Hello Everyone,
I am Angie! I'm a Capricorn and like long walks on the beach... oops, wrong blog. The studio I regularly practice yoga at recently held a 30 day challenge. The rules were - do your best to practice 30 sessions of yoga in 35 days (they gave a few extra days knowing people travel, get sick, etc) & no back to back classes (a morning class and evening class in the same day was acceptable). Well, let's just sat they had me at the word 'challenge', kind of.
From the moment I heard about the challenge I wanted to sign up! I'm part meat-head, so I'll do just about anything with word 'challenge' in it. Physically, I knew I could do it. I typically workout 6-7 days a week anyway so I knew I was strong enough. Plus, I usually don't attend the gentler, more stretchy 'slow flow' classes, so adding those to my repertoire would certainly help me get through the 30ish days without injury! But, my biggest concern was how in the world am I going to make it to the yoga studio EVERY DAY for 30 days!?! Most of my workouts are at 5am when my household is asleep. I have 3 young kids. My husband works long hours and doesn't have an 8-5 schedule. What if my kids get sick? What if I get sick? I had travel plans already scheduled for 6 of the 35 days which would mean completing at least 1 double. Did I mention that I'm a meat-head? Just because they're allowing 35 days doesn't mean I would want to take that liberty. Travel or no travel, I'm completing this in 30 days!!
After about a week of computing various 'if the stars align every day and nothing unusual comes up I can do this' schedules, I signed up! I knew there would be times I would need to get a sitter to watch the kids and I did. I felt horrible mom-guilt for about the first 2 weeks when on more than one occasion I would be at yoga while my husband put the kids to bed and be back at yoga when they woke up the next morning. I even told the kids I was taking them to their preschool's daycare before school because I had a doctor’s appointment (lies, lies!!!) because they were so sad every time I went to yoga! At about the same time, I was getting sick of yoga too. Yep, I said it. For people who have completed the challenge before they would say 'this is where the yoga really begins'. What the heck did that mean? Regardless, I kept on trucking and before I knew it, I had completed 25 sessions in 21 days!! The kids eventually got used to me going to yoga so much and no longer made a big deal about me leaving. I eventually got used to my daily practice, sometimes twice daily, and leaving the house during ‘business’ hours (when the kids were awake).
Then I went on my first trip. It was an awesome 4 day girly weekend in NYC! We exercised (no yoga), ate & shopped and had a simply fabulous time! When I returned I got right on track and went to 2 more classes, just 3 classes left to complete my goal of 30 classes in 30 days, not 35 days! Then it happened. I got sick. Eyes watering so I couldn't see, sick. Go to bed as soon as my husband gets home from work, sick. I missed my first day of yoga (with the exception of when I was out of town). No problem, I could still complete my goal if I went the next day and did a double the day after. But the next day came and I still felt awful. I realized going that day would be a really poor choice and completely the opposite of what yoga is all about. Ding (light bulb turning on)! It's about listening to your body, not having bragging rights to a yoga challenge! When I finally gave up the power of simply wanting to complete a goal (and be one of the first of the 60 participants to do it) I started letting the yoga 'really begin'. I stayed home that day, went to 2 classes on day 30 and completed my 30th class on day 31, the morning of my second out of town trip.
I finally figured out how to 'let go' as they always say in yoga. I let go of my meat-head expectations. I listened to what my body needed. I let go of going to yoga for getting my check mark for the day. I learned that it's okay to set a goal knowing that I may need to readjust and recalibrate along the way when factors outside of my control arise. It's okay that it took 31 days instead of 30. I still completed an amazing goal considering I manage a household of 5 people (and a dog) and don't have regular family or hired help. And guess what else? While I was gone so much the kids, husband & house didn't fall apart/explode/disintegrate/etc! Everything was fine. No one else worried about those things, just me. They are my worries and if I can learn to let go I may just start gaining so much more than I ever could imagine.
Physically, the journey was quite do-able. I made sure to only go to 3-4 of the more strenuous classes each week and filled in the rest of the slots with the gentler classes. Spiritually, going to my mat each day and taking those moments of rest and mediation were fantastic and calming! Mentally, learning to ‘let go’ was the most valuable take away from the challenge.
Namaste!
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