Momentum, or Lack Thereof

Yoga Update (5/2-5/8/11)

At the beginning of the week, I had completed 29 days of yoga, which means there are just 11 days left in my 40 Days of Yoga project.  Hurray!  This project has taken way longer to complete than I imagined, so as I see the end approaching, I feel a sense of relief.

Apparently, my sense of relief was so great that this week, I skipped yoga more often than I practiced it.  I’m finding it hard to keep up the momentum with this project when I’m spending so much time on the bike and I want to get back into my running shoes.  Before this project, yoga was my way of staying strong and flexible.  It wasn’t my focus so much as something that I enjoyed and did regularly because it felt good and I knew it was good for me.

This project has taught me that I’m not interested in making yoga a bigger part of my life.  Doing 2-3 sessions a week and some stretching before bedtime is perfect for me, but now that I’ve turned it into a Project (capital P Project!), it’s not as much fun.  I think I would enjoy trying yoga with others in a group class, but on my own, I just don’t enjoy feeling like I have to do yoga.

The other thing I’ve learned is that my life, as it is, feels balanced to me.  I work, I play, I rest, and I’m happy with the amount of time I can spend on those activities.  The reality is that my job takes up a lot of my time and on a day-to-day basis, it is my highest priority.  That’s not to say that my job is more important than my family or my health, but again, I feel that I’ve achieved a balance that works for me.  Yoga is part of my balance.

This week I didn’t take very good notes about when I practiced yoga and what I did during yoga.  So the following may be incomplete, but it’s not with the intention of lying.

A slacker’s yoga week, in a very short list:

Wednesday (5/4): I do some DIY yoga on my mat, and I even get myself into wheel pose again!  I still feel so strong and accomplished in that pose—it hasn’t lost its charm yet.

Saturday (5/7): I look at the calendar and see that I’ve done yoga once in the past five days.  I feel guilty.  I do some pajama yoga before bed and still feel guilty.

As for all the other days of this week, I did not practice yoga.  I just wasn’t in the mood for it, which is perhaps the worst excuse, but sometimes, that’s the way it goes.  Tonight I’m hoping to do some Morning Flow to kick-start a better yoga week.  9 days left in my yoga project!  I can do this.