The turning of the year is a popular time for reflection and for making resolutions to change this, do that, learn how to, lose, gain. Every January I see a big influx of new students, checking out yoga for the very first time. While several will stay, by February those first enthusiastic numbers are reduced considerably. The challenge is sustaining energy to turn a change into a habit, one for your well-being.
The added pressure of a resolution, setting a goal to change your life, isn’t a terrible way to help motivate yourself, however, caution is needed to keep these goals from become yet another tool for beating yourself up. For yoga students, the New Year might be a great time to take that next step in deepening your practice, moving from class attendance to having a daily yoga practice, often referred to as Sādhanā. With this in mind, a few suggestions on how to create lasting change in your life by establishing your daily Sādhanā.
- Be intentional: Why do you want to establish a daily practice? Is this part of some greater goal, or something you’re doing just to deepen your experience with yoga? If you do realize you have a goal, that’s fine, just take some time to identify that and how a daily yoga practice will help you to realize your goals.
- Start small: While a 90-minute practice to start your day is a nice treat, many of us live in a world of job and household demands. Especially if you’re making a jump from no daily practice, to go to a long practice might well be an experience in disappointment. Perhaps you start with three 30-minute practices, of start with even three 5-minute breaks at first. Going from no daily practice to creating space for three sessions each day for just mindful breath practice will be a way to get into the habit of making time for your daily practice.
- Consider your needs: What does your whole self need? Self-soothing, energy boosts, quieting the system for sleep, improved lung capacity? Use this to determine when you’ll practice, for how long, and what you might do. For example, you might begin your morning with 15 minutes of vigorous physical practice, such as Vinyasa Yoga, to help shake off the fogginess of sleep and get your day going. At midday you pause for walking meditation, spending 15 minutes more in mindful movement. Before bed you explore 15 minutes of gentle movement to help your body settle into sleep. That’s 45 minutes worth of practice in a day right there and it addresses the needs of the whole body throughout a changing day. Add 5 minutes of meditation to each session and it is an hour of practice.
- Allow yourself to be “Good Enough”: As you establish the habit of your daily practice, you’re going to hit bumps in the road. If you feel like your practice must be perfect, or not at all, you’ll be setting yourself up to feel like you’re failing. Instead, allow yourself a practice that is “good enough”. Changing to this mindset creates space for days that get so busy that you realize that you didn’t practice all day as you’re settling down to sleep. Days where you don’t feel well, physically or emotionally, and cannot muster the energy to practice.Acknowledge those days and allow for those times when you mindfully choose not to do sitting meditation before bed, also allow for those times you just forget. Don’t let them become an avenue for beating yourself up, just notice those “misses” and your reactions to them. Allow yourself flexibility in your discipline, forgiveness in your structure, and the ability to return to practice without the weight of self-judgement hanging over you. Letting your practice be “good enough” allows your creative self to arise and help out, reminding you that you could do 5 minutes of meditation, 15 minutes of restorative yoga, and 5 minutes of a guided meditation to help you rest; on a day that otherwise feels overwhelming that “good enough” practice would be enormously beneficial.