On Saturday I completed day 90 of 90 straight days of yoga. Well, I do have a disclaimer. I missed one day at around day 49 because of a excruciating migraine that knocked me out for the whole day. If you have ever had a migraine, you will understand why going into several downward facing dogs was just not an option. Other than that one day, however, I never missed. I began this program back in late December because I wasn't feeling well enough to tackle tougher workouts. My thyroid condition was in the midst of a fluctuation and any time that happens, I need more rest than usual. Although yoga can be intense, it is also restorative and rejuvenating. I found this program on youtube and it was by an instructor that I had used before and trusted so I knew I was going to get solid routines. I set out a goal to complete 30 days of the 90 day program. 90 seemed really intimidating at the time so I broke it down for myself to make it more manageable. Once I reached day 30, I just kept going because it felt right and I wanted to challenge myself. I rolled out my mat at around the same time every day - after work but before dinner. It was a quiet time in my house and I would mostly be undisturbed as I committed to the 30 or so minutes required. Some days were easy and my body flowed through each pose effortlessly and others were challenging both mentally and physically but I am immensely proud of the work I did and the commitment it took for me to complete this program.
It taught me many things about the practice of yoga but more importantly it taught me many things about myself which I will attempt to break down here.
First, I want to mention the physical benefits I gained. I purposely avoided other forms of exercise in order to gage the physical effects of yoga. I wanted to see how strong I could get on yoga alone and it turns out pretty damn strong. About 3 weeks in, my arms were so fatigued that even brushing my teeth was effort. I did more planks than I have done in probably 5 years of consistent workouts but now I can do full push ups without wanting to fall on my face. My arms got used to the hundreds of chaturangas and side planks fairly quickly. Its amazing how fast this can happen when it becomes part of your daily routine. I knew my arm strength and core strength would definitely improve but what really surprised me was that my leg and back strength also improved. I have really strong legs - they basically look like tree trunks and I struggle with wearing knee high boots because most of them don't fit over my enormous calves and so I thought that I might maintain the strength in my legs but I wouldn't really improve it. I was most definitely wrong. All of those warrior poses and chair pose and balancing postures really firmed my muscles and gave me the flexibility to move into poses I had never been able to do before. I also was really surprised about my back strength improving. I am now able to do all of the crazy back-bends and my form in plank is stronger and more solid. My body feels leaner and longer and others have noticed. In the last few weeks, I have had several members at my gym ask me what I do for my workouts because they say I look really fit and strong. They are all really surprised when I tell them yoga and frankly so am I.
I have always been one of those people that the more I sweat, the harder I feel like I'm working and the more beneficial the exercise. I sweat during yoga but not always and never the buckets I used to sweat during a run or a weight training session. Now, don't get me wrong I still really love to sweat but I have let go of the idea that I am not really working out unless I am sweating profusely. I used to add yoga into my routine when I needed a rest day or I wanted a slower workout. Now I see it as a real workout - one that challenges my body in all ways. The flexibility I have gained is also a huge benefit. I feel better just moving throughout my day. I don't have the stiffness or tightness I would normally have after a long day of work and commuting. I move with much more ease. My posture is also better- I stand taller and am more aware of how I stand and walk. It even helped my cardio vascular output and that is probably the most surprising benefit of all. Yoga improving cardio? Ha! No way that can be true but I think that all of the controlled breathing - moving through each pose with an inhale and out of each pose with an exhale did wonders for my lung capacity. So does this mean I can stop suffering on the bike or treadmill or elliptical? I hope so because I find doing straight cardio less exciting than watching paint dry.
So those are all of the physical benefits, now how about the mental benefits? Getting myself to my mat everyday was a huge mental accomplishment. I don't know that I have ever committed to something for 90 days straight. Some days were definitely more challenging than others in this aspect. I had to motivate myself or my husband would motivate me but the more the days went on, the less this happened. At about the 4 week mark, I stopped having to motivate myself - I just did it and in fact looked forward to it. It became MY time every day to do something that was mine and mine alone. I can't stress the importance of this not only for me but for anyone because we live in such a time that busy-ness is valued. The busier you are, the more important or successful you are. I disagree and I truly believe that if more people took 30 minutes out of their day to slow it down with yoga or meditation, the world would be a more balanced place. Every class started with the instructor having us set an intention for our practice that day. She wanted us to think of something that we wanted to manifest in our lives or to think of a person we wanted to send love to. This was such a beautiful way to start a workout. It really made the mind connect to the body. Something I always talk about with my clients is the mind/body connection. If we are moving our bodies but not really thinking about how or why than we don't get as much benefit from it. One thing that yoga does so well is remind us of this every time we step on the mat. Some days my intentions were for myself - to be stronger, to have more abundance in my life, to be cured of my thyroid disease. Other times I sent love to my husband, my parents, my cats, or a stranger I saw on the subway. This made me recognize what I am grateful for in my life and that we are all connected. At the end of each class, we did our final resting pose to a quote and the quotes were designed to remind us to be grateful, loving and kind. What other workouts end like this? It put my mind and my body in a more loving, accepting place.
Although they were more benefits to this than I can count, it wasn't always smooth or graceful or as spiritually satisfying as I just made it sound. There were days that I felt really off. I fell out of poses or didn't keep up with the instructor or my mind kept wandering during shivasana or I kept checking to see how much time was left in the video but that is the beauty of yoga: it knows this. It knows we are imperfect. It is why yoga is referred to as a practice. It is about accepting where you are at any given moment. The times when are body is effortlessly flowing through poses but more importantly when it is not. It teaches us to be kind to ourselves and only compare ourselves to our former self and not to anyone else. We are only responsible for improving ourselves. Its also why I chose to do this on my own, in my house with no one else around. If I did this with other people in a studio, I would be looking around to see how I measured up to others in the class. This is only natural but I didn't want to fall victim to this. It is not about anyone else but me. I wanted to measure my progress from what I was capable of doing at day 1 and then again at day 90 and it was pretty amazing. There are still a lot of poses I can't do and there is still so much for me to learn but yoga, like life is about the journey not the destination of a certain pose. At the beginning I really wasn't sure I could do it but now I know that I have the inner will and strength to stick to something that is so beneficial for my health and well being. It is one of the things I am most proud of in my life up until this point. I think partly because it was such a solo journey - it really was something I did only for me. I didn't think of showing off or doing it for anyone else or for vanity purposes. I did it for emotional and spiritual reasons and on day 90 while in final resting pose, I started crying. I felt so grateful to have had the experience and so proud of what I am capable of. For a while, I was looking forward to the day after the challenge was over. It would be the first day in 3 months that I wouldn't feel obligated to roll out my mat. Well, a funny thing happened. I had gotten so accustomed to practicing yoga that I felt strange not doing it so I did it. I found a new program and I picked it right up. I realize that I have seen so many positive changes from this that it would be crazy for me to stop now. I have fallen in love with yoga and I hope it remains as a fixture in my life for years to come.
As for what I learned about yoga: most people in the West think that is only a way to exercise but it encapsulates so much more than that. Yoga is a way of life and its roots can be traced back nearly 5,000 years. One of the first known publications about the basics of yoga were written down in "The Yoga Sutra" in approximately 200 AD and it talked about the blending of body and mind to achieve inner peace and awareness through the use of breathing exercises, body postures and a code of ethics. This is referred to as the 8 limbs of yoga and they are broken down as follows:
1. Yama : Universal morality which is like a code of conduct that we should live by and it encompasses things like compassion for all living things, always speaking your truth, not stealing anyone else's property and not pursuing wealth and other material things and practicing non violence.
2. Niyama: Personal observances which is like the yamas in that it offers a code of conduct but one that is more personal and internal. This encompass things like purity and cleanliness, contentment, discipline, self study and honoring the divine.
3. Asanas: This limb is the one we most associate with yoga and encompasses the body postures. Originally they were used to prep the body for sitting in meditation for long periods of time. It is also a tool to calm the mind and strengthen the body.
4. Pranayama : Prana means energy and this essentially means harnessing the energy in the body by controlling the breath. It encompasses breathe work and helps to improve the respiratory and nervous systems.
5. Pratyahara : This means having control of the senses so that we can become more internal and not as influenced by external things.
6. Dharana : In this limb, hopefully the practioner of yoga can use the asanas, pranayma and pratyahara to master concentration and quieting the mind internally.
7. Dhyana : Here, things start to shift from quieting the mind internally to meditating on the divine and practicing devotion to the divine.
8. Samadhi : In this stage, a union with the divine is achieved.
This is just a very quick, pretty surface level description of what yoga is all about. I wanted to include it because I was ignorant to all of this before I started and found it fascinating that something we think of as exercise can incorporate so many truths and practices that I have been trying to get a handle on in my own life. I don't think it was an accident that I found this when I did. It ties together many of the beliefs I have been learning about over the past few months. Synchronicity is definitely at work in my life!
Lastly, I want to thank the instructor, Lesley Fightmaster for offering this wonderful program free of charge. Here is her website: www.fighmasteryoga.com. She is such an amazing gift to the yoga world and I feel so grateful to have found her. Thank you Lesley!
It taught me many things about the practice of yoga but more importantly it taught me many things about myself which I will attempt to break down here.
First, I want to mention the physical benefits I gained. I purposely avoided other forms of exercise in order to gage the physical effects of yoga. I wanted to see how strong I could get on yoga alone and it turns out pretty damn strong. About 3 weeks in, my arms were so fatigued that even brushing my teeth was effort. I did more planks than I have done in probably 5 years of consistent workouts but now I can do full push ups without wanting to fall on my face. My arms got used to the hundreds of chaturangas and side planks fairly quickly. Its amazing how fast this can happen when it becomes part of your daily routine. I knew my arm strength and core strength would definitely improve but what really surprised me was that my leg and back strength also improved. I have really strong legs - they basically look like tree trunks and I struggle with wearing knee high boots because most of them don't fit over my enormous calves and so I thought that I might maintain the strength in my legs but I wouldn't really improve it. I was most definitely wrong. All of those warrior poses and chair pose and balancing postures really firmed my muscles and gave me the flexibility to move into poses I had never been able to do before. I also was really surprised about my back strength improving. I am now able to do all of the crazy back-bends and my form in plank is stronger and more solid. My body feels leaner and longer and others have noticed. In the last few weeks, I have had several members at my gym ask me what I do for my workouts because they say I look really fit and strong. They are all really surprised when I tell them yoga and frankly so am I.
I have always been one of those people that the more I sweat, the harder I feel like I'm working and the more beneficial the exercise. I sweat during yoga but not always and never the buckets I used to sweat during a run or a weight training session. Now, don't get me wrong I still really love to sweat but I have let go of the idea that I am not really working out unless I am sweating profusely. I used to add yoga into my routine when I needed a rest day or I wanted a slower workout. Now I see it as a real workout - one that challenges my body in all ways. The flexibility I have gained is also a huge benefit. I feel better just moving throughout my day. I don't have the stiffness or tightness I would normally have after a long day of work and commuting. I move with much more ease. My posture is also better- I stand taller and am more aware of how I stand and walk. It even helped my cardio vascular output and that is probably the most surprising benefit of all. Yoga improving cardio? Ha! No way that can be true but I think that all of the controlled breathing - moving through each pose with an inhale and out of each pose with an exhale did wonders for my lung capacity. So does this mean I can stop suffering on the bike or treadmill or elliptical? I hope so because I find doing straight cardio less exciting than watching paint dry.
So those are all of the physical benefits, now how about the mental benefits? Getting myself to my mat everyday was a huge mental accomplishment. I don't know that I have ever committed to something for 90 days straight. Some days were definitely more challenging than others in this aspect. I had to motivate myself or my husband would motivate me but the more the days went on, the less this happened. At about the 4 week mark, I stopped having to motivate myself - I just did it and in fact looked forward to it. It became MY time every day to do something that was mine and mine alone. I can't stress the importance of this not only for me but for anyone because we live in such a time that busy-ness is valued. The busier you are, the more important or successful you are. I disagree and I truly believe that if more people took 30 minutes out of their day to slow it down with yoga or meditation, the world would be a more balanced place. Every class started with the instructor having us set an intention for our practice that day. She wanted us to think of something that we wanted to manifest in our lives or to think of a person we wanted to send love to. This was such a beautiful way to start a workout. It really made the mind connect to the body. Something I always talk about with my clients is the mind/body connection. If we are moving our bodies but not really thinking about how or why than we don't get as much benefit from it. One thing that yoga does so well is remind us of this every time we step on the mat. Some days my intentions were for myself - to be stronger, to have more abundance in my life, to be cured of my thyroid disease. Other times I sent love to my husband, my parents, my cats, or a stranger I saw on the subway. This made me recognize what I am grateful for in my life and that we are all connected. At the end of each class, we did our final resting pose to a quote and the quotes were designed to remind us to be grateful, loving and kind. What other workouts end like this? It put my mind and my body in a more loving, accepting place.
Although they were more benefits to this than I can count, it wasn't always smooth or graceful or as spiritually satisfying as I just made it sound. There were days that I felt really off. I fell out of poses or didn't keep up with the instructor or my mind kept wandering during shivasana or I kept checking to see how much time was left in the video but that is the beauty of yoga: it knows this. It knows we are imperfect. It is why yoga is referred to as a practice. It is about accepting where you are at any given moment. The times when are body is effortlessly flowing through poses but more importantly when it is not. It teaches us to be kind to ourselves and only compare ourselves to our former self and not to anyone else. We are only responsible for improving ourselves. Its also why I chose to do this on my own, in my house with no one else around. If I did this with other people in a studio, I would be looking around to see how I measured up to others in the class. This is only natural but I didn't want to fall victim to this. It is not about anyone else but me. I wanted to measure my progress from what I was capable of doing at day 1 and then again at day 90 and it was pretty amazing. There are still a lot of poses I can't do and there is still so much for me to learn but yoga, like life is about the journey not the destination of a certain pose. At the beginning I really wasn't sure I could do it but now I know that I have the inner will and strength to stick to something that is so beneficial for my health and well being. It is one of the things I am most proud of in my life up until this point. I think partly because it was such a solo journey - it really was something I did only for me. I didn't think of showing off or doing it for anyone else or for vanity purposes. I did it for emotional and spiritual reasons and on day 90 while in final resting pose, I started crying. I felt so grateful to have had the experience and so proud of what I am capable of. For a while, I was looking forward to the day after the challenge was over. It would be the first day in 3 months that I wouldn't feel obligated to roll out my mat. Well, a funny thing happened. I had gotten so accustomed to practicing yoga that I felt strange not doing it so I did it. I found a new program and I picked it right up. I realize that I have seen so many positive changes from this that it would be crazy for me to stop now. I have fallen in love with yoga and I hope it remains as a fixture in my life for years to come.
As for what I learned about yoga: most people in the West think that is only a way to exercise but it encapsulates so much more than that. Yoga is a way of life and its roots can be traced back nearly 5,000 years. One of the first known publications about the basics of yoga were written down in "The Yoga Sutra" in approximately 200 AD and it talked about the blending of body and mind to achieve inner peace and awareness through the use of breathing exercises, body postures and a code of ethics. This is referred to as the 8 limbs of yoga and they are broken down as follows:
1. Yama : Universal morality which is like a code of conduct that we should live by and it encompasses things like compassion for all living things, always speaking your truth, not stealing anyone else's property and not pursuing wealth and other material things and practicing non violence.
2. Niyama: Personal observances which is like the yamas in that it offers a code of conduct but one that is more personal and internal. This encompass things like purity and cleanliness, contentment, discipline, self study and honoring the divine.
3. Asanas: This limb is the one we most associate with yoga and encompasses the body postures. Originally they were used to prep the body for sitting in meditation for long periods of time. It is also a tool to calm the mind and strengthen the body.
4. Pranayama : Prana means energy and this essentially means harnessing the energy in the body by controlling the breath. It encompasses breathe work and helps to improve the respiratory and nervous systems.
5. Pratyahara : This means having control of the senses so that we can become more internal and not as influenced by external things.
6. Dharana : In this limb, hopefully the practioner of yoga can use the asanas, pranayma and pratyahara to master concentration and quieting the mind internally.
7. Dhyana : Here, things start to shift from quieting the mind internally to meditating on the divine and practicing devotion to the divine.
8. Samadhi : In this stage, a union with the divine is achieved.
This is just a very quick, pretty surface level description of what yoga is all about. I wanted to include it because I was ignorant to all of this before I started and found it fascinating that something we think of as exercise can incorporate so many truths and practices that I have been trying to get a handle on in my own life. I don't think it was an accident that I found this when I did. It ties together many of the beliefs I have been learning about over the past few months. Synchronicity is definitely at work in my life!
Lastly, I want to thank the instructor, Lesley Fightmaster for offering this wonderful program free of charge. Here is her website: www.fighmasteryoga.com. She is such an amazing gift to the yoga world and I feel so grateful to have found her. Thank you Lesley!
Yoga has become my favorite workout activity. I remember the first time i tried it in a class, i cried when it was over and i didn't really know why i was crying. I just knew it meant something more than a physical activity. Thanks for sharing the information and the website. I'm definitely going to check it out!
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