Remember how I was doing 30 days of Yoga With Adriene for April? I'm two-thirds of the way through it. I have always been a leetle skeptical about yoga. Part of me says, "Why are we sitting still and breathing when we could be doing crunches instead?!" I think I've mused before in this space about the idea that my extreme flexibility was one of the reasons why I used to be such an injury-prone runner -- I am just more loosely put together than the average bear, and I wasn't sure it was good for me to streeetch those tendons and ligaments further. I liked the balance stuff, and the strength stuff, and although I was on board with the idea of mental presence, the rest of it I regarded with some serious side-eye. My brow chakra looked out on the world in a permanent state of askance-ness, you might say -- doubting its own existence, if a thing that might not exist can be said to doubt.
So it has been a little surprising for me to enjoy this yoga series as much as I have. Some of it is the teacher's style-- a little quirky, a little goofy. A lot of it is that this is the time of year when I always have some ugly unbloggable stuff going on in my life, and those daily yoga sessions have been a place to say, "Okay, Lord, I am going to feel this suffering and hand it over to you. I am going to choose peace today."
It's been good for arm and back strength, and it's also been good for tackling tensions I didn't know I was carrying around. (In my feet, of all places. She keeps setting my feet on fire.) The weirdest thing is that it has been great for my mental focus at work. My capacity to go into my office and sit down and work patiently has been amped up considerably, which is unexpected and very welcome. I find that I look forward to it more than I would have expected-- today I was a little bummed when I thought to myself, "I already did my yoga for the day." So hey-- if you are looking for a way to boost strength/balance/stress management/focus, I can recommend Yoga With Adriene.
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