21-Day Yoga Challenge

Monday, I will begin another yoga challenge.  This one is for 21 days.  The orientation will be held Sunday.  The last 40-day challenge focused on adding yoga to your life and making it “that thing you do”.  This 21-day challenge is a little different in that it includes a diet plan as well as six days a week of yoga at the studio, meditation, a fruit/veggie fast, journaling, and a focus on decluttering your life.

Committing to 21 hours of yoga in 21 days takes me a bit out of my comfort zone, but I’m going to do it anyway.  Anything worth achieving in life is not going to be easy.

I’m Having a Beautiful Day

There is beauty in all days.  This morning, I awoke to thunder in the distance and the sound of rain softly falling on the roof.  I thought about getting up, but it’s my day off and there is no reason I can’t sleep in on my day off.  I stayed in bed until 11:00 a.m.

I’m sitting here with a cup of Creme Brulee coffee and thinking about how blessed I am.

I’m going to an advanced level heated Vinyasa class this afternoon.  This is a class full of lithe, willowy 20-year-olds who are graceful and limber, and they pose like ballerinas.  Do you wonder why a pudgy 52-year-old would want to go to a class like that?  Well, I can go to a class of fat, middle-aged women and watch everyone clumsily hop around and sweat, and I can feel that I’m grateful that there are people in the class who or fatter than me and clumsier than me and older than me, and I can take the attitude that I don’t have to try hard because there are people who look sillier than me…or I can go to a class full of beautiful, graceful young women, surrounding myself with youth and beauty and people posing with ease – and I will work my butt off, which will make me become more lithe, graceful, and flexible.  I choose the latter.

Since beginning yoga, I have no pain in my body anymore.  My mind and heart are becoming more peaceful every day.  I see where and how I fit in the universe.  I see how breath IS life. When you control your mind and your breath, you control your entire life.

I’m going to do the 40 Days to Personal Revolution program two more times this year.  For 120 days this year, I will be eating only the foods which are best for me, doing yoga at least an hour a day, meditating twice per day and training my breath to nourish me better and my mind to focus on only goodness and love.  If I can do this 120 days out of 365 this year then by the end of the year I will have better health, more happiness and love, and better habits than I began with.

I wish you all more love and beauty in your days.

A friend gave me an Olive Blossom candle which was made by a lady here in Sugar Land.  It smells like cotton candy.  It is the best candle I’ve ever had.  I absolutely love it.  I would love to have an entire case of these candles.  They are absolutely awesome.

Today Is An Exciting Day!

Today, I started my Programming With Logic and Algorithms class.  It looks like a difficult class, but I’ve wanted to learn programming as long as I can remember, so I’m quite excited about this.  The class officially starts tomorrow, but I have already checked in and started reading the materials and doing the assignments.  I think I might need as much of a head start as I can get.

Very soon I will be programming and designing web pages and working with databases and all that good stuff.  This is my dream come true.  In a year and seven months, I will have my Bachelors degree in IT/Web Development, and in a year and eight months I will begin my Masters in Information Systems.  How times flies when you’re having fun.

We’re going to see Tim McGraw at the rodeo tonight.  We saw him last year, and he really puts on a good show, so we’re looking forward to it.  I’m charging up the camera battery, and I hope to have some good pictures to post.

Yoga is going very well.  I’m in the more advanced Vinyasa heated classes now.  Sometimes I have to hit the mat for child’s pose for a bit,  but I’m getting much stronger now, and I can do a lot of things I couldn’t do less than two months ago.  I’m surprised at how fast I’m making progress.  I’m no longer the new kid in class.

Life is all about baby steps.  Just takes a few tiny steps each day, and before you know it you have accomplished big things.

40 Days to Personal Revolution

I’m beginning a new program Sunday called 40 Days to Personal Revolution.  It’s a six-week program, consisting of six days a week of yoga, meditation twice a day, journaling, and a three-day fruit fast as well as eliminating sugar, flour, alcohol and other stuff.

I hope to become healthier, less cranky, calmer, stronger, and slimmer.  My biggest goal is to forgive, let go, and stop hating.

Sometimes bad people do difficult-to-forgive things. 

“I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.” – Booker T. Washington