Since Sat­ur­day, I’ve been able to carve out time to go to a daily yoga class, and also put in time at the gym to build up my aer­o­bic capacity. It’s amaz­ing how a ded­i­cated exer­cise regime can improve my out­look on life.

When­ever I can string together three or four classes in a row, the cumu­la­tive effect is extra­or­di­nary, mak­ing the next class feel a lit­tle bet­ter than the pre­vi­ous one. Today, it was a Hatha Yoga class with Mary­lou McNa­mara at Thrive Yoga: it was less intense than the first three vinyasa classes and allowed me to set­tle into the poses and work on align­ment. It also helped that my daugh­ter, Stephanie, was on the mat next to me, just like in the old days.

Set­ting aside 40 days to dive deep into your practice

I’ve signed up for the 40 days of yoga and well­ness at Thrive, start­ing on Jan­u­ary 6, the first time that I’ve under­take the chal­lenge of sus­tain­ing a rig­or­ous pro­gram of six yoga ses­sions a week (a min­i­mum of three for­mal classes, the rest can be at home), plus med­i­ta­tion and other activ­i­ties. It’s based on Baron Baptiste’s 40 Days to Per­sonal Rev­o­lu­tion: A Break­through Pro­gram to Rad­i­cally Change Your Body and Awaken the Sacred Within Your Soulso I will have one and a half months to con­cen­trate on my yoga prac­tice. Thrive Yoga has offered this pro­gram once a year for the past four or five years, so it has become a kind of rite of pas­sage at the studio.