Embracing Stillness

In late October, about 10 weeks out from the end of the year and in the face of a string of mundanely induced injuries (crossing the street! lying in bed! mouse clicking!) I decided to challenge myself to do 50 days of yoga before the end of 2020. I wanted consistency (but with some degrees of freedom) and flexibility (any amount of time was a good thing...I did practices ranging from 10 minutes to an hour).

Today I finished Day 50, fittingly, with a 50-minute self-love practice.

When I started this challenge, my metric for success = all of my physical woes fixed (ridiculous but true). And while my flexibility and strength have improved -- notably, no further mundanely induced injuries over the last 10 weeks + OMG I can hover in low plank -- my shoulder pain persists and I'm still creaky some days. And the success metric turned out to be something entirely different and unexpected.

I grew to relish stillness.

I am someone whose mind is pretty much constantly turning on ideas and to do's. I used to be like, "Oh, we've made it to shivasana? Bye!" But these 50 days have been an incredible exercise in slowing my mind down, breathing, relishing.

I can hardly believe it but I now turn off the video (so it doesn't end and punt to the next one) so I can take an extra 8 to 16 breaths in shivasana, at complete rest, surrendering, relishing. It clearly took a lot of repetition to get here. And I am very grateful.