Starting over

I have a tendency to jump into things and want to be good at them right away. Cooking, tennis, guitar lessons... the list could go on and on. Most of the time I get frustrated and either quit or never learn the right way of doing the thing and stumble along trying to keep up. Cooking is one of the few things I stuck with through the hard part of learning and trial and error, and now I'm getting pretty good at it, if I do say so myself.

Guitar lessons were sort of like piano lessons way back when. The lessons themselves were fun, but I never wanted to practice. Same thing when Jav and I took two-step lessons. So everything I learned has fallen completely by the way-side. Gabriel has shown a real interest in my guitar, though, as it sits gathering dust in our family room. He never misses an opportunity to strum it as he's barreling by. This has made me want to review some of the things I learned, but not enough to actually act yet. I have at least learned in my old age that if you do not want to learn something for yourself, it will probably be tedious.

Tennis is a bit different in that I think I have potential to get pretty good, if I will ever get off my high-horse and take some beginners lessons. I never learned how to place my feet correctly, or how to hold my racket correctly, or how to serve correctly, or really anything. Despite all of this I still do pretty well whenever I play. I heard a story about how you can really improve your game (not just in tennis, but in all sports), if you visualize yourself playing really well. I think this works for me. But I know I would be just so much better if I had some good form. Maybe one day.

Yoga is something I jumped into also, just to add something different to my workout routine at the time. I only thought about how it would help me physically, and started doing an intermediate tape at home. Which means, once again, that I skipped over some pretty important basics about yoga. Like form and breathing techniques and the whole meditation thing. BUT since it's something I started learning more about, I have decided to see if I can completely start over at something and learn it right for once.

Jav's family got me a wonderful book called "Essential Yoga: An Illustrated Guide" by Olivia H. Miller for Christmas that is helping me do this. It is very simple to follow, and has great illustrations of breathing techniques, warm-up stretches, poses and meditations. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to give yoga a try. I'm starting off very slow with breathing and warm-ups, which I NEVER did before. Then I do a few poses, just like the book shows, and end with some short meditations.

I don't think I will now ever give up on yoga like I have on so many things. I has become a very important part of my life, and I am really starting to feel the differences. Not just in my toning, flexibility and balance, but in a calmness I feel that I've never felt before. I'm actually starting to pay attention to whether I'm taking short breaths (especially when I'm stressed out about something) and if so I try to slow myself down by slowing my breathing down. I'm also not having as many negative thoughts as I used to, which can make you feel so much better about life. It feels good to know I stuck with something this time, and it's really making a difference.