Yoga and running reflections

Happy Hump Day, everyone!

A lot has been going on in my short work week. Today is pretty much my Friday, since I will be visiting my family from tomorrow until Monday. I’m excited!

On Monday morning, I did a 25 minute run on the treadmill. Later that day, I ended up purchasing a yoga mat (yay, finally) since I was planning on starting my program the next day. I had been looking through videos by Yoga with Adriene and it just looked awesome and easy to follow, so I had planned to do her Yoga for Beginners video.

I woke up early on Tuesday so I made sure I had 40 minutes to have to myself for the session. Honestly, it was the fastest 40 minutes of my life and it was awesome. I felt great afterwards, even after just doing everything at home, on my mat. I felt so good that yesterday when I got home from work I just kept looking up more of her videos for which one I would do next. Adriene is a really good instructor if you’re looking into yoga vids, by the way. She captures the viewers attention as well as keeping them as relaxed as possible.

My rabbit Pumpkin had a fright last night and literally flung herself against her pen and got injured, so I had to take her to the vet this morning. Luckily, she is okay and just needs a dose of pain meds to get by; she’s started eating again, which is a really good sign. So I’m happy. 🙂 But before knowing all that, I was filled with anxiousness and dread based on her condition that I woke up so worried. I scheduled an appointment but since she was stable it wasn’t considered an emergency; I was scheduled for a 10 am appointment. I had time to kill and decided to calm myself and did a 20 minute yoga session. Afterwards, I felt better. I felt even better after getting back from the vet, of course. 🙂

I don’t know what it is, but I feel so positive about starting up yoga. I feel that lately, running has come with so much stress. There were always these thoughts in my head: run faster, run more, sign up for more races, you’re too slow, you need to run more… so much thoughts literally battling against what actually felt good to me that it wasn’t fun for me. I remember last year when I ran, I didn’t feel that way. I still feel good after a nice, long and steady run and I don’t plan on stopping running altogether, but yoga – so far – has been a really nice barrier against those negative thoughts. I just feel so much better, more relaxed. I was very skeptical about how people expressed how they feel about yoga before, but now I think I’m getting the picture.

I find this very fitting. Pumpkin and I are both in need of some healing. 🙂

I still have a 5k in two weeks, so I’m still doing a little bit of training for that. For the most part, yoga has my attention, and I still have plans to try out a free class at a local yoga studio. 😉

Hoping that everyone has a positive rest of the week!

P.