Run.Bike.Yoga.

One cannot stay on the summit forever -
One has to come down again.
So why bother in the first place? Just this.
What is above knows what is below -
But what is below does not know what is above

One climb, one sees-
One descends and sees no longer
But one has seen!

There is an art of conducting one’s self in
The lower regions by the memory of
What one saw higher up.

When one can no longer see,
One does at least still know. 

Rene Daumal

Day 3 of the 30-day challenge:

Sunday was one rainy, gloomy day. The perfect, relaxing environment for a restorative yoga sesh. Restorative is the form of yoga meant for deep relaxation and meditation. 

Even though this is the type of yoga where you’re supposed to let go, I found myself subconsciously holding tension in different parts of my body. If we are tense in relaxing environments, imagine how much tension we hold every day or in stressful situations. 

Holding stress in our bodies can have nasty long-term effects, so try to be mindful of where and when you hold tension. Focus on your breathing and tell yourself just to let go. 

Here’s the sequence I did Sunday if you want to try it out sometime yourself…

Restorative sequence (~1 hour if you hold each pose for 5-10min)

(click the poses for a description of how to get into the pose, courtesy of Yoga Journal)

1. Virasana (Hero’s pose)
2. Supta virasana (Hero’s pose laying on back)
3. Supine twist - lie on your back, bend your needs, and drop your knees to one side, hold for a few minutes, then switch to the other side
4. Pull knees in towards chest to massage spine and lower back
5. Supported downdog - come into downdog, then place a block on its highest height under your forehead. It may be hard to hold for long so you can hold this pose for a little shorter than the others
6. Child’s pose with arms by each side
7. Supported bridge pose - for this one I had a block on its highest height at my sacrum (base of my spine)
8. Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana (Two-Legged Inverted Staff Pose)
9. Supta baddha konasana (reclining bound angle) - instead of bolsters I had one block under my shoulder blades at its medium height and another block under my head at its tallest height

The clock just struck midnight and reality sunk in. Woh, I’m graduating in a month. As much as I’m excited for the next adventure I’m also reminded of how much I want to savor this last hurrah of grad school. In a playful but eerily cautious tone, the guest speaker in my General Managers Taking Action class this morning said “enjoy this restful 4th quarter at Darden because it’s the last big chunk of freedom you’ll have for the next 40 years.” Talk about a reality check…the calm before the storm. 

Later in the day I stumbled upon a discussion thread about 30-day yoga challenge on reddit, and it struck me. Recently my friend Nicole was talking about how doing 30 days of yoga last year was a hugely transformative experience for her. As I sifted through the slew of people on reddit committing to doing the challenge, I thought to myself - this would be an awesome way to round out my last month at Darden. A pretty symbolic ending, too, considering my transition into Darden was my 200-hour intensive yoga teacher training in Bali. How great would it be to leave Darden with that same energized, focused and balanced state I came here with? Maybe I can reverse some of the damage the Darden stress and “Darden diet” has done to my body, too. :-o

Seizing this bout of inspiration, I am committing to starting my 30 days of yoga tomorrow morning with some sun salutes right here in my living room. I’m also hoping the peer pressure of announcing this here will encourage me to get my rear out of bed an hour earlier to get my yoga on. :-)

Will keep you guys posted on my progress!