Warrior’s Edge Training Grounds
The training grounds are where warriors learn how to face the battles head-on. Where can you grow in your practice today?
Mindfulness vs. Meditation: Why the Difference Matters
People use the words mindfulness and meditation interchangeably all the time.
Good news: They’re not the same thing.
Bad news: They share enough similarities that it’s incredibly easy to confuse them.
Understanding the difference changes what you’re actually trying to accomplish—not just when you sit down to meditate, but every time you step onto your yoga mat or move through your day.
Think of it this way:
Day 20: When My Body Stopped Listening
I had to carry twenty-one push-ups into the makeup round, which, on previous days, didn’t feel as impossible as it did today, when I wasn’t sure I could even do one more.
This wasn’t the first time I’d battled difficult moments in my head since starting this challenge. “I don’t want to,” “This is getting hard,” and “Can I really do this?” became staples in my thoughts.
Usually, my body and mind caught up to each other and worked through whatever I faced together.
Today was different.
Day 17: I Needed a Savasana
“I need a Savasana.”
Those were the first words out of my mouth after today’s 30-Day Push-Up Challenge workout.
For a yoga teacher, it felt strangely appropriate. Savasana isn’t just about lying down. It’s about allowing your body and your mind to absorb everything that just happened.
Apparently, I needed that more than I realized.
Day 15: The Intervals Give Me Hope
Today changed my entire view on the 30-Day Push-Up Challenge.
The push-ups didn’t get any easier—I’m not sure they ever will, despite how many I do—but, for the first time, they felt possible.
Going into Day 15, I wasn’t completely sure introducing intervals was the right decision. I hoped it was.
Honestly, I needed it to be.
Day 13: Why Am I Still Doing This?
When I woke up this morning, I was dangerously close to shutting down the whole 30-Day Push-Up Challenge.
Not because I physically couldn’t do another workout, but simply because I didn’t want to.
I questioned my motives, got caught up in my head about no one else doing it with me or caring about the videos, and it all suddenly became a burden I wasn’t sure I wanted to carry. I know I created this and did this to myself, for myself, but today I wondered if any of it was actually worth continuing.
Especially since I’m not even sure I can actually make it to the end yet.
Day 12: The First Day I Failed to Finish on Time
Today was the first day in the 30-Day Push-Up Challenge that I didn’t finish within the allotted time.
When the timer ended, I still had four push-ups left.
Oddly enough, I wasn’t upset. Not because I don’t care about the rules.
But because I’d already decided what the rules were.
Day 11: The Day I Predicted People Would Quit
Long before this challenge began, I had circled Day 11 in my head. Combined with the slow rise until the challenge really gets tough, mixed with this day being the day you realized just how tough it’s going to be, made me believe it would be the day most people would quit.
The novelty would be gone. The push-ups would finally start to feel heavy. The finish line would still be so far away that it almost wouldn’t seem worth chasing anymore.
Then Day 11 arrived…and I became exactly the person I had predicted.
Day 9: The first time I failed a push-up
Today, I failed a push-up for the first time in the 30-Day Push-Up Challenge.
My arms gave out as I was pressing back up, and I collapsed face-first into the floor.
And then I laughed.
Honestly, there was something strangely comforting about it.
Day 5: Is this challenge ever going to get hard?
Five days in, and I keep waiting for this 30-Day Push-Up Challenge to punch me in the face.
So far, it hasn’t.
That’s not to say the workouts have been effortless. Push-ups and I have never exactly been friends, which is part of the reason I started this challenge in the first place. But Day 5 arrived and…I feel fine.
For now.
The Warrior’s Edge Pyramid Push-Up Challenge: A 30-Day Journey to Strength
I hate push-ups.
An odd thing to say, I know, given the announcement of a 30-day pushup challenge that will take us on a journey of grit, consistency, and community.
So why the hell am I doing this to myself?
Why you don’t feel better after your practice (and what you can do about it)
We’re used to being good at things. Or at least getting good quickly. And when we don’t, we either push harder or check out completely. Yoga doesn’t really reward either of those approaches.
And that’s usually where the disconnect starts.
Corpse Pose (Savasana)
Savasana is often treated as the reward at the end of practice, but in many ways, it is the practice.
After the strength of Plank, the discipline of Warrior, the fire of Dragon, and the balance of Half Moon, Savasana asks you to stop doing anything and just receive.
This is where effort becomes wisdom.
Yoga for Grief: Acceptance | Presence, Awareness, and Continuation
The last thing you’re likely thinking about during your grief process is anything to do with joy or happiness. Depending on where you are in your journey, you may be more willing to move forward toward that sense of healing. You also may not, which is equally okay, but it’s what we’ll look at today anyway.
Our bodies store a lot more emotions than we think or give them credit for, particularly in our hips. Many people feel emotional after a deep yin practice because they’ve awakened emotions they otherwise considered dormant. Awaken all the good, bad, and ugly within you.
Half Moon (Ardha Chandrasana)
Half Moon Pose builds from the foundation of Triangle and shifts it into balance. You are no longer supported by both feet. One leg roots down while the other lifts. Your body opens wide into space. This is where structure meets instability.
Crescent Pose (Ashta Chandrasana)
Crescent Pose is where grounding meets elevation. Unlike Warrior 1, your back heel is lifted, which immediately demands more balance and engagement from your toes. You are not anchored through two flat feet. You are rising from a narrower base.
Yoga for Grief: Depression | Effort, Stillness, Surrender
Depression comes with many emotions. Maybe it makes you angry and snippy. Maybe you feel numb and like doing nothing, or that you’ll never be happy again. Maybe you feel everything all at once, or maybe you feel nothing at all. Maybe you’re just wondering why all of this is happening.
Today’s practice taps into the duality of depression, starting off with building heat and moving quickly, then slowing things down immediately and tapping into the emotions you may have blocked yourself from feeling.
Yoga for Grief: Bargaining | Heart Opening and Letting Go
When tragedy strikes, it’s easy to get wrapped up in thoughts of “why.” Why did this happen to us? Why did this happen to them? Why does this hurt so much?
On the journey toward acceptance, this is the stage where you spend the most time wishing things were different or hoping you can change what is happening to you. Wherever you are, the grief yoga practice is here for you.
Ujjayi Breath: What It Is, How to Do It, and Why It Matters
If you’re newer to yoga, “Ujjayi” becomes just another word you don’t understand. You’re moving, you’re trying not to fall out of a pose, and suddenly you’re supposed to control your breathing in a very specific way? And, at that, one that’s often encouraged to “engage,” but rarely comes with any instruction on how to do so?
Like most things in yoga, however, once it clicks, your Ujjayi breath becomes one of the most powerful tools in your practice.
Yoga for Grief: Anger | Release, Movement, and Emotional Processing
Often, anger is the first—or at least the most predominant—emotion we recognize during the grieving process. It’s sharp. Immediate. Loud.
The anger practice in the grief series taps into that rage on the mat and helps “lash out” the feelings you’re going through. You move through punches and kicks, incorporated into your yoga poses, to tap into the rage you’re feeling, then settle back into the experience as you return to the poses and postures.
What to do when you can’t stop thinking
“Focus on your breath,” the instructor says as they guide you through a meditation. “Go deeper inward,” they encourage, but your mind is too busy racing through a thousand other thoughts.
Then comes the quiet judgment. The narrator who tells you, “I’m bad at this,” and urges you to quit.
You are not failing at meditation because you can’t stop thinking. In fact, that expectation is the problem.