Yoga Everyday

The day after Christmas I woke up to immense back pain. I couldn’t move. It was a Sunday, so of course my chiropractor was closed, and I spent the next two days literally crawling from my bed to anywhere I needed to go in my house.

I have struggled with back pain for several years, from sciatica pain to popping ribs out of place. Let’s just say, I am all jacked up. One thing that I have found that helps (besides the miracle working chiropractors) is yoga. I started doing yoga a couple years ago, but I have never been super consistent. In my most consistent of times, I would go two to four times a week, but in the past few months I hadn’t gone at all after I broke my foot in October.

After being stuck in my bed, in the worst pain of my life for two days, I had one thought: I need to get back to yoga. The following few days prior to new years I had a crazy thought of perhaps making my resolution to do yoga every day of 2017. It was extreme. I had never even done yoga every day for a week, why would I attempt a year? The idea kept popping in my head and I was too afraid to say it out loud because of the inevitable failure to follow such an attempt. New Years Eve came and I finally told Jake and a couple friends. I mostly said it was just a crazy idea that I probably couldn’t accomplish. (self-doubt: the best way to start a resolution, right?). The next day, I decided to give it a shot. The studio was closed, so I did a video at home and then went online to start my membership again. I told Jake that I would attempt one month and see if I could follow through, then decide on the year.

Well, today is day 31 and I have so far done Yoga every day this year. I’d say about two-thirds of the time I have made it to class at the studio and the other third I have done home practice, usually consisting of following a youtube video or working on my own flow for a minimum of 30 minutes. My back has felt immensely better and I am getting strength and flexibility back. It has been challenging to fit my practice in every day, no matter what my schedule looks like, but it has been so rewarding.

Yoga does so much for me, and it’s more than just relieving back pain. At the end of a long work day, it allows me to disconnect and get out of my own head, escaping from everyday stress. I’ve also noticed that sweating every day in a studio kept at 80 degrees has cleared my skin and given my face a brighter glow (how awesome is that?). My body feels great, endorphins are no joke. I can feel my muscles strengthening and continually being challenged! Finally, I am having so much fun! Have you ever done a headstand?! They are a blast.

Anyway, here I am on day 31, excited to finally share my resolution to do yoga everyday for a year. One month down, 11 to go.

If you’d like to follow along with the madness, I’ve created an instagram account, @MrsBrittanYoga to make a little mini blog of my year-long yoga journey and keep track of progress throughout my practice. I’m sure I’ll write more about it here as well. Thanks for reading.

p.s. I have to give a little shout-out to my husband who has been more than supportive of my crazy quest. He has started cooking dinner for us while I am at practice after work on the week nights and it really is those little things that have made it possible for me to fit everything into a day. He is the best.