Happy Holidays!

I am currently writing to you from my living room, where the Christmas tree is lit all day and night, as long as someone is here to stare at it. Most of me absolutely loves this time of year- the decorations, the parties, the gifts and good will. The other part of me sees how stressful this time of year can be- the decorations, the parties, the gifts... ha! Yoga has definitely helped me develop a positive perspective so that I can enjoy the holidays as much as possible. I've been practicing yoga every day for 60 days- my goal is to practice for 90 days straight, and I imagine by then, I simply won't want to stop. Through this process, I've discovered that we all have the same amount of time in the day- we just choose to spend it different ways. During this busy time of year, many of us feel we must sacrifice our routine and the things that make us happy in order to prepare for the festivities, whether it's buying gifts, entertaining guests, etc. Remember that your holidays will only be more enjoyable if you're doing something for yourself in the midst of everything else.

Yoga & Running

People have often told me, "Running is 90% mental." I was frustrated by that statement because I didn't understand what it meant. I think I now have an inkling of what it could mean.

Throughout my entire life, my mind has dictated what my body can and cannot do. It many ways, it acted as my ego, and my ego was in poor shape. When faced with a physical challenge, my mind immediately let my body know that this was not going to be possible or practical, and I completely trusted that my mind was correct. This lead to a rather sedentary lifestyle, which attributes to my struggles with weight throughout adolescence and well into adulthood. It wasn't until I discovered yoga that my body tricked my mind into thinking, "We can do this!" And thank the Universe it was yoga. Yoga is the very practice that helped me to better understand the intricate relationships of the mind, body and ego, and that my thoughts are not always accurate.

In a pose, we're encouraged to observe and consider how we feel. We're doing this to get in touch with ourselves, get to know ourselves better. It's so easy to become disconnected from our bodies as we move through our daily lives, and yoga helps us come back home. I realized that I CAN be in a challenging pose and NOT die! I DO have the ability to go deeper into a pose and stay just a little longer than my mind allows. My body is perfectly healthy and free of injury. I have so much to be thankful for and I should be honoring my temple with daily movement and exercise- doing things that challenge this incredible specimen on a regular basis, because I can!! And in this sense, yoga is interchangeable with running. If I tell myself I can finish the mile, I can. If I tell myself I can't, I won't. So instead of playing head games, I simply breathe and observe how I feel. Does anything hurt? Can I smooth my breath? These questions allow me to calm down and come back to my "practice." I see running in a whole new light today, and I am so grateful for this profound awakening.

Birthdays

Yesterday, I celebrated my 27th birthday. I did 27 Sun Salutations as a way to express my gratitude for 27 years on this beautiful planet. With each passing year, I become more aware of how quickly life is flying by. Birthdays often call a few things into question- Am I living my best life? Am I accomplishing enough for my age? Am I on track with my goals? Do I have clear goals? Ack! Then, I think back on the past 27 years of my life and am quite pleased with those years. During my Sun Salute practice yesterday, around number 13, I started to think about some great things that happened when I was 13 years old- my Dad quit drinking and I fell in love with my first boyfriend. With each Sun Salute, I thought of something remarkable that happened during each year of my life. Once I hit 22, the year I started practicing yoga, the Sun Salutes slowed down significantly. I started to move with greater care and precision. The past 5 years of my life have been so significantly transformative because of the yoga practice. In the past 3 years alone I've made incredible progress in my physical practice, started a yoga teaching business from scratch that is now close to thriving, raised $20,000 and traveled to Africa, bought a house with my partner of 7 years, trained a wonderful puppy, I lost 20 pounds and really started taking care of myself in a new and compassionate way. Imagine what's possible in the next 3 years, the next 30 years! Sandy, one of my lovely students, said, "Trust me. It only gets better. Enjoy." She's one of the incredible women in my life who has reinforced that philosophy. I really, really appreciate that she said that because I look up to her and trust that she's right. I want to see all of the women in my life age with grace, beauty and confidence. And that's what I want for myself as well. I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for all of the years that I've lived. And I love myself now more than I ever have before. Like I end up saying at the end of every year, 26 was a good year. :)

Sun Salutations to the Rescue!