21.5.800 Challenge Day 2

It's Day 2 of the 21.5.800 Challenge and I am still here. Today was hard. I am exhausted and didn't restorative sleep last night. So I woke up later this morning and didn't have time to workout, do yoga, or write. But, I did do it when I got home, so I get a gold star for effort. I did a yoga DVD that I have at home (Stress Relief Yoga for Beginners). I was challenging. I felt fat and inflexible. And to top it off...Gess was sick and vomiting upstairs while I was trying to practice. I think that my lesson for this may be that I need to do yoga at the gym without Beauty or Gessner to interrupt.

Writing was okay today. I am angry and that is what I wrote about. I am hoping that giving that anger a voice will help me get through it.

Day 1 of the 21.5.800 Challenge

Today is Day 1 of the 21.5.800 Yoga/Writing Challenge and I'm happy to report that I made it. I know that doing things first thing in the morning is the best way to ensure that I do them. This is why working out regularly works best for me when I drag myself out of bed early and just get it done. I also like to start my day off on a good foot.

So, first thing this morning I got up and decided to do my challenge. I read Bindu Wiles blog post about the savasana pose. She urges: "If you are fried, hate yoga, have several children under the age of three, just had a root canal, are exhausted, and/or are energetically behind the eight-ball in every way, PLEASE DO SAVASANA FOR THE 21 DAYS. I promise you the pose will do it’s magic." I fit in the category of friend and exhausted, so I decided to give this a try.

I turned on the meditation music she recommended and got into the savasana (or corpse) pose. I started to relax but could hear my dog wandering around, probably trying to figure out what I am doing laying on the floor! I ignore her, hoping that she will go away, but the next thing I know she drops a toy on my lap. I ignore it, but she persists and puts another toy in my hand. I relent and sit up to play with her for a few minutes...she is just too cute to ignore! I play for about five minutes and try to pose again...no luck. Up I go...maybe a walk will help. It was a beautiful day and Beauty thoroughly enjoyed the walk. She did a lot of rolling, which she is in the habit of doing and I have gotten lax in stopping her since her cancer came back. We stopped at our favorite espresso stand and then headed up. The walk was nice. Sunny, coffee, and a cute beagle. What more can a girl ask for?

Back on the floor, corpse pose. Beauty was still intrigued, but instead of burying me in toys, she just found a spot on the floor next to me. Music on, timer set, Beauty less annoying. One thing that I noticed while I was doing the pose was how tense I am. Even when I am purposefully trying to relax, I struggle. I realized that my left shoulder was hiked up toward my ear and my jaw was clenched. I tried to relax those and focus on my breath.

The one thought that kept occurring to me during this time was self-criticism for not being able to relax correctly! Surely this is not a way to relax. I am hopeful that this challenge will help me both learn to relax and stop being so self-critical.

On to writing...I did write immediately. I showered and did a few other things before heading to a coffee shop to write. I like to write in cafes and book stores. I like the noise as long as it is just a lull...it helps me concentrate. Today I decided to just write "morning pages" ala Julia Cameron.

One of the things that hit me during this writing session is how afraid I am a failure. More on this to come...

21.5.800 Challenge

I'm joining Bindu Wiles and a bunch of others around the web for the 21.5.800 challenge starting June 8th. This challenge includes doing yoga 5 days a week and writing 800 words per day. I will blog about my experiences. I'm looking forward to the extra push to write daily and practice yoga frequently. Stay tuned! Better yet, join me HERE.

Over Half Way!

Time for a NaNoWriMo update: 27479 words. I am over half way there! I am a bit behind in word count (about 2,500 words), but that isn't too bad. I was over 5,000 behind when I started yesterday. So, I am feeling good about it and really not worried about catching up. I just didn't write much this weekend, which I think was the issue. I am feeling like I am at a bit of a block...the story isn't coming out as quickly as it was before, but I think that is common. So, I will just keep writing. It is still yet to be seen if this is actually going to be anything worth taking to the next draft, but we' ll see.

One thing that it has done is shown me that writing is good for me, and that if i make time, I have it--maybe not to write at this quick pace all of the time. But to make good, steady progress. So maybe one day you will actually walk past my book at Barnes and Noble!

NaNoWriMo Update

10 days...16,701 words. I rock!! :) In all seriousness, the NaNoWriMo experience is going well. I have missed a couple of days of writing because of work (no fun) and partying (fun :) ), but managed to catch up with my word count today. Even more exciting is that my story seems to be forming into something :) The writing is very very rough and I can't even imagine how much editing is going to go into this thing if I want to do anything with it. But those thoughts are for another time--another month. November is just for fast-paced, no holds barred, writing.

Productive Weekend

So I have 7,147 words so far! I only did 2,000 today since I spent most of the day writing a paper--darn school! It is interesting because I have no idea what my book is going to be about and have no idea where it is going! It is kind of fun this way because it is like I am reading it at the same time. Right now I can't wait to find out what happens! I am happy to have survived the first weekend. I am a bit scared aabout this week because I am super busy at work and have a few after work commitments. But hopefully it will go alright! Yay NaNoWriMo!!

Over 5,000

On the first day of NaNoWriMo, I spit out over 5,000 words! The daily goal is 1,167, but I wanted to build up a reserve for insurance! I sort of went it to this with very little planning and thoughts about it...so I am in a place that I never would have thought I would be. I am trying really hard to silence the self-editor and to just keep plunking away to see what comes of it. I may be comically bad, but it might always be a start to something good. 29 more days to go!

Officially Crazy

So I think that I have alluded to this and flat out told some people, but I figured it is time for the full out announcement---I am crazy!  Okay, that is probably not a surprise to anyone...but here is why...

I am writing a 50,000 word novel....during the month of November!  November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  This is the 10th year that this has went on.  The basic premise is that the biggest thing you need to get a rough draft completed is a deadline.  So...you write 50,000 words in 30 days.  That comes out to 1,667 words per day.  

Now, timing couldn't really be much worse.  I am 5 weeks into my first MBA class and work is crazy busy...but the appeal of this is just too much for me.  Gess is going to do it too (or at least he says that he is), so I will hopefully have some positive peer pressure.

So...over the next month I might not be blogging much--or maybe my novel character will blog for me... :)  If you see me or feel like helping...ask me how many words I have.  Accountability is good.

3 more days...