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.