I just finished a home yoga practice on the sun porch (that was closed up all day and consequently SUPERBLY hot) and it felt so good. Shocking, right? That my body (and brain and heart) thought some yoga felt good?

I know. You all know already how much I love the practice.

But do you know how often I don’t practice?

Like all facets in life, my yoga ebbs and flows. Sometimes I knock it out of the park and other times my therapist flat out delivers a three week challenge in which she wants me to do 30 minutes a day (yoga or some bilateral activity like walking) to insure that I get some actual real FOR ME self care. Not bubble bath self care (not really my thing anyway, but I do love a good epsom soak), but legit movement FOR ME.

Challenge Accepted.

Actually, it was accepted six days ago and I’ve held strong to it.

Until today I’ve done videos after the kids went down for the night (I love when people message me and ask where they can start an at home practice. I hands down always say Yoga with Adriene; she’s served me well for over 4 years and counting). But tonight I had the time and space to roll out on the sun porch to get my asana and sweat on in a total go-with-the-flow practice.

It. Felt. GREAT. There may have even been a spontaneous dance party in the middle of that which you will not find in your regular flow class but which I highly recommend for home practice. 😉

And there was also this: a constant running voice in my head about how my body feels. How it feels to move (good). How it feels to challenge myself (awesome). How it feels when I twist and turn and fold and squeeze (hmmmmmm).

So I grabbed my phone (I know – not very yogic of me, but it’s the chronicler in me) and snapped some pics. And between two different poses, I got two pretty striking perspectives, which are fairly accurate in how I see/feel about myself.

One is what I would call pretty awesome. The other is what I would call pretty real. While it’s not easy to share that second one, it’s like the swim suit in that it just is what it is (and it being Navasana or Boat Pose, a.k.a my nemesis and not just because of the belly squish).

Now, let me back it up a bit. My therapist did not put me up to the 30 mins a day because either one of us thinks I need to do it for weight loss or because there is something wrong with my physical body. I’m doing it at her request because the more time I take for myself to move, the better I am able to see myself in a loving way, and that means loving whatever there is to see. Does it mean I can’t want to make changes? No, not all. But I want that desire for change to come from a healthy place, not a berating one, so I’m doing the work and I’m doing my 30 mins a day, and I’m sharing pictures of different perspectives because, Truth. Life. Love. Care. Acceptance. Practice.

May we all find just a little bit more of each, every day. Even in Navasana.