What is 40 Days?
The 40 days program is based off the book 40 Days to Personal Revolution by Baron Baptiste (I practice Baptiste yoga which is hot power yoga). The book is divided up into weeks and each week we have a reading to do followed by some excavation questions. We have a weekly meeting with the participants (250 people are participating at my studio) where we do group discussions, partner work and work within our small groups. We also have to practice yoga 5 times per week at the studio and once at home, meditate twice per day, write in a journal and focus on eating healthy, fresh foods.
Week 1 Presence:
The first week started with a kick-off meeting at the studio. We were put into small groups where we discussed our reasons for joining 40 days and our goals for the program. Yoga is such a solitary thing where we arrive, focus on ourselves, practice solo and then leave. This has been great to meet other people who love yoga as much as I do! It also made me discover that I had a third reason for joining the program: meeting more like-minded individuals.
We were given our assigned reading for the week: 100 pages! By far the longest reading of the program because the book went into depth on the 12 Laws of Transformation before getting into our weekly theme of presence. I did not want to do my usual behavior where I wait until the night before to read everything so I actually spread it out over the week and was finished by Thursday. The book has been pretty interesting so far. It's not all new age mumbo jumbo, Baptiste really has some insightful information and he draws a lot on both Christianity and Buddhism when he is discussing presence. Each weekly chapter focuses on the theme of the week, this week is presence, and how we can find presence in yoga, meditation and in our diet.
The end of the chapter has excavation questions that are designed to get the reader thinking more deeply about presence and to prepare us for week 2: vitality. Examples of some of the questions are: Where in my life am I fully present? Where in my life am I hiding? Where in my life am I flirting with disaster? The idea is that we contemplate all of the questions during the week, journal about them and then discuss them at the next weekly meeting.
So far I am really enjoying this whole program. The book, questions and meetings have me thinking and doing some self-reflecting that I usually do not do. The yoga aspect has absolutely held me accountable. I completed all of my yoga sessions last week and now actually crave yoga more than ever. I wish I had time to go to multiple classes per day! I've even fully researched the yoga studios in my upcoming cities of travel (New Orleans and Charlottesville) so I have no excuses when I am on the road. I am still lifting weights and doing cardio but yoga is my top priority so if I have to skip a workout during the day, I make sure it is not the yoga. I've also noticed that my yoga practice has improved. I have become more fluid when we are in flow and I can go deeper into poses. Of course, I still have to take more breaks that usual since I am pregnant and the heat definitely tires me out more than it did before! But I can feel myself getting "better" on my mat each class. My yoga instructors are so inspiring too. Most of them are participating as different weekly group leaders so they focus on the themes of the week during class.
One thing that has been totally new to me has been meditation. Prior to this week, I had meditated once, a few weeks ago. After the 11:30am yoga class on Sundays they offer a 15 minute meditation and I hung around once to try it because I love that particular instructor. It was...interesting, but I found my mind drifting the whole time. In this program we have to meditate twice per day. First starting at 5 minutes and eventually going up to 30!! I looked up some 5 minute guided meditation podcasts because I was pretty sure I could not just sit there for 5 minutes listening to nothing. The first couple of times I did the 5 minute meditation, it was a struggle, but by the end of the week I was finding that the time was flying by. I work on letting go of my thoughts as they come into my head. Some days it's harder than others, especially if I have a 2 year old and a cat trying to climb on me but I try my best. I usually do my first meditation some time after breakfast and my second one right before I get ready for bed. I do find that I am very refreshed after my meditation sessions. It actually feels like I just woke up from a nap. I'm not sure how I will ever find the time to get in two 30 minute meditations per day, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it!
I've been trying to journal each night too. I think last week I managed 5 out of 7 days journaling. I just use the Notes app on my phone and only take pen to paper when I'm doing the weekly excavation questions in our guidebook.
On Sunday night we had our weekly meeting where we shared with a partner. I shared with a girl from my group who has a seriously amazing yoga story. A few years ago she was in an awful car accident and could not walk. She was doing physical therapy but it was not doing much for her. She ended up getting a beginners yoga DVD and all of her yoga healed her better than PT! Her doctors were shocked! Now you can't even tell that she had an issues walking before. Isn't that awesome??
Our meeting also had a bunch of people doing "pop up shares" and sharing with the group their answers to the questions. We ended it looking forward to week 2: vitality, and discussing how we can take our answers from the question "Where are you hiding" and turn that into vitality and committing to growth.
Week 1 I definitely learned that I need to work on being more present in my life. I am looking forward to seeing what I learn in week 2! So far so good! The hardest part so far has been those 10 minute meditations!