Maybe you’ve made it your mission to add more movement into your 2023 by starting a yoga practice. Maybe you’re putting some conscious effort towards getting back on your mat after the weirdness that has been the past few years.
Either way – bravo! The benefits of this practice are immeasurable (that’s a topic for another post altogether!) Practicing any aspect of yoga has the potential to help you feel better, live better, and show up better in the world around you!
But let’s be real for a second: some days, you are just not going to feel like practicing. Some days the energy of moving our bodies, even for a few minutes, can feel absolutely overwhelming. The mental effort of carving out time for a meditative, introspective practice may seem nearly impossible, and insurmountable.
And so, we don’t practice. We tell ourselves we could skip just one day – “what’s the big deal?”
We might even tell ourselves: “there’s no point in doing it unless I have [insert magical amount of time here!]”
But if you’ve spent any amount of time learning about the practice of yoga, or cultivating a practice of your own, you likely know just how important consistency is, and how sticking to a regular routine can really turn the dial on your physical and emotional wellbeing.
It doesn’t have to be difficult, either! Unfortunately, we sometimes just overcomplicate things a bit for ourselves…
Something I have learned in my pursuit of a healthy, helpful routine: sometimes, it just helps to have a plan. Having to come up with what you will do, or how you will do it can add another unhelpful challenge on top of the pile of reasons you already might not be practicing! This can drive motivation down even further.
Another rule I like to live by: you can (almost) always talk yourself into 5 minutes! Maybe even 10. And often, once you’ve talked yourself into doing 5 minutes of the thing you’ve been avoiding, 5 minutes can turn into more than 5 minutes.
This is because motivation comes from action.
It’s a bit of a paradox, really. We want to wait for motivation to strike, in order to take action, but really, we need to take action in order to breed the magical, sought-after feelings of motivation.
In this post, I will describe a very simple yoga practice that you can lean on for those days when you’re feeling really sluggish or demotivated. If that doesn’t have you convinced, scroll down a little further for some bonus strategies to help you stay consistent.
If you’d rather watch the practice in video form, click here to get the recording!
The Practice:
1. Deep Breathing
Start by sitting in a comfortable position, lengthen the spine, allowing your breath to fully expand your abdominal cavity. Place a hand on your abdomen, and a hand over your heart-space. Breathe in fully and deeply through your nose, fill the body with rich oxygen; and then breathe slowly and completely out to release. Count 10 Deep breaths like this.
2. Childs Pose
Make your way into child’s pose. Knees may be together or apart, depending on what feels best for you today. Continue to breathe deeply and steadily.
3. Cat-cow
As you breathe in, drop the belly down and turn the tailbone and the eyes up – this is the “cow” part of the movement. Move in to “cat” as you exhale by arching the spine, tilting the tailbone down and gently tucking the chin. Alternate between cat and cow several times, stretching the spine. Be mindful of each movement.
4. Downward Dog
From tabletop position push into the palms, and lift the hips as you lengthen the backs of the legs. Alternate bending the knees to “pedal” the feet, if desired. Stay for at least 3 breaths.
5. Sun Salutation
Work through Surya Namaskar A three or four times to stretch all of the major muscle groups.
6. Ragdoll
End your Sun Salutation practice in a forward bend. Grab opposite elbows with the hands and try to allow the upper body to fully relax. Bend the knees slightly if there is any strain in the back of the leg. Relax in this position for several breaths.
7. Sit Quietly
Perhaps the most impactful part of your practice, make your way to comfortable seat and sit quietly in a meditation posture for 2-3 minutes. Turn the attention back towards the breath and observe any thoughts that may appear during this time, without getting too lost within them.
Sit for as long as you like, or feel able to, and then allow your practice to conclude, with gratitude towards yourself for carving out the time.
When we take time for ourselves to practice, no matter how simple or complex the poses or techniques, we create a well of calm, stability and clarity within us. We benefit from a regulated nervous system, and everyone around us benefits, too – because we are able to show up as the best version of ourselves.
The idea of motivation challenges us regularly, but remember: consistency is much more important that complexity of practice.
How to be Consistent
If you’ve made it this far – congratulations! As promised, here are my top 3 tips for staying consistent and making time for a simple self-practice, each day:
1. Start small!
Gentle movement. Deep breathing. This is the practice. Don’t over-complicate it and don’t wait until you can carve out a full hour to practice! This is the mistake so many of us make, too often. The things you do each day matter most – find some small way to bring the practices you require into your daily routine, one baby step at a time.
2. Pick things that work for you!
Pick things that feel good and work with your life & existing routine.
If you really don’t like something, maybe you’re picking the wrong habit, or maybe you’re going about it in a way that isn’t optimal for you. Either way, it’s not likely to stick if you can’t get a little bit excited about it, or if you have to make enormous changes to make it work!
If you don’t like these movements, or maybe you have an injury that prevents you from being able to move in certain ways, please feel welcome to pick different movements or different practices. There are other breathing and mindfulness techniques that can be used instead, too. If you need advice on substitutions, feel free to reach out to me! The key is to have a plan, and keep it simple. In the same way as you pick the movements that are best, also consider the time within your day that makes it the most manageable to create a consistent habit that you can do every day, (or almost every day!)
3. What you measure, gets better!
Find some way to keep track of your habit. Each time you come to your mat, maybe you put a check mark on a calendar or a piece of paper. Maybe you use a habit tracking app (I love this one!) Whatever you choose, having a tracking mechanism in place allows you to build up consistency because you create a mini reward system, and you will want you to keep adding to those check marks!
To get this simple yoga practice in video form, and hear about these consistency tips, click here!
Namaste yogis. Keep practicing,
-M