I could not have estimated the difficulty of getting back into my regular yoga routine after skipping a week; if I could have, I never would have broken my perfect nine week stretch. Week eleven of The Yoga Experiment felt like an epic battle. The newness of the project has worn off, and all that is left is the hard work. For the first time, getting to class every morning was a struggle. Several of the days, I considered skipping class for no good reason. I made it every day, but there was a period every morning in which I had to argue with myself about it.
When I got to class, my mind wouldn’t shut up. It kept yelling “I HATE THIS I HATE THIS I HATE THIS!!! I HATE YOU!!!” My body was stiff and sore from the week off, and didn’t seem to want to go into the positions I was trying to coax it into.
Any clarity I felt like I had gained while I was on vacation was quickly washed away and replaced with whiny stubbornness. I’ve been kind of depressed and sedentary in spite of the beautiful weather and, of course, eating lots of food.
So, in short, I have no loving wisdom to impart to you this week, dear reader. I can only hope that getting better at the yogic life is like getting drunk: first you get a great buzz, but then you encounter a brief amount of unpleasantness. (A feeling like you want to quit and go to bed?) But, if you keep drinking through it, soon a great party will await you!
Here’s to a better week next week,
Namaste.