What’d I tell ya? When I said within an hour, I meant within an hour. Let’s see, where did I leave off… oh right! End of the semester and more adventures.
One of the things I have really picked up a passion for is yoga. Yes, I know, it has started to become a sort of “fad” these days, but for me, it’s not that at all. For me, it’s a time when I can leave every single worry outside of my body, and focus on building my inner and outer strength. It’s a time when literally all I have to do is breathe, and coordinate some movements with my inhales and exhales. Nothing else matters. It’s beautiful, really. I use something that is naturally a part of my life, breathing, to fuel beautiful and strengthening movement. When I say strengthening, I refer to mind, body, and spirit.
I try to take my yoga mat on every adventure I go on, even if it’s across the street to the park. My favorite yoga instructor, Rachel Brathen, whom you should all follow on Instagram (yoga_girl), got me addicted to the hashtag and phrase, yoga every damn day. I mean really, even if it’s just for five minutes, and even if all you do is breathe, we should each try to do some form of yoga at least once a day.
The first thing people say when I suggest that they try yoga is, “I could never do yoga, I’m not flexible or strong at all.” For those of you reading this who are thinking, “well goodness, I would say the same thing”, to you I say, STOP. Listen just for a second before you put yourself in any more denial. One does yoga to become flexible, and to become strong, or to become whatever it is you want to become by doing yoga. I didn’t wake up one day last summer and say, well, I’m flexible and I have pretty good focus, so I’m going to try yoga. On the contrary, I forced myself to go to a yoga class, after I had heard such good things about Hot Vinyasa (and forgot that I no longer have my high school stamina), and ran out of the studio halfway through the class to vomit. My apologies if that is TMI. I quietly returned, pushed myself through the rest of the class, and haven’t stopped going back ever since. Yes, the first day was really hard. I wanted to cry. But there was something about the strength and lightness that I felt afterwards (and no, the lightness was not from puking) that started off a yoga spark in my brain. I couldn’t have made a better decision by going back. In fact, I have never been so thankful for an activity/hobby/passion in my life, other than maybe music.
I’m stepping down from my trying-to-convince-you-to-try-yoga pedestal now, and I certainly didn’t mean for it to last that long. What I was trying to do was use yoga as a segue (what an odd word) into my semester wrap-up. But if any questions arise about yoga, feel free to ask 🙂 I’m planning on getting my teacher’s license next Spring after I graduate! 🙂
I used yoga to fuel my energy and help me focus on my schoolwork and whatnot this Spring, and it did wonders, so much so that when I didn’t go for a few days, I felt off-balance. I took a 4-weeklong Elevate workshop, in which I spent two hours (once a week) learning how to do cool inversions and arm balances, like so: 
I paid for it, which motivated me even more to go to the class 🙂 I also built a strong yoga community throughout this workshop, and if you’ve read my blog, you know how social and extroverted I am and how much I love building connections with people. So this was really nothing less than my GIANT cup of tea. Getting through the workshop and the multiple classes I’ve been taking have shown me just how much strength my body does have, and how our bodies can do so much more than we give them credit for. Again, just take one class, and you’ll know what I mean.
As a transfer student, I knew it was going to take me a little bit longer to graduate, so I finally set up a meeting with my adviser after mapping out a schedule in which I was confident I could finish my Psychology major and even finish up my Leadership Minor in order to graduate in December, and then walk in the Spring. My adviser took care of the only issue I had, which was getting one of my Spanish classes to pass as Upper Division (I mean, come on. Seriously? A semester in Costa Rica doesn’t cover Upper Division?), and once this was cleared up, we made it work so that I could finish in December only taking 12 credits! That’s pretty much nothing compared to what I was doing this past semester. Although it’s only 4 classes, they are all writing and community-engagement-intensive, so I absolutely will not be catching a break. But I’m fine with that. Two of these four classes are Psych and two of them are Leadership, and I will most definitely have to be on top of my game. But I get to graduate with just one extra semester, which, considering how late I transferred, really is remarkable. Way to go, U of M advisers!
Also, to top it off, I finished this semester with an almost perfect GPA, which I have never done in my life. Wow. So, I finished my second to last semester of undergrad and after pushing myself so hard, I needed a break from the 612. This last Tuesday, I told my parents I wanted to get out of the city for awhile, and that day, we booked a flight to Denver, Colorado and flew out on Saturday morning to spend the weekend in Vail. It was an incredibly spontaneous trip, but I have gotten nothing but solitude and happiness out of it.
Other than, of course, the tumble I took while doing yoga in our room which caused me to split my knee open and has had me hobbling around all weekend. I swear, the things I do for yoga. No stitches, though! Just some steri-strips and lots of TLC. I know how much y’all want to see a picture of that, but yuck. I deleted them, because it’s NASTY. You’re welcome.
That’s all I’ve got for now, I’ll keep you posted with my next-week travel plans and some Colorado pictures, now that I have bored you with yoga details. 🙂
Namaste,
Z
Welcome To My Humble Abroad 