How I (Finally) Achieved a Daily Yoga Practice
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I have done yoga every day so far this year! It sounds good when I write it that way. : )
Or how about - I've done yoga for 62 consecutive days!
Here's the kicker. It's been easy. Effortless. A pleasure.
It has also been a long time coming. During that time I have practised in a lot of different settings. With books and videos. Classes at the gym. Classes at the community centre. Hot yoga classes. I've done yoga in hotel rooms. At the beach. In a swimming pool. With knitting needles. On a chair.
I've tried intense, very disciplined approaches to yoga. I've tried gentle versions. I've practised yogilates. I've done yoga high. A lot.
Nothing stuck. Sooner or later I'd loose my groove, fall off the apple cart, and wake up one morning, sore and depressed and realize I hadn't rolled out my mat in a month. And begin again.
Understand that I am not saying that you have to practice yoga daily. Yoga is good whenever you practise and we all approach it for our own reasons. For me, a daily practice helps me to be the person I want to be - a stronger, calmer person who is more open to life.
Which brings me to the present. After two months of daily yoga sessions, I feel generally amazing, have visible muscles that weren't there before, deal more capably with difficult situations and I've lost weight. I like myself more.
So what has made this possible? Yoga With Adriene is creating monthly playlists of her yoga videos, supplemented with a new video every Sunday. I can roll out my mat, select the video recommended for that day and begin. There is lots of room within her videos to consider what your particular body needs and she encourages paying attention to that.
For some reason, being led in practice helps me and, to be honest, my ego struggles with that. The Type A me wants to be Kino MacGregor lifting masterfully up into handstand between Downward Dog and Forward Fold as I gracefully execute the Primary Ashtanga Series. I've let that go, though, because this is so clearly the right thing for me right now.
One of these days, I am not going to do yoga. When that happens, I will have to recognize that only my ego is attached to the idea of practice everyday. Missing a day doesn't mean the whole thing is over.
Now, about Yoga With Adriene. Why her? I could try to tell you. But why don't you see for yourself?
Do this video. The one below. Just do it. It is approachable for a variety of fitness and experience levels and it is soooo soothing.
Please try it. No disaster required. And if you do, tell us about your experience below.
Happy Saturday, Steemians. Let's create some good juju today.
Good job ! That must feel great to do... maybe someday I will know that feeling LOL!
This is really an encouraging article and so I included it in my Yoga Curation Update. Hope it helps!
https://steemit.com/yoga-trail/@yoga-trail/yoga-curation-update-saturday-march-3rd-2018
Thanks, @yoga-trail, for the mention on your post! Regular practice does feel great but the only thing that matters is the yoga you practise today. One session at a time.
I've been going for a year, too, but a year as in 365 days. 🙂 I committed myself to practicing daily around this time last year because my Kundalini yoga teacher training was coming up. In Kundalini yoga, daily practice is a major, major deal. In Kundalini yoga we have an understanding that doing a specific meditation or kriya for a set amount of days does certain things.
40 days: Change a habit.
90 days: Confirm the habit.
120 days: You are the new habit.
1,000 days: Mastery of the new habit.
This is a really big part of what we do. I think what has really kept me going for a year is dedicating myself to prosperity meditation. It's only three minutes long. I made a dtube video about it
I recently found out about the Japanese practice of Kaizen, which means when you want to change something in your life, you start doing it for ONE minute every single day. And the reason for this is that everyone can always do something for one minute a day, and this creates a habit. And habits are very, very powerful to humans.
So I sort of owe my daily practice to a three minute meditation. Three minutes is so do-able. But also, if you have committed yourself to a specific practice, and you're 15 or 25 days into a 40 day commitment, ain't no way you're gonna throw it away by not practicing one day, because you have to start all over again back at one the next day.
Wow! Congratulations on a full year. That is impressive.
I like that breakdown of days in relation to habit. It gives me incentive to double down for 90 days.
Kaizen sounds interesting. I am going to investigate.
Thanks for reading and fabulous comment!
I will check out Yoga With Adriene - thanks! I have this problem - will do yoga religiously for a week or two but then stop for a few days and that starts a trend of NOT doing it which, as we know, just feels bad. Right now I'm in that "not doing" trend so your post is an inspiration to get back on the DOING trend. Oh and btw, have you ever seen Meghan Currie on utube? Watching her do yoga is a sensuous experience: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmOoyhqNunErEl-AG8kw34w
You're right. Once you miss a day, it becomes more likely you will miss the next. I'm happy the post inspired you to practice today.
You are right about Meghan Currie! A whole new approach to yoga for me.
Thanks for reading!
Consider me impressed, I've been so spotty on yoga, but I do enough that I've been feeling considerably better :) sometimes I mess around on the mat while watching Mila
Thanks! Did you try the video? Come on and try it. Consider this peer pressure. : )
Alright I'll do it I'll do it!
Yayyyyy!
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