Week 6

After reading my own damn blog about this whole experience I can see that Week 2 was my hit-the-wall week. I’m still noting improvements with digestion as well as thyroid. I think once you begin to get better at the poses, the health benefits appear even more. I’m getting better at locking the knee and the final stretching pose and I feel like that is making a magical difference for me.

Yoga makes you stronger in a different way than weight training (but I still believe in cross training). My grip strength is stronger and all the places that are hard to exercise with traditional workouts like your feet, ankles, and hips are sleeker. Even though it’s a tough practice it still doesn’t give you license to eat whatever you want.

Sometimes I get frustrated when one teacher instructs one way and another does it completely different. One will really harp on not moving ahead of instruction and another is like, “Come on you are four seconds behind me”. Every teacher has their own style. The best ones are those who are tough but also interject some ray of hope or a pearl of wisdom. I’m a sensitive person who always wants to be “good”. I always want the teacher to like me. I was a Girl Scout what can I say. Hopefully, the toughness of this yoga will make me tougher in my life outside of yoga, but at the same time I don’t want to be insensitive.

I’ve gave up my security blanket this week. I no longer have my little Kleenex or hand towel with me to sop up the sweat. It’s still hard keeping the sweat out of your eyes, especially when you wear contact lenses but I am doing it.

I’m having a very discipline-forward week. I’ve been eating less chocolate and watching less TV. I’m eating a lot more green foods. This practice definitely lets you know what works and doesn’t work pretty fast. Now that most of my fave trashy TV shows are ending, I’m not collecting anymore. I’m making it a rule to keep the TV turned off at night. I’ve also been disciplining myself to go to get by 10:00 pm and this works miracles—as they say in Ayurveda. I do have one disclaimer, my improvements are not just from the yoga but also from the Rasayannas and herbs I take. I’m so energized now I don’t need to drink coffee or green tea, nor am I really on copious amounts of raw chocolate powder in the morning to get me started. Although, I do think they are thinning my blood a bit, as is the practice of Bikram yoga so I will have to watch that. I think if I continue on this path I’ll be in good shape.