The weekend was spent in painting the little one's room. When she got her own room, she opted for a pink accent wall with light pink walls. I told her that the whole room will reflect pink off of everything but she was like "this is my room. can we please go with what I want?!". Having been through this exercise with all the women in the house, I just didn't bother to argue.
The room did turn out to be pink everywhere and she kept silent for almost a year and a half. Then she slowly started "termiting" me (she keeps asking till I have to give in even if I act like her request is not reaching my ears). Her room is "too pink" and there is not enough light to study (that was hitting me below the belt). So we need to keep the accent wall but take the three other walls and make them white.
The project was a success, with a lot of sincere and hard work from the girl herself, moving ladders, handing me the brush dipped in paint etc.. etc. We were both proud of the effort this morning when everything was done and we peeled off all the masking tape. The best part of painting rooms is when you peel off the masking tape and you get sharp edges on the walls!
My shoulders were sore. Also I didn't stop to drink water while painting which was a mistake. After the whole thing was finished, decided to drink water and sit down for some time. Then I thought instead of sitting down, why not try to meditate in lotus pose again and see if my focus has improved over last three months..
Turns out, it has!
Managed to sit still was close to 75 minutes. Will see in a few months if I can do this for 90 minutes. Sitting still for 90 minutes is equally difficult for me as doing a 90 minute yoga class where we alternate between asanas and shavasana. I always stuggle with Shavasana. Even in this attempt it was probably 15-20 minutes before I was in white space (or gold space) and around 50 minutes (the usual place where I give up because my legs desperately want to come out) there is some blues and greens. Don't know what the color trasitions mean but maybe someday I will understand.
When I came out my kids said "so you successfully wasted an hour?!". They should try this someday to know how hard this is.
2018 started with getting over the Flu. I was drinking Delsym at a minute before midnight on New Years eve. The last time I came back from Beijing, two days before X-mas, some bugs hitched a ride back with me or so I thought. So it took me till the 6th of January to go try Yoga again. Even on the 6th I was pretty weak and my plan was to go to anything but the front row and pace myself. There was a new teacher who keyed me in on the 6th and she had no idea it was my "come back class".
"A leopard cannot change its spots", or some such thing... Once I go through those double doors, I am like a new born that has been temporarily put back in the womb and I start kicking in my happy place. Put the mat in the last row and a second later move it to the third and after looking around the room and seeing there is a spot in the front row, moved it up to the mirror. My thoughts during those 90 or 100 seconds of mat moving cannot be summarized in this post. That could be a book in itself. You guys read this blog and you know I am good for it!
Came back the next day and my friend and teacher Jessica gave me a big hug and said "welcome back". She knew I was sick last two weeks but did not ask me anything more. That was probably her way of saying "you know what to do in the room, so I am not biasing you". At the end of the class, Jessica asks "60 day challenge?" like she was asking me if I would like some Gulab Jamun after a meal, and without giving it much thought, wrote my name on the sign up sheet. After that we didn't talk about it. I just came every day as usual, went to China as usual and did doubles on every weekend as usual, heard the sighs from wife and kids when they realized I was doing the challenge, as usual, and finished the Challenge.. and hopefully that becomes "as usual".
There was a Challenge party and we had some testimonials from folks who finished 60 classes in 60 days and they were all inspiring. We had to leave the party after an hour as the kids had to be taken to dinner.. as usual but this year we got to watch the other folks tell us about their journey on Facebook Live! I was telling the kids what Multiple Sclerosis was and after an inspiring story Jr. said she will come join me for classes again. Okay, she said "a class", but I am hoping it is going to be plural.
This year I am kicking out regularly in the standing head to knee pose and it is my new favorite pose.
There are alwasys graphs and charts for a 60 day challenge post..
There was a possibility of an earlier China trip, so I finished the challenge in 58 days and eventually did 61/60 when the trip was not pre-poned. If you think going to do Yoga more than 3 times a week is difficult think again. Coming back from a flu, going to Asia and back for a week in the middle of this, those were easy because I had done those before. One of the days, I had to drive past Sacramento area startign at 6AM, attend a meeting, come back at 5PM, chaired a meetign from 6 to 8 PM and still did yoga from 8:30PM-10PM just to keep challenge going. It is all doable. There are people who have debilitating issues who do the challenge and mine are nothing compared to those. Even if you don't do the challenge, it is okay. Come to the party to hear some really inspiring real life stories!
Still tracking weight..
The excel file was started almost a year after starting Yoga and so far it has close to 2000 data points... (some of them blank)
Here is weight since 2012..
If you notice the excel file there is a total class tracker. Have crossed 1500 classes and the best part is:
- Still suck at this
- Have not given up on it
- Even though my self assesment and self esteem take a beating in that mirror, the end result is positive because every day is usually better than the previous day
- this yoga keeps me grounded. Every now and then I get reminded that sooner or later gravity will win and I will be ashes, but till that day, going to fight gravity every day, every set.
- my teachers and fellow students seem to believe in me and root for me. they see more in me than I see myself and that is a blessing
- learn something new every day, be it class 1, 100, 1000 or 1506..always something new which brings me to class 1500
Have already posted about this special class with Yoga Professor Emeritus, Mary Jarvis. One class can sometimes change your view and attitude to things. This one definitely did for me.
It took me 4 classes after her talk, to give up water during Yoga class. The last one week have left the water bottle in the car. Sometimes I drink a sip or two on the way home. Mostly now I drink water a good 40 minutes after class is over. It is interesting.There is a sudden cool over my face and body and even on the insides while driving back after class. Kind of like what you feel when you drink regular water after chewing mint gum but it feels like ice water. Same thing except all over the body and this is new. Most likely has to do with the "no water during class".
Have also stopped fidgeting during class. No more subconscious wiping of sweat. No moving around mat with the bullshit excuse of trying to make it easy for people behind me who are also moving around, etc.
Currently trying to keep tummy sucked in from beginning of class till the first pose, and failing at it miserably. Confident that sooner or later that will change and can then go to other things that were taught.
One funny thing Mary Jarvis mentioned during the special class which is replaying in my head?!
"the whole goal of doing this yoga is so you can sit in lotus pose without moving and meditate for long periods of time. This pose is almost a half lotus and this will eventually help you get to lotus!". She was telling the entire class that and I was thinking "What?! I can already sit in Lotus pose for long periods of time! Why am I doing this Yoga then? Shouldn't I do that instead?"
Maybe my Lotus sucks.. should make a bumper sticker that says "my lotus sucks" ? Maybe there is a market for it? As a kid we used to sit in Lotus pose all the time. My kids here struggle because they are not used to sitting on the ground all the time. They have "criss cross applesauce" issues. Everytime we go visit the Livermore temple, I sit there for at least half an hour in silence before walking out. Used to do it at home also and manage to sit for 45 minutes. Two years ago I tried to time myself and made it once to 54 minutes.
Maybe the key words were "long periods of time"! How long is long?!
After Mary's class, I wanted to try and see how long in lotus pose but with eyes closed and "no fidgeting". No movement "whatsoever". Turns out it was 44 minutes 11 seconds as caught on timelapse video..
Technology is good. Daughter's iPhone for timelapse, my iPhone for timer, a clock in the background that catches the time "lapsing" and my legs that pretty much went blue after this time. Took me 3 minutes to be able to get up and walk again as the blood returned to my feet!
Doing 1500+ classes of 90 mintue Yoga and cannot even sit in one place without moving for one single hour! If that doesn't put things in perspective for you, don't know what will. There are folks who have stayed in the same place without moving for 1-3 days. I have been fortunate in this lifetime to meet multiple people who have done that and have heard from my grandpa that he has met people who have done the same. Folks who can slow down time... is how he put it.
Going to try doing this to see how long it takes to cross the one hour mark and eventually the 90 minute mark.
Yoga has helped me immensely this year. My stress at work is through the roof and if it were not for the Yoga to supplement the support from my wife and kids, I would not be functioning normally, or even functioning.
A big heartfelt thanks to all my teachers at BYSJ for keeping me sane. You know who you are.. and if you don't know.. there is a graph for it also.
We have a lot of teachers, some are new, some traveling and teaching us for a month or for just one special class and the regular teaching staff. Every teacher gives it a 100% when it comes to doing the right thing for folks in class and all teachers who knew me, showed me no mercy during the challenge!
Well, it is almost time to go to one more Yoga class or as my wife would say "Kazhudhai ketta kutti suvaru!" ("if he is not home, he will be in Yoga class" is the loose translation).
Writing this post made me cheer up. Hope is you read this and are inspired to try a 60 day challenge!
2017 is done and we are moving on. The last 8 days saw us visit local places with the BIL's family. My two nieces made photography fun again for me!
They would randomly come ask me to take pictures in the studio and make funny face poses!
Our plan was to go to the Golden Gate Bridge vista point. However we were not allowed to enter. It was buses only. So we decided to see the bridge from the other side. There also parking was impossible. So we ended up getting flagged to go further and further away from the bridge and next thing we know, we are at a visitor center and there is a beautiful lagoon and a beach with was within eye sight. It said 0.8 miles one way and a mild hike, so off we went. There was a distinct possibility that the little ones might ask to be "lifted" and carried on the way back, but that did not happen. They walked the entire trail and back.
We spent a good 2 hours there and took pictures!
I should have dressed better though. Caught some virus. The rest of 30th and 31st has been spent drinking cough syrup and sleeping. Finally managed to edit the pictures now..
We also had the studio set up in the house.. that meant pictures and pictures and more pictures anytime the kids wanted..
we even switched to a black background to test out some shots..
2018 is going to be a busy year for us. My hope is that we all be in better health next year.
I had the best year health wise for 2017 but managed to mess it up in the last two days! While it is easy to bias an entire year based on the last few days, I did thoroughly enjoy 2017.
Thankful to my BIL and family for visiting us over the break. When you have little kids running around the house, it lights up the place!
