Well, I’ve managed to do it again—load up my plate with too much work, too many extracurricular activities, and still find time to spend with my family and friends. Plus, add in a little travel away from home, and, needless to say, the first thing I drop off my list is my daily yoga and meditation practice. Why is that always the first thing to go? When we get busy and stressed, yoga is probably the most important thing to keep on our to-do lists.

After a two-week period off my regular routine, I started to feel tired, sluggish, my back started to ache, and I was getting headaches. My body was going through some form of DT, and I was craving that yoga high.

I have to admit, I’ve been struggling with how much yoga I need to make each day. As part of my yoga-teacher training, one of the required reading assignments is a book titled Yoga: Mastering the Basics, by Sandra Anderson and Rolf Sovik. At the end of the book, they provide a sampler of daily practices that includes asanas, breathing exercises, and activities that you can do early morning, midmorning, midday, midafternoon, late afternoon, early evening, and before bedtime. Whaaat? I’m having trouble fitting in one session per day; there’s no way I’m going to fit in all of that into my day planner. After reading the section preceding this (yep, I’m one of those people who skips to the ending), I was relieved to know they were not suggesting I practice all day long; rather, this was a menu to select from in order to plan a daily practice. What is most important is for us to create our own sadhana—the combination of yoga disciplines that we choose and the effort we put into them.

I’m setting a new intention…somehow, some way I am going to make the time every day to make the yoga, even if it is just for a few moments to sit in silence and meditate.

So, how am I going to do it?

–          Start my day with yoga and meditation. Yes, the woman who is not a morning person is going to start her days off with exercise and meditation. If I do my practice first, there’s no way I can blow it off or cut it out when my schedule falls to crap. In the morning my mind is fresh and uncluttered, and my practice helps set the tone for the rest of the day. Plus, when I practice in the morning, I get that lasting yoga-high feeling all day long.

–          Be realistic about how much time I have. If I don’t have time for an hour or more, I’ll do a shorter class or just focus on some basic back stretches, breathing, and meditation to start my day.

–          Ask fellow yogis and yoginis from the Twitter yoga community (like I did with @lissabliss) to make a pact with me to keep up our daily practice and check in with each other for motivation. Nothing like being held accountable by a bunch of fellow tweeties!

–          Be realistic about the fact that some days it is just not going to happen, and for those days that I’m chained to my computer, I’ll do some chair yoga at my desk or meditate or chant in my car during rush hour traffic. I’m not going to beat myself up anymore if I don’t get in a full practice.

–          Take a few minutes every night before bed to stretch and meditate and, if I’m really lucky, set time aside for a yoga Nidra session.

Really, now that I think about it, I can practice yoga every day, even if I don’t find time to jump on my mat. The yoga sutras can be applied each and every day in all my activities off the mat.

I’m in yoga-teacher training, which has added to my daily demands, but I’m hopeful that when I do become a full-fledged teacher, I’m fortunate enough to have a regular schedule of classes that will also keep me focused.

Tell me how you make time each day to make the yoga, and if you would like to help be a cheerleader for me on Twitter, send me a tweet @downwarddog, and I’ll send some motivational mantras your way as well. I’m going to start using a Twitter hashtag at #yogateam to start a community of yoga lovers and supporters. Aahhhh I’m feeling a lot of love in the room already!