There are a few reasons I started blogging about my yoga in the first place. Towards the end of last year we were lying in savasana in a Jeff class and he asked me what my plans were for next year (yoga-wise). I think we were talking about goals and new year resolutions or something. I said I would do 365 classes in the next year.
1. I have a terrible memory and knew I would lose count unless I wrote it down.
2. I have always enjoyed writing.
I happened to be on winter break at the time, so I started blogging about my classes. These are the main two reasons I started blogging. There was an aspect of sharing my experiences with others, but I can’t say that was a strong motivation at the beginning. There is something you need to know about me. If the goal is to do a 60 day challenge, I’m the type of guy that is going to do 61 minimum. So when I said I would do 365, I had no intention of merely doing 365. Instead, I was going to do as many as I could. Now, this is a bit of a slippery slope. How many classes can one do? Well it depends. How far are you willing to go? Are you willing to change your diet? Are you willing to pay careful attention to your hydration? Are you willing to do class hung over? Are you willing do class knowing that you are going to feel like crap? How much are you willing to suffer?For me, I was willing to go pretty far. ***Eventually blogging became a burden. Once the semester started found it difficult to do all this yoga AND blog AND work on my iPhone app. So the blogging suffered. The posts became shorter and crappier, etc. Then I started to have this IDEA… I looked at my pace and saw that I had a shot at doing 500 classes in a year. I’m not really a goal setting type. I’m more of a do your best and whatever happens happens type. But there is something beautiful about 500. It’s nice and round. So my blog secretly became about that. It had started out as something pure - just writing my thoughts and writing to improve my writing skills. It became this method of keeping score. I’ve come to realize that this whole idea of doing 500 classes in a year is just a big ego trip. Well, maybe that’s not EXACTLY true. Doing 500 in a year is just a goal. Like a 60 day challenge on steroids (and acid). But doing the 500 and writing about it in a public forum is a big ego trip. (Perhaps even setting the goal is an ego trip as well.) ***They say that “yoga gives you what you need”. I always think about this saying because it’s so true. Yoga has helped me in many ways (diet, focus, compassion, humility, realizing that we are all crazy and worry about stupid things, allergies, breathing, awareness, mind body connection, non-duality, flexibility, strength, friendlier and more social, confidence, realize that I was a prisoner of my mind, realizing that my mind was not me, make me less of an asshole, etc.) but I can say that there is one thing in particular that it helps me with: Yoga helps me be present. I realized that I lived in the future. I don’t really worry so much about the past, but I’m CONSTANTLY thinking about the future. I always have. I didn’t pay any attention to here and now, the present moment. When I’m doing yoga, I’m practicing being in the moment (I try to bring that presence with me when I leave the studio. The more yoga I do, the easier that becomes). Anyways, believe you me, that is no way to live. It’s funny cause I’ve known this and talk about it all the time and even blog about it, but then I go ahead and create this future prison of 500. It’s time to let it go and be spontaneous and free.
1. I have a terrible memory and knew I would lose count unless I wrote it down.
2. I have always enjoyed writing.
I happened to be on winter break at the time, so I started blogging about my classes. These are the main two reasons I started blogging. There was an aspect of sharing my experiences with others, but I can’t say that was a strong motivation at the beginning. There is something you need to know about me. If the goal is to do a 60 day challenge, I’m the type of guy that is going to do 61 minimum. So when I said I would do 365, I had no intention of merely doing 365. Instead, I was going to do as many as I could. Now, this is a bit of a slippery slope. How many classes can one do? Well it depends. How far are you willing to go? Are you willing to change your diet? Are you willing to pay careful attention to your hydration? Are you willing to do class hung over? Are you willing do class knowing that you are going to feel like crap? How much are you willing to suffer?For me, I was willing to go pretty far. ***Eventually blogging became a burden. Once the semester started found it difficult to do all this yoga AND blog AND work on my iPhone app. So the blogging suffered. The posts became shorter and crappier, etc. Then I started to have this IDEA… I looked at my pace and saw that I had a shot at doing 500 classes in a year. I’m not really a goal setting type. I’m more of a do your best and whatever happens happens type. But there is something beautiful about 500. It’s nice and round. So my blog secretly became about that. It had started out as something pure - just writing my thoughts and writing to improve my writing skills. It became this method of keeping score. I’ve come to realize that this whole idea of doing 500 classes in a year is just a big ego trip. Well, maybe that’s not EXACTLY true. Doing 500 in a year is just a goal. Like a 60 day challenge on steroids (and acid). But doing the 500 and writing about it in a public forum is a big ego trip. (Perhaps even setting the goal is an ego trip as well.) ***They say that “yoga gives you what you need”. I always think about this saying because it’s so true. Yoga has helped me in many ways (diet, focus, compassion, humility, realizing that we are all crazy and worry about stupid things, allergies, breathing, awareness, mind body connection, non-duality, flexibility, strength, friendlier and more social, confidence, realize that I was a prisoner of my mind, realizing that my mind was not me, make me less of an asshole, etc.) but I can say that there is one thing in particular that it helps me with: Yoga helps me be present. I realized that I lived in the future. I don’t really worry so much about the past, but I’m CONSTANTLY thinking about the future. I always have. I didn’t pay any attention to here and now, the present moment. When I’m doing yoga, I’m practicing being in the moment (I try to bring that presence with me when I leave the studio. The more yoga I do, the easier that becomes). Anyways, believe you me, that is no way to live. It’s funny cause I’ve known this and talk about it all the time and even blog about it, but then I go ahead and create this future prison of 500. It’s time to let it go and be spontaneous and free.
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