10 things I became in 2010:
- More relaxed
- More positive
- More aware in the present
- More energy
- Better health
- Better sleep
- Better breathing
- Better focus
- 25 pounds less body weight
- aware of how noisy the world can be and that silence is the sweetest sound of all
These were not my goals.
My goal for the year was to do yoga every day.
The first few weeks in January 2010 were a little creaky. Then it got much easier, much more fluid. After a year, it still gets easier, and better, every day.
There were a few days that were so busy I only took ten minutes for the practice. Most days, I spent about 30 or 40 minutes. Some days, when I was a bit tired, or if I had a little time on my hands, I’d spend lots of time in savasana and my practice would last 90 minutes.
I admit, there were days I watched The Daily Show and The Colbert Report while doing yoga. Sometimes I played Terry Oldfield’s Yoga Harmony. Mosty, I used silence as my soundtrack.
I’ve taken many classes here in Salisbury from Anne Edwards, and a few others, and read books, and watched many videos, but I basically use the same routine I learned from Charlotte Troxel, in 1974, at her yoga studio at Reynolda Village, when I was a freshman at Wake Forest.
This was not a college course, and this was before yoga became fashionable. I was reading the bulletin boards on campus one day and saw a small notice about a “gentle, non-exertive exercise.”
I was a tennis player and jogger, and never stretched. At age 18, I could not get close to touching my toes. I remember Charlotte telling me that my legs were tight, and that “tightness in the body represents tightness of the mind.” I’ve been practicing yoga ever since.
Yoga is popular now and there’s plenty published about the benefits.
Not so, back then. I remember doing yoga stretches between tennis matches and hearing people warn me that I could hurt my back. I once asked an orthopedic surgeon (at the tennis courts) if he thought yoga was good for you. “Be very, very careful with that,” he said.
My practice became sporadic when I reached the age of 25 and became a father. With children in the house, quite time was hard to come by.
Now, 29 years later, I’m back to the daily routine — and it’s great.
In 2009, my goal was to walk 10k steps each day. In 2010, it was yoga every day. I’ve got one for 2011 — but I hesitate to say what it is. Let’s see if I do it, first.