Ebb and Flow

I don't typically believe in resolutions of the New Year's variety, mostly because if you want to change something... why wait for one day or time of the year? In fact, I sort of root against people who resolve to work out more since they clog up the usually comfortably full gym. (I know, that's terrible.)

However, I am jumping on the 30 Day Yoga Challenge, and today is Day 3. Amanda read in a very smart book (entitled, I believe, "How to Be and Adult in Relationships") that 30 days is a good bench mark for things. The 30 day lesson is this: If you want to do something (or not) for 30 whole days, you probably actually want it.

I like yoga. I bet I can do it for 30 days. My practice has always had its own ebbs and flows, mostly flowing when I lived above a yoga studio and volunteered there in exchange for free classes ...and ebbing at times like now when it's miserably frigid and I can't be asked to go to a studio.

Also, I decided to take this on because without classes as my weekly "to-do" anchor, I was feeling a bit adrift and lost. "What? I have all five evenings to myself? This hasn't happened since... well, never!" I have been in class(es) all of my working life, with exception of three weeks when I first got my job and summers/other breaks, which were a finite amount of time. Now I am in the abyss of life not being a working student. So far, it's lovely, but a bit daunting.

I am looking forward to seeing what happens with this. People I know who have done it previously saw enormous gains in flexibility, strength, and mindfulness, just to name a few. This morning, I was euphoric about my mittens in a way I don't think I have ever been. These are not new mittens - I have had them for years. Could be a yoga-attributed-increased-mindfulness thing... or a miserably frigid thing.

So, Day 3's challenge is remembering to do yoga prior to my date to Easy Pie (looks good, doesn't it?!) because doing yoga with lots of pizza in one's belly is not good. Yet another lesson ripe for the learnin'.

Either way, I figure this will help get me ready for my 30 days of eating only fruit happening this summer.