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January Yoga Challenge: Update & What I’ve Learned So Far

January Yoga Challenge: Update & What I’ve Learned So Far

So… can I have a do-over?

My plans to do yoga every day in January went REALLY well… for the first four days. Then I got totally taken out by the Headache of Doom for a couple of days, and things kinda went downhill from there. (In case you’re curious, January involved that crazy tension headache/possible migraine, a 2 day vomiting spree, 2 dentist appointments to get teeth extracted, and 3 trips to the vet to fix up 2 very sick cats. Oh, and my phone died and had to be replaced. Not the best start to a year I’ve ever had!)

As you can probably guess, once I got off track, getting back on felt next to impossible. It’s a total shame, too, since extra yoga was probably exactly what I needed during such a crazy month! I did learn a few things from my epic fail, though, so I’m ready to try again this month!

What I’ve Learned:

  • Putting my yoga practice off until nighttime does NOT work for me. I need to make sure to do it either in the morning or early afternoon, or I either get too wrapped up in what I’m working on or too flippin’ tired to drag myself to the mat.
  • I work better with a plan than winging what I’ll do each day. I stuck with it so much better last year when I did Gaia’s yoga guide than when I had to pick something each day. I’ve made myself a list of videos that I want to do throughout Feb, with a mix of easy and harder practices so I can choose from whichever category I’m feeling that day. I think that having some freedom to pick from around a dozen choices will work for me, since it means a little bit of choice, but not 20 minutes spent scrolling through every video ever trying to decide!
  • I also need a backup plan. I’d planned to use the Gaia app on my Kindle Fire for most of m practices, since it’s way easier to see than my little iPhone screen, but doesn’t have the lag that my poor overworked laptop tends to have. (And it’s a law – the video will ALWAYS freeze up just when you’re in an impossible to hold position!) However, right after I renewed my account, the app stopped letting me log in and it took almost all month to get a repl from customer service, who told me that when they changed their name from Gaiam TV, they temporarily eliminated the Kindle app. Uhh, thanks for the heads-up? I usually love them because their subscription price is reasonable and they have such a huge selection of videos, but this was a pretty big fail. I still have my subscription for Feb, so I’ll be doing my best with just the laptop to view them on!

Anyway, I just wanted to share, since the learning process is rarely pretty and we tend to only hear about people’s successes when it comes to building new habits. Hopefully February’s Yoga Challenge Updates will be much more successful!

January Yoga Challenge

January Yoga Challenge

There are officially TWO days left in this year, you guys!! Well, more like one and a half since its already almost noon. How did that happen? Anyway, in case you’ve missed it on Twitter and Facebook (which if you did… why aren’t you social media stalking me? I’m delightful and fascinating!), I’ve decided to do a January yoga challenge!

january-yoga challenge

Here are the complicated and highly technical details of the January Yoga Challenge: Yoga every damn day. That’s it.

I tried something similar last year and ended up succeeding like 22/31 days, and my body felt pretty freaking fantastic. Of course, I then went an screwed it all up by totaling my car in an ice storm the beginning of March (RIP, Apple), which totally threw off my game.

I’ve been a very casual doer-of-yoga for like 15 years, but I have the lazy habit of sticking with things I’m comfortable with. In addition to making it to the mat every freaking day, one thing I’m hoping to do is try some new styles of yoga that are outside of my comfort zone. I’ll be posting a weekly update here of how things go – what I loved, what totally sucked, what was surprising, etc. I’ll also be sharing info about the resources I come across – which videos are totally worth checking out, what’s overrated, which yoga pants you totally need in your life. (I don’t even own any yoga pants yet. Should maybe get on that.)

Wanna play along? I would LOVE some company for this! Even if you just want to commit to a weekly yoga practice instead of daily (Or every other day, or whatevs), it would be fun to know I’m not alone! Leave me a comment and let me know if you’re in!