Intention
Today as I was taking the dog out, I realized the little voice inside my head was quietly telling me I don't feel like being active today. My monthly started this morning, and I believe that was the biggest culprit of those thoughts. But as I drew in the morning air, embraced the dew around my ankles as part of the morning experience, and glanced at the sun trying to peak out over a lush, green conservancy, I realized that it's not so much about what type of effort I do or don't want to put forth in the morning, but how I want to feel throughout my day. Before starting yoga, I would wake up stiff and get to work all stiff and cold and had a lot of minor aches in my body throughout the day. When I do yoga I feel smoother, looser, warmed up and ready for what lies ahead. So I knew that listening to that little voice saying not to do it, that wasn't even going to be an option for me. I would rather spend 25 minutes on the mat and feel good for hours than spend that extra time on my phone or doing more tasks and feel stiff and sleepy all day long. So the reality of sweat equity is kicking in.
Today was day 1 of the "True" 30-day series and being slightly more prone to emotions on day 1 of the Monthly Meany as I like to call it, I felt this a little deeper. Adriene got a little more spiritual in prompting us to set intentions so we have something to call upon as we do the movements and for every day when we have a choice to (or not to) hit the mat. I thought about that for a while as we did some deep breathing. My intention is to get stronger, so every movement I focused keeping the muscles activated as I moved and using the proper muscles to do the movement. Today's flow was very slow and easy to follow, which gave me a great opportunity to nail each hold. There was not too much in the way of high tech movement so it felt like a nice class for a day where I woke up not really wanting to be active at all. After the first plank I was warm and ready to move more and it did put me in a nice mood and made my body feel nice.
The one YouTuber who reviewed what 170 days of Yoga with Adriene felt like did say that the novelty does wear off, the newness, the giddiness, it fades just like anything in life. I think that is where the intention is such a big deal. If I set my intention to just do yoga every day for a year (which is a huge lofty goal in and of itself) I don't know if that would be enough to initiate drive. Who am I competing against? What is the end goal? So when I really think about what I want to acheive out of doing yoga in general, I want to be stronger. I want to be able to support my body with ease and grace and not always feel like something is out of balance and hurting. Strong muscles take the pressure of joints and make movement more natural. I will be turning 47 at the end of this year and being able to move with ease is a huge goal of mine. There have been many times when I have either walked with a limp because of something hurting in one side or the other, or forced myself to walk "normal" despite some pain, in reality I was probably putting undue stress on my joints the whole time. I do know I have arthritis starting in a few areas of my body so I know this activity, blood flow and strength will all be helpful at keeping those things from having as big an impact on my life as they would had I not done them. I can imagine a different life from where I was heading before.
I forgot to weigh myself and take pictures and measurements so I will have to try and do that tonight. Today I did feel like there have been significant changes already, I do feel like I want to measure them this time because my intention is to make every workout count in this 30-day series.
That's where I'm at, that's my intention for this leg of my journey. If you have an intention or even a mantra, feel free to share in the comments!
Rock on my friends! We have almost made it to the sweet bliss of the weekend!
Today was day 1 of the "True" 30-day series and being slightly more prone to emotions on day 1 of the Monthly Meany as I like to call it, I felt this a little deeper. Adriene got a little more spiritual in prompting us to set intentions so we have something to call upon as we do the movements and for every day when we have a choice to (or not to) hit the mat. I thought about that for a while as we did some deep breathing. My intention is to get stronger, so every movement I focused keeping the muscles activated as I moved and using the proper muscles to do the movement. Today's flow was very slow and easy to follow, which gave me a great opportunity to nail each hold. There was not too much in the way of high tech movement so it felt like a nice class for a day where I woke up not really wanting to be active at all. After the first plank I was warm and ready to move more and it did put me in a nice mood and made my body feel nice.
The one YouTuber who reviewed what 170 days of Yoga with Adriene felt like did say that the novelty does wear off, the newness, the giddiness, it fades just like anything in life. I think that is where the intention is such a big deal. If I set my intention to just do yoga every day for a year (which is a huge lofty goal in and of itself) I don't know if that would be enough to initiate drive. Who am I competing against? What is the end goal? So when I really think about what I want to acheive out of doing yoga in general, I want to be stronger. I want to be able to support my body with ease and grace and not always feel like something is out of balance and hurting. Strong muscles take the pressure of joints and make movement more natural. I will be turning 47 at the end of this year and being able to move with ease is a huge goal of mine. There have been many times when I have either walked with a limp because of something hurting in one side or the other, or forced myself to walk "normal" despite some pain, in reality I was probably putting undue stress on my joints the whole time. I do know I have arthritis starting in a few areas of my body so I know this activity, blood flow and strength will all be helpful at keeping those things from having as big an impact on my life as they would had I not done them. I can imagine a different life from where I was heading before.
I forgot to weigh myself and take pictures and measurements so I will have to try and do that tonight. Today I did feel like there have been significant changes already, I do feel like I want to measure them this time because my intention is to make every workout count in this 30-day series.
That's where I'm at, that's my intention for this leg of my journey. If you have an intention or even a mantra, feel free to share in the comments!
Rock on my friends! We have almost made it to the sweet bliss of the weekend!
I love that you did the workout even though that little voice in your head was telling you to skip it!!!
ReplyDeleteMy mantra is that ‘I want to be fit and healthy....that isn’t going to come from playing on my phone’
That's a great mantra, and so very true! I am in the same habit of zoning out on my phone too much when I could be doing something much more productive! We are warriors for figuring out what makes us tick and putting our true grit to the test! Rock right on with your bad self!
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