In June I challenged myself to do yoga every day. Knowing that I probably wouldn’t be able to do it every single day, I gave myself a bit of an out: my challenge was to get to the mat, if only metaphorically. If I could show up, that would count. So, how did I do?

I started well, despite starting my moonflow and feeling like a cold was coming on and actually did some kind of yoga for the first five days. I missed the 6th day, but got right back into for the next few days, despite being on vacation, right until the 10th. On the 13th I went to a company event and didn’t get home until late, and went home slightly tipsy. From then until the 23rd I missed four more days. After the 23rd I just . . . stopped. Out of 30 days, I went to the mat (and did at least 5 minutes of actual movements), 12 times.

I hate failure.

Then again, this challenge was not world-shaking, or upsetting. No one died because I didn’t do yoga, and I’m not worse off for having failed to achieve my goal. And I did ‘go to the mat’ 17 times, so I did better than 50%.

What I learned is that I have a long time to go before I will ‘enjoy’ yoga. I learned that I have a hard time doing it on my own. I learned that it’s difficult for me to ‘find’ time, I need to ‘make’ time, and even better when I do so at the same time everyday.

I also got a sense of how out of shape I am. I’ve really tightened up in my joints and in the long muscles. Its a function of age, but also weight. My SOMA work is holding up, but doing yoga would improve my resiliency and fitness.

So . . . yoga, at least weekly and better if its twice needs to be a part of my fitness life.

So, on July 1st I came home from work and did 30 mins of my favorite DVD. Let’s see how this goes.

(I’d love to be able to do this. I wouldn’t care about the weight, I’d be so strong and flexible!)