Background

2021 came freshly and the new year motivation lures me into a marathon of 2.5 mental / physical health challenges. It’s 2.5 because I started 1 challenge in mid Jan. 

As 2020 taught me to embrace the power of you-can-do-anything-at-home-with-wifi, I embarked on an all online, free, home-based January challenges. They nicely fall into 3 categories: meditation, cardio exercise and flexibility / strength training.

Mindful Mornings Challenge

Platform: Insight Timer App

Insight Timer app connects meditation teachers (including celebrity teachers like Gisele Bündchen and Russell Brand) and students. My favourite meditation teacher is Sarah Blondin. For this challenge, everyday a teacher would share his/her morning ritual and go through a 10–15 mins guided meditation in his/her own style. Hence, I’m looking forward to what experience I would have that day. I also found new favourite teachers through this programme. I have bookmarked them so after this challenge, I have more interesting meditation sessions to follow.

Do I feel anything different? Hmm, I have passed the point to have an expectation that I would need to feel something. Such expectation is like a passing bar to a “good” meditation experience, which brings unnecessary pressure. To me, meditation simply allows me to look inward or simply to be aware. As I journal everyday, once in a while, I read what I have written and realised how much I have become aware of myself and my surroundings.

Breath - A 30 day yoga journey

Platform: Yoga With Adriene Youtube Channel

Adriene is a household name among at-home yoga fans in Youtube. What’s lovely about this challenge (and her classes in general) is the combination of movements and a theme that wraps around those movements. YWA yoga style is chilling, low to mid intensity, and focuses more on awareness - which is what I really like. I don’t really enjoy high intensity as I got it covered by the last challenge already. 

For this 30 day yoga journey, Adriene inspires me to go back to basic - my breath throughout all movements. Breath teaches me to be aware of my living (and thus, my everyday decisions). Breath also reminds me to embrace my body, soul and mind. I’m very thankful to all of that goodness, thanks to Adriene, her lovely dog - Benji and her powerful programme.

28 days Flat tummy challenge

Platform: Chloe Ting Youtube Channel

Similarly to Adriene, Chloe Ting is also a household name among home-based exercise fans in Youtube. Her challenges are said to be effective in delivering the “promise” (aka the challenge topic like flat tummy). Also, she is famous for her lively energy and her down-to-earth personality. For me, I like how she always offer a beginner-friendly variation throughout her programme. I started this one on 15th Jan as I was taking a 2 week break after my previous challenge, also another programme under her. And yes, I actually took a Jan 2020 challenge and did it in 2021 haha.

Compared to meditation and yoga, I’m never a fan of cardio exercise as I hate sweating and Chloe Ting exercise does just that. However, I somehow find my myself ease in to all of the hip dips, forearm planks and sweating. Frankly, with her challenges, sometimes I tend to procrastinate as I really don’t like sweating. But I made a point to get through this, until today as I know my body needs this.

How all of these come together?

“You can only connect the dots looking backwards” - Steve Jobs

Thanks to YWA and all of the Vinyasa, when I first started Chloe Ting, I was so proud to be able to hold planks comfortably and do all sorts of mountain climber and its variation.

The other day, in my Power Flow class (at studio), I find myself holding forearm plank and hip dips with so much ease because I have done probably hundreds of them with Chloe Ting challenge.

Also, in that yoga class, though the movement is faster and more intense than YWA speed, I still find my breath and awareness throughout the movements. Just a feeling of “Yes, I finally know what I’m doing. I’m in control of my movements and not merely following instructions”.