30 days of yoga: Day 30 - Sparky's finest hour!

Let's not beat around the bush, eh? My 30 days of yoga challenge: DONE!

Writing this now, it's been exactly two hours since class finished, and I'm in some sort of weird state of ecstasy. My 30th class couldn't have gone any better - I genuinely feel like I did every posture to the best of my ability; you could say I was in the zone, which after having done yoga every day for the last month came as something of a pleasant surprise. I think I was a bit fired up in anticipation for tonight's class anyway; I didn't want to stumble at the finish line and feel like I'd let down everyone who has given me support and encouragement over the last 30 days.

What made the evening particularly memorable, though, was the fact that one of the teachers told the lady taking tonight's class that I'd reached the end of my 30 day challenge, and just before the final breathing exercise she asked the entire class to join her in congratulating me on my achievement - and I got a massive round of applause. I was genuinely moved by this. Some of the postures can bring up weird emotions, and I was sitting there desperately thinking "DON'T CRY!"

I'd actually thought about carrying on to do 31 or even 32 classes in a row, but after such a wonderful end to the challenge I've decided to take a couple of days off. I don't think I've got anything left to prove anyway. Doing 30 days of yoga has been such a good exercise; I've improved my postures, I feel fitter and healthier, and I've proved to myself that I can do anything I set my mind to. If you'd told me a couple of months back that I was going to take on this challenge I would've laughed in your face; two classes a week - three at most - was my limit. Once a day for an entire month?

After class I stopped to talk to the teacher for a few minutes, and she told me that I'll notice the true benefits of the challenge in the days and weeks to come. She said that taking one or two days off to let my body adjust to what it's done is a good idea, and I'll probably find that I have a really great class when I next go back. I think that will probably be Thursday, and to be honest, while I am looking forward to having a couple of free evenings for the first time in what seems like forever, I'm also looking forward to getting back in that studio. It's going to be really weird driving past it tomorrow and not stopping off. I'm really going to miss it - even though it will only be three days till I'll be sweating my tits off in there again.

What's really weird is that as I was driving home I passed the spot where I had the car accident last year, and it occurred to me that if it hadn't been for that terrible day I'd never have gone to Bikram yoga. Funny how something so positive and life-changing came out of something so negative, eh?