Day 16

Wahoo!  I think today's revelation is that oftentimes things are not as hard as you make them out to be.  You spend so much time fussing about how you don't have time to do something that you have spent all your energy fussing (or fussin' as the Southerns would say) and no time doing the thing.  I also spend a lot of time planning to do great things (or fixin' to do them) and then I run out of steam.  Well today, the stars aligned or something, and I just shut up and did some things.  Not big things - I paid the bills, sent a couple of links to Brad of apartment ideas in Maryland, made some phone calls.  I took half of an aptitude test (so I can find out what I am really good at so I can be a better worker-bee) that I had been putting off for two weeks because it takes three hours to do - so I just sat down and decided to do half instead of just bemoaning how I never have three uninterrupted hours.  But it felt good to take actions and opposed to wallowing away at my desk hoping someone has work for me to do and reading the same Balloon Boy and John and Kate Plus Eight gossip stories over and over again (ps apparently OctoMom has a crush on John!? the world is a strange place . . . )

Today I dragged myself to a yoga class in the studio for the first time during this whole journey.  Evidently, I have paid for unlimited yoga classes during this 40 days when I signed up for this program (who knew?).  I was fading over the weekend in my gusto to continue with this journey, so I halfheartedly texted my friend Rebecca and asked her if she would come with me to a yoga class to keep me motivated.  She lives in DC and the class is at 7:45pm at night so I was sure she was going to say no . . . ha! maybe my asking her was even a way to 'blame' her and not take responsibility for committing to my own practice . . . anyway, I knew if I had actual peer pressure and a play-date I couldn't just cave and quit. Well it worked, Rebecca graciously agreed (she's studying to be a yoga instructor so I think she was just curious to see what I had gotten myself into) and the class was great!  It wasn't a very 'beginners' beginners class, but Rebecca kept up, and in fact, so did I!  I felt like my heart was beaming during a good part of the class I was so proud of myself.  It was very cool to see how much my at-home practices had taught me about being in my own skin.  I understood the pace of the class better now, so I could focus on alignment and positions in a new way. I was surprised to see how strong I had gotten in some poses and how I wasn't totally dying after the fast-paced Sun Salutations.  The instructor was cracking jokes and we laughed a lot as a class.  It was very refreshing to be so joyful in yoga.  Remember, as the yogis' say, all suffering is optional. 

I am probably going to be incredibly sore tomorrow -- but I don't even care. It was great to have the heat of the yoga studio relax my muscles and since I now know I have unlimited classes I will definitely go back more frequently.  I have already proven to myself that I don't need the studio to do this - I am strong enough to do it alone - its just more fun to have the support of the class, and it allows me to go deeper into my practice having them talk me through the alignment of the poses.

Ok, Brad has something AMAZING smelling in the oven so I am going to go eat!  More on the food tomorrow . . .

Namaste,
Clare