Not the Destination Just the Journey

Alright another week has passed on this amazing journey of a 21 day yoga challenge and let me tell you it has been filled with all sorts of fun and self reflection.

Walking through the Stones! 

Day 8- This was the day of the full moon so I was super excited to go and get my yoga on! I went to a morning class and felt very energetic and focused, probably due to the fact that I had a great day of rest and the full moon effects. Class was very heart warming and made me feel even more grateful for everything. I left class feeling like I was on cloud 9! I felt the urge to do two things; one go find a crystal store and two run! My journey to find a crystal store not only lead me to two amazing crystal stores but also a store filled with every kind of book on spirituality and holistic healing you could imagine. I got to take off my shoes and walkthrough an amazing pond/tunnel filled with crystals and stones of all types, sizes and shapes; this was beyond my wildest dreams. The run part came later on in the evening around sunset when I met up with my love and his brother and we ran through the Lost Lagoon just outside Stanley Park, which was beyond magical. Every part of my day I felt such gratefulness, happiness, and peace, I felt like I had never been happier.

Some time relaxing with my  fur-love 

Day 9- Decided to go to a later class upon waking as I was very stiff and sore from the run the night before. All day I felt as if something was missing and my day seemed extremely off. It was not until I actually thought about it that I realized not doing yoga in the morning was what I was missing. Doing yoga in the morning had become like having a coffee when you wake up, it just made my day and started it off right. Class that evening was more relaxed for me as the word that my body and mind handed me was "ease", I knew this was due to being stiff and sore from my run the night before but I eased myself into every pose, took extra water breaks and only pushed my body on easier poses. Easing myself into everything and coming to class had helped my body to feel better than it had before class and so I felt feeling almost 100% back to normal.

Day 10- This was an amazing turning point of a class and day for me. I got up early and made sure to get my morning dose of yoga by hitting a class with one of my favourite teachers at the studio. Even though I was still a bit groggy I settled in, took out my mat, and began my meditation before class. Today's word came to me before I even asked my heart what my intention for this class was, the word was "breathe". I knew I had to breathe in class and knew that there is an huge emphasis on breathing in yoga, but I was not sure how "breathe" was going to help me out besides that in class, but when class started I kept this word in mind and focused on it. I would look into my eyes in the mirror and say "breathe" before each pose and posture, and amazingly enough that was all it took to change my practice into the most amazingly deep, most focused, and most up lifting class I had ever had. Any fear I experienced about pushing my body further in certain poses I just breathed through and released. Any time I thought I might fall out of a poses or posture before the "change time" I just breathed. By the time class had ended I was amazed at what had happened inside of the room when all I did was just breathe.

Day11- Bright and early practice!!! I woke up feeling a bit heavy with food from the gfree vegan pizza I had for super the night before, even though it was gfree it had left me feeling like I might as well have eaten a piece of bread, I was utterly confused, but I popped some fruits and veggies in the blender and slurped up my smoothie on the way to class! The smoothie made me feel almost instantly better and lighter, so I went into class a happy camper. The word for this class was "deepen", deepen my poses/postures, deepen my focus, and deepen my in between meditations/relaxations...or at least thats what I though the word meant. As class began I began to feel my body rejecting everything, it was not a happy camper, and it did not have anything to do with the yoga itself. I left class feeling a little out of sorts I had no idea what had happened in there, why was my body so against me? By the time I got home by body was feeling fine again but starving so I decided to have a gfree toasted tomato, vegan tzatziki and hummus sandwich, almost instantly after eating I began to feel like a p.o.s again. Seriously what was going on?! I decided maybe a nap would help and some ginger root tea. I woke up feeling much much much better around supper time. I decided that I did not want much for supper or really to make anything so I cut up some veg, grab some tzatziki, and some fruit and settled in to eat. The first few bits were delish and refreshing, but soon I realized I was starting to feel ill again so I stopped eating and retired back to my room again. After yet another nap I woke up and started talking to one of my roomies about my food experiences as of late and started trying to piece it all together, then she mentioned something never even crossed my mind before...."have you realized everything thats bothering you has had large quantities of soy in it?". No I did not realize that at all, it did not even cross my mind. I knew in the past soy and I were minor enemies and that soy can cause lots of inflammation but I had never reacted this bad or this painfully to it. My body was trying to tell me for the past two days what was going on but I was not listening, this was when I realized the word "deepen" was my body asking for me to deepen my conversation with it and listen. Thus no more soy for this gal here!!

Sunset on the seawall

Day 12- I woke up still feeling the effects from the last few days and all the inflammation caused by food but I put on my game face and grabbed my mat. Before class I got some inner guidance to pull a card for my class for that day so I grabbed my faerie healing guidance deck and pulled the "peace of min" card, what a great card to pull I thought. I headed to class and was excited, I had a teacher I never had before and I was going to be focusing on gaining peace of mind in the poses instead if pushing my hurting body. I got to class, met the new teacher and settled in on my mat in an empty room, well all except me and the teacher. At about 5 minutes before class was about to start 6 people joined us, all whom also taught at the studio and were just wanting to do a class. I didn't know what to think or feel being in a room full of yoga teachers and me being the only one not a teacher. Then class started and I had no time to think about it. I soon settled into the practice and was gaining more and more peace through out my mind and body with each pose. By also having peace of mind in each pose my body was just naturally going deeper into poses by itself. After class the teacher told me that I looked like a natural and asked me a little about my yoga history, at the end of our conversation he told me I really should consider taking my teacher training in the next year as he really saw a lot of potential in me. I left the studio feeling really excited about life and on top of the world, ever since I started doing yoga 6 years ago I had dreamed of being a teacher and now to hear that from an actual yoga teacher was amazing. That night I decided to go on a meditative run at sunset around the seawall of Stanley Park, this 10.5 k run was the most amazing this and much needed. I felt like I was just running effortlessly and when I stopped at 7 k for a water break a got an incredible view of  the sun starting to get low over the ocean; all I could hear was the waves crashing and the words "its never about the destination, its about the journey.".

Yummy Maca Root Smoothie!!! 

Day 13- Woke up surprisingly not sore from my events of the day before but boy was I tired! I decided to shove a few tsp of maca root into my smoothie for natural energy and grabbed some coconut water to help with electrolytes on the way to class. The word for today's class was "compassion", I needed to treat my body and mind with a little compassion after giving both my run and class everything I had yesterday. The class itself was a little difficult I found myself falling out of a few poses I knew I could do and I found some poses normally easy more difficult but I just accepted that that was where my body was at for the moment. After class I showered, changed and went on my marry way. While walking home I began to think about since doing this challenge how much my after yoga routine had changed. I used to wait forever for there to be no one in the change room or hide in a corner to dry off after my shower and change, now I just did it where ever and did not see the point in hiding. I began thinking of just the self confidence that I had gained in my body in general not only from this challenge, but also since I had been doing yoga in general. I was not only more aware of my body but also loved it more than I had in a long time. To top it all off I went with a group of people and my love to a clothing optional beach later on that day.

View from the top of the hill cliff jumping!

Day 14- Woke up feeling like my body had be thrashed around or hit or something, I was sore everywhere so I choose to wait till later after my body had warmed up a bit to go to class. I spent the morning meditating and looking at my past and seeing how different I was today compared to back then, home much I'd grown, the people I associated with, and even how different I looked, I actually looked happy. Doing all the revisiting and seeing how it was all different stirred up some crazy emotions, everything from happiness and joy to grief. That afternoon my love and I were invited to go cliff jumping at this place called Lion's Bay, in which you jump into the ocean off the cliffs. I was so excited to go and see this place and jump into the ocean, it was all I could think about the whole way there. Then we arrived. As soon as I changed into my swim suit and looked over the edge I felt dizzy, scared, and my heart leapt into my throat. I choose to wait a bit and watch a few of the others jump off and in, it look like so much fun. I gathered up some courage and went to the edge, looked down and everything in me pulled me back off the ledge, I did this about 5-6 times. I just could not get over my fear...even my love tried to help me out but I just couldn't, it had been a long time since I had a hard time not facing my fears. As we packed up and headed home not only the fear was still with me, but all of a sudden all the other emotions from earlier were back, it was all I could do not to just scream because of all the different kinds of energy. It was at that moment I heard a voice deep inside me "facing your fears is one thing, conquering them is another. They are two different steps and you took the first one today and next time when your ready you will take the next one, its a journey."....this voice was right I knew that but I was still emotional. When we arrived home my love wrapped his arms around me noticing I was still upset and the whispered in my ear almost the exact words that I had heard earlier, my guides were really trying to get me to listen! This time I took the words in and not only believed them, which calmed me down, but I also let them begin to heal me of every fear I had faced and every fear I had yet to face. I fell on to my bed exhausted, emotionally, physically, and mentally. How could I physically do class feeling so exhausted? "You don't, you recover, you relax, and go back tomorrow. Just because you miss a day does not mean the journey will not be the same, the journey happens no matter what." So I listened to my guides, I rested, I healed, I relaxed and I choose to take the day off.