25 Days of Yoga
My 25 Days of Yoga holiday challenge came to an end yesterday. In case you missed it, I decided to do yoga every day for the 25 days leading up to my return home for Christmas for several reasons:
1. In the month of November I neglected to take advantage of my unlimited monthly membership and felt like I was wasting my money. I thought a personal challenge would encourage me to attend class.
2. Commercial America has decided to make Christmas a time of great stress, anxiety and excess. I thought yoga would distract me from all of that.
3. The holiday season is filled with parties, food and drinking. I thought a dedication to something healthier would keep me from throwing my new lifestyle out the window.
I found that a daily commitment to yoga did, in fact, eradicate most of the unpleasantries I typically encounter during the month of December.
I avoided unnecessary shopping by buying 100% of my gifts online and shipping them straight home. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the hype of mall shopping, but when I do that I end up just shopping for myself and wasting money. Without the time or desire to do traditional shopping, I was able to spend more time doing thing I actually enjoy–sending Christmas cards, cleaning out the pantry and donating food, and baking.
I experienced little desire to eat cookies and drink cocktails all month (except gingerbread cats). Coming home every night covered in sweat and in desperate need of a shower makes it kind of difficult to meet up for happy hour or take part in a bar crawl. It does make me kind of lame, I guess, but I feel better for it. My body also doesn’t react well to alcohol anymore. I had less than one glass of wine last night and have downed three bottles of water this morning as a result.
And I definitely got my money’s worth out of my membership.
There were some down sides to my daily practice of hot yoga, though. I failed to responsibly rehydrate myself so I suffered some unpleasant symptoms of dehydration during the third week. As a result, I spent most of my final week practicing at home out of the heat. I also took two full days “off” and spent an hour reading Meditations from the Mat. In all, I practiced 17 days in the heat, 6 days at home, and had two days of reading.
I would never recommend to someone, especially a beginner, that they engage in 25 straight days of hot yoga. It can be very stressful on the body. I do think, though, that a daily yoga practice is very beneficial.
I will say, however, that by the end I was itching to move. Yoga is all about stillness in body and mind. It’s about clearing all thoughts, settling into a pose and controlling your breath. Maybe I’m just not disciplined enough yet, but around day 20 I had an urge to just run and pant uncontrollably.
I’m glad I did it. I’ll continue to do it. And I think I’d eventually like to get certified to teach. Eventually.
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