30 Day Yoga Challenge// Part Two!

Back here I posted about one of the great loves of my life's 30 Day Yoga Challenge.  Curious how it turned out? Me too! So, from sweet Kelly, the wrap up:

Take That 30 Day Challenge!

My 30 days are up and quite honestly, I am not sure what all my fuss was about.

Week 1: I was all pumped and ready to go! Time flew by and I was feeling good.
Week 2: Started to get tired, dragged a little bit, but pushed through.
Week 3: Back in the saddle and loving it!
Week 4: In the home stretch, started to feel a bit stiff and sore for a few days but knew that was normal.

The secret was to take it day by day and not think "Oh, 23 days to go, 22 days to go..." Not that I didn't do  little mental checks now and again but for the most part thinking of it one day at a time worked well. The studio owner asked me how I felt about the time commitment, and I was forced to be honest with myself. For me, the time commitment wasn't an issue. I don't have children taking up my life so I chose to attend 4pm classes on weekdays and the 8am classes on the weekends. This truly wasn't the challenging part.  What was more difficult was dragging myself when I just didn't feel like going! But I sucked it up because I knew it was best for me, and I really reaped some significant benefits.

What benefits, you ask? Well, I've really broadened my horizons regarding different yoga styles. Before the challenge I was primarily taking Bikram and Hot yoga classes. I tend to need variety in my life so I began to ease into Power and Vinyasa, which was really such an awesome thing for my practice. I felt like a whole new world was opening up to me and I began to work on my upper body strength, or lack thereof. I am actually starting to prefer these new classes to my original choices! I think this demonstrates the need for balance, variety and new challenges in one's practice. Another benefit of making yoga class part of my daily routine was seeing progress. At first I thought my body would be transformed, but once reality set in I knew it was going to take a lot more then a month to get to my ideal. Instead, I see a slower, more gradual progression in balance, strength and flexibility, which really makes a lot more sense. I also started making some connections with other people at the studio. I know my teachers better and I went from not speaking to anyone in the classes to having some friendly faces to talk to. Yoga is such an individual practice that I didn't see how I could make friends doing it, but now I realized that the more involved I get, the more opportunities I have to possibly get to know some new people with similar interests.

I think I am at the tip of the iceberg as far as yoga practice and meditation but this challenge has demonstrated to me that it's something I really want to keep as an important part of my life. In fact, I am starting to think it's something I really want to focus on, possibly even becoming a teacher of some sort. (Although the thought is terrifying!) And guess what? The next 30 Day Challenge begins in January and the owner already wanted to know if I'd sign up! I decided not to, however, because I am confident enough in myself now that I don't need to be held accountable in that way anymore. I'm going to keep this up on my own terms and in my own way. Hooray!

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