Now that we are well into the third day of February, I feel it is safe to finally {!!!} share the following …

People. I have made it a solid year and a half of getting my yoga on. As in everyday. 

I’m ecstatic and rather proud of myself and if I can’t share with My People, then who can I share with?!

This has, by no means, been an easy feat for me.

When I returned from our tour de France in July {2011}, I decide I wanted to keep up regularly with my yoga.

Okay, so it might have had just a little something to do with the fact that I was battling jet lag and time change and felt like complete shit and had my M&M’s for a week and a half. Yeah. That was a lot to handle.

And plus Higher Self kept telling me in that annoying way Higher Selves do, that I needed to commit, for real, to a strong practice.

So I did something I usually don’t do and listened. At first I made a ton of excuses, mainly revolving around time and who knows what else I came up with.

Then I made a little deal with Higher Self. I agreed. For one month, I would do yoga every damn day. There! Take that, Higher Self!

I started on August 1, 2011 — while Brother and The BF and I were at Douglas Lake. They joined in, too. We all had a great time starting our day and sometimes ending our day getting it on.

The yoga that is. Um … what did you think I was talking about?

August came and went … like … well … like every month does, in a whirl, or should that be blur and then I was all …

“Pashaw! Omg. That one month of yoga. That shit was nothing! So easy, Higher Self. So damn easy.”

I should know better, way better, than to mess with Higher Self, because Higher Self came back and was all, “oh yeah? Go get your ass started on three months, then show me what you got, sister.”

And of course I was like, “three measly freaking months! DONE. And YOUR MOM.”

The YOUR MOM was just for added good measure. And in honor of my beloved Beaves, who for many months, would say YOUR MOM after just about everything.

For some el randomo reason, I thought of it and it was just the added thing I needed to say that didn’t involve the F word. Because I feel like I kinda sorta shouldn’t start f-ing all over my Higher Self. Or anyone’s higher self, for that matter.

But YOUR MOM’s … those are totally fair game.

After my additional three months, which really was four, something happened. Something big, People.

Me. Me happened. I know. That might totally be a letdown. I hope you weren’t waiting for something really big and miraculous.

I noticed I was different. Noticeably different. Calmer. Happier. An even-ness about me had set in and taken over.

I found I wasn’t nearly as stressed and that stress triggers were no longer triggering. I felt positive to the point of people probably wanting to, if not, shit talking behind my back. Because yes, nothing can be more annoying than a happy, positive person whose just so damn … perky and well, happy.

I still annoy myself at times.

Anyway. There was a change and it was pretty damn big. So I thought, having made it four months, six months would be nothing.

Six months came and went and that damn Higher Self of mine, somehow had me agreeing to a solid year during a yoga high, before I had time to think about it.

The six to nine month mark was the hardest. Once I got past nine months, it was smooth sailing. Because at that point, I had such a streak going and wasn’t about to blow it.

Which has pretty much continued up till today, and now it’s habit.

It is a part of me. I need it. When you get such strong benefits so quickly from something that gives to you immediately — and yoga always does, People. Every time. You will not be let down. It gives and gives and gives.

Did you know that every single emotional state we have requires a specific breath pattern to sustain it? Imagine that!! Therefore, when we slow and deepen our breathing, we change our entire life!

I was well versed in yoga before this yogic challenge but I never truly experienced it. I went through the emotions and motions of it … I trained. I did the breathing. I learned the poses. Read the books. Studied my manuals.

This year and a half though, this has been the real practice. The true learning of just what and how deep yoga is.

I find it to be no coincidence that once I started regularly getting my yoga on, things also started happening in my life. Great changes and big things.

To me, yoga is the secret doorway to life and I feel incredibly blessed to have the key. And the best part is, it’s there for all of us who are willing to give it a chance.

There have been days, many days where I have been hard pressed for time. Or tired. Or just plain not in the mood for it. And because I am in the midst of life, I promised myself that I would not become too psychotic about my yoga.

Meaning {because I can take things to an extreme being the Total Taurus that I am}, I was realistic. Having the goal of doing yoga everyday was pretty damn lofty to me so I didn’t over complicate it. I set a time of anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half {or longer if I felt like it}.

Sometimes it’s been ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes before bed. A quick set here and there. Or a longer one when days allow for it.

The point wasn’t to go all out and say, I’m going to do this everyday for an hour, or even thirty minutes — that would have been too much for me. I knew that I had at least 20 minutes out of my day to make it happen.

I am proud of myself for sticking with it, there is something to be said for that. Please don’t take that in the wrong way, because trust me, I’ve never been one to stick with things for an extended period of time.

I guess, People, what it came down to was … me also wanting to see what would happen. How would I feel, what would come of it.

There’s such a strong emphasis I place on leading a life full of love and joy in all that I do {or at least trying to}, of bringing that to others and being the change.

Yet none of that happens unless I actually do it. Yoga has been my gateway to facilitating and nurturing those very qualities in me.

Today I challenge you to pick something. Anything that is of interest to you and moves you. Read it. Study it. Become it and live it.

Start with 30 days and give it a go. See what happens. Push yourself into putting your plans into action. Do it for you. Okay, and maybe me, too.

And I better hear a YOUR MOM from that.