Goals. #1

Sorry for my mini hiatus. My computer was having some issues so I took it into the apple store to have it looked at. I was lucky enough to find out that I had one of the defective 2010 macbook pros and was just out of warranty, lucky me right?! So, a new logic board and 5 days later I am back! And now without further ado, on to the real post!

I realized that I have never been a very good goal-setter. I think after completing my thesis, I was done with deadlines and goals and just wanted to live freely (whatever that means). I have been reevaluating that and think it is time to set some goals for my life. The first one I am going to share with y’all has to do with my practice in yoga.

Yoga… Oh yoga how I love you. The first time I ever did yoga was when, I think, my sister Meghan had a VHS tape of some yoga class (that we did together). I, of course, wanted to be just like her so I had my dad make a copy of the tape. At the time I thought it was weird and didn’t do it much, but for some reason still have it! I then took my first yoga class when I was an undergrad at Texas Tech. I wish I could say that it changed my life and that I have been practicing since then, but I can’t. I have always been incredibly flexible – thanks to my sisters thinking I was their toy and forcing me into my splits at a very young age – and that is all I viewed yoga to be good for, keeping me flexible. It wasn’t until I moved back to Lubbock, where my best friend Kate and I started having saturday yoga and coffee dates, that my views changed. We went to hot yoga classes for a good sweat – which we got – and we both fell in love with it.

I had never been to a class that challenged me so physically and mentally. The best (and most annoying) question that one of the instructors would ask is “what is keeping you from staying in this pose?” Kate and I enjoyed asking each other that when one of us would be hating a pose and want to give up. You may think “aww that is sweet you were encouraging your friend” but you would be wrong. Sarcasm and making fun of each other is the basis of our friendship and how we show one another love. So, it was really to make the other one laugh – which if you didn’t know is completely inappropriate in class – and feel slightly convicted to keep going. That question is annoying because it is a tough one. It brings conviction due to the fact that most of the time you don’t stay in a pose or try something new because you are scared, thinking about other things and not being present, or just too tired and give up. I tend to do all those things. Especially when doing crow. I hate that pose!

The practice of being present, not being scared, and trusting that you have the strength to keep going are lessons that have always been preached in my life, but for some reason haven’t clicked in my brain until I started doing yoga. Yoga for me has been something that allows me to try and clear my mind of everything that is going on, and just thank God for all the amazing, gracious blessings he has provided for me. I am definitely not a super awesome yogi (that title is reserved for my friends Kate and Jalie) but I want to challenge myself to not be fearful and try to master some of the poses I love and those I have been scared to try. Those scary poses will most likely be inversions, eek!

So, with all that said this is the first goal; to try to master a new pose each month and work up to an inversion. I will document my growth and y’all will be here to keep me accountable! For today though I am sharing two of my favorite poses. I do these before I go to bed each night. When Kyle walked into our room the first night I was doing this I think it freaked him out, now he just accepts his weird wife’s antics and loves me because of them! I hope that I am able to perfect these poses as well. There is a lot of room to grow!