30 Day Yoga Challenge.
Anyone who knows me could tell you that I can be pretty...
headstrong....sometimes.
Like, in that kind of gross, bossy, controlling kind of way
that's really not much fun for anyone, including myself, believe it or not.
Sometimes I see myself in the 3rd person acting that way and
it really freaks me out, because I'm not sure why I do it-- I don't even know
what makes me tick. I don't enjoy controlling things, and I really don't
believe your ideas are better than mine: I don't think I'm better or smarter
than you, I just feel the need to control my own situations all the time, and
you just happen to fall into that situation. It's not pretty and it's something
that I am always trying to work on... or at least I'm thinking really hard
about trying to work on it.
Anyway, I'm too type A for yoga.
Along with my delightful bossy notes and condescending
undertones, I'm also a bit compulsive, which is how I ended up in a really hot
yoga studio about a month ago.
I'd been pretty lax about going to the gym, and sometimes
when I went, I'd spend half an hour on the treadmill or do like 30 crunches and
peace out. Needless to say, I wasn't really getting results. A girl friend of
mine was doing yoga at this local studio for a while and told me she loved it;
she also was staying in pretty decent shape [She's pretty hot & single if
anyone's interested ; )]
http://graceandgloryyoga.com/
So, with my loyal and adventurous friend Gretchen, we set
off to sign up for our first two weeks of yoga. The first class we took was 90
minutes long and hot. It started off hotter than you'd ever want your house to
be, but not deadly, and peaked at way-to-friggin'-hot-to-breathe-right (or at
least it felt like that.) I was sweaty and clumsy, and not very flexible.
I've never had the best balance, so there wasn't much
meditation going on-- I just spent most of the class trying not to fall and
break something. Towards the end of class, Allie, the wonderful non-hippy
instructor, brings the heat back down to a reasonable temperature and you can
start to wind down and appreciate the fact that you finished an hour an a half
work out in hell.
Driving home from that first class, I felt so calm and
relaxed that it almost felt that the previous torture was worth it. I went back
about 5 more times after that during my first two week trial; I really started
to enjoy myself. It didn't take too much convincing to get me to the studio,
and I even managed to drag my mom and Brian out once. When my two weeks were
up, I went back to the gym a few times (because I was paying for my membership
still) and stopped in the yoga a few times, more sparingly, because it is a
little bit of a hike from my house and it does get a little costly, especially
when you're already paying for a gym membership.
Tuesday (2 days ago) I felt conflicted all day. I had some
choices to make, and I was feeling guilty about maybe making the wrong choice,
an everything else that comes along with it.. playing Devil's advocate with
myself, justification, etc. (Needless to say, I could have been more productive
at work.) I went to yoga that night with the intention of getting in a good
work out to prep for Thanksgiving (and the food coma to come.) When I got
there, I was having more trouble than usual getting into the flow of things;
some positions that I could normally do were throwing me way off balance and I
was getting really frustrated about everything.
During one of the quieter moments towards the end of class,
Allie was talking about something... I don't even really remember
what...something about upcoming Thanksgiving and being thankful and then my
decision was made. The thing that had been bothering me all day suddenly seemed
so stupid, and the answer so obvious that I really should have never been
considering otherwise. I felt clear and decisive, and I wasn't sure if it was
all the blood rushing to my head from so much downward dog, or if --perhaps-- I had quieted all of my rambling thoughts long
enough to have some kind of epiphany.
At the end of class, Allie announced her 30 day challenge:
Go to yoga for 30 days IN A ROW and get your next month free. Monetarily, this
was awesome because I'm broke and yoga isn't cheap, but I did feel like it was
a challenge.
I'm always so go-go-go. I'm planning my next move before I
finish my first 3, so committing to driving half an hour everyday for the next
month to go to hot yoga was rough. I debated for the next 24 hours then I
decided I had to do it. It's not convenient and it won't b easy, but last night
I completed day one of my 30 day challenge. I'm about to leave my house now to
go to a class at 9:30 am and do yoga and think about how lucky I am to be able
to physically do it and afford it and just be.
It's pretty awesome.
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