I mentioned in a post last week that I am exploring my relationship with yoga and getting more deeply committed. I was able to attend three classes last week and I noticed a marked difference in my level of stress and how open I felt.
Last night I was idling around on the Internet and discovered the #YogaADay challenge from @GrowSoulBeautiful and the #YogaEveryDamnDay challenge, and I decided to participate for the month of October.
I’ve read some articles about whether yoga challenges like these are helpful or hurtful or necessary or valuable or what not. Here’s why I’m doing it.
- I practice in a studio three times per week; this is incentive to develop even a short daily practice.
- #YogaADay offers a pose to do each day. I have a book about yoga anatomy that I’ll consult before doing each pose. It will give me the opportunity to focus on where I’m at with one pose, how it feels, and see what my alignment looks like.
- This is a chance to incorporate more “play” into my life. This deserves a whole separate post, honestly. But taking a yoga photo is a chance to be a little silly and have some fun with it.
- Because a lot of yoga challenge pictures look like this:
- Beautiful environments. Perfect outfits. Great alignment.
- This is my photo from yesterday. This is me, in my cat hair covered leggings in my overly brightly-lit living room with less than perfect rotation. I like to think that this might help show other people they too can practice yoga.
I am excited to embark on this challenge, share reflections in this space. I found yesterday that doing Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana at the beginning of my (short) practice opened up my side body and breathing quite a bit more than I was expecting. And because I was doing it at the end of the day, it wasn’t too hard on my hamstrings. I hope to tease out more nuances like this one was the month goes on.
Would you ever participate in a yoga challenge? What about any other kind of challenge?
The Sixth Letter 