My daily struggle, photo by Inside Amy Schumer

Life has been kinda stressful lately. Scratch that-life has been very stressful lately. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the search for finding a job post-college has been difficult. With many of my friends on Spring Break this means time to catch up with old friends and worry about becoming an adult (insert crying emoji here). Last week, while practically crying about my life problems post college my friend suggested that we try yoga to get our stress out. With my face becoming more pizza like by the day, and the number of times I was looking at my phone hoping for a new call or email- having a distraction like yoga sounded perfect.

Mind you, I had done yoga in the past. In college we were fortunate to have two free yoga classes each week, and in January I decided to try on Youtube to do yoga at home. I knew the moves and terminology for yoga, I had 'mastered' sculpt yoga, and had three cute yoga pants that I was ready to show off at class. I was ready! Or so I thought I was.

Reminder to all that you will have that moment when you have no idea what you're doing, photo from Pitch Perfect

The first night of our free week at CorePower Yoga started off with (what I assumed would be ) a simple candlelight yoga. To say that I was in a shock after that first class would be an understatement. Even before I sat down onto the mat I was sweating. But how could this even be? According to CorePower Yoga's site  by practicing yoga in warm temperature has many benefits including the prevention of injuries while working out, increasing overall circulation, and enhances immune system function. Poses that I had once considered to be easy in my yoga practice became harder to complete with the rising heat and my sweat dripping everywhere onto my mat.

To my surprise though, every time I went into class (I went all six days folks) I felt very refreshed after. Yes, at times the practice seemed like hell. Yes, at times I felt like a beached whale on my mat feeling more helpless and lazy than I had ever before. And yes, sometimes I questioned my sanity for going back the next day wanting to see if I could further push my limits while working out. Somehow though, each time I went all those doubts about working out- and even more so about my job search- became more optimistic and clear while doing yoga. Having done the week of yoga at CorePower has not only allowed me to become more enlightened about the practice, but also about myself. I am stronger than I believe I am. And, if I can challenge myself physically (and begin to succeed) at yoga- who else knows what am capable of doing?



So here's to another week of trying yoga, seeing what the new possibilities are, and remembering that sometimes it's okay to feel the burn.



The classes that I took were the following:
* CorePower Yoga 2 (C2) 95-98 Degrees ,Added Humidity
* Hot Yoga (HY) 102-104 Degrees, Added Humidity