What is this blog all about? -- Part One

Welcome!

My name is Jessica and I am a yoga fiend. It's true. Yoga has helped me through some difficult times. It has transformed my body and mind. Yoga is something I am unabashedly, totally passionate about. So much so that I am committing to practicing yoga for 360 straight days.

You, my imagined readers, may ask, "Why 360 days versus, say, 365 days?" Well, some people make resolutions for New Years. I have not grown up to be one of those people. I am one of those people who forget to think about New Years resolutions until New Years Day. Likewise, I am a person who doesn't like to set goals that aren't achievable (Learn to speak fluent Chinese this year!) or boring (Floss twice every day). And I am an over-thinker; if I am making a resolution, I better have a well thought-out plan of action. So... I don't make resolutions quickly or easily, which means I rarely succeed in making New Years resolution. But I do like the idea of resolutions, of setting massive goals and committing to them, of having criteria and deadlines to meet. And I like having a little more structure and responsibility in my daily life. I tend to be more successful and happy in most aspects of my life when I have a little bit of a fire burning under my tush.

So when the idea came to me, during Savasana in my Wednesday morning yoga class on January 6, to do yoga everyday for a year, I was only momentarily phased by the fact that the first five days of 2010 had already come and gone. I considered doing yoga for 365 days and wrapping up my year on January 5, 2011. But I like the number 360 for obvious reasons: a full rotation, a complete circle. Why are there 365 days in the typical year? There should totally be 360 days!

What does the starting point of a circle look like upon return, after you've traveled around its entire circumference? Does the planet look or feel any different after undergoing a full rotation? What does Adho Mukha Svanasana--Downward-Facing Dog, perhaps the most frequently executed pose by Western yoga practitioners--what does it feel like after doing the pose for 360 straight days? I want to know if it feels or looks different. And I want to know what I look and feel like after 360 straight days of doing yoga. I wonder, will I:

• Feel happier? More balanced and patient? Calmer? More spiritual? Less anxious? Less inclined to suffer SAD in the winter?
• Look different--be slimmer or have more muscle bulk? Grow a few centimeters in height?
• Sleep better? Make smarter decisions about what I eat and drink?
  
• Be more organized with my time and space? Keep my apartment cleaner so I have room for my yoga mat and to do handstand at the wall? Improve my focus and attention in other parts of my life?
  
• Be more mindful of others in my words and actions, even my thoughts? Be kinder to myself, love myself more, forgive myself for not being perfect?
• Be stronger in my core? Be more stable in my pelvis? Have better posture/alignment? Develop those tiny muscles in my inner hips and the arches of my feet to protect my knees and to help stave off genetic physical ailments? Reduce the frequency of migraines? Improve my circulation? Achieve super healthy blood pressure readings?
• Master more challenging poses that we do once in awhile in yoga class and then don't return to again for several months, so that I never really feel like I've full learned how to properly execute them? Poses like Bakasana? Get my hamstrings to finally open up enough to straighten my legs all the way in Uttanasana or to touch my heels to the ground in Downward Dog? Stand on one leg with my other foot up by my head without tipping over?
  
• Be more content with yuck weather and yuck work and yuck people? Handle difficult news and situations with more equanimity and grace?
• Be forever transformed?
• Levitate????

Stay tuned...

Namaste!