Divine Berner Intervention

Every Saturday morning I get the chance, I go to a Bikram Yoga class. It's the kind of yoga where you hold static poses, challenging all your muscle groups, yet it's also an intense cardio workout. And yes, it is in a room that is heated to 106 degrees. And you are there for 90 minutes.
I think it is insanely hard, that's why I like it. Compared to any other workout I've ever done, this is by far the most challenging. I think it is this way because more than 50% of the battle is with yourself. So far, every time I go to class, there is some point when that voice in my head says, "Why am I here torturing myself again?! I can't wait to get out of here!" But of couse, I am always thrilled with the results after finishing each class. And now I have a secret weapon. Riley helps me through.
A couple of weeks ago, the instructor suggested a strategy to help us recover from a difficult posture. She is wonderfully helpful in encouraging us through the insane workout. Between each set of postures, you get to rest for a few seconds. Typically during this time, you are swearing to yourself that you could have done it better, or that it is ridiculously hard and you want to run out of the room, or maybe you can sneak out to the bathroom to take a quick break. The majority of thoughts center around self-criticism or quitting. It is human nature. However, it is terribly distracting. How to turn off this ever present criticizing commentary in your head? Visualize something that always makes you smile. So the first thing that pops into my head is Riley's smiling face. And sure enough between each difficult posture, I picture his happy grin, which makes me grin, which then helps me forget how horribly bad I was at the last posture. Then I'm in a much more positive mood to try the next posture. It works! That's Divine Berner Intervention!