What I learnt from 30 days of yoga

Slow Life

I’ve been a big fan of Yoga with Adriene for years. I happily remember trying to squeeze my yoga mat into my tiny room at university, trying to get into downward dog wearing more layers than I care to count in a bid to keep warm from Durham’s ice cold winters. But I’ve always been, I hate to say it, a little skeptical towards her 30 Days of Yoga January challenge.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the concept. But I’ve never had the belief that I would actually complete it. That skepticism was towards myself.

Year after year I sign up with the best of intentions. “This will be my year” I tell myself. And time after time I fall at the first hurdle. Around three days in I conveniently forget that I’m even doing the challenge and normal habits resume. Cue all the guilty feelings until I swiftly push it from my memory.

This year though, this year actually was different. And no it wasn’t simply down to sheer luck.

Setting an Intention

I can already feel my non-yogi friends wincing at this one. I set an intention. Or a goal if you will.

This year, I didn’t go into the 30 days blind. I knew why I was there. Like every year, I signed up a few weeks beforehand without much thought and then left it. It wasn’t until a few days later that I found myself feeling what I realised was a lack of connection.

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As I finished up Day One of #YWADedicate a couple of days ago with @adrienelouise, I found myself feeling super emotional as I lay in shavasana,. I was remember, as I often do at the end of a yoga practice, the feeling of lying on my rooftop watching the sun set in Buenos Aires. . It was a feeling of complete calm, freedom and oneness with my body. I was so surprised to feel such emotion - why was this coming into my head now? . And then I realised. I’ve lost my connection with my own body. With all the excitement and adventure of the last few months, I’ve spent all my time up in my head and not enough in my body. That oneness that I know and love so much has vanished. . All of a sudden things started to make sense - the anxiety each night as I try to fall asleep, the feeling of aches and pains in my muscles that are well beyond my years, the inbalance that’s become a regular part of my day - it’s all down to this lack of connection. . So here’s to grasping the opportunity of a clean slate, to recognising where we’re at and not where we feel we ‘should’ be. Here’s to rediscovering that connection and committing to our true selves. . Have you gone through a loss of connection before? I’d love to hear your experience #WellnessMyWay

A post shared by Pip Christie (@pipunedited) on Jan 4, 2019 at 10:05am PST

I was still in South Africa at this point, with our move to Australia just a couple of weeks away, and realised that I’d been spending so much time up in my own head overthinking every aspect of the year ahead that I’d lost the connection with my own body. I felt completely out of sorts. My sleep schedule was totally out of whack, my back was aching far more than it should be at the age of 27 and I generally just felt out of balance.

That was the moment that I realised Adriene was actually handing me a lifeline, in a way. This was my chance to reconnect with my body again. And so I set my intention.

Joining a Community

I hadn’t really considered what it meant to be part of a yoga community until I started out on this journey. To be quite honest, my main focus was on reconnecting with myself – not with other people. But soon enough I found myself sat on my mat for an extra couple of minutes after class reading through others’ comments below the video of the day. I found myself both moved and inspired by their stories, in awe at the breadth of people joining in from across the globe, each with their own unique reason for being there.

On the days when it was harder to show up, I thought of those people diligently getting themselves to the mat each day. I knew that so many of us were finding it a struggle to take that first step but that we were doing it together and, even though these people were total strangers to me, we were there for each other. They were there, so I would be too.

Consistency

I think that sense of community really helped me develop consistency in my practice. The first days were the hardest but after that my daily practice became part of my routine. I found myself checking the theme of the next day’s video before I went to bed each night, looking forward to that time with myself and my body on the sunny balcony each morning.

In short, I developed a new habit. And I’ve found that that habit has carried through, even after the 30 days have finished. No, I’m not doing yoga every single day but I am moving my body. For the first time in a long time, my exercise has become pretty consistent again and it’s coming from a good place. A place of love and respect for myself, a place of appreciation for that time where I am just free to move.

Connection

Yes, I achieved my goal. I reconnected with my body again. Those strange aches and pains, those restless nights… whilst they aren’t totally gone they’ve certainly diminished and I’m pretty happy with that.

I’ve re-gained a respect for my body and what it can do for me. Watching my mum’s story with her body always inspired me to appreciate my own and my ability to move freely, in any way I wanted to. But somewhere along the way I lost that, I think in the midst of grief my body became a bit of a trap instead of my vehicle for life.

After these 30 days I’ve remembered what is possible, for both my body and my spirit. I’ve remembered what I can achieve when I put my mind to it and have a new respect for my capabilities. But perhaps most importantly, I’ve remembered that there is support out there if only you are humble enough to look outside yourself and ask to learn.

Have you ever done Yoga With Adriene’s 30 Days of Yoga?

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