Pushing through

Getting up early to go to bikram is hard. Getting up early to go to bikram when its also 103 degrees outside is nearly impossible. I have an incredible ability to rationalize staying in bed and, more often than not lately, that “rational side” wins out.

Now I can blame the heat, or the fact that my busy schedule is keeping me up later, but the fact of the matter is I’m creating a pattern of laziness. Once I skip one morning, its 400 times easier to skip the next day. Sigh…time to break the cycle!

Now this morning (yes, Saturday - go me!) I kicked myself out of bed and onto the subway towards the 8am class in midtown. And as class progressed, with the windows open because its literally over 100 degrees in nyc, I began to lose steam.

I’ve realized that pushing through a class is an active decision. Over and over. Because once I’ve kicked myself outta bed and dragged my sleepy butt to the studio, I then have two options:

Option 1:
Congratulate myself for making it to class. I’m not still in bed, I made it here, go me. With this option, as class progresses and I grow tired, my rationalizing reappears. I begin to think that perhaps I don’t have to push so hard. I mean, I’m here, that’s all that matters right? If I want to sit down for that second “camel” or I don’t want to try and see how much further I can lift myself in lotus, that’s ok. At least I’m here.

Option 2:
Realize that I’m only here for 90 minutes and then its over…I’m already here so why wouldn’t I want to get the most out of my practice today? This next pose is literally 30 seconds of effort…

On paper, obviously we all want to choose option 2. We come to class ready to test ourselves, learn more, and make progress. Yet, more often than not I find myself tempted by (and yes giving into) option 1.

This morning, as I felt my heart pounding into the floor during savasana, I was tempted to cut myself some slack since it was so frickin hot. And Saturday! And seriously, at least I made it to class. But I caught myself rationalizing my laziness and refused to give in. It was hard but I pushed through and finished strong. And I feel seriously amazing.

Life is a series of temptations. I’m still learning to pick the options that are good for me, rather than easy. In the end, those are the options that are exponentially more rewarding.