Day 215 (214 classes completed) - Why Start Blogging Now?

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to read this!

On January 1st 2011 I started a 365 Bikram Yoga Challenge. What exactly does this mean? It means that in the calender year of 2011, I will complete 365 Bikram Yoga classes. For those who may not be familiar with Bikram Yoga, I will save the details explaining the practice of Bikram Yoga for a later blog.

I have gone back and forth as to whether or not I should blog this process. My reasons against it were as follows:
1. Much of this journey is such a personal process, could I be brave enough to share?
2. Would anyone really care to read this?
3. Time. Let's face it. In 2011 I will spend a total of 32 850 min. = 547.5 hours = 22.8 days doing Bikram Yoga. This factor does not include the time getting to and from class. Did I really want to dedicate more time to writing about Bikram Yoga?

The answer is now yes. I had a break through last week that stuck with me and lead me to start this blog. The breakthrough happened while practicing a backbend. I was receiving guidance from our studio owner/director after class on how to go deeper into a back bend.

Backbends are just as they sound. Bending your spine backwards. For us humans this is not a normal position. Especially in this day when technology, high stress and common jobs often keep us hunched over and leaning forward. Further, in a back bend you are compressing the spine & stretching the muscles around the heart. Bending in this unfamiliar way can be very overwhelming, emotional and for myself, "freakin" scary at times.

Our director helped me practice opening up my spine further by standing, bending backwards and walking down the wall (the goal being to one day have my hand on the floor. I was so overwhelmed that when I came up, the first words out of my mouth were "o my goodness, that was so intense, I feel like I couldn't keep my feet on the floor". The director started laughing. I didn't get why she was laughing at the time since I literally felt like my feet were coming off the floor. Upon later reflection - I made a "blog inspiring" body-mind connection. Isn't that what can happen when we open our hearts? We feel "very overwhelmed, emotional, scared and as if we can't "keep our feet on the ground". These feels are especially true for someone like myself who has a tendency to be very guarded emotionally.

I encourage everyone to face the fear of opening your heart to everyone and everything, and one day, maybe your feet will stay on the ground!

Namaste (the light in me honours the light in you)