Everyone loves a good challenge. I’m nothing if not goal-oriented, and since I graduated from journalism school, found a job and, more recently, settled down from moving uptown and traveling half-way around the world, I’ve found myself searching for the next, well, goal. It’s finally come time for the 30-Day Challenge.
About two-and-a-half years ago I found my own personal version of faith, which is to say Yoga. Specifically, Bikram Yoga, a series of 26 postures done in a heated room. I started going once a week, then two to three times a week. Within six months I was going four times a week and these days I try to take five to six classes a week. At that level of practice, it sometimes feels that the yoga has taken over my life. I don’t have time for other hobbies. I have to carefully schedule lunches. And as annoyingly New Agey as it may sound, the yoga begins to seep into your consciousness. Your life outside of the room begins to reflect class inside the room. The room becomes like home. As a teacher once told me, you begin to realize that who you are on the mat is who you are off the mat. All that kinda crap starts to take on real meaning. Some of my friends say it’s like I joined a cult. I prefer to think of it as having joined a community.
And the first major rite of passage in this community is to complete the 30-Day Challenge — 30 classes in 30 days. You can skip a day, but must make up for it by doing a double (two classes in one day) and you can only do this twice. Given I’m already accustomed to a six-day practice, stepping it up a notch to seven days seems like a downright attainable goal.
I’m pretty darned excited about finally carving out the time to do this. No doubt many people out there are wondering: good god, why? Why spend 90 minutes a day sweating profusely in a 105-degree room with a teacher yelling at you to lock out your leg? First, because it feels amazing, and only those who have tried can understand that part. Second, it changes your body. The idea is that pretty soon I’ll look like this:
Oh, and also: When I finish the 30-Day Challenge, I get a t-shirt.
Today was my first class. Only 29 more to go. I was going to download a countdown plugin to my blog, but technical difficulties are preventing me from doing so. So while I work on that, this will have to do:
29 classes remain.
