Welcome!

On January 30, 2013, I began what is called a 40 day Personal Revolution Program at All That Matters,a yoga and holistic health center in Wakefield, Rhode Island. I recently moved to Narragansett, Rhode Island in November of 2012 and was pleasantly surprised to encounter a wide abundance of down to earth, friendly, welcoming people ( then again, it is the ocean state) who make it a priority to support local, independent businesses-everything from restaurants, to art galleries, to clothing stores. I have quickly come to realize that people who are born and grow up in Rhode Island have an immense amount of pride and love for their state and often stay here for their entire lives to raise their own families. When I was abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I lived with a family( on the 20th floor of an apartment complex) and my host sister would always describe things and people as  having buena onda( good vibes) o mala onda( bad vibes)-Rhode Island definitely has the former.

Back to yoga. Basically that long spiel above was to say that All That Matters  encompasses all that makes Rhode Island great, and more. The studio offers 65 yoga classes every week, everything from gentle restorative yoga to vigorous( and sweaty) heated Prana Flow, as well as prenatal yoga, yoga for seniors, and yoga for children. For many years, I have always said that I wanted to seriously begin to practice yoga and to make it  a large part of my life. However, the college environment and mentality did not necessarily agree with this desire, for reasons we all know. Now I am a college graduate( a real person) with a good amount of free time on my hands. I originally purchased a 2 week explorer pass at All That Matters, which allowed me to take unlimited yoga for 14 days straight. After 1 class, I was hooked. I used the explorer pass to try out as many different classes and teachers as possible and I liked every single one in a different way. Each teacher has their own creative teaching style and their own little quirks, but all of them have one thing in common: they emulate joy and inspire joy. While they all know and deeply believe that yoga is a serious practice that takes devotion, strength, and discipline, they more importantly realize that the powers and benefits of yoga will only be truly felt if the practice is done with a joyful, childlike attitude. Then again, many of the poses are supposed to mimic natural positions that we often take as children, such as child's pose and  sleeping baby. And when was the last time you did handstands on a regular basis? Yoga classes at All That Matters are fun and full of laughter. This is not only due to the teachers, but also to my fellow yogis at the studio. When you decide to attend yoga classes, you become part of a family, which is the only way it can be because one key principle of yoga is that you must do it with absolutely no judgement of yourself or of others. We all sort of look silly while doing yoga and on some days, yoga may not come easy to us. There is no judging in a yoga class-just support and companionship, almost kinship. I feel blessed and relieved to have found such a great community of people at All That Matters.

Now about the 40 Day Program. This program, which is based off of Baron Baptiste's 40 Day Program, occurs a few times a year at All That Matters. Husband and wife duo David and Joan Dwyer, who own the yoga center, took Baptiste's program and put their own spin on it. The 3  mains goals of the 40 Day Program are the following: to move your body everyday through yoga, to eat a whole, plant based diet, and to meditate twice-a-day, everyday. It is believed that it only takes 40 days to reverse and erase old habits and to develop new ones.The program has been said to change people's lives, or rather, to reset or restart people's lives. I don't necessarily need to push the reset button, but I do have some goals that I know can be reached through this program. They are the following:

1.Strengthen my yoga practice

2. Learn to meditate 

3.Be able to successfully do a hand stand, a shoulder stand, box pose,  

                     crows pose, a full split.

4.Lose judgement

5. Get a beach bod

6.Clear, healthy skin

7.Cut out all processed food from diet

8.Read more poetry

9.Write more

10. Find true center

11.Explore yoga as a future academic endeavor/career

12.Be part of a community and meet new friends

13.Learn to be kind to those who need it most

14. Do lots and lots and lots and lots of yoga.

So those are a lot of goals, and at the end of the program, I will check back in to see how many of the 14 I  have successfully achieved. Out of the three aspects of the program, yoga, meditation, and diet, the meditation aspect holds the most uncertainty for me. It is not so much that I do not believe that I can learn how to meditate, but I have really never tried it and therefore, have no idea what it entails or what it feels like to meditate. In regard to the yoga aspect,I am obsessed with yoga so doing it everyday is by no means a nuisance or challenge for me, I may do it twice a day on certain days. And the diet aspect?I made the decision to go vegan about 6 months ago and therefore, have been eating a healthy diet full of vegetables, fruits, grains, and beans. I have felt great over the last 6 months and love being vegan  more and more everyday. I have a natural energy and a lightness, both in body and spirit, that I have never had before in my life.However, I am human and I still indulge in processed foods or eat far more than I need to from time to time. I would like to know what it actually feels like to not eat a single processed for 40 days. It won't always be easy and it will take a fair share of willpower, but what really is 40 days in my lifetime-just a speckle of dust.Throughout the next 40 days, I will write about  my yoga practice, my meditation practice, my diet, any physical and spiritual changes, and maybe just my random thoughts for the day. Thank you for joining me on this journey! Oṃ śānti śānti śānti.

* I have no affiliation with All That Matters and the opinions expressed in this blog are my own

http://www.tosayoga.jp/blog/wp-content/uploads/yoga-meditation.jpg