Day 24

So… I left off with the notion of moderation. On Wednesday, I wound up doing my own practice in the morning, followed by a challenging but incredible class right after. I followed it up with another slightly less challenging class in the evening, and then a run. I was already sore going into the evening class, so I was thinking of bailing when it occurred to me that just because it was a challenging class, I didn’t have to push myself to the limit. I went to class with the intention of LISTENING to my body, taking advantage of being sore and tired in a tough class to really force myself to come into modifications or just out of poses entirely. It was a great experience, and really made me focus on my breath (and notice the habit of biting my lip when I’m striving). The run after that sucked! My legs felt heavy, my hips destroyed. Again, I tried (a little less successfully) to practice ahimsa and cut the run short. All in all - a very educational day.

Thursday (Day 23), I woke up to hips that were… tired. My joints were achey from all the work the day before, and even before getting out of bed my mind was hard at work with excuses and how I’d back out of the primary series. It hit me suddenly that this was 30 days of DOING Yoga Challenge, not 30 days of thinking-about-and-sometimes-doing-but-more-often-finding-excuses-not-to-do Yoga Challenge. So I unrolled my mat and plonked my feet at the top. I was going to practice, something, somehow. The first few salutations were heavy and slow, but after that I really got going. I did my Surya B’s in two’s, flowing in and out from Utkatasana. I found it gave me less of a chance to fidget between the cycles, and they flowed so much better! The rest of the practice went well. I skipped a few postures (some Janu’s and Mari’s B & D) in the interest of time and sore knees. When I got to Savasana, I couldn’t get still (and was cold!), so about 6min in I came out of it, sat up, did my breath and was about to close my practice when I got a better idea. I grabbed a blanket off my bed and laid back down, taking a second savasana. More learning.

Bringing us to today. I got up early (or, rather, I didn’t fight my alarm for an hour) and got moving so my joints could warm up and settle down. I find taking 30-40min before starting practice really makes a difference to how it all feels. I suggested to Kristina that we set our intention to really salute the sun today, to see if we could get it to shine. (It Worked!) I stayed with my breath through the salutations, not stopping to fidget at all through five A and Bs. This is a first for me. I did all my B’s through Utkatasana again - and am loving how it keeps me focused. I found I was a lot more connected to my breath, and didn’t lose it nearly as often when I change sides for Warrior A.

Can’t wait to bring out the sun again tomorrow!