crossing the finish line.

sWeAtShOp LaBoR. sunday i reached the end of my 30 day challenge at bikram yoga. now what will i do with myself???

just kidding.
(kind of)

but, seriously, i did, on sunday, successfully complete 30 bikram classes in 30 days, earning me personal satisfaction and a free monthly class package, but not earning me, as anna pointed out, anything in the way of a medal or certificate or celebration of any sort. so now i guess i should take a moment for myself to look back at the experience and ask myself, even without a medal, without confetti or streamers or banners, without any fanfare at all, am i glad i did it? was it worth it? would i do it again?

yes, i'm glad i did it. it was easier than i thought it would be. i had visions of somewhere around day 20 my body breaking into full out rebellion and the last week or so being a physical fight to the finish. i don't know where those visions came from and it turns out they were totally unfounded. the most difficult part of the whole 30 day challenge was all the schedule rearranging that needed to happen in order to make sure i made it to friday evening classes. seriously. physically, it wasn't any harder than when i was doing my pre-30 day challenge 4-5 classes per week. the challenge was one of prioritization and for 30 days straight putting myself, my need and my desire to make it to class ahead of other things. hmmm...i wonder if there is a larger lesson there?

just kidding.
(not really)

i have said since i started doing bikram last winter that i would love to be able to do it every single day. and, at least for the last 32 days, i have been able to make that happen for myself. i think this is where my greatest sense of accomplishment and satisfaction comes from and not from the fact that in the past 32 days i have spent 2,880 minutes (or 48 hours) in a 120 degree room doing 64 sets of 26 asanas. it has been a while since i have legitimately declared a desire to do something that i want and will be good for me and seen it through to the end. and i hope that this is just the first of a number of such changes i make, for my personal and artistic well being.

though, i won't lie, a medal would be nice one of these days.