So, you’ve gotten into yoga but are having a hard time keeping your practice.
We’ve all been there.
You get this surge of motivation to just dive in and usually give up after a couple of days from overwhelming yourself.
We’re here to help that not happen to you again. In this article, we’ll list 9 tips for maintaining your yoga practice every day.
1. Start as small as you need to
10 minutes to 1 hour per day is said to be ideal for yoga.
Attending 2-3 classes per week is better than attending 1 per day then quitting after a couple of months.
If you still don’t feel like you can commit that much, try at least 1 class per week. Most people should be able to at least commit to that, but I can tell you I’m not most people haha.
When I started yoga, my life was so busy at the time. I felt like I couldn’t commit to anything. I really wanted to start doing yoga, so I lowered the bar. I honestly only did 1 yoga pose at home per day for about a week. This pose was warrior pose. I recommend of course to start with easier poses if you’re starting at home. This was enough to make me excited to do yoga & helped form the habit. I quickly added in a few more poses, then it wasn’t long before I started attending yoga classes. I started going once per week, and now usually go 4 times per week. It’s probably best for you to do drop in yoga at first. Once you’re used to the routine you can look into prepaying for classes to help save you money.
Remember, don’t dive into a complex multi-level yoga class right in the beginning.
You need to build knowledge and experience as a beginner like any skill first. Try and look at yoga as a marathon, not a sprint.
2. Find an accountability buddy
Having an accountability buddy is a perfect way for you to…well keep you accountable.
Ideally, this would be one of your close friends or family that is already into yoga, so you don’t need to worry about them flaking too.
If nobody you know is into yoga already, find somebody you know who usually follows through with what they say they’re going to do.
Another route is to find an accountability buddy online. A great place that I recommend is “The Miracle Morning” Facebook group. This group was formed with the book “The Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod.
It’s an amazing read, by the way, more on that later. This group has over 212,000 members. You’ll never be short of finding an accountability buddy that lines up with your goals and time zone.
3. Remind yourself why you started
Often when we start a new habit, we forget why we started in the first place.
Sit down and have an insightful meditation session.
Ask yourself why you started. This may be easy for you to remember, but maybe not.
From this meditation, you may realize that your reason for wanting to continue is different.
I can tell you, originally the only reason I wanted to start doing yoga was to get a 6-pack. This quickly changed when 2 things happened.
- I didn’t realize how hard getting and maintaining a 6-pack was, and
- after I shaved my hairy stomach, (eww gross) I realized I already had a nice flat tummy. It was just my hair that was making me look not as thin as I’d like to.
Moving forward, great reasons to keep doing yoga are stress relief, pain management, ability to better deal with difficult people and situations, lower blood pressure, and living longer.
There are many more reasons why one would want to start or keep doing yoga. Those are just the main ones I can think about.
4. Meditation
Meditating and yoga go pretty hand in hand.
Meditation is a great way to relax before starting a yoga session.
Again, if you’re struggling with this, start with 1 mindful breath per day & work your way to at least 5 minutes per day.
This is so you can get the many health benefits from meditation.
I’d recommend up to 1 hour per day of meditation, but it takes quite some time to work your way there. You may just be too busy too.
Meditation also helps train you to follow your breath. This leads us to our next point.
5. Breathing
Following your breath is essential to getting the most out of your yoga session. You want to be able to center yourself while doing yoga. Being mindful of your breath is so important as it helps you live in the present moment.
This is often the hardest part of yoga to overcome. I still struggle on some days to be mindful of my breath while aligning it to my every pose.
6. Creating a nice environment
If you prefer to do yoga at home, have a hard time affording classes, or simply do it on your days away from the studio.
Creating a calming and positive environment can help motivate and center you.
Even if you are planning to always attend yoga classes, it’s still a great idea to do so for a meditation room.
I know from experience that space is sometimes an issue. Living in a studio apartment can be tricky aha. What I did was section off a part of the room near my window. I don’t do anything else in this area except for yoga and meditation.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money either. All I did was have a framed photo of my parents holding me as a baby with a $10 lucky bamboo plant and a little buddha I purchased online for around $10 as well on a short table I already had.
It’s always nice coming home from a stressful day at work when you know you have your quiet space right there to ease your mind.
7. Having a routine
Having a routine is one of the most important things in life if you want to live a fulfilled one. There’s a reason why most highly successful people boast about their morning routine.
This can be tricky for some. Time is always an issue, especially when starting something new.
Going back to The Miracle Morning book by Hal Elrod, I learned an amazing morning routine from this.
It’s called Life SAVERS. This stands for Silence (meditation or prayer), affirmations (or what I prefer, declarations), visualization (not only what your goals are, but how you’ll achieve them), exercise (which of course includes yoga), reading, and scribing (journaling).
This routine may seem quite overwhelming at first. The author of the book realized this issue, so he stated that you can do this routine in as little as 6 minutes. These 6 minutes would be divided between the 6 different sections for 1 minute each. Then, once you get used to the routine, slowly add more time. I recommend of course to add time to silence (meditation) and exercise (yoga) first.
I was on a 119-day streak, missed the routine for 18 days from health reasons, and am on day 74 today. This routine has changed my life entirely by reducing anxiety and depression while increasing motivation and determination.
8. Eating a healthy & balanced diet
This probably comes as no surprise. It’s true what your mother told you about eating your vegetables.
Eating fresh food will make you feel more alive (because the food is alive???) and you’ll just generally feel better mentally, physically, and spiritually.
I used to have a big issue with eating fast food every day. It started by hanging out at the mall after playing Pokemon Go at the park. The other people getting food and the smells were often too hard to resist. I ended up taking nutrition as a credit in college. This helped me make a solid change. The most important thing I learned was that if you plan on quitting something, you need to replace it was something equal. Also, a tip from a personal finance book I read was to leave your wallet at home. I have a cardholder on my phone which I only carry my bus pass, health card & drivers license.
Fast food is causing a health epidemic is most countries. The biggest things for me was wraps & soda. I ended up replacing the wraps by bringing baby carrots & cold cut sandwiches (easier to store than wraps). Then, I replaced the soda with mio/crystal light. I slowly began to get used to plain water, now it seems that’s about all I drink unless I’m rewarding myself for something.
Candy and pastries can be an issue too. I’d recommend replacing the candy with highly sweet fruit like kiwis or mangos. The sugar/carbs in fruit are healthy carbs and will improve your energy levels. For the pastries, I recommend making your own. There are a lot of amazing recipes online that teach you how to make healthy but tasty pastries from your home kitchen. Many of these recipes are simple and cheap to make. This will also help grow delayed gratification as you’re only able to eat pastries you made already.
If you’re struggling with creating a balanced diet for yourself, look online at foods you’d love to make.
Also, browsing the outside isles of the grocery store can help you find some real food that looks tasty to you. Try things out, experiment! It took me more than 6 months to find a balanced diet of food I’m not too lazy to make that I salivate over.
9. Finding a fitting yoga studio/teacher
Lastly, but one of the more important notes is finding a studio/teacher that fits you. This will definitely motivate you to practice yoga more often….
Yoga instructors are there to help you, but sometimes personalities just line up better than others. Your environment is an important factor too. Doing yoga in a room that is furnished in a Zen manner is a lot more welcoming than a plain white room with some yoga equipment in the corner.
Having a great instructor can do a world of wonder for you. It’s important to find an instructor that understands you. A good instructor will help you modify poses if you’re not capable of doing the original pose. They will never judge you, and you shouldn’t need to worry about your classmates judging you either.
Finding a fitting teacher shouldn’t be very hard. When you’re just starting out, try a drop in at all the closest yoga studios to you and decide which one you’d like to stick with.
Well, that about wraps up our top 9 tips for maintaining a yoga practice every day. If you enjoyed this post, share it with your friends and family. I’m sure it’ll have a positive impact on their lives like it did yours.
If you have any questions or wish to share your story, post below as we’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for taking time out of your day to read our post.
Namaste
The yoganum family
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