2018 yoga challenge 1.3.2019

A year ago, I joined a 30-day yoga challenge, writing about it in this post. When January came to an end, I decided to make it an entire year of daily yoga practice. And I’m happy to report that I met that goal for this year, practicing every damn day for 365 days, except for 4 days – 2 of which were travel days (poor excuse!) and 2 days when I was too sick to practice.

At the 200-day mark I wrote this post. I was impressed that I’d made it 200 days! And now that I’ve practiced daily for an entire year, I’m even more impressed with myself 🙂

I know I’ll continue my yoga practice, but I’m not planning to force yoga into each day this year. And who knows? Daily actions often take an average of 66 days to become a habit, so my 365 days of practice may have turned this yogification of Rachel into another daily habit for me 🙂 A change in my neural pathways, so to speak.

This year I’m going to try and sketch every day. (Daily drawing was my very first goal in my very first post on this blog!) And just as I did with yoga, I’ll start out with a plan to draw each day in January, then see where that takes me. Ideas for how to get started with daily sketching from this Artsy article include using tools you love, being okay with mistakes, using observation and imagination, using your sketchbook instead of a camera, and thinking of your sketchbook as a trusted companion. And from another article I found at Bluprint, make drawing a daily ritual – if only for five minutes a day, try blind contour sketches and intuitive watercolor sketches, and use drawing prompts if you can’t think of anything to draw. There are tons of sketchbook ideas on the interweb!

So far, for 2019, I’ve practiced yoga each day and created a daily sketch. That’s only 3 days, but I think I can practice sketching each day, and just like my yoga practice, even if it’s only 10 minutes, it’s still a practice. And practice at anything brings improvement and growth. And maybe, just maybe, a habit!