“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
Whilst going to a public class once a week is certainly better than no yoga at all, the wonders of yoga really start to become apparent with the development of a daily practice.
This needn’t be as much effort as it might sound. Commitment to a shorter regular routine can unlock a myriad of benefits that won’t come from infrequent or irregular longer practices. If the aim of yoga is some aspect of self-transformation (even if this is just to become stronger or more flexible) then daily practice is the key to this.
Developing a daily practice allows you to:
– Notice how you feel from day-to-day, and how your yoga practice changes too.
– Avoid the need to wrestle with whether or not you will do some yoga – you just do it!
– Get the benefits of doing yoga everyday through improving your life and that of those around you.
– Have the time to explore your body and yoga, taking the time you need in postures and to focus on the things that feel of greatest benefit to you (rather than whatever is being taught in class that week).
Tips for starting a daily practice
When?
Choose a time to practise – in the morning is highly recommended for a number of reasons:
– It is unlikely that anything will have got in the way (except maybe oversleeping – but if your time for yoga is “Just after I get up” rather than 7:30am then this will never be a problem!
– You, and those around you, get the benefits of your yoga practice all day long!
– You can just add it to your morning routine along with getting out of bed, drinking a glass of water, going to the loo, putting your clothes on, having breakfast and anything else that you have already accepted as part of a ‘normal’ daily morning routine (in yoga this daily routine is called ‘Dinacharya’)
– Yoga in the morning can overcome the effects of having been sleeping and relatively still for many hours. This includes stimulating blood flow to improve oxygen delivery and remove metabolic wastes that have accumulated overnight, lubricating stiff joints by moving synovial fluid around them, helping activate the lymphatic system to strengthen the immune system, and helping to align freshly woven collagen fibres that have been laid down in the night by fibroblast cells – helping your body literally rebuild itself in a more optimal way!
How long for?
Choose a length of time for your practice that you will (generally) be able to keep to. To start with, 10 minutes is absolutely fine. The aim is to be able to ensure that you do it every day, not that you do it for a long time. If you like you can always do more yoga later in the day – this doesn’t need to be the only yoga practice you do, it is just your daily morning practice. Even if your chosen time occasionally feels too short, try to stick to the initial amount of time for 4-6 weeks – there is going to be plenty of time to do longer sessions later – remember, you are setting yourself up for doing this for the rest of your life!
If you have a ‘smart’ device, consider using Insight Timer https://www.timc.yoga/resources/#Timer
Do what?
Structure your practice with a short amount of breathing/meditation work, some asana, and always finish with savasana (Corpse pose). At least 2 minutes, and ideally around 10% of the length of your overall practice.
In your asana have a mix of very routine exercises /poses (particularly in the warmup), a middle section where you have a greater variation (either doing different things each day, or spending a week at a time working with a particular set of poses, or working on a specific part of your body (e.g. hips, shoulders, upper or lower spine, hamstrings, quads etc.)
As you begin with very short (e.g. 10 minute) practices, it is fine to do a similar practice everyday. Use the practice to recall what you might have done in class that week and/or to explore particular postures that work on things you find challenging (e.g. hips, shoulders, neck, breathing etc.). Try to have a mix of things that feel easy and relaxing and a smattering of things that might feel more of a challenge…remember, just spending the practice time lying down observing your breath is yoga! The benefit of a daily practice is that you can take things as easy or as hard as your body wants to. There is always going to be tomorrow to do something else. As long as you get to your mat and are clear in your intention that this time is your yoga practice then it does not matter what you do, and there will never be a moment wasted!
If you get to a phase where your daily practice is consistent and you feel a desire to extend the length of your practice, then try to do so evenly (e.g. extending to 15 minutes per day) or regularly (keeping to 10 minutes a day but doing 20 minutes on Tuesdays and Fridays for example). Also at this stage, consider only doing a physical, asana practice 6 days a week, and making your practice on the seventh day solely breathwork, meditation, or reading or listening to something yoga related (some suggestions are made in the resources section https://www.timc.yoga/resources ).
Developing your practice further
As you make your practice longer, you may feel that you are short of ideas for your practice or need some inspiration (or that you want to just do some practice and not have to think so much about it). In these cases, online videos can be very helpful. Remember, the most important thing is to take yourself away from everything else and be with yourself on your mat with the intention of doing yoga. From that point on, either working on developing your own practice or surrendering to whatever YouTube delivers to you will both have benefits. Ultimately, it is all about taking time to explore your body and mind – so don’t just put on a video and zone out! The resources section has some suggestions on finding videos https://www.timc.yoga/resources/#Videos.
If you don’t feel like doing it
If on any day you really feel unable to get a mat out for 10 minutes, just try instead to just sit down and do a couple of minutes of mindful breathing…. If things really are that manic in your life at that point then it is now that you and those around you would probably benefit most from you doing this! 😊
The best way to ensure that you can go through your later years with a calm mind and a mobile body, is to practice daily at having a calm mind and mobile body. Every day that you don’t do this is a day that you are practicing at being a person who doesn’t have a calm mind and mobile body. The choice is yours. However, why choose to have to make that decision every single day? Why not decide just once and for all that you will now be a person who practices yoga every day.