Seven Days and Counting

Oasis of an ocean port

Seven days seems like a such a short time yet so much can happen and change with in us during that time. When we take on challenges or do any kind of inner work, a lot can happen and quickly.  This past week I decided to part take in a physical challenge that I knew would have tons of inner work and challenges along with it. This challenge was a little new to me, but not so much that so, that I did not know what to expect. The challenge I am talking about is that of a yoga challenge, it is a 21 day challenge in which I would be doing bikram hot yoga.

The idea of this challenge is to help you to develop your yoga practice more; deepen, add focus, add awareness to both mind and body in practice, and of course to hit your mat daily! Week one is about adjusting, you practice in class for 6 days and then get one day off to rest and recoup, you keep hydrated and eat plenty of good for you food. Week two starts to intensify when you go to class everyday and once that week you go twice a day, you still have plenty of good for you food and hydration. Then week three comes, still class everyday and good food and hydration, the only difference is you now go to class twice on two separate days and get bonus if you go twice for three days! These challenges have intrigued me for a very long time but yet I had never taken part in them, until now when I was heavily guided to do so.

Mountain top tree pose! 

Because of all the awesomeness I have been experiencing I have decided to share with you week by week what is happening for me and what I am learning, both on the mat and within. I am doing this for two reasons; one to show you exactly what you can learn/receive from a yoga challenge, and two to show you what can happen when you commit and give your all to something. I will be breaking it down day by day and will post each week, I will share any feelings, profound experiences, and anything I feel of importance or am of needing to share. So lets start on this amazing journey!!

Day 1- This was just like any other yoga class for me, as I usually go twice a week. I went into class, set up my mat, meditated, did the poses, sweated my a$$ off, and then left. Every class I like to let a word just come to me in meditation at the beginning to focus on for the class and for this class it was "do". My heart wanted me to just do all the poses, all the exercises and take note within as to where I was in each pose and each exercise, so this was exactly what I did. After class I felt exhilarated and a surge of excitement at what was before me with this challenge.

Day 2- Got a brilliant idea, or at least at the time, to start going to morning classes as I thought it would be less hot. Well the classes are definitely no less hot than the evening classes, only difference is there are less people and waking up earlier to go is a struggle right now. My word for class was "strength", I focused on finding strength within my body, mind, and soul in each pose. Class appeared to be easier when I focused on being strong in each pose, no matter where I was at. All day after class all I could think about was how amazing it felt doing two days of class back to back, I had not felt swore like I thought I would, and I was mentally and physically more alert to everything going on around me.

My yoga bag and coconut water chillin on a rock

Day 3- Got up bright and early and hoofed it to class, almost literally!! This morning I missed my bus to take me up to the drive to get to class and the next one would not get me there on time; normally I would have just turned around and gone home but I was determined to make this class so I decided to run! I full out ran all the way up the drive to class with my yoga mat strapped to my back and my litre jar of water in my hand, I must have been a sight, but I made it there 5 minutes before class started, enough time to change, roll my mat out and meditate for about 1 minute. My word was "focus", focus on my breathing, my meditation, and focus on keeping my mind in the room. I worked hard and sweated even harder than any other class before. My mind stayed in the room the whole class, I was proud of myself, but I was finally starting to feel the "run down" feeling after this class. So I took time out from my busy schedule to grab an organic coconut water and sit in a near by park to re-energize after class. While re-energizing myself it hit me that not only was I more committed to this challenge than any other I'd done, example running to make class, but I was determined and committed to something that I whole heartedly loved that had been begging for more love, this its self made me feel awesome!

Day 4- Body was beat and sore, so I decided to skip the early class and head to class later in the evening with a friend. Class was a struggle and a half, I was falling out of most poses early and was struggling to do some that were normally easy. My word was actually two words this class, "get through". Half way through class the instructor noticed a few people getting frustrated, I am sure I was one, and told us "Each day is different for the body, just as it is in life in general. Honour what your body needs today out of this class, if it needs a beginners easy class do that, if it needs meditation do that, but do not push your body and get frustrated when it does not do what it cannot, honour where it is, not where it should be." This stuck with me for the rest of class and poses, even though they were beginner ones, came more easily and my mind was more at ease. At then end of class I stayed for a long time in savasana to not only rest my body but honour/appreciate all that it had done for me. I went to bed super early that night and rubbed a special mixture of essential oils and herbs all over anywhere I was sore.

Day 5- Woke up with super excitement for life and going to class that morning, I was not stiff, sore nor was I exhausted! As I was on my way to class I became more and more excited. I got to class rolled out my mat and as I lay in meditation the word "truth" came to me. For the 90 minutes of class I focused on finding truth in each pose, I worked on finding out the truth of my body and how hard it could truly work at each pose. I accomplished two new poses one which was the complete awkward series, which is just how it sounds awkward, and the toe pose, which is basically you start in tree go into a forward bend with hands touching floor and foot still in tree, then sit down on to your one foot with other foot still in tree and hands come into prayer and you balance on the sitting foots toe! Toe pose has been a pose I have been determined to accomplish for years, and today I did it with ease and no questions asked, I thought it was a miracle until I realized this was the truth of my body and it could do it all along all I needed to do was ask. Truth also hit me hard upon meditation when my mind was open I heard a voice deep with in me saying I needed to listen more closely to my heart as I was ignoring something important it was telling me, but it was not till after class that I realized exactly what that voice meant. While walking home through a park I was thinking about how I had to go to work, how I hated my job, and it gave me very little freedom to do all that I was being guided to do lately, it was then that I realized that I needed to quit my job, and quit it today, I needed to listen to my heart that had been telling me to do this for weeks. So I went to work quit and got sent home; it was all a shock to me, I was now jobless and scared.

Day 6- The night before had been a little hard on me as I was experiencing so many emotions and fears over quitting my job. I knew quitting my job was the right thing to do and it felt right but my ego was beginning to play tricks. I woke up feeling emotionally exhausted and debated taking the day off of yoga, but my heart sang for me to go so off I went. My word for this class was that of "release", it came full force at me during meditation and I did not know exactly how it would work in class but I knew it was what was supposed to happen. I made it through most of the poses, just going through the motions, until it came to two poses from the end, rabbit. I had always had a hard time with rabbit as it was uncomfortable and sweat always dripped into my nose but I eased myself into it. My teacher came over to me to give me some pointers to make it more comfortable, which worked, but as it worked and the back of my heart chakra opened up I was overwhelmed by emotion. All of a sudden I had tears flowing from my eyes, my heart beating rabid in my chest, and emotions flying through my whole body. I cried through the last pose and breathing exercise, just the tears falling down your face kind of crying not the sobbing kind, and I just let it happen because I knew it was supposed to. I had heard many stories in the change room and from yogi's of people and themselves crying during practice, but I had never experienced it before, it was new to me. The rest of my day was filled with moments of tearing up and tears falling from my eyes, I did not understand what was going on. My boyfriend planned a relaxing feel good night for me to cheer me up but I still teared up in the happiest of happy pixar movies. Then laying in bed listening to my love breathe beside me I heard my answer "You just released all the fears, emotions, and thoughts about quitting your job today. You needed to open up your back heart chakra to do so. These fears and emotions they do not exist anymore, they are released, gone. You will be fine, you are taken  care of and you have nothing to worry about." That night I slept harder than I had ever in my life, my boyfriend even said it was like I was lifeless.

The dock I laid on bathing in the sunshine in reflection

Day 7- My day of rest, from yoga that is. I slept way in, till like 11:30 and then got my day started. My love and I choose to take the motorbike on a little road trip to a peaceful little ocean port a little outside Vancity. As I sat on the dock of this peaceful place and soaked up the sunshine I began to soak in all that had happened this week; I had pushed my body and completed six, ninety minute hot yoga classes that were 105 degrees each and ranged in humidity from 48% to 53%. I had deepened poses that I had been working on and had been struggling with for years, while deepening my awareness of my body and the outside world. I had also released weeks of fear, negative thinking, and emotions from my body about quitting my job. I had come further than I had ever expected to and it was only my first week. On the way back from our little oasis ocean port I sat on the back of the bike and realized that this journey was just beginning and I could not be more happy to be on it.