Should I Do ’40 Days’? (And, What is ’40 Days’?)

Yes, to the first question. (If you don’t feel like reading the whole blog post, you can stop right now and just refer to the first word.)

I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of many (I think 10 or more!) 40 Days Programs and I hope that what I have to share will make your curious enough to give it a try. If you’ve already participated before, consider doing the program again because each and every time you’ll find something different.

What is the 40 Days to a Personal Revolution Program?
– Yoga Practice- 6 days per week, 1 day rest (home practices count too)
– Daily Meditation- begin with a few minutes a day, building up the time each week
– Inquiry- Read the accompanying book; each week has a theme and corresponding questions for you to journal on for yourself.
– Nutrition- An opportunity to develop more awareness of how you are nourishing your body and how it makes you feel. Where are the opportunities to improve?
– Weekly Group Wellness Meeting- Each Sunday the group will meet to discuss/ work through some aspect of the program. Meetings are organic and driven by individual experience.

My first involvement in the 40 Days Program was after I completed teacher training. I wanted to learn how to be a facilitator, so my teachers invited me to attend the first group wellness meeting. Instead of sitting on the sidelines and ‘observing’ the way I had planned, they included me as a participant. This is actually a great metaphor for the program as a whole.

The 40 Days Program is an invite to more fully and bravely participate in our own lives. It’s a chance to wake up to our habits and patterns we may not even notice and also see where we’re sitting on the sidelines ‘observing’ instead of playing in the game of our life. In my case, I noticed a number of gaps between what I knew I wanted and what was actually happening. As we say in Baptiste yoga- that’s the good news! What I chose to do with that information was up to me, but the first step is to actually see those patterns and habits.

This is a unique opportunity to take a step outside yourself and look at the big picture of your life. As it’s said- we can’t see the picture when we’re standing in the frame. The program addresses our wellness on every level and I can’t think of something more important than that or a better investment of our time and energy. There are basic practices to implement as much as you can and within that, it’s really an individual experience. Each and every time I’ve participated I learned something new and feel like I stepped up into a better place. The best part is that everyone else is interested and invested in the same thing. There’s an amazing momentum and camaraderie among the group at meetings and within the studio which helps move everyone forward even though we’re all getting something different from the program.

Many students are concerned that they can’t commit to every meeting or the full amount of practices because of outside obligations. It’s OK. Do the best you can (while keeping yourself accountable) and you’ll get what you’re supposed to out of the program.

One of my favorite teachers used to say ‘You don’t know what you don’t know, and that is where we’ll be working’. It didn’t make much sense to me at the time because of course, I knew myself (I’ve lived with myself my whole life) and the world around me, right? Not surprisingly, she was correct. There was (and still is) so much more learning and possibility available when I’m up for doing the work to see it. The 40 Days Program is an opportunity to do that work and discover something bigger for yourself. Ready? Yes, you are.

xo Jen

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