Honoring your limits
June 22, 2009
Well, these past few weeks since we’ve last met have been, in a word, tumultuous. My posts have been sporadic and inconsistent, and my life has followed suit. For anyone who talked to me during my first week of this experiment, I was walking on air. My postures were developing, my focus was sharpening, and my motivation was at an all time high. Since then, things have changed. During my second week, I was tired. Exhausted, really, and sick of doing the dance every day. But I went, every day, and went through the motions. (and the accompanying emotions) The truth is, Bikram yoga is hard. Really, really hard. Not just because of the heat and the sweat and the intense stretching, but because of the time. Please tell me anyone you know who really has two hours a day to commit to anything new, much less something as physically demanding as this. I don’t know anyone, and that includes myself. But I went, each day, some days at 6 am, and all to prove to myself that I simply could.
Week three was very difficult in that way. It seemed that every time there was a class offered, I was working. And try as I could, I often slept through my alarms and missed classes, classes that needed to be made up later in the day, the week, or the month. Week three was also difficult for other reasons. Namely, my sub-par immune system. As I sit here writing this now, my head feels
congested, my body achy, and my mind exhausted. I have been dealing with this for about four days now. For days that I wanted nothing more than to sleep through class, give up during triangle, and take an extralong savasana. But I haven’t. I’ve worked hard each day, honored my limits, and expanded them.
And what have I gained through all of this? The satisfaction of knowing I set my mind to something and accomplished it. The ability to lift my entire upper body off the ground with the strength of only my lower back. Fitness. Flexibility. A narrower waist and stronger legs. What exciting changes in only 22 days!
And so tonight, I will once again venture out to my new home on Bridge Street, sweat through another class, all the while sniffling through this cold. And guess what? It will be my first double session. Wish me luck!
See you at the finish line.
