As most of you know, I am a little yogi.

I started practicing yoga in February 2015 as a weight loss method and found it to be so much more.

Now in my daily practices, I just do it because I love it so much.

I found myself drifting away from yoga and not really ever stepping onto my mat. I had really gotten into the gym and lifting weights and yoga just seemed boring to me.

When it became summer, I was away from the gym at school and was twiddling my fingers trying to figure out how to stay in shape and also do something in my downtime.

That's when I decided to do a 30 Day Yoga Challenge.

It was an eye-opening and inspiring experience. Some days were harder than others, some days I was laughing during a practice and others I cried during the entire thing.

Through the 30 days of yoga, I learned five key things.

1. Dedication

30 days doesn't seem that long until you're on day 17 and just want to be done. I did miss three days and those days I missed I ended up not feeling as well as I did on days I practiced. I practice(d) in my room so all I had to do some days was get out of bed, roll out the mat and go, but it wasn't that easy. Once I started to just do it (shout out to Nike), it became a habit and not a chore.

2. Motivation

Making myself extremely vulnerable and open to criticism, when I practiced I recorded myself and then posted a 10-second time lapse video to my Snapchat. Why? Because it was a way I knew I was staying with my practice. I was keeping note of what I was doing, like what video I followed along with, but some days I forgot to write it down, but I never went a day without recording. It then became a thing, and I had a lot of people reaching out and telling me I inspired them and that was a great feeling.

3. Diet*

When you feel good, your life is good. Whether I started my day with yoga or did it in the afternoon or at night, I found myself making such good health decisions. I drank more water, ate healthier, and ate less processed foods. When you practice yoga, you're supposed to have an empty stomach, so I was able to learn how to spread out my meals and eat more filling meals, so I wasn't scarfing food down or starving myself.

*I could talk about diet on an entirely different post, so I'll keep this short for you all.

4. Priorities

As I said, I have a job and life so making time for yoga had to be scheduled. I found that work was taking up a lot of my time, so I made it a part of my daily routine of getting ready – I did my yoga and then showered and got ready for work. I basically was treating yoga like it was medication that I had to take at a certain time each day and that helped me stay on track.

5. Self-Love

People were supporting me so much through this entire journey. but I also had comments that made me feel uncomfortable and comments that made me feel like I was annoying people with my videos. Again, some days were fun, and I had an amazing time posting, but other days I cried and hated myself for even loving yoga. Doesn't that sound insane? I hated that I loved yoga all because one stupid comment put me over the edge on a bad day. I learned to just let it all go. I learned to give a big see ya later, hater to those that weren't bringing in positive light. I learned to love my cellulite, my belly, my arms, my legs, my stretch marks, my makeup-free face and myself.

Yoga has been in my life, and I plan to keep it in my life but this 30 Day Challenge reassured me in my decision and made me feel at peace again.

I fell back in love with yoga, and I'm so happy I did.

Namaste.