40 days and yoga for sleep

With my third 40 days to personal revolution in week two I'm already starting to struggle with completing all the daily aspects of the program.  For those of you who aren't familiar with 40 Days its a program developed by Barron Baptiste designed to transform the body and the mind.  The 40 day program consists of:

• Yoga practices 6 days a week, with one day of rest
• Twice a day meditation with the amount of time spend meditating increasing each week
• Dietary awareness, with an optional three day fruit cleanse
• Weekly meetings 

The first forty days I did I was stressed out beyond belief trying to get everything done (and maintain a full time job!) The result was that after it was finished I was burnt out and not enjoying my yoga practice anymore.  

They say third times a charm and thats what I'm going for with this forty days.  Instead of cursing under my breath, fighting traffic, and stressing out about whether or not I'll make it to the yoga studio in time I've decided to let go of the expectation that I have to spend all 6 days in the studio and embrace the idea of bringing yoga into my life in a way that excites me.  I love my practices in the studio, but sometimes life gets in the way and taking care of myself means that what I really need is something else.  

One of my favorite ways to get both my home practice and nightly meditation practice in is to do them both before I go to bed.  With my type A mind running a million miles a minute all the time a yoga practice before bed has helped me fall asleep faster, and stay asleep.  

I tend to focus on a slower yoga practice where I hold the poses for a few minutes each. I start on the floor, sometimes doing a few slow Sun A's and then working into deeper stretches.  I typically end my practice on my bed with an inversion up the wall.  Once I'm done with my poses I settle in for my meditation.  Every night I vary the poses I do depending on what my body feels like it needs.  

Yoga Journal has a sequence that I like to pull poses from here:  
http://www.yogajournal.com/slideshow/15-poses-help-sleep-better/

By adapting the 40 days program to my life in this way I'm finding that I'm enjoying it a lot more and ultimately getting more out of it than I have before....and I'm sleeping better!

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