Determination – Day One

Today marks day one of my 30 day Bikram yoga challenge.

I’ve been practicing Bikram yoga for six years and have a goal of around 12 to 15 classes a month. The last six months I’ve hardly practiced at all and I’ve been pretty bummed about that. So…I’ve set myself a new goal to “kick-start” my practice and that’s to engage in the 30 day challenge. The 30 day challenge is something that’s often promoted and there is a running list, in the studio, of practitioners who have reached this goal.

In the past, the main thing that has stood in my way of doing this was work travel. Work travel would come up without much notice and made it very challenging, if not impossible, to try to get to a yoga class. But, good news, that changes, as I have quit my current job (officially ends on May 31) and my last travel gig was this past week! I am leaving my current job to start my own effort and am very excited and motivated! In fact that’s just the beginning of all the changes in my life.  I’ll also be moving out of Manhattan and to Summit NJ (about 35 min. away on the train). My husband and I (got married last August) have been living together about 50% of the time until this move could be made and now it’s finally here! Moving day is June 22nd – my 30 day challenge will end on June 16th – so now is the perfect time for me to commit myself to a goal like this. I have the time, I won’t get interrupted by travel, and in many ways it serves as a wonderful thing to focus on during this very interesting, exciting and pivotal transition time.

To help me keep track of my experience along the way I thought it would be fun to try a blog out. I’m also going to be blogging as an aspect of my new company so thought it might be interesting to get familiar with the process in a more personal way first – before attempting to do it for the first time professionally.

Enough with the preamble – the main point of this blog is to reflect on my practice for the day.

I took a 2pm class with Rasa today at the Flatiron location of Bikram Yoga NYC. I haven’t had the opportunity to practice with her as much as I would like (because her schedule doesn’t really align with mine) but today I got lucky. She is really a remarkable yoga teacher – a true teacher with subtle and insightful things to share with students. Her class is also conducted in a very slow and methodical way – I felt myself slowing down and going deeper today under the spell of her dialogue. I personally find the “standard” dialogue very boring and really appreciate when teachers add their own information – she does this masterfully. My personal performance wasn’t stellar. I’ve not been practicing regularly – and I feel that. I was patient with myself and had prepared beforehand (proper eating and hydration) – so I just went with the flow. What I noticed today was how tight I felt. It’s funny when I first started practicing the big issue was strength – now my strength is better, but I notice that without practice my range of motion and flexibility diminishes. Maybe I’m just getting old…

All in all a great start to the adventure.

P.S. Photo cred to my daughter Megan Roberts – who took this picture in our living room this past winter – after I came back from yoga class.