A tough 60 day days of Yoga

This summer was going to be busy. Family and friends knew that all too well. There was going to be a graduation trip to Indiana, a hiking trip my wife was part of and a lot of other weekend social commitments, not to mention a severe work load from August 1st. 

There is the usual BYSJ summer 60 day challenge that one can start between 1st to 14th of July and do 60 classes in 60 days. No one forced me to sign up.  I was going to yoga almost every day since 3rd of July and one day I simply could not make it to the usual class because of being held up at work. San went at the usual time and I went by myself 2 hours later. The folks at the front desk said "you look tired and pissed off.. maybe you should put up a few stars on the challenge board and you will feel better?!". That was interesting. I was doing the challenge without advertising it and it has already been 9 days of not missing a day. So put my name on the board and put 9 stars at one go. 

The next day my wife was shocked to see my name on the board with all the stars. She smiled and didn't say anything. When this was announced to the kids at home, they just rolled their eyes. Good yoga for the eyes is what I was thinking. If I can make them do that everyday, maybe their eyesight will be good for a long time! Who knows?

Knowing there was travel, did do 5 doubles (mostly back to back doubles). For some stats, this is the 16th time signing up for a 60 day challenge in 13 years and the 14th successful attempt. Both times I could not make 60/60 were summer challenges. Going to class or showing up is not a challenge. Adjusting logistics also is not an issue, thanks to a very supportive family, friends and co-workers.

The biggest challenge are doubles and trying to drink water in the 30 minutes between two back to back classes. It has been years since I took a water bottle to class. My water is left in the car and I drink water 30 minutes before class and 15 minutes after class. However, doing back to back doubles means that between the two classes I need to drink water with a packet of vitamins and that just sits in my stomach at the beginning of the second class. That was the hardest thing in this challenge.

Have taken 2829 Bikram Yoga classes so far, according to the excel spreadsheet that is still being maintained. 10,000 hours of practice on any skill is required to become a subcounsious expert or so say some books on skill building and expertise. This is still only 4200 hours. If I need the equivalent of a pilots license for my own body and mind, lets just say I am not even halfway there. Maybe before the end of this lifetime will realize something deeper within. Yoga is a slow and steady process. Accepting that there are no shortcuts has already been a worthy experience. 

Over the last few challenges, have realized that after day 30, when you come repeatedly, the mind is not fighting the teachers words anymore. I call it zombie mode.. but not in an auto pilot kind of way.. more in a "I am so beat that I am just going to submit myself to the instruction and do what is being asked". At that moment in class you cannot think much about it. It just happens. After class you realize that you did things that are surprising! Fixed postures with corrections, have light bulb moments and then you get to try it out the very next day and the day after that till it can become a new habit. 

Most of us have the capacity to remember 3 or 5 things tops after a lecture or any lesson. I am part of that majority group. So to learn those 3 things and make them a regular habit is possible only because of pushing myself to do a challenge. You come every alternate day, you just go back to old ways quickly. You have to remember the correction before the posture starts. Once you are in it, it is already too late. You might correct yourself in the second set.. but that doesn't help you make it the default!

Thoroughly enjoyed this challenge for the learning, the chats outside the room before class with my fellow regular yogis, the chance to encourage other folks to have a regular practice and my teachers encouraging me to "let it go!" everytime I walked into class after being on the phone till 2 minutes before class. 

On a side note, BYSJ finally brought back T-shirts as a souvenir for folks who finish! My wardrobe which is 80% BYSJ 60 day challenge T-shirts badly needed a replacement. This years T-shirt is just beautiful. Now I just need to collect a few more over the coming years? (this blog post alone is going to give my family more yoga for their eyes after they roll it non stop!) 

The best thing that ever happened to me in hindsight was that damn accident. If it wasn't for being broken with physiotherapy being able to get me back only to a certain point, would have never found Bikram yoga! What a blessing in disguise that accident turned out to be? There is always fate, destiny, the butterfly effect, whatever you want to call it.. but forever grateful to all powers and unknown probabilities that made me walk through those doors all those years ago!

For all my friends and family, I hope that my doing yoga inspires you to try it, even if for a few days and my sincere wish is for you to find yourself by doing yoga! It is a slow process which might even involve getting lost many times while trying to find yourself..but if you stay the course, magic happens!

Missed getting a close up photo with the ageless Michelle Vennard. There are so many pictures over the years that I made a collage of some of the pics. She is a true inspiration when it comes to walking the walk after talking the talk! .. or in Yogi speak.. she can be as still as she can be silent, during a yoga class! (just realized, that it is literally the opposite of walking and talking!)

One more challenge done. Hopefully many more to come!

A very different 60 day challenge

Most of you who know me, have seen this once a year post around the end of March about the 60 day yoga challenge. 

BYSJ organizes two of these challenges a year. The winter challenge where you sign up on any day between Jan 1st to 14th and do 60 classes in 60 days (ideally without missing a day, and if you do miss because of unavoidable reasons, do two classes on another day to make up for it). A similar challenge in Summer with same rules. 

This is my 13th year of doing Yoga and this was my 13th 60 day challenge. My family doesn't try to stop me from doing this challenge anymore. They know I somehow manage to finish it and I am usually happy doing the challenge.

Given my MIL has been a big part of my yoga journey, it was always sad to hear her say "want to try and finish this challenge at least once in this lifetime!". She is usually here only after Pongal which is Jan 14th and leaves for Seattle after two three weeks. I don't sign up in summer because of travel and other commitments.

This year, she came early just for the challenge. Had promised her that someone (me, San or the little one who is not so little anymore) will drive her to class for those 60 days if both me and San decide to skip yoga. Given that assurance, she signed up.

For the most part all three of us would go to class. The folks at the studio were very happy to see a car load of folks come to class. Then we went to Alaska on a whim to take care of my wife's bucket list item. One bucket was larger than the other bucket.. or whatever.. fortunately MIL managed to do a couple of Livestream classes when we were gone. Funny thing is that when we got back and I had to do three doubles over the weekends to make up, she joined me! It was not easy for her, but she did. 

While she makes claims that it is not the same thing doing something at 50 vs 70, my take is that age has nothing to do with it. You do what you can and I think she actually gets more out of the yoga than I do and probably does a better job in most classes given the cards she has been dealt. 

Usually it is just a logistics challenge for me but as fate would have it, banged my knee twice on the same day. The last 10 days of the challenge were really tough with the injured knee. Still went ahead and did everything I posisbly could in the hot room every day.

Finished the challenge on March 1st and my MIL also finished it last week!  San did 54 classes in the 60 days but she refused to do any doubles on a matter of principle. She has done one challenge before and apparently that is enough for her. She was happy to cheer the two of us to finish. How she can let it go is where we see that she is a better yogi than me. 

The knee is not swelling anymore but I cannot do tree pose standing on my left leg and have difficulty doing suptavajrasana and the third part of awkward pose. These involve bending the knee inwards towards the other knee or folding it and rotating it out. Given it is better, my teachers still recomended I get an x-ray or get it checked out. So have an Ortho appointment this week. For almost all things that ail me mentally or physically, have used the yoga to recover over the last 12+ years.  Going to see what the diagonsis is. Just because you do yoga, doesn't mean you should bang your knee against car license plate holders and expect to come out okay!

We did celebrate after the challenge with a dinner at Chaat house! Got to share a few words at the Challenge party in hopes that if we can do it, others who are thinking of giving this a try, will actually go for it.

The one thing folks tell me all the time is this.. "Sundar, you do the same yoga everyday.. day after day, year after year.. you do this 60 day challenge every year.. and say you learn something new.. you must be really inattentive or dumb to learn something new in what you do all the time!" 

While it is true that the class is the same day after day, my body and mind are not. As different parts of my body get stronger or weaker, more or less rigid or flexible over time, and my mind gets better at listening to the instruction and internalizing it instead of being in zombie mode, there is new learning! All the time!

Going regularly back to back for long periods of time gives you a heightened sense of awareness of changes happening in your body and we get a chance to remember how we did what we did differently(better)!

My friend Arash summarized it beautifully. He said in the language of Buddists.. which we all learn as kids. Ther is Buddha, Dharma and Sanga. 

Buddham charanam gachchaami, sangam charanam gachchaami! 

Teachers are our gods here! The Dharma is the fact that they stay true to a hard 90 minute yoga practice and the community that is there at BYSJ is truly what makes us keep coming back.

We heard a lot of folks share their amazing journey and stories at the challenge party. You can check those out on the BYSJ website and other social media. A video of what we shared with folks..

As long as there are not major setbacks, will try to keep going to yoga, try 60 day challenge every year and try to keep this body and mind as optimized as possible to deal with everything the outside world throws at me.

Sangeetha says I am still a work in progress and even today she was trying to "knock some sense into me" with little success. For all that, there is progress. Slow but sure progress.

Strongly recommend you try yoga if you are on the fence. They say "do this for 30 days, it will change your body, do it 60 days in a row and it will change your mind". Can attest to it!

Here's to BYSJ for continuing to improve and transform people's lives, year after year, one challenge after another!

A big congrats to all who signed up and gave it their everything (finishing is a different story, signing up is the hard part!) and a special congrats to my MIL for being a great example and role model for yogis out there.

Very proud of her for finishing the challenge and showing up to class on day 61 !!!

Perspective

It has been more than 3 months since this blog saw an entry! There are no particular reasons for it. We did go on a bunch of hikes, but mostly to places already visited. Then our hikes came to an end as our group leader had an injury and is recovering slowly but surely.

There were two hectic work trips to India in a space of two months. There was some sporadic singing. Some illness, etc.. basically the usual for this household. Somehow didn't get to put fingers to keyboard in 3 months!

Well, now that there is a break for the next ten days, all those unfinished blog posts will hopefully see the publish button!

This one though, is a fresh post. In early September, my yoga guru Michelle watched me look longingly at my usual spot in the hot yoga room.. her mat was already in that spot! She saw me and said "you can have your spot. I can move!". I should have known then and there that there was a catch.. Michelle makes sure I don't miss my mom when she does things like this.

At the end of the class we are walking out and she goes "you know what will be good for you? try a challenge where you practice in all 48 spots in the room! It will give you a much needed perspective. I recently just finished taking class in every spot in the room and it taught me a lot about my practice and myself!"

I mumbled "okay, sure!".. and got a look that said "mean it!". Was even told that the website for the studio had a pdf of the room layout with all the spots marked! 

Came home and printed that out and started on 9th September to do this "Do yoga in every one of the 48 spots in the room" challenge. Called it the "studio tour". Finally finished this challenge on Sunday 18th December. It took me 100 days to cover 48 spots! There were many challenges. If I didn't get to class early enough, all the spots I needed were already taken and I didn't want to ask anyone to move. This went on too long and finally my wife asked my friend to move spots on the last day just so I could be done with this!

Now, for the perspective.. all of you know about my spreadsheet that has my attendance, teacher, time, weight after class etc.  for 12 years. Have finished 2642 classes as of this evening. I am guessing 9/10 classes have been in the three corner spots in the right side of the yoga room over all these years! 

The corner has more clear views in the front and side mirrors and you have less nearest neighbors! Also I cannot hear well on the other side of the room maybe because my one ear has an issue. Whatever the reasons, I am a creature of habbit and have stuck to that corner.

This was a real challenge for me to go off my comfort zone and try different locations in the room. Now that I am back home.. ie. back my usual spot in the last few days, it is actually the best spot in the room for me. My best practice is when I am close to the front and side mirrors and can hear the teacher clearly. There is no doubt about it. That was my learning. Folks who saw me walk into class everyday with a map wanted me to share the experience.. so here is a summary

Are there other spots in the room I liked? Yes. The ones right in front of the teacher, which no one wants. Those are actually great spots if the teacher doesn't move around the podium during the balancing series. 

Are there spots I really did not like? Yes. There are spots where the door or window was behind me. I could not balance well at all in those spots. There are spots where you lie down on the floor and can see the sparrows in the trees outside. Too distracting. I don't know how the yogis used to mediate on one leg in a forest.. with all those damn birds flying around from branch to branch. I love birds and watch them for long times at home drinking tea.. but when you are hanging on for dear life and trying to recover your heartrate after an asana, the birds don't help.. at all!  

Then there are spots which are directly in line with the mirror ends. The yoga room has wall mirrors.. when you hit the seam of the mirrors and you try to do asanas in front of the seam, you get split into two parts in the mirror. It is as though I have multiple personalities in front of me. A calm me vs. an irate me. 

Did I open my mind to new possibilities with this challenge? Yes and No. Sometimes you have to try things that make you uncomfortable.. at least once.. or say in this case 40 times out of 48. Was hoping to become more tolerant to the other locations. When you have three rows of people in front of you and most of them don't think of the people behind them and fidget around, start the pose too early or too late or lie down, it is good that they are doing what is best for them.. but it is not what is best for me. This made me realized the tremendous impact I have in the first row on the folks behind me. Now I think a lot before sitting down for any pose and try to minimize fidgeting. 

Did I gain anything by trying out all those spots? Yes. Made some new friends who were suprised to see me in the other part of the room. This room has as much spread as the world. Turns out there are folks who practice for years on either side of this room and they just nod to each other and say hi on the way in and out but never have conversations with folks from the "dark side".. and to each side the other is the dark side! There are front row people and last row people and there are tempraments, reasons, preferences. 

Over the 48 spots, I learned a lot about the folks who call those their "usual spot", and why! That was an interesting social study in itself. 

Here is the other weird thing. People thought I was sick or recovering from either flu or covid or was having a tough day to show up in the last row.. or I had to leave early right after class, when I took spots near the door. During the early days of the challenge my teachers would call me and say "there is an open spot in the front for you ?".. then I had to go tell them about this personal challenge!

Would I suggest this challenge to others? Yes. You might be a better person than me when it comes to being a lot more open minded or selfless when it comes to the yoga practice. So please give it a shot. This was harder logistics wise than doing a 60 day challenge. You can't always get the spot you want if you don't come early enough. Some folks show up 30 minutes before class to get their spots! You have to come at a different time to even get those spots. 

A big thanks to Michelle for pushing me out of that spot for 3 months, my wife for patiently putting up with my requests to go early to yoga class just to get a certain spot .. on multiple days, especially towards the end and to my friend Natalie for giving up a spot on the last day of the challenge! 

Somehow I feel free to be in any spot in the room, after this tour! However, my gut tells me that you will most likely find me in my usual corner.