I love success stories, don’t you?

Well, this isn’t one of them. 

I’m reporting in on how my 40-in-40 (40 classes in 40 days) Self Yoga Challenge is going: this photo of my coffee mug pretty much says it all.

It only took a few days before Life overcame my best intentions and things fell apart. Not only did I slip hopelessly behind with yoga classes, I floundered on the fledgling habit of rising at 5 AM for a quiet nature walk, which meant no quiet time without hubby around to meditate and work with creative visualization. I also failed to unplug from the Day’s Horrible News and take a LITTLE time each day for writing. All of it came crashing down, splat! 

That’s the point where I would usually give up and say

“just not the right time”

“guess I bit off too much, maybe remembering my daily vitamins is enough for now”

and sit around waiting for another gust of enthusiasm to blow through me.

A wise person once said that real progress starts where enthusiasm ends.

That happens to be RIGHT HERE! 

In reviewing the crash, tweaks are being made.
1. Back to setting the 4:50 AM alarm. My soul needs that daybreak walk like my body needs oxygen–it’s nothing less than magical.
2. Avoid even the headlines of my New York Times and Washington Post updates for now. The darkness is just too thick and the media always finds a way of screaming for attention.
3. Focus on Kundalini Yoga until my energies are rising and aligned again, THEN start mixing in Hatha Yoga. One good KY class and I’m so high I can fly without a hang glider.
4. MAKE A PLAN for the day that includes likely interruptions and time sucks. My planner has been sitting idle on the kitchen counter now for three weeks. It works when I work it.

I’m not sure “challenges” ever worked for me. Looking back over BIG successes in my past, all of them began small and grew. I fell in love. Right now, I feel my body missing that yoga high. I can feel my soul missing the mourning dove lullabies of those daybreak walks, and that’s enough. Closing my eyes and remembering those sensations, a sense of deep sweetness tumbles over me. Bliss. That phrase “follow your bliss” has been so overused and misused, but it was never intended to mean wild abandon and hedonism and do whatever feels good. That’s why Michael Beckwith calls the habits and practices that take us there our “blissipline.”

So dear friends I’m returning to my blissipline, gently moving toward that deep sweetness and what I love, just like a flower turning to the sun. Author of the book Dry Augusten Burroughs once said about getting sober: “You have to find something you love more than alcohol.” For him, it was writing, but it’s probably going to be as many different things as there are people. For me, focusing on what I love (and having alcohol in our lives seems to dim or kill so much of what we naturally love) is the key–well, to everything. Enthusiasm comes and goes but love can take root and grow and grow and grow. And never stop growing.

So how’s this for an AF Anthem mug?  I’m not there yet but on my way!

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Related posts from Boozemusings :

Kundalini Yoga and the Sober Journey

How to Stop Drinking Away the Pain

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This post is by MaggyD , the author of the blog Maggy Doodles and an active member of BOOM the private, anonymous community inside the Boozemusings website.