What I Learned in the 40 Day Challenge

This week we’re wrapping up our 4th Annual 40 Day Challenge, and it's been a profound experience for me this year because it’s the first time that I participated in the Challenge as a student. As of this morning I met the goal of attending 30 classes in 40 days.

This happened after one of Cony's Vinyasa classes!

So much learning and growing has occurred that in the interest of space, I'll just list it out in bullet points:

• increased strength
• increased endurance
• letting go of what the teacher thinks and what the students think
• back pain is almost completely gone
• body is ready to go to bed earlier
• quality of sleep is better
• recognized the effects of dehydration, motivated to hydrate better
• even with my busy schedule, I can make time for yoga classes
• better connection with our TYR community
• became comfortable being led through practice, which led to…
• looking forward to being led through practice (letting go of control)
• realization that I love all the different types of classes equally
• lots of inspiration for my teaching
• more awareness, patience, and understanding with my husband and young children

The 40 Day Challenge has been a huge reminder of why I started practicing yoga to begin with, and why I decided to become a yoga teacher.

I love how you can’t help but be present in yoga. There’s so much focus on breathing, movement, and alignment, that you automatically become fully present. You can’t help but let go of the fast pace of life, you can’t help but let go of your “to do” list, you can’t help but let go of whatever stress has been weighing you down.

After yoga class, everything seems right with the world. Everything feels possible. Everything makes feels figure-out-able.

When we wrap up the Challenge on Friday night, I can’t wait to hear how it went for all the other participants, what benefits they feel they’ve gained from the experience. Regardless of whether each person completed the 30 classes or not, they’ve undoubtedly been successful in practicing more yoga than usual. And I’m pretty certain that’s translated into some observable changes in their lives.

If you need some change in your life, know that you can commit to your own personal yoga challenge any day you choose. Pick a day, maybe the first of the month, or maybe tomorrow if you feel a sense of urgency, and begin. Try to practice every day for a month, or set a target number of classes you want to complete in a month. If you need some accountability to keep you on track, just send me a note. I’d be more than happy to check in on you and see how your personal yoga challenge is going.

XO, Zelinda

Something Scary About Stress

This week I discovered something scary: Sometimes you don't even realize that your body is racked with stress. Here's what I mean... This week we've had some really cold weather. So, this being Texas, where the mere threat of cold weather can potentially shut down entire towns, we go to bed in the evening not knowing whether the schools might cancel or delay classes in the morning. As it turned out, one day this week one of my kids' schools was delayed and the other started on time. (Unexpected change to my work schedule - no biggie.)

That same morning my husband and I got in a fight over something dumb. (Silly fight - it happens, right?)

Then in the afternoon I picked up the kids in our carpool and texted my husband about whether he could pick the kids up from me so that I could squeeze in a yoga class. (Anticipation, tired kids, traffic - pretty routine stuff.)

As it turned out, my husband was able to pick up the kids from me and I was able to make it to the yoga class. And that's when I had this scary realization.

I rolled out the mat and laid on my back and was really surprised by how much tension was in there. I lay there and just breathed for about 10 minutes before the class started. And it dawned on me that, even though it was a pretty routine day, a ton of tension had accumulated in my body.

And I find that to be pretty scary because we all know all about the damaging effects of stress on the body: premature aging, insomnia, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, the list goes on and on. And as I experienced on this particular day, sometimes we DON'T EVEN REALIZE how much of this damaging stress has latched itself onto our bodies.

The class was a challenging one for me - maybe because it was more intense than my usual Gentle practice, maybe because of the stress in my body, maybe because I'm not used to practicing in the evening. Regardless, I took breaks when I needed to and I modified when I needed to. And by the end I seriously felt like a brand new person.

I had new energy. My grouchy mood and the achiness in my back were long gone. In this moment I remembered what I loved most about yoga when I first started practicing and I remembered why I wanted to become a yoga teacher - because of the amazing transformation that's possible in an hour on the mat.

Sometimes we fall away from our yoga practice because life gets in the way. But really, if you think about it, that's when we need yoga most.

I urge you to observe your body and whether you might be unconsciously holding onto stress, and I invite you to come back to your practice.

Let go of the cycle of stress and adrenaline. Let go of fatigue.

Remember what it's like to feel ease in your body, mind, and breath. Remember that feeling of clarity that you get after a good yoga practice? Let that feeling lead you back to your mat.

XO, Zelinda