30 Day Yoga Challenge: We are in the Home Stretch!

Over the month of October, my Essential Yoga Space Community and I have taken the 30 day Yoga Challenge, and we have ROCKED it!

The Essential Yoga Space 30 day Yoga Challenge was born out of the desire that I had to create a habit/ routine around getting up early and practicing yoga first thing in the morning. This has been a goal of mine for as long as I have been practicing yoga. However, I had to overcome my own self limiting beliefs. For example, the belief of not being a morning person, or not being able to get up that early because I need my sleep, I am a busy mom, wife, and business owner. All of these beliefs fueled the excuse that I can’t possibly take time for my own yoga practice.

As a long time yoga practitioner, one of the benefits of yoga in my life is that I can no longer lie to myself. Yoga cuts through the mental delusions that we create that keep us stuck in a particular belief pattern. Now I know that is a statement that is heavy and deep. It is also very true. I am so grateful that yoga has helped me to “take every thought captive.” Yoga has helped me to recognize negative mental patterns and to replace these negative mental patterns with opposite positive patterns. In yoga we call it Pratipaksha Bhavana, practicing cultivating a positive mindset by replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts.

“Pratipaksha Bhavana, practicing cultivating a positive mindset by replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts. ”

As the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians, (chapter 4, verse 8), "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

“ Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
-Apostle Paul”

This is a practice I have been working with in my own life as a way of cutting through the dark clouds of depression and the stormy skies of anxiety. It has really helped to intentionally focus on things that raise my vibration towards love, hope, goodness, grace, and joy.

One of the things I noticed this week, which is the week 5 of our 30 day yoga challenge, is that I am so much happier in the morning. On Monday, my husband, even noticed. He said grumpily after kissing me good morning, "I feel like I am living in the upside down these days, because you are so chipper in the morning and I am now the grumpy one."

If you knew me personally, you would know that what he said is a huge, HUGE victory. I have been super grumpy in the morning for 30 plus years. When we first got married my cheerful husband would wait for me to open my eyes, then he would start talking to me about plans... Plans for the day, plans for the week, plans for next FREAKING MONTH! I would glare at him, and grunt until he handed me my coffee and went in the bathroom to shave. He quickly learned that his wife was not a morning person.

So one of the benefits of this 30 day Yoga Challenge is that I look forward to getting up in the morning. I actually wake up before my 5:30 am alarm clock. I have a corner in my living room, that I have labeled my yoga corner. My family knows not to put anything in my corner. The whole rest of the living room may be a disaster area, but my yoga corner is kept clear. Only yoga props can be kept in this space. I did this on purpose to remove the excuse that “I don't have anywhere to practice”. Now I don’t have to clear a space before I can start my yoga practice. By clearing this space and enlisting the help of my family to keep it clear, I now have a welcoming space that invites me into my yoga practice.

I also keep pre-typed yoga sequences on my wall in my yoga corner. I have one for every day of the week, except Sunday. Sunday is my rest day. No yoga asana on Sunday, just meditation and relaxation. I keep the sequences on the wall to remove another obstacle to my practice. By taking this simple step, I have removed the obstacle of “I don't know what to practice,” when I come to my mat early in the morning. I took away that excuse by having a sequence with a different focus for each day. For example, Monday I know I will be working with standing poses; Tuesday, forward folding and seated postures; Wednesday is back bending/back extensions; and so on.

Now I type my poses out in Sanskrit terms for the various Yoga Asanas, but if you are a person who likes to do yoga sequences with pictures, then I recommend using a sequence builder tool. One that I love is Sequence Wiz. Using Sequence Wiz, I can create a sequence in less than 5 minutes, using stick figures and adding notes to each pose in the sequence. I use this tool to give homework to my personal yoga training clients. This is also a great way to plan out your yoga routines for the month (you only need 6 different sequences), paste them to the wall and you are all set for your morning yoga routine.

Today after our 30 minute yoga session on Zoom, we went over to our private Facebook Group for the Essential Yoga Space Community to support each other throughout the month to stay on track with our goals for the month. Today's session was a forward folding session. In this session, we used a lot of different yoga props. Many of the ladies asked me to put together a list of my favorite yoga props so I created a page on my website called Pili's Favorite Things. Here you will find a few of my suggestions for yoga props that can really help your progression in your yoga asana (posture) practice.

We have two more days left in this 30 day Challenge. I pledge to keep going. To keep waking up early, and practicing from 6-6:30 am Monday-Friday. Who wants to join me in November?