But can you bend into the shape of a pretzel yet?

(Note: After I finish this post, I'm going to change into my yoga togs for yoga practice #360.  Eeek!!!!)

A continuation of my reflections on some of the questions I asked upon beginning this 360 straight days of yoga practice.  I asked, will I:

• 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 fully learned how to properly execute them? Poses like Bakasana? 

I did Bakasana in my home practice yesterday.  It is one of those poses that sometimes feels like second nature to get into. Then on other days, I feel totally befuddled about where to place my knees against my arms--it just feels not quite right, even if I'm placing the knees in the exact same place as I did the day before, when it felt easier than pie.

Anyway, I do feel like I am more capable and skilled with Bakasana, in general.  Some of the other challenge poses I've worked on in class and at home this year, however, I am a long, long way from comfortable.  Perhaps you remember this one:

Ah, good ole Eka Pada Galavasana... I quit working on this one because I was sick of looking like a battered woman.  The pressure of my foot against my arm gave me bruises that looked like someone had grabbed me really hard.  It wasn't such a big deal when the weather was cool outside, but when tank top weather arrived....  Also, my leg injury sort of put a hamper on this one.  Take-Away Lesson: You can't be Super Woman when you walk with a hobble.

• (Will I) 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-Facing Dog?

My heels still do not touch the ground in Downward-Facing Dog.  Honestly, I never for a second thought they would.  That said, after warming up a little, they definitely get much CLOSER to the ground in Dog pose than they were a year ago.  On the other hand, once warmed up, I really can straighten my legs all the way in Uttanasana now.  I don't choose to very often, because I don't want to lock my knees, but I can do it. For whatever that's worth.

• Stand on one leg with my other foot up by my head without tipping over?

Why yes, I kind of can do this now.  Look!

Utthita Hasta Padangustasana

My foot is kind of by my head, right?  I can't hold this forever, I can't straighten my leg all the way, and the pose has room for lots of improvement in terms of alignment and grace, BUT I can hold it without tipping over.  Sometimes.

*     *     *

Overall, certain poses are easier now than last January, but my body resists other poses and movements just as much as it always has.  And there are probably poses that are harder for me now than they were a year ago, because of an injury this year or maybe I just haven't been practicing it for awhile.  

-Some poses that are easier: Uttanasana, Bakasana, Baddha Utthita Parsvakonasana, Utthita Hasta Padangustasana, Plank and Chaturanga Dandasana. (I used to HATE these last two poses.  Now I like them. A lot.) Oh and can't forget Ardha Chandrasana--I'm especially proud of my work with Half Moon, a perpetually difficult, painful pose for me!

-Some poses are more difficult now than a year ago: Utkatasana (this one is a be-otch when you haven't been practicing it much), Malasana a.k.a. squat-asana, pigeon pose, Eye of the Needle pose.  I used to LOVE Eye of the Needle, but it causes me a lot of pain on my right side at present, and my motion is quite limited.  

I wonder which of these poses will be easier or more challenging for me at the end of 2011.  The truth of the matter is: Yoga is a process.  There is no grand finale. Everyday presents different obstacles to match the body's capabilities in that moment on the mat.  Yesterday, Bakasana was easy for me.  It might not be easy when I do it today.  Mastery is not holding a pose perfectly day after day.  Mastery is the act of showing up on the mat,  attempting a pose to the best of one's abilities in that moment, and returning the next day to try again.

So many different ways one can bend a pretzel on any given day!

And now, I'm off to find out how my body wants to bend on this, my 360th straight day of yoga practice.  More later!  Namaste!

AND we’re under the 30-day mark…

Actually, we're under the 24-day mark.  Or I am.  My 360 days of Adho Mukha Svanasana is officially winding down.  Today marks my 336 straight day of yoga practice.  The end of the tunnel is in sight, though honestly, this journey has never felt anything like an endless tunnel.  Predictably, the first month was the hardest, because it takes time to adjust to a new daily time commitment.  Now, it is so automatic and normal, that I’m almost scared to go that minimum 30 minutes of yoga a day.

When I took on this challenge in January, I had a big list of questions about what I might experience by doing yoga every day.  Over the next three+ weeks, I want to revisit some of those questions here in the bloggity-blog.  You can read my initial two blog posts with ALL of those questions here and here.  One caveat: it is impossible to know how much of any change I’ve undergone in the last 336 days has been a result specifically of doing yoga—in many cases, yoga is one of many things that may have facilitated a change. The best way to test daily yoga’s effect on me would be to stop doing yoga every day, and even then, NOT doing yoga would likely be one of many things that might facilitate a change.  Still, I want to try to answer my questions to gauge the impact of this year-long experience!  So let’s get started with the mother of all questions:

• After a year of daily yoga practice, will I feel happier? More balanced and patient? Calmer? Less anxious?

Wow.  This is really hard to answer.  See, when I began this process, I had already begun a kind of remarkable transformation in terms of my mental health.  Seriously, if you were to turn back the clock and look at me not 360 days, but 720 days ago, you would think you were looking at my twin sister: my totally depressed, anxious, high-strung, impatient twin sister.  My Debbie Downer twin could not have committed to practicing yoga every single day, no matter how much she already loved yoga and how often she did yoga.   

So, in the year leading up to beginning my yoga 360, I made a lot of tough, painful decisions, took some big risks, and began to change my life on many, many fronts.  It was a really hard year, but I got through it and came out a much stronger, smarter, healthier person.

When 2010 began, I had only recently begun to feel like I was standing on solid ground, or rather like I could keep my footing on the ever-shifting ground below me.  I was feeling happier than I had in a really long time.  I felt only a shadow of the perpetual anxiety that had been clouding my thoughts and actions for the majority of my adult life.  I was just getting the idea of what a balanced life might feel like, that it was something I could actually have, that it was something I wanted.  Basically, I was finally in a place where I felt capable of truly committing to something long term; thus began my year of yoga.

I don’t know if doing yoga every day has made me any happier than I was last December.  But it definitely has not made me LESS happy.  Yes, I’ve had days this year when I’ve felt like nothing good would ever happen to me again, days when I’ve felt like anxiety was ripping me up inside.  But I’ve also had days this year when I’ve felt unadulterated joy and satisfaction that I’m alive, days when my mind can’t recall what it is to worry about something.  On most days of this past year, though, I haven’t been extremely sad or happy, but fine, okay-to-good, more or less satisfied.  I think this is what it looks like to have a balanced life. 

I absolutely believe that my yoga has helped me sustain this balance in my life.  If I come to my mat in a ridiculously giddy mood, I generally find myself settling down over the course of my practice, reigning in my happiness a bit so that I may maintain it longer, and so that it isn’t such a shock to my system when something undesirable happens.  Likewise, if I come to my mat in a real foul mood, my practice helps redirect my focus: things might suck, but at that moment, I’m paying attention to my balance.  The brief reprieve from my troubles that yoga’s temporary shift in focus provides always leaves me calmer and better prepared to face what ever has my panties in a bunch.  Yoga evens my keel when I’m tipping too much to one side of the other.  Most days, my practice mirrors and affirms my fine, more-or-less satisfied mental space, like breathing or blinking.  It is a part of what keeps me regular.

So whether or not daily yoga this year has made me MORE anything, it definitely was involved in helping me STAY happy, calm, patient, and balanced.

*                      *                      *

Minutes for the accountability police.  Yes, practiced every day.  Here's the rough round up:

11/8-11/14: 305

11/15-11/21: 315

11/22-11/28: 235

11/29-12/7: 285

Namaste!

 

The Six Month Post: Completionitis

"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

On the 4th of July, I hit the 180-day mark of my 360 days of yoga. That’s six months. I’m over half way there.

I gave my father this little update on the phone the other day. He said to me, “My God, you’re really doing this, aren’t you?” Yes, Dad, I really am. I really am going to see this project through, from start to finish.

In the past few years, I’ve had some issues with completion. Lots of unfinished business.  Some people get hung up on starting things. Not me. I start things left and right. I love starting things! The big finish is where I get stuck. Thus, I am a person who habitually:

• Cooks an elaborate dinner, leaves dishes piled up in the sink until the next night, or next week. 
• Mixes up ingredients for homemade ice cream, and passes off the hand-crank ice cream maker to someone else. 
• Folds laundry and leaves folded clothes in the laundry basket/on the sofa instead of putting them away. 
• Knits the sleeves, front, and back of a sweater, never sews the pieces together. 
• Starts writing a story, or a blog, leaves the piece at day’s end, and never returns to it.

I could go on.

FYI: There are an obscene amount of albums called "Unfinished Business." 

So when I decided to do 360 straight days of yoga practice, one of my goals was not “to complete something for once in my life.” Yes, my ultimate goal is to complete 360 straight days, but I didn’t think of it as a giant exercise in seeing a project through from start to finish. However, that’s exactly what it is.

With this goal of completion, there is a danger of looking at this year in terms of success and failure. This way of thinking doesn’t fit with yoga at all. When Patanjali uses the word “yoga” in his Yoga Sutras, it means “a state of wholeness” as well as the different practices (postures, pranayama, etc.) associated with this state. Should I step onto the mat everyday with the idea in my head that, “I have to do yoga today so I don’t fail,” I would be approaching my practice from a limited outlook. Yoga would become a chore (which I’ve discussed before), and I would be practicing with an ugly sense of obligation, with a fear of failure, and from a place of self-judgment. I would not be in a state of wholeness; I would not be open to whatever experiences might unfold while on the mat; and it wouldn’t be fun at all! As long as I upheld this outlook, even if I “succeeded” in practicing every single day, my yoga 360 would still be a failure. 

In her book, Living Your Yoga, Judith Lasater says, “The only real success in life is living with an open, loving heart.” I think that’s true. If I do miss a day of yoga, if I say to myself, “So you missed a day—it’s not worth beating yourself up over and discrediting all the yoga you did before today and all the yoga you’ll do after today,” then that, frankly, is a tremendous success.

Don’t get me wrong: I fully intend to keep doing yoga every single day until New Year’s. I intend to complete this thing. And it is a gigantic exercise in seeing a project through from start to finish. But it isn’t a gigantic exercise in NOT FAILING to see a project through from start to finish. It is a gigantic exercise in dedication and commitment. I am dedicated and committed to seeing this year through from start to finish, and more importantly, I am dedicated and committed to living with an open, loving heart—today, next month, come January 2011, come January 2021, and so on. 

 That's right, I'm the bacon.

Namaste!

For the record

Two of my obsessions, together at last...

 

I'm about to write a longer post, but first, thought I'd post my minutes for June 21st through July 6th:
June 21: 90 mins
June 22: 30 mins
June 23: 90 mins
June 24: 30 mins
June 25: 35 mins
June 26: 45 mins*
June 27: 35 mins
June 28: 35 mins
June 29: 30 mins
June 30: 90 mins
July 1: 90 mins
July 2: 30 mins
July 3: 30 mins
July 4: 35 mins**
July 5: 90 mins
July 6: 34 mins

* Not only did I do 45 minutes of yoga on this day, but I also ran 13.1 miles.  And lived to tell about it.
** This day marks the 180th straight day that I've done yoga for at least 30 minutes and assumed Adho Mukha Svanasana.  Blog about this to follow soon...  

Namaste!

90 days, suckers!

As of Monday night, I have done yoga every single day for 90 days.  90 days of practicing yoga for at least 30 minutes.  I’ve done Adho Mukha Svanasana every single day for 90 days.  9-0.

I don’t know if I’ve ever committed myself to practicing anything for 90 straight days before, unless I count the basic actions of being alive (breathing, eating, sleeping) or certain hygiene musts, like brushing my teeth.  Commitment is the operative word here; it is entirely possible that I’ve drunk coffee for 90 straight days at some point in my life, but I’ve never made an intentional commitment to do so.  Of course, I haven’t committed to practice yoga for 90 straight days—I’ve committed to practice yoga for 360 straight days.  The 90-day mark signifies that I’m a quarter of the way to my goal.  I’ve still got 270 days of yoga to come.

This got me to thinking about how much time I’m spending on the mat.  I’m away from my special yoga minutes tracking calendar right now.  But, by looking at the calendar at my office, I can note which days I attended yoga classes versus days when I practiced at home to come up with a rough estimate of the minimum amount of time I’ve spent doing yoga in the last 90 days:

-I’ve attended a yoga class on 35 of the past 90 days, spending ~2760 minutes total in those classes. 

-I’ve practiced yoga at home for 55 of the past 90 days for at least 30 minutes each day, so I’ve spent AT LEAST 1650 minutes total practicing at home.  (Given how many 45-minute practices I’ve done, I would guess that 2000 minutes would be closer to the truth.)

-So, I’ve spent AT LEAST 4410 minutes practicing yoga in the last 90 days.

Let me attempt to put this into perspective.  If I sleep eight hours (480 minutes) a night, I’ve spent over nine days worth of sleep doing yoga.  There are 1440 minutes in a day, so I’ve done more than the equivalent of three full days in yoga practice.  However, I’m still 5670 minutes shy of a full week’s worth of yoga.  If I only do 30 minutes of yoga for the next 270 days, I’ll have spent 12,510 minutes doing yoga by the end of my 360 days on New Years Eve, which is about 8-2/3 days worth.  In contrast, if I’ve slept 8 hours every night for the past 90 days and continue to do so for the next 270 days, I’ll end the year with 172,800 minutes of sleep.  With 518,400 minutes in a year, 33% of those would be spent asleep compared to a measly 2.4% spent doing yoga. 

All these calculations start to make me feel like the 90-day mark is hardly worth patting myself on the back over!  Still, it is a significant mile marker in my yoga 360 and I’m proud to have reached it.

For my 90^th day of yoga, I went to my Monday night class with Denise Benitez at Seattle Yoga Arts.  I could go on for quite some time, singing the praises of Denise and Seattle Yoga Arts, but I’ll save it for another post.  But I will say that for every 8-week session at SYA, Denise chooses a challenge pose for the class to work on.  These poses are, indeed, challenging.  Luckily, most of the challenge poses have had lots of adaptations with props to accommodate the tight-hamstringed or balance challenged, etc.  During this eight-week session, we’re doing an arm balance called Eka Pada Galavasana.  It looks like this:

Doesn’t it look impossible?!

I certainly thought so the first time we tried this pose in March.  But now, I think that if I continue to practice it, I might actually be able to do it in the foreseeable future.  Working on the pose in class and in my home practice, I’ve had some success briefly balancing with my back leg bent in.  I need to work on balancing for longer now, and start experimenting with extending that back leg.  This will challenge my balance even more, and it will take TONS of core strength.  But the possibility of executing this difficult pose is very real. 

I don’t know that I would have felt this possibility if we’d pursued this pose last fall.  I really feel like that by attempting it on my mat at home, in addition to on Monday nights, I’ve come to view the pose as more accessible.  The more I attempt to do something that seems impossible, the less impossible it seems.  

This is what I’m taking away from my first 90 days—if I regard something as being very difficult or impossible to do, I can choose to continue to shy away from that challenge (thus it will always be very difficult or impossible) or I can step past my fear of failure and try it, and then try it again.  My attempts may result in many failures, but each time I fail, I learn something and eventually, that learning may translate into a success, which feels wonderful!  In the next 90 days, I would like to take this understanding beyond the mat and apply it to other daunting challenges in my life—an undertaking which I suspect will make 90 straight days of yoga look like a walk in the park!

Namaste!

Thinking too much about Savasana

Still doing yoga everyday.  I also officially signed up for that half marathon.  I ran to my office to drop off rent and back yesterday morning--about 5 miles when I include the wrong turn I took which ended up looping back to the confusing intersection in question.  I was TIRED!  And I'm only building from there.

In contrast, my yoga practices have been more and more compact lately (aside from when I go to a studio).  When I first began my yoga 360, I had a really hard time putting together a home practice on my own that lasted 30 minutes.  I did a ton of podcasts at home and sought out classes at studios left and right.  For most of February, though, I've mostly sat down on my mat in silence and created a practice of my own.  Sometimes, I feel like I am not making myself labor enough or sweat enough.  But then again, that isn't the point of this year.  It is about seeing how a regular practice, difficult or not, benefits me and what kind of impact it has on how I approach life.

I will say that I don't find it so hard now to fill up 30 minutes of home practice; I could spend half that time in Savasana, but I don't.  In fact, I still struggle to stay in Savasana for long enough. What is "long enough?"  I read somewhere that a yogi/yogini should reserve at least 1/5 of their practice time for Savasana.  For a 30-minute practice, that breaks down to 6 minutes.  Now my average home Savasana tends to be about 1/15 or 1/10 of my practice time.  Because I know that I have a hard time staying in corpse pose at home, I don't assume that pose until I've been practicing yoga for almost a full half hour.  This is a benefit of classes and podcasts, which include a silent break in the recording for Savasana.  When I follow a podcast, I stay with the recording through the long pause to the point where the instructor rings a bell or uses a bowl to summon the listener out of rest.  Occasionally, I'll set an alarm on my iPhone for Savasana, but this feels like a lot of hassle when I am supposed to be settling into relaxation.

I think my preconceived notions about whether or not I am laboring enough physically in my home practice are at the root of my struggles with abiding in Savasana.  I aspire to question the logic behind these judgments as I continue to practice.  Even if I don't feel my body has worked hard enough to "earn" the reward of Savasana, my mind certainly deserves some relaxation time.  Just look how much overanalyzing it has done in this post!

The author in Adho Mukha Svanasana at home

Not pictured: author's brain in a frenzy over whether camera took the photo or not..

And with that, my minutes for the end of February, Days 47-54:
Feb. 21: 35 minutes
Feb. 22: 90 minutes
Feb. 23: 40 minutes
Feb. 24: 90 minutes
Feb. 25: 75 minutes
Feb 26: 30 minutes
Feb. 27: 40 minutes
Feb. 28: 40 minutes

Namaste!

First month in review

I am on Day 35 of my 360 days of yoga!  That's over a month of daily Downward-Facing Dog, packed full of Sun Salutations, forward bends, back bends, twists, and balance poses.  As predicted, I really have done Adho Mukha Svanasana ever single day.  Dog is like the oxygen of yoga--I can't seem to do an asana practice without it.

If only I had flippers, my feet would touch the ground!

I was reviewing the list of questions about what effects 360 straight days of yoga practice might have on me from my first blog post. I haven't learned to levitate yet.  However, I do think my heels are descending a little closer to the floor in downward dog which means my hamstrings are a little less tight.  Perhaps they will hit the floor by the end of December after all...  Also, I've finally learned how to do one of those more challenging poses that I never really get enough time to work on in class, Bakasana. Per the superficial, my apartment has been, overall, cleaner and more organized to ensure I have clear space to practice in.  I can't say that I'm slimmer or taller, but I can say that my thighs are super muscular these days from all that time in Warrior I and II, Utthitta Parsvakonasana, and Utkatasana. I also have some mean guns--don't mess with this yogini!

As for my mood, mental health, and my outlook of the world, I know that I almost always feel better about myself and the world around me after my yoga practice.  This is not to say that a month plus of yoga has eliminated all traces of SAD, reactivity, self judgment, anger, impatience, anxiety, and general discontent from my being.  It hasn't and it won't--I am human.  But I think that I spend a little less time dwelling in those undesirable places.  I do have a case of the mid-winter blahs, as I often do in January and February.  But these feelings are more episodic than part of my constant state of mind: a low mood comes and I sit with it for a couple hours or a day before it passes on; another case of the blues might not strike for a couple of weeks.  I do think the yoga helps alleviate these less happy moods.

It also seems to me that I have a lower tolerance for criticizing myself--I'm quicker to dispel harsh self-judgments.  Likewise, I'm more aware of my criticism of others.  Not that I never do it, but I notice when I'm judging others with more frequency and I question whether my judgments are fair or educated, or whether it benefits me or anyone else when I voice these criticisms.  Is my critical feedback remotely constructive?  What is my intention in voicing such criticism?  My mind has not always taken the time to reflect on such questions.

The above are pretty positive results of my daily yoga practice.  But I've noticed some other things that I need to be cautious of as I proceed.  First, just because I practice everyday does not mean that my body is equally capable in terms of flexibility and strength and endurance from one day to the next.  There are days when a certain pose feels so wonderful that my body is content to sink deeper and hold it for a long period of time.  The next time I try that same pose, however, it may cause me extreme discomfort or my body may not able to bend as much to assume it.  So I absolutely must pay attention to my body's needs and capabilities each time I'm on the mat because if I make assumptions about what my body can do without considering what it wants to do on any given day, I WILL hurt myself eventually.

Second, I need to continue to look out for that whole yoga-as-chore mindset.  If this way of thinking becomes too prevalent from day to day, I will eventually fail to step on my mat one day.  While I hope that, should I fail to practice yoga one day, I do not demean all my previous effort and practice by dismissing myself and this project as a failure, I really don't want to get to the place where I'm so down on yoga that it feels like a burden more days than not.  I mean, I love yoga, and practicing it is so beneficial for me!  So if maintaining a positive attitude about daily practice means doing more 30-minute practices than 60-minute practices, doing more Pranayama, and more slow, gentle practices--or even doing two 15-minute practices instead of one 30-minute practice, then I've got to be open to such. I guess this means is I have to be mindful about whether I'm practicing in a way that is headed towards burnout.  No burnout!

A note to myself.  Cribbed from Mudra Moments

Anyway, I'm burnt out on this blog post about now, so thanks for reading and,

Namaste

Facing Doggie Down

I've returned from Mexico with a tan line (twas a burn line... I fear my future includes melanoma) and about five new pounds on my body from margaritas, tortilla chips, and guacamole. While I succumbed to the temptation of tequila and too much avocado--I didn't think that was possible--I did not succumb to the temptation to ditch my daily yoga practice. Yay!

It did take some effort to practice on my trip, particularly on that dreaded travel day last week when I took a 6 AM flight to Houston en route to Cancun. As I mentioned in my last post, I'd loaded up my i-gadget with a couple of chair podcasts from Hillary's Yoga Practice, so during my layover in Houston, I tried to find an empty chair that wasn't too close to anyone else and looked out the window with room to cross my legs and to stretch them out in front of me. Then I plugged the ear buds into my ears and pushed play.

How did it go? Well, unsurprisingly, I felt a little self conscious meditating in public. I thought my OMs instead of chanting them out loud at the beginning of the practice and I held my hands in Anjali Mudra in my lap. The chair practice incorporated a lot of arms overhead stretches and I felt pretty conspicuous after the fourth or fifth one. Likewise, after the first couple of forward bends in my chair, I wondered if people were watching me and judging me. It was very difficult not to become self aware to the max. And then my practice was interrupted because I had to go stand in line at the gate counter to get my passport validated again. When I resumed it, I really struggled to find a calm mind again because I was all revved up to go to Mexico. Will I do a chair practice again next time I have a long plane day? I don't know--it was convenient on a day when I was traveling SO early and traveling to an earlier time zone, eliminating my daylight hours. But yesterday morning, I made sure to go to a yoga class at the resort spa before we checked out and headed to the airport.

I went to the 8 AM yoga class at the spa Monday-Friday this week. A muscular, short instructor named Mauricio taught the classes. His English was quite good. Except for yesterday, he taught entirely in English. Yesterday he translated everything into Spanish for a few Latina women. I didn't pick up anything, except inspiras and espiras. Mauricio really focused on the breath a lot in his classes, when to inhale and exhale, how many times, and breathing into the diaphragm, not the chest. This kind of pranayama instruction can feel patronizing to me often, given how long I've been practicing yoga. I have to remind myself in gym/spa/community yoga classes that not everyone who comes to these classes has been practicing yoga for over 10 years, or even over a month, and that I'm lucky that the instructor is teaching pranayama with such focus at all. Mauricio even ventured into Nadi Shodhana Pranayama, i.e. Alternate Nostril or Channel Cleaning Breath. Regardless, it was hard to be critical of Mauricio with his cute little accent and way of saying Downward Facing Dog ("Down Dog Facing" or "Facing Doggie Down") and adorable pronunciation of vertebrae.

Mauricio led yoga on this pier one day--Lovely. Picture by jeco.

Back in the USA, I entered month 2 of my Yoga 360 today. I've done yoga for 32 straight days for at least 30 minutes! I suppose I should pause and reflect at this point on how I feel, but I'm blogged out for the day. Tomorrow, I'll post with some musings about the 1-month mark, along with my minute count for the last 10 days! Until then,

Namaste.

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!