I decided to try 30 days of yoga using Yoga with Adriene's daily YouTube tutorials as help. For years I'd wanted to try yoga but had every excuse in the book, namely that I have absolutely no flexibility whatsoever. Seriously, I can't even touch my toes. But I decided to give it a try and the lessons I learned were without limit.
Day 1:
I immediately got discouraged because of how little I was able to do and how uncomfortable every exercise was. But thanks to the instructor on those videos, I forced myself in the next few days to relax a little and stop judging myself so much. She kept saying things like "you're not alone" or "if this hurts, try this instead" which made my own shortcomings a little easier to digest.
Day 7:
I didn't notice much of a change except perpetual soreness. Much to my surprise, your wrists are essential to most yoga practices and are often one of the weakest parts of the body. Still, I did notice that my mindset was changing. Sure, I definitely had moments of anger and frustration that I couldn't see progress as fast as I wanted to, but I began to start to force my brain to appreciate the fact that I was here, I was working out, I was pushing my body, and I wasn't going to let myself get too irritated to stop.
Day 20:
I guess I expected to be at the level of a professional yogi at this point, but nevertheless, I was noticing some changes that made me feel like what I was doing was worth it. I could visibly see a slight increase in the length of stretches I was able to get to, and slowly but surely my balance was beginning to follow suit. I wasn't so sore all the time, and I actually enjoyed pushing my body into uncomfortable positions. As Adriene says, the fire that you feel and the shaking and straining of your muscles just shows how connected you are to your body and even more just shows how dedicated you are to working.
Day 31:
I didn't stop doing yoga after I hit the 30-day mark. In fact, I saw so many benefits (even more mental than physical) in doing yoga so often that I dedicated myself to another 30 days. Coming to the mat every morning and forcing myself to spend time doing what is good for me, even when most of the time I don't feel like it or feel too overwhelmed with other tasks to want to do it, has become critical to maintaining some of my mental health.
My body is often a facet of my life that I tend to ignore. In fact, a lot of the time, I don't treat it very well at all. The worst thing I do to it is judge and critique how it looks when all I should expect of it is to keep me growing and living my best life, and it's certainly doing that. Now when I do a stretch or switch to a new pose, I can begin to thank every joint and every part of my body for putting in the effort that I'm asking it to.
Thirty days of yoga has become a new habit for me, and it has become essential to my meditations and improving my confidence. If you haven't done yoga because of feelings of intimidation, I would highly recommend a similar challenge. If you can find the right guide and the right headspace, you'll have the perfect combination to push yourself to new levels and maybe learn a little bit about your body and mind in the process.
