what I said I would do, with 110% of whatever I have - and in the process, discovering that my internal energy springs from a deep well, not a shallow pond.

Day 30 is Mother's Day -  FINISH LINE TIME.

30 Day Challenge Jeans

This morning, I stopped in at my favorite local hangout, Lambertville Trading Company, for an iced coffee and some reading time..and an unexpected compliment.

A fellow coffee lover, a woman around my age, asked me what brand of jeans I was wearing. I honestly didn't know; I am not loyal to any brands. I like  buying jeans at consignment stores like Greene Street in Lambertville or 2nd Time Around in Soho.

"I'm not sure," I said. "GAP maybe?"

"Well, there are no gaps in those jeans - they fit you like a glove," she said. "They look like Lucky. And you sure are, to have those jeans!"

Turns out they were American Eagle Outfitters. Turns out my Warrior name, given to me in a Native American sweat lodge, is Soaring Eagle.

After she left, Amanda, the sweet girl behind the coffee counter, commented on the conversation. I had told her about my 30 Day Hot Yoga Challenge and she observed, "Those are not Lucky or Gap jeans; they are your 30 Day Challenge jeans."

I knew what she meant. My jeans weren't new; I was. The same old jeans on a suddenly new body. They hugged instead of pulled.  The only muffin tops here were in the coffee shop, not at my waistline. I have my new 30 Day Challenge jeans body, at Day 26.

Feels like a perfect fit.

The 5 Hour Hot Pot

On Saturday, Day 22 of my hot yoga challenge, I attended a 5 hour Hot Yoga Posture Clinic in NYC. I admit I was more than a little nervous. Five hours of hot yoga? Even for me, that's a  LOT.  So I did what any self-respecting yogi would do: I convinced my best yoga buddies, Carly and Zach, to go with me. It will be fun, I told them.

I felt a little like Huck Finn talking my friends into painting that fence.

The midtown NYC hot yoga room filled with about 45 eager hotties - not mat to mat, but a full room. We arrived two hours early - I wasn't getting stuck in traffic or lost like the last time I registered for an NYC Master Hot Yoga Class.

The teacher, Donna Rubin, a longtime teacher and practitioner., started by admitting that, after 12 years of practice, "this is the best I can do in Ardha Chandrasana...not very far." And she hates Rabbit. And when she drags herself to class, she thinks to herself, "How will I get through this one?" She's... me.

One by one we dissected the poses. We were a mix of advanced and beginners alike, teachers and students. Donna watched and corrected.  She said  "I don't know" when she didn't know. She didn't just admit her shortcomings - she relished them - as a practice.

She talked about being a good student. "Last week I did Poorna Salambhasana with my legs together, even though my guru specifically told me to widen my legs, because the teacher in that class told me to put my legs together." She LISTENS to her TEACHER. Americans don't like to be told what to do...or do we? Maybe there's something to being held accountable, no excuses. Just do it.

The three hour posture clinic literally flew by. I was drenched and smelly. Then the heat got cranked up and the 90 minute class began. Donna became a student and took her spot in the back of the room. We were running 10 minutes late and yet, the teacher handled every pose and the class flew by even faster.

I teach a lot and I covet my time as a  student. It's my time to drop the Teacher title and give myself completely over to someone else, to be taken care for 90 minutes.  In that moment, the teacher is not my daugther or my student or my friend; she is my Teacher.  I can let go my need to be in charge.

Five hours and a shower later,  Carly, Zach and I headed to Zen Palate for dinner. I thought all of us, wet and holding buiky yoga mats and dragging smelly wet clothes in a bag, would be a sight. Instead the owners of Zen Palate welomed us in from outside the restaurant, asked us to choose our favorite table, recommended their best dishes, and brought us free iced tea and deserts. Hours later, home in Lambertville we were tired but none of us went to sleep. Carly and I got up for the 8AM Music class on Sunday.

When you glow, it shows. Man, this is fun.

Back to my old life?

"What day are you on?" asked one of my yoga students, a longtime practitioner with a beautiful practice who has just completed a 30 Day Hot Yoga Challenge at her studio in New Hampshire. "Today is Day 21," I beamed. "9 more days and you get your life back," she said.

But...I don't WANT my old life back.

I took on this 30 Day Challenge to shake things up. I want to shake loose everything set in super glue in my life.  I'm ready to wipe the negatives clean.

Yes, to limitless abundance. Yes, to a constant flow of income from a variety of fun and worthwhile endeavors. Yes, to writing full time. Yes, to new business challenges - Yes, to being an Internet millionaire. Yes, to expanding Riverflow Yoga: 15 full hot yoga classes each week, in a welcoming environment of friendship, healing and spiritual community. Yes to a month in Santorini.  Yes, to more properties n Lambertville. Yes to trading the futures successfully. Yes to an ever-wideing wide circle of friends. YES TO FUN.

Each day that I show up for my 30 Day Challenge is more proof that I can count on myself. If i can do this, I can do everything I say. My word becomes law. I say it, and it's done; I see to it. That's a whole new way to live; no more fretting about how things will get done - I just know I can count on myself to find a way. 30 Days of hot yoga? No sweat.