Monday, January 3, 2011

Finale




So did doing yoga for 360 straight days transform me forever?

I suppose I am transformed.  But like I said in a recent post, yoga is a process.  As is transformation.  I did not wake up one morning during this journey and say, “Holy crap, I’ve transformed!”  It is a quiet, gradual transformation that—as I’ve come to realize in my year-end reflections—is hard to quantify.  I’ve reached the end of my 360 days of Adho Mukha Svanasana, but there is no end to transformation.  I expect I’ll keep transforming in subtle ways as I take my yoga practice into 2011.

And because I'm an over-achiever, I'm going to go ahead and turn this into a full 365-day journey.  Then, this Thursday, January 6, I will NOT do yoga. In fact, I probably won't do yoga for several days. "Why not?" you may ask. It isn't because I'm sick of yoga. I’m having Lasik surgery to correct my vision. Post-surgery, the doctor told me to avoid up and down movements or going upside down for a couple of days.  Also, no sweating for a week or two. When it comes to vision, a girl’s gotta follow the doctor’s orders. After 30 years of wearing some sort of corrective lenses, I'm really excited about waking up and seeing things clearly in the morning, and never popping a contact lens into my eyes ever again. 

I am also little nervous.  About the surgery, of course, but also about the end of my year of yoga.  Driving to and from Idaho last week, I listened to the audio book of The Golden Compass from Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Subsequently, when I now think about my impending break from daily yoga practice, I envision it will feel like when the General Oblation Board severs the bond between a child and her daemon in The Golden Compass.  It makes my heart hurt a little to even think about it.  My yoga practice is that important a part of me.

Daemons Pantalaimon and Sophonax are never very far away from their humans, Lyra and Farder Coram

But it will only be a temporary break. While I won't berate myself for not doing yoga every single day, I plan to continue to make it a part of my days.  You can too.  If you’re interested, check out Yoga Journal’s 21-day Yoga Challenge for some structure and support. 

So besides surgery, what’s next for me now that I’ve successfully completed my yoga 360?  I really liked the focus and structure the yoga challenge brought to my life, so I’ve come up with a new challenge—more accurately, challenges—for 2011.  I’ll be blogging about that here.  Follow me on this new adventure, or better yet, join me!

While I will continue to blog here about yoga periodically, I've put together a credits roll for my 360 days of Adho Mukha Svanasana; please check it out here.

Namaste!

1 comment:

  1. Update: I had a lovely 365th practice at OmTown yoga yesterday, where my journey began a year before. Today, I had eye surgery in the morning. to help me relax to fall asleep afterwards, I did two Yoga Nidra meditations, running about 40 minutes. Making this my 366 straight day of yoga. I just can't quit.

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