gratitude.

Well, it's the big day today! Day 1 of my 30 day challenge.

I started off my day with a little morning series that I really enjoy - it's part of a 3-series DVD by Jason Crandell from Yoga Journal called Morning Noon & Night and I absolutely love it! It's got three 20-minute practices for - you guessed it! - morning, noon and night. I'm pretty consistent at doing the morning and night ones, and I just love having something I can do at home or take with me on my iPhone and say, do on the beach in Cuba (only I don't recommend it in a bathing suit - nowhere to hold it, so I tucked it into my bottoms only to have it fall out and get washed over by a wave! Luckily she survived). So long story short, I'm a huge fan of Jason Crandell's style and these three routines have been a big part of my home practice!

I'm excited to try my first Jivamukti class with Kirsten tonight! She's the only certified jivamukti teacher in Halifax, so I can't wait! It should be a great way to kick off the challenge.

Also, since the title of this post is gratitude, I wanted to share something I came across online this morning (while studying of course) that seems to fit well with the upcoming month.
I discovered this book, thx thx thx: thank goodness for everything by Leah Dietrich:

I don't own it, but on Amazon you can get a sneak peak of some of the inside pages, and it just warms you up to read it. Leah's mother taught her to always write thank you notes (sound familiar Mum??) except she's actually good at it ... the book is full of little thank you notes to wonderful things like her heavy eyelids, for letting her know it's time to stop. Or thanking songs she's embarrassed to like for making her alone time that much more wonderful. I think we could all take a lesson from this, because when it comes down to it - shouldn't we all be thankful for the simple things that make life beautiful every day? I think that's an important part of yoga, and I hope that whether you practice yoga or not, you'll take time today to think of something utterly simple in your life and express some gratitude.
Gratitude is my intention for the day, and for my yoga practice. No matter how challenging it is, I am always thankful for the ability to grow my practice and push my limits.

Well, I guess these physiology books aren't going to read themselves, so until this evening, I'll leave you with this quote that challenge leader Kyla sent us all this morning for a little inspiration:

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” --Dale Carnegie