This grainy, not the most flattering, post-workout picture fills me with excitement, joy, and a little pride.

My yoga journey in general since returning home from treatment has been difficult. I had to build back strength after a long period of exercise restriction. On top of that, EDS has made the process painful. My joints have been very unstable. That means I have to be careful with yoga or I could dislocate a joint. All of this means it has been a slow process of rebuilding.

I have been working on getting to crow for months. That involves a ton of frustration because of struggles I am facing. Some days I just gave up after one attempt. I couldn’t get the perfect mixture of alignment, focus, and strength. Even a week ago I could barely go a few seconds without falling back down. Today I went a full minute!

Meeting this goal is significant enough to post at 2 am. The way that it’s impacted me means so much more. I am allowing myself to feel a little bit proud of my body for helping me reach it. This has nothing to do with size, weight, or imperfections. I can look at accomplishing crow pose as proof that my body isn’t all bad.

This is what little steps toward recovery look like