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!
Maria I struggle with this sooo much. Like you, I drop yoga and meditation first, rather than admit I’m overwhelming myself. And it all goes downhill from there! I’m finding that, as it’s now so cold in the morning, it’s almost impossible for me for practice first thing, so I’m starting to switch to meditation first thing in the morning (wrapped in tons of blankets!) and then asana practice either late morning or early evening. Can’t say I’ve got a 100% record but being flexible with the what and the when does seem to help. xoxo
We all go through this. Last week running back and forth to see my Mom I was so tired that I skipped practice and boy could I feel it in my whole body. But Sunday morning I got up and had nice long practice to get back in the swing of things. For me, the most important part of my sadhana is meditation so if I can do nothing else I do that.
I’ve never considered myself to be a morning person either but many years ago I disciplined myself to get up early to exercise and meditate. Like you said, once it’s done you’re good to go for the day.
I also take one day completely off a week, Thursdays. Dedicating one day off is as important as the days you practice. Savasana keeps us refreshed.
The Tibetan Book of Yoga says you can do yoga all day long by simply sitting up straight. Ever since I read that it has stuck in my mind and my body feels better when I take that little adjustment to make my spine long and my heart lift.
Helloooo there fellow teacher trainee! Funny thing is, between my December we and January we, our assignment will be to complete a 30-day sadhana project, meaning practice everyday in whatever shape or form we want it to take.
Truth is, I kind of already started mine :I’m doing a book report on Iyengar’s “Light on yoga” and I chose to practice the first weeks and journal every week. You could get some inspiration from a couple of his kramas depending on the time you have.
But yeah, it is definitely difficult, but I don’t want to beat myself up when I stay 3 breaths in the pose and not 10. I want to enjoy practicing, not feeling it is a chore I have to go through everyday.
Try to make the time, not just find it 🙂 (Truth is, I would love to work from home to build my own schedule and not depend on job to find out when I can practice, ugh).
Sorry for the randomness of this comment, but I’m precisely at work and shouldn’t even be reading blogs right now, so in between 2 sentences I have to get some work done 😉
Count me in as a yogini cheerleader!! Right now, I am doing waaaaaaaay more yoga than I ever have because of my YTT, but, when it is over, Dec. 12, will I fall back to old habits? I HOPE NOT but I’ll need encouragement too! So count me in. Your post is great, good thoughts. We can do it my friend!
I too am not a morning person but with a bit of effort I have managed to evolve into a morning practitioner. It’s hard work at first but eventually my body comes to crave it – even if I only have time for a downward facing dog. I think another thing we home practitioners have to get over is the expectation that our practices will be 90 minutes like in a studio class! Even 20 mins of yoga works for me to set off on my day without aches and pains.
I find meditation is harder. I procrastinate so much!! But slowly I am improving. I like to meditate in the evening before bed – it helps me sleep better if I have a clear head.
Thanks so much for these beautiful and thoughtful comments and the tips on how to keep the yoga flowing. Go #yogateam – I’ll be sure to send you all encouraging messages on twitter.
yay. you can def do it 🙂 i’d love to be part of your cheering yogateam. i’m starting a daily lovingkindess meditation and hope to practice physical yoga as often as i can. even if i just meditate for five minutes, it always make such a difference in my day. thanks for the mention. 🙂
Maria,
I SOOO relate. It is so good to have a yoga buddy to help keep you on track. I feel so lucky to have found all of our yoga-buddy-bloggers-tweeters!
B