24 Days of Ashtanga

Where do I begin?

I've had an on again, off again relationship with many things, my sadhana, yoga, Spanish, but this post isn't about that. This post is about my fluctuating relationship with Ashtanga. 

Since 2012, I have been attempting to gain traction with her and develop a 6 days a week practice. Of course, starting with the primary series. But to no avail. I've challenged myself to start and would do well for a while and then stop. Pick it back up for a few days and stop for weeks. Pick it up for a few weeks and stop for months. And the cycle would continue up to this very moment, 11:08 am on the morning of June 17th, 2015. I've taken workshops, gone to led classes, Mysore classes and nothing has catapulted me into consistency. Which brings me to this. None of it will. It has to be me.

Flashback to a few days ago, when a group/community I believe myself to be a part of  posted an article written by Kacey Yoga, another Ashtanga practitioner who has decided to challenge herself and get on the mat more this year. In this posting she simply said this,

"In January, I decided to quit fucking around I made a conscious decision to dedicate myself to my practice. I reduced the amount of toxins I was putting into my system and made myself take practice every day. No excuses.

Even if it was just 1 sun salutation, it was practice.
No quantifying, no qualifying. No assessment/judgement/evaluation of it. I. Just. Showed. Up."

*You can find the original article here.*

That hit me so hard. I needed to stop messing around and just get on my mat. My only goal right now needs to be to get on my mat, no matter what that may look like, no matter what may follow. I don't need to focus so much on alignment, or number of breaths or BANDHAS or speed or pace or going all the way up to Marichyasana D. I just need to FREAKING show up and quit making excuses. Just like Kacey, even its 1 Surya A that's AWESOME, because it will be more than what my past has done and that's NOTHING. 

So with all of that, I've decided to give myself a mini-challenge of 24 days of Ashtanga building up to 6 days a week and observing moon days, rest days and holidays. I chose 24 because they say it takes 21 days to make something a habit and I'm adding 3 days for good measure, to make sure that habit sticks. I will be publishing a blog post with a pic for each day that I complete. Upon completion of 24 days, I get to treat myself to something relevant and useful to my practice whether it is a pair of new yoga shorts, yoga books, money for Mysore classes and gas to drive to Dallas or a special workshop, but something to be like, "Yeah, you did that." And then possibly following up with another challenge like 50 days or 100. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, I'm only worried about one thing, getting on my mat for the next 24 days. 

Will you join me? Do you have a particularly yoga "goal" you want to achieve? A stumbling block that you want to break down?