How to Work Yoga into Your Daily Life
They say that it takes 30 days to build a habit. Of course, it changes depending on the person, but the fact is that nothing happens overnight and it takes time and effort to truly build a habit. Many people used quarantine as a time to build on new hobbies and learn new talents, but many of us did not. If not, that’s totally ok! There’s always time to start and with the sun shining and the weather warming, there are even more opportunities for you to finally work yoga into your daily routine.
Establish A Goal
Before anything else, you first must ask yourself a few questions. What are you looking to gain out of this? What goals or aspirations do you hope to achieve on this journey? Is it to get in better shape, lose weight, build muscles? Or maybe it’s a more spiritual reason, building a greater connection to your mind and body, maybe to the earth itself. Whatever that reason may be, set a clear intention in your mind or on paper to remind yourself why it is you are beginning this journey
Set a Plan
Once you have set clear intentions for yourself, it is time to start planning. Is this a journey you would like to take alone? If that’s the case, will you be practicing at home or in a park? If so, how do you plan to teach yourself? YouTube videos? Online classes? Or maybe you’re going to make up your own routine of poses and stretches that target the areas of yourself you’re most interested in. Perhaps, you would prefer to take a class with other beginners, so that you can all learn and grow together. Any of these choices are feasible options, it just depends on your personal preference.
Schedule
Some people form a plan in their heads and jump right into it. If that’s you, Great! But for many of us it can be difficult to jump into something new and foreign to us, sometimes slow and steady really will win the race. All people are different, and I've learned from personal experience that if I get too excited about the prospect of a new hobby, I'll throw all my time and energy into it the first few days, only to lose momentum and completely abandon it before I could really take off. I wouldn’t take the time to sit down and go through these steps, setting a plan and intentions for myself.
Maybe practicing yoga every single day is too daunting for you, maybe you just don’t have the time. We’ve all gotta start somewhere, maybe that’s one time a week for 10 minutes. And after two weeks that can become 30 minutes. After another few weeks you can add in another day, maybe even two. Whatever you choose to do, realize that this isn’t going to be completely natural to you, at least not in the beginning. You must do what feels right to you and learn what your body and soul needs. This is not a competition, and the only thing you can gain to lose is your motivation.