30 Days of Yoga Reflection

     So I'm a little late posting this, but last Wednesday, February 13th, was the last day of my 30 day yoga challenge. Now I have to admit, I did not successfully do 30 days of yoga, but I did manage 27 out of 30, which I think is still pretty good. Throughout the 30 days, I tried out yoga classes with a couple different teachers and learned more about yoga poses and posture. I also believe that all the yoga made my core stronger and my arms a bit stronger. If you are a fellow yogi, you probably know how hard those chaturangas can get. I was trying to work on my form more with these poses, so that I would not hurt myself. It can be difficult when you are not taught the correct form from the first day you do yoga, so you then develop a bad habit. So I tried to work on the chaturangas, but about half way through a 1 hour class and doing all those sun salutations, my shoulders usually do not like the chaturangas anymore, so it is hard.
      Another pose that I realized I have not been able to do correctly is warrior 1. I have worked on my warrior 2 and believe that I have the correct form for that pose, but I have always found that warrior 1 is harder with having to get your hips to face forward. I finally learned the other day that my feet were not aligned correctly. I then watched some youtube videos to better understand where the feet should be placed in this position and hopefully I can work on correcting it. Sometimes a pose can look so easy when a teacher does it, but then when you try it yourself and do not have the same flexibility, it can be really challenging. I love the challenging aspect that yoga has though. Right now, I'm going to take a little break from yoga, but still do yoga at least once a week at my typical Friday class, which still remains my favorite, and I'm going to try to put together more weight lifting routines. I really missed my weight lifting as I did this 30 day yoga challenge. I just didn't have the time to do as much weight lifting as I wanted to.
      I do think that doing yoga helps me relax more, because you focus on your breath and just forget about everything else going on. Yoga also has helped me improve my balance. I really do love yoga and I love my new lululemon mat that I purchased, because I finally don't have my hands sliding from underneath me as I hold the downward dog position. The mat also provides more padding for my hands and knees, which is especially great for low lunges and tabletop position.
     Overall, I'm really glad I did this challenge, even if I missed 3 days, I still learned a lot and I'm still thinking about becoming a yoga teacher as a second job one day.