It’s been a stressful few weeks for me.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell you if it’s the holidays or wanting to do well at my new job or what… but my anxiety level has gone through the roof.

Usually whenever I find myself in a situations like this, my first reaction is to retreat to my yoga mat.  On my mat, I find acceptance and gratitude for who I am and what I can and have accomplished.  On my mat, whatever I do is good enough.  On my mat, I am in control.

Unfortunately, my health problems have severely impacted my practice.  It’s been 4 months since I was able to functionally practice yoga.  Forward bends, back bends, plank positions and sun salutations have become utterly impossible to do without getting sick.

To say the least, it’s been frustrating.

My last practice was devastating.  I spent more than half the class in child’s pose telling myself not to be upset and that I needed to acknowledge what I could do, not what I couldn’t do… but when I realized could do absolutely nothing, I ended my class in tears.

I went home that night and did some reading.  I found that there were a lot of women that suffered from IBS and have had similar problems when practicing Yoga.  There were message boards and blogs and articles surrounding the issue, all of which contained suggestions and studies and trial and error.

In this age of instant gratification and immediate results, I wanted a quick fix that would let me practice the next day.  Obviously, this didn’t exist.  However, what was equally obvious was the suggestion I found to take 2 antacids immediately prior to beginning practice.

This seemed too easy and too perfect to actually work.

I decided to try it.

It worked.

I couldn’t even believe that it worked.  It wasn’t until savasana that I realized that I had made it through an entire class without getting sick.  It felt like a miracle.  The only word that can really describe my emotion during savasana tonight is elation.  I was almost moved to tears, it felt like I got a piece of my life back.

With all this going on, I kept in mind that I saw Yoga Journal tweet about their 21 Day Challenge starting on January 9, 2012.  I’m so excited to actually be able to participate and I really want to invite anyone and everyone who reads this post to join me!!

The link below will take you to the sign up page.  Its an awesome way to kick start your practice if you’re a total newbie or if you’re like me and fell away from it and need to get back into it.  If you’re looking to start your New Year with a work out resolution, this is a fantastic option!

21-Day Challenge – Yoga Journal.

When you sign up, let me know.  Social Workout is sponsoring a “support group” to get people from 1/9 to 1/30 and I’m dying to know there’s others out there as inspired as I am!