Every January, yoga practitioners around the world kick off the new year by participating in Baron Baptise’s 40 days to Personal Revolution challenge. When my favorite yoga studio in Atlanta announced they were hosting a 40-day challenge, I rushed to sign up! I thought was the perfect time to get back into a consistent yoga regime and crush some of my 2018 goals. I’ve practiced yoga on and off for the past five years. The challenge started in late January and ended at the beginning of March, so I’ve had some time to reflect on my journey. 40 days of anything takes a lot of dedication and motivation. So I thought I would share five lessons I learned during my 40 days of yoga.

40 days of anything is hard

Having to show up to something every day for 40 days is hard and takes commitment. I tend to commit to something once I’ve started something, but this was hard. Each week we were tasked with clean eating and committing to a certain amount of yoga and meditation.  The time allotted for yoga and meditation increase each day. My biggest struggle was fitting in the full amount each day with working a full-time job. Fitting in 30 minutes of yoga into your day is easy but incorporating an hour to an hour and a half is a struggle. So I said “hey if I can’t practice for an hour I’ll do yoga for 30 minutes in the morning and meditate for 30 before bed”. It taught me that commitment is hard but showing up is the first step. 
 
Community keeps you going
 
The thing I loved most about my 40 days to Personal Revolution was the small group component to the program. Each Sunday I met with 12 other yoga practitioners and we chatted about our strengths and weakness each week and then practiced for about 40 minutes. Each week when I felt like I failed or hit an obstacle, my small group girls lifted me up and encouraged me to push through and keep on going. It taught me the importance of having a community around you when trying to reach specific goals.
 
Yoga is more than just an exercise
 
I learned that yoga is more than just a time to workout. It’s an opportunity to relax, unplug and pray. I gave up Facebook and Snapchat during this time period. So unplugged was just what I need to kick off a new year. I’ve never felt so refreshed after this challenge. It taught me that sometimes you just have to pause and pray. 
 
Self-care is more important than ever

One of my co-workers just commended me for my efforts in adopting #selfcaresundays. Each Sunday since the challenge started I’ve used Sundays as a day of reflection and a day to pamper myself. I think the yoga challenge helped me with this. Each week we took one day off from practice to let our body rest and take a break. It taught me that you have to reward yourself for milestones in your journey toward crushing your goals.