It's hard to believe it, but 6 months have gone already. It feels like I started just a few weeks ago, but it's been 183 days. I'm averaging 68 minutes a day, mostly practising in the morning. The chart shows that my favourite session is 90 minutes long; I know that I tend to "only" do 45 minutes when my day is rushed, so apparently I've only had 37 busy days in the last 6 months! It'll be interesting to see how this little chart changes in the coming 818 days.

So, you must be dying to read about the effects of my six months of daily asana practice! As ever, it's hard to put it into words. The effects are tangible but subtle, and are difficult to separate from my daily Sudarshan Kriya practice (which is still going after 3.5 years). In Sri Sri Yoga, the asanas are practised in a meditative way. Thus, I've found that they enhance the effects of the Sudarshan Kriya. To be honest, it's impossible to factor out the individual contributions of Sudarshan Kriya and the asanas to my state of mind. All I can say is that my sense of mental wellbeing is enhanced by adding the asanas to my daily practice.

The effects on my physical health are much more obvious. My flexibility and core strength have improved greatly. I've really noticed this during the long hours of digging I've been doing, creating a large vegetable patch in the back garden! Many weeks of longs days have been spent digging a metre down, and then sifting the earth back into the hole to remove all of the rocks and rubbish. I did this once before about 5 years ago, and I had lots of lower back pain as well as pain in the legs, hips, neck and shoulders. This time... no pain. My whole body feels comfortable and at ease.

The other unexpected benefit is the effect it's had on my immune system. I've always been a little susceptible to colds; perhaps no more than other people, but I'd get 2 or 3 a year. In the last 6 months, I've been around people with nasty colds, at work and at home. The strange thing is that I haven't caught them, or at least they haven't taken hold. Sometimes I've felt like I was about to get ill - a bit of a headache, feeling lethargic - but a day or two later the feeling would be gone. Who knows if it's related?! Yoga is claimed to improve the immune system, and that's been my experience so far.

Let's see what the next 6 months bring. In sum, feeling great and still going with the challenge!