I once did yoga every day for 30 days straight. At the end of the experience, I felt physically stronger and mentally addicted to zoning out for an hour of sweaty poses. As I became more skilled at balancing in half moon and holding myself up in side plank, it became easier to clear my mind of thought, turning the whole class into a moving meditation culminating in a highly satisfying savasana. I credit the fact that I stuck with the 30-day challenge to one thing in particular: at the studio I attended, the teacher would come around and place an icy, wet towel scented with tea tree oil on everyone’s face as we lay in corpse pose, making the entire experience all the more worth it.
After those 30 days, I was convinced that I’d never give up yoga again. I’d loved it since high school, when my friends and I found a class at a local library and drove there each week with brand new driver’s licenses and no parents, feeling unbelievably trendy. I’d never been as dedicated to it as I wanted to be, but with these tea tree towels, I thought, I could finally get serious. Of course, like all well-meaning fitness resolutions, that wasn’t meant to be. Soon after completing the 30-day challenge, I began working in New York City, it was no longer convenient to go to my old studio, and I struggled to juggle work, events, socializing and yoga.
Fast forward to 2017. My New Year’s resolution was to get back to doing yoga as close to every day as possible, and as we enter the second week of February, I’m still going strong. I’ve been taking classes at a studio called Laughing Lotus, and my obsession has certainly been reignited. There are no cold towels, but the classes are a serious workout and the teachers take the meditation component of class seriously, playing an accordion-like instrument called the harmonium and closing long, heavy curtains for an absolutely blissful savasana.
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