If you start yoga but don’t stay consistent, I totally understand. That used to be me! When I first started yoga, I only did it every once in a while, if I was in the “right mood” for it or if my back had been especially bad. It was actually a couple of years later that I became consistent and started practicing almost every day. The reason why I decided to become more consistent with it is because I felt benefits from randomly doing yoga and therefore, I wanted to see how much more I would feel those benefits if I started doing it regularly. Let’s just say a few months into it I felt such a strong change that I signed up for Yoga Teacher Training!! Do you want to know how I stayed consistent over a year later?
1. I knew my “why”
2. I made a commitment to myself, and I shared that goal with someone
3. I had a routine
1. Having a reason to do something is very powerful. I knew why I wanted to do yoga every day, and I kept reminding myself why. I still remind myself why every single morning when my alarm goes off and I would like to stay in my comfortable warm bed for x more minutes instead of getting up to do yoga. By reminding myself that I feel better for the rest of the day when I do yoga, I know it’s worth getting up for it. I tell myself that although I may be chilly getting out of bed, yoga will warm me up quickly and soon I’ll even be sweating. Even though I’m tired, my yoga flow will give me so much more energy than those extra x minutes in bed. Those are just a few of my “why”s. What are your “why”s? Know them. Know them well. Write them down so they get etched in your brain. Repeat them to yourself every day, and especially when you don’t feel like doing it.
2. Now that you know why you want to stay consistent, promise yourself that you will actually keep going with it! Making that promise to myself not only helped me to start my yoga journey, but it also kept me going to my mat every time instead of putting it off for another day. I acted as though that promise was to somebody else, and I wouldn’t want to disappoint that person, so I also didn’t want to disappoint myself. To keep myself even more accountable, I shared my commitment with my husband. I told him that I was going to be doing yoga for at least x minutes every day (or you could do it every other day, 3 times a week…. whatever your goal is!).
I asked him to check in on me once a day and ask if I had done it yet. When he asked me, I felt proud of myself when I said yes! When I said “not yet”, I didn’t feel ashamed or guilty, but it did motivate me to go do it. By telling him, it made me more accountable to myself but I also told him to gently nudge me to go to my mat if I hadn't done it by the time he got home from work. I also posted a picture on social media of myself doing yoga every day. This wasn’t necessarily to have other people see it, but it was another form of accountability because I let “the world” know that I was doing it, and I didn’t want to fail. I put it out there. I knew people probably didn’t care. I didn’t expect anyone to notice if I missed a day or two, but I knew people might notice if all of a sudden I stopped posting those photos. That motivated me to keep going, even if I knew probably nobody cared. Even more importantly, having those photos to look back on allowed me to see that I was making huge progress even when it might not have felt that way. Seeing the difference in my abilities from the beginning to where I was that day gave me a push to keep going. You don’t have to announce or share any of this on social media if you don’t want to, but having an accountability partner or a yoga teacher who also is a coach will help you a ton!
3. Having a routine is also an incredibly important part of staying consistent. Know at what point during the day you are most likely to show up for yourself. This could be first thing in the morning, right before leaving the house, during your lunch break, when you get home from work, or right before bed. Think about if you’re a morning person or a night person. I’m a morning person, so first thing in the morning works best for me. It's when I have the most energy and when I am the most motivated. Here’s a few other reasons why you may want to do yoga first thing in the morning even if you’re a night person. You won’t be distracted by the millions of things you need to do before the day is over. After you finish yoga, you still have all day to accomplish those tasks. On the other hand I find that when I plan to do yoga later in the day, I literally never do it because I have other things on my to-do list that need to get done first, or I’m tired, or I’m hungry, or I’ll do it before bed (but then I fall asleep on the couch watching tv instead). Long story short, I end up making excuses all throughout the day. Although they may be important and valid excuses, they still keep me from my goal of doing yoga regularly, so I do it right away before I fill my day with other things. Yoga in the morning also speeds up your metabolism for the rest of the day, gets your blood flowing to muscles that have just been laying still in bed for hours, increases your energy level, and leaves you feeling accomplished because you already did something productive and
healthy that day. Like with other forms of exercise, doing yoga in the morning creates a chain reaction for making healthier decisions for the rest of the day. Personally, I notice that I try to walk more steps and eat healthier on days that I do yoga in the morning. It starts your day in a healthy mindset. For some people, getting up earlier to do something just isn’t realistic. Working out after you get home from work or after dinner may be the best time for you to stay consistent with your routine. Yoga before bed can be incredibly relaxing and may be best for you if you are trying to increase the quality or duration of your sleep. (Just make sure you’re doing yoga designed for bedtime otherwise it may give you a ton of energy.) If you aren’t sure which time of the day works best for you, try each possibility for a week and see which one is the best fit. No matter what time you prefer, the best time to do yoga is the time that you will actually keep coming back to do it. If it’s too hard to do it in the morning, don’t make it harder by telling yourself you have to do it first. Whenever you choose to do yoga, set a specific time and stick with it. Schedule it into your day. Write it down or put it in your phone calendar. Make that commitment as if it is a doctor’s appointment. Doing it at the same time will help you form a habit, and it will get easier every time you do it.
These 3 ways have helped me to stay consistent with yoga for more than a year and a half. I do have days where I skip it for one reason or another, but most days I stick with it. Now when I do skip a day, I feel it. My body isn't as loose or energized, and I am typically more anxious that day. These feelings reinforce my "why". It shows me that doing it every day does make a difference in the way I feel, and that motivates me to keep going. Missing a day means I look forward to the next day when I get back on my mat and feel so much better. If you do miss a day or fall out of the rhythm, don't feel guilty. Reconnect with your "why", make that promise to yourself again and share that promise with someone else, and then schedule it back into your routine. You'll fall back into the rhythm in no time!
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