I had a wonderrul day yesterday. I spent it with an amazing friend of mine who suffered a stroke 3 years ago. She is an amazing inspiration to me. She works every day to get better and does not let anything get her down. She is one of the most positive women I know, she is just incredible.
When she called and said, "Let's do yoga on my birthday", I could think of every reason in the book on why not to do it but then I thought, why not try it. I had done it once with her before and giggled thru the whole thing. WOW was the experience I had yesterday moving. Sure, yes, I giggled a bit because, well I am not the most flexible person, but the internal strength you need to complete an hour and 15 minutes of yoga is outstanding. And in my quest to getting healthier both physically and mentally, I feel yoga is going to be a good choice for me.
What I loved about it is that it is challenging. Not challenging like a job or solving a problem, but challenging internally. You are the one who choses to stretch that bit further, push a little harder, go a little lower. There are no outside challenges. It is strictly the challenge of bending, stretching and holding your own body. And what I thought thru this hour and 15 minutes of yoga is that even though there are lots of outside challenges in our jobs and in our life, the internal strength you have in your body and your mind can work thru anything.
I also thought in this hour that when we talk about all these new years resolutions the talk is always about fixing what is wrong. Yoga yesterday made me realize we have to look to our inner beauty and strengths. That internally we have many, many good qualities. That there is nothing "wrong" with us. In fact, there are many things right with us. In my 2011 "Goal and balance setting" (I hate the word resolution and refuse to use it), or what I like to call the "Get off your a*s and get it done" setting, I am going to look inside of myself to all the strengths and positive things about myself. I am NOT going to focus on the negative this year. I will only goal set from the positive mind and good and powerful qualities that I have. We all need to make changes in our lives but they can be made from a positive place. I am going to focus on the positive qualities about myself and my life and make tweaks from that "space" of being positive for all that I have and all that I have become over the years.
HA HA, I said to Ann that I had the hardest time with the downward dog yoga position because I had the largest chest and that creates two heavy weights! Anyway, I had to end all this seriousness with a little chuckle. I am woman, hear me roar!
Hugs,
Ali (the yoga master) HA HA HA!
Labels: friends, Me Time
