20 day personal challenge #1

Right before Thanksgiving, I was feeling a bit unbalanced and wanting to get some stability back in my life.  I was working at 2 different TV shows with a crazy unpredictable schedule, eating nothing but catering (which is delicious, but not necessarily healthy) and averaging less than 7 hours of sleep a night while working 12+ hours a day.  I am a person that doesn't function at her best under these conditions.  I can do it, and I can stay chipper and still do a good job, but eventually it all catches up with me and my body lets me know in various ways that it is not happy.  My joints get stiff and my shoulder stays in a mild state of discomfort, my eyes are puffy and red in the morning, and I just feel tired overall.  I have found ways to keep myself feeling good, such as bathing in an epsom salt bath, taking my vitamins, drinking kombucha and cutting back on my sugar intake.  But in November, since it was starting to get cold and I knew the hubbub of the holidays was approaching, I wanted to give myself a little more help to get through the tough schedule.  I really wanted to adopt healthy habits that would give me some sense of routine, even if I wasn't able to do them at the same time every day. 
My goal was to commit to a structured challenge for 20 days, which in theory would result in a feeling of being more grounded and centered, propelling me into a better place where self-nurturing becomes a habit, and insecurity, distractedness and my dependency on technology lessens. This would of course spill over into other areas of my life such as turning to alcohol or mindless eating as a relaxing agent.  Maybe I would even lose a little weight?  But that wasn't the goal.
So I gave my challenge some thought and came up with these parameters; every day I would complete the following practices:
1) 10 minutes of writing.  I could journal or write fiction.
2) 10 minutes of yoga.  Gentle, spinal based.  
3) 20 minutes of oil pulling
4) Post 5 things I am grateful for on FB in the "Grove of Gratitude" group. I had already been doing this daily and wanted to continue
5) Neti Pot (nasal irrigation)
6) Arnica.  I decided to try the pellet form as well as the topical gel.  I did 2 rounds of pellets at 5 days each, plus the gel.

I gave myself extra bonus points for doing other therapeutic practices which would be too much on a daily basis.  Those were:
-Taking a bath in epsom salts
-Using a dry brush to exfoliate my entire body
-Face mask/scrubs
-Drinking green tea, hot lemon water, apple cider vinegar concoctions
-Doing a creative project (sewing, drawing, gardening etc.)
-Getting a massage or using the massage ball/rollers

The results:
For the most part the challenge was a total success.  I'm still writing almost every day and I feel like that exercise in particular was the most enjoyable and led to awakening my creativity again.  I'm still oil pulling almost daily, but that is a habit that I started over a year ago and have been doing off and on.  I'm also still using the Neti Pot regularly.  
Surprisingly, and embarrassingly, I slacked a little on the yoga.  For some reason I have a block with practicing.  It probably has something to do with my limited range of motion and fear of injuring my shoulder even more, added to a lack of space in my room to do it.  And yes, a little bit of laziness too!

In the end, in completing the challenge, I achieved what I wanted to and more.  I feel more centered and grounded, and in touch with my own emotions and needs.  I've redeveloped some healthy habits, and I feel strong again, strong enough to move on to my next challenge. 

Twists workshop review!

Shambhala and Iyengar....
Last week I did a 2 hour twist workshop, which was Iyengar-based.  For those of you not familiar with the Iyengar style of yoga, there is a focus on precision in alignment, and usually classes will make great use of lots of props.  I have always liked doing Iyengar, because I personally enjoy the challenge of trying to achieve "perfect" alignment.  For me, it is a fulfilling way to practice because it's almost as if there is a set of rules or steps to follow, and I love noticing the subtleties of sensation I feel by making minute adjustments in my form.  I have found that most of the Iyengar classes I have taken feel less spiritual, less hippy-dippy emotional if you will, and feel more like an anatomy based learning situation, which can be very nice.  It's still therapeutic, just in a different way then say, a Kundalini class would be.
I signed up for this workshop for a few reasons: it was close to home at Shambhala, it was $25, and I have a difficult time teaching twists so I wanted to reacquaint myself with them and remind myself of the vocabulary, both verbal and physical. And I thought that I could gain some insight into teaching twists through experiencing someone else doing it.  
Anyway, in this twist class, we did some very deep, cleansing twisting.  The class moved slowly and we stayed in the poses for a good amount of time, maybe 2 minutes a pose.  I think my favorite twist may have been one where we had a folding chair against the wall, one bent leg on the chair, and twisted towards the wall, pushing and drawing the hands down the wall while drawing the spine up and squaring the hips.  Meanwhile, originating the twist through the standing leg- starting down the thigh.  Before this experience, I had never thought about originating a spinal twist in the legs, but it totally made sense, felt amazing and is something I feel I can access again the next time I want a really deep, cleansing twist. 
The workshop was small, maybe 5 students, which was really nice because we had plenty of room to spread out with our blankets, mats, blocks, straps and chairs.  And our lovely teacher was able to come around and assist.  Our teacher was having a slightly difficult time verbalizing in her demonstrations, getting turned around with left and right.  Because the yoga teacher usually demonstrates through mirroring, I know from experience that it can be easy to get mixed up.  For instance, if I want my students to twist to the right, placing their left hand on their right knee, with their right hand behind their back, I'd demonstrate by placing my right hand on my left knee, left hand behind my back, but I'd still verbalize it in the way that they should do it, calling my right hand my left hand as I lead.  It can get very confusing very quick for all involved.  I felt for our teacher as she got turned around, I've been there! I was thinking about what I could do in the situation in the future and thought that it might be a good idea to turn my back to the class, so that I can move in the same direction as the class, and raise the same limbs they raise, etc. Also, this is a case where having an assistant in the class would be an asset.  I even entertained the idea of being this teacher's assistant, I could demonstrate the pose and she could talk through it and adjust me.  :)

On a related note, or two related notes...today I start my yoga trade karmi program with Shambhala.  I will run the front desk for 4 hours checking in two classes and maintaining the studio in exchange for free yoga classes.  I am thrilled.  Part of me is asking myself why I didn't do this sooner, which I know the answer to (I haven't had a schedule that has allowed me to plan for something like this) and the other part of me is just saying, it doesn't matter, you're doing it now! I am very excited to meet more yogis, spend more time in a yoga studio in a behind-the-scenes way, and to have access to so many classes for free.  I've been wanting to build up a yoga support group for myself and I think this is a way to start building it.
So the second related note, is that I'm currently reading Light on Yoga, by B.K.S. Iyengar. It's kind of like THE book.  Some refer to it as the bible of yoga.  It covers philosophy, breathing, asanas, and has photographs and step by step directions for moving into the asana (poses).  It's a good reference manual and I appreciate the thorough introduction which discusses the stages of yoga and talks through lots of sanskrit terminology that I am not comfortable discussing yet in my classes because it's pretty heady. 

until next time...