Yoga Challenge ♡

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As one of my New Year’s resolutions I, like many others, wanted to focus on improving my health and trying new things. I have never tried yoga before, so I decided that it would be wonderful to try out this year–if not now, then when?

Luckily for me, I found a free 30-day yoga challenge on YouTube. It’s called Breath by Adriene Mishler aka Yoga with Adriene. I signed up for a newsletter and Adriene sent me a daily inspirational email with the video for the day!

I can now say that I have successfully practiced yoga for every day of January 2021!

In my eyes, that is quite the accomplishment! I am so proud of myself! During this journey I did a lot of things that I have never tried before. I even did poses that, before this, I would’ve never thought I could do.

I learned a lot about my relationship with myself, my body, and my breath. I wasn’t always steady in all of my poses, but I always showed up to the mat and gave it my all!

MY EXPERIENCE

Some days were harder than others. There were days that I wanted to skip, but thankfully, I always rolled out my mat and pressed play! Like Adriene says, “The hardest part is showing up.” Once I decided to start the video, I knew I would finish it no matter what. Adriene also provided a calendar with the duration of the video for each day; this allowed me to not only carve out the time I needed, but also to mentally prepare for the length of the exercise.

Occasionally, Adriene would introduce a pose that widened my eyes with panic thinking of how difficult it would be, but I always attempted every one. After trying the pose, I would realize that I could in fact do it and that I just needed to push that doubt away. Plus, the more I did it during the journey, the easier it became.

This challenge made me feel like I can accomplish anything. I am not very flexible, but because of this challenge I have noticed my flexibility improving, and I am excited to continue working on that.

I have always wanted to ease my back pain, and this daily yoga practice has already helped even in the short span of January. I’ve also been doing my practice first thing in the morning, and I have noticed that it helps me wake up and gives me more energy throughout the day!

This has been such a freeing experience for me so far, and I can’t wait to see what else is to come!

Have you ever tried yoga? What are some of your goals for the new year? ♡ Feel free to ask me any questions you have in the comments below!