How to discipline yourself to a daily yoga practice
Isn’t a disciplined daily yoga practice the thing to try to achieve as a motivated yoga practitioner. Especially so when discipline doesn’t come natural to you.
Since the day I started to take yoga serious and realized the many spiritual and health benefits I’ve been wanting to practice daily. Having a daily yoga and meditation practice is the very thing I have been wrestling with ever since, and it still does not come easy.
I’ve come to realize that trying to fit something new, like a yoga practice, into your daily routine for longer than a few weeks, is very very difficult for most people. So a few tips can’t hurt!
The excuse “not enough time” I don’t believe anymore, you can always make time for something your whole being prioritizes. It helped me to hear Obama say he spends (I think at least an hour) everyday working out! So come on everybody, if the president of the United States can find the time, SO CAN YOU!
After many years of trying to be flexible and doing yoga when it suits in the day, I have learned that that does not work well! It s too easy to keep putting it off till ”there is a better time”, and end up not doing anything at all. Basically if your whole being, conscious and subconscious mind, is not 100 percent convinced of practicing yoga daily , and you know this is the case if the daily practice “doesn’t just happen ” , you’re going to have to be very discipled about it! Otherwise it is not going to happen at all!
Those moments I can say I practiced daily for a while were always the times where I practiced at the same time everyday! So let’s be clear about it,
* For you to succeed to practice daily, practice at the same time every day!
So what time is the best time? For me it is first thing in the morning I am most likely to do it and keep up with it. I can enjoy the benefits all day. Everybody is different though, if it works better for you in the evening, that’s fine.
Something else I have noticed that works really well for me is adding extra time to my day to practice. So I don’t have to “fit it in” . So I am an early riser these days.
I used to practice at 7 am, but I’ve noticed at that time life is already happening and taking over around me, my husband having his breakfast and I notice part of me wanting to have breakfast with him before he takes off to work. At times we take in foster children for a few days, weeks or months and than that’s my time definitely gone… That got me to arrive at a point where I want to be up at a time that I know is mine to use for me. For my growth, for my physical and spiritual health.
So here I am, getting up at 5 am every morning! And I love it, It seems to work for me. Between 5am and 7am the time is mine to meditate, to do yoga, to inquire into my believes, to set myself up for the day so I can be clear and present to life as it unfolds.
* Also you need a plan.
Even when you have a plan, once you arrive at the plan, you can still allow yourself to be surprised by the moment. It does not mean you are bound to it.
However you do need a plan. When you do not have a plan your daily habits take over and again it is going to be very difficult to bring something “new” into your daily routine. So plan your time, plan what you are going to do during that time. When you don’t, before you know it you’re checking your email at 5am in the morning instead of practicing yoga!
There are many more tips but these are the ones that seem to have made a difference in what appears to be my life. I would like to invite you to share your tips with me and everybody reading this blog, leave them in the comment box!
Hope this helps!
With love,
Esther
22 Comments
When I read this post, I knew you were talking to me. Your advice to do it at the same time everyday and have a plan is right on. Without the commitment and a plan, it’s not going to happen. Thanks.
Comment by Rick Romig Jan 25, 10, 6:57 pmIn the past I thought things like “I´m too tired” or “I have not enough time” to practise Yoga.
Comment by Julia Jan 25, 10, 7:07 pmNowadays I know that thoughts like these keeping me away from doing yoga.
So my plan is: Just do it. No bad thoughts anymore.
But to be honest: Sometimes I skip the meditation because I`m definitely too tired to do it…
(Sorry for my English… I hope it’s clear what I try to express.)
It is all so true, esp when you say that life is already happening around 7 a.m. and one gets distracted easily.
Comment by Mary Jan 25, 10, 11:45 pmPersonally, I’m trying to get up a little earlier because the morning the best time for me. Btw, the link you posted on Twitter on how to be an early riser helped a lot.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and bits of everyday life connected to yoga!
What a great post. Thanks for inspiration and encouragement. I struggle greatly with self discipline, especially in the area of exercise and yoga. I am trying to get myself into a routine every morning, and it’s encouraging to hear that the yoga teacher struggles too! :)
Comment by Jamie Jan 25, 10, 11:58 pmThank you for that post, Esther. I too am a morning person and am trying to fit a yoga practice in my morning routine. I’ve been using the usual excuses (too early, not enough time etc) but things are getting much better every day.
Comment by Vera Jan 26, 10, 9:01 amThank you Esther, it’s a lot of time I follow your blog, but I found every post more and more motivating. Althought I’m not English (I’m Italian), I can understand your video very well.
Comment by Carlotta Jan 26, 10, 9:10 pmNow, I want to thank you for this post because I’m a very lazy person, but you can throw out of me the energy to practise (quite) every day, because I understand that without a “plan” it’s very difficult to enter the routine… that’s true! For me it’s very difficult to practise in the morning, I have to force myself for go out the bed, but I’m trying to do yoga quite every evening, even if I come home tired. Thanks for your great work and your constant encouragement! Namasté
Hi Esther,
Comment by Paul Jan 29, 10, 2:28 pmI rise at six and devote the next hour in the same way as you. I have found that I need a little extra time. But I’m concerned that I will be too tired later in the day for my work and family.
Any advice?
PS. Love your website.
Hi Paul, rising at six is perfect as it is. I have time during the day to take a short 20 min nap, when I get too tired and that helps. Another thing is to try and change it in the summer, or during a holiday to see how it goes, it will be easier to handle. Set the alarm clock 10 min earlier a day, till you are where you want to be. You are right though, make sure you your family life and work don’t suffer. That is not worth it, getting up at six and spending an hour on yourself is already such a great thing.
Comment by Esther Feb 01, 10, 12:14 pmRising a 5:15am to do yoga has worked well for me. Now I am searching on the internet to find an instructor that I can follow to continue my practice to stay motivated and provide variety in my practice.
Comment by Dipty Feb 02, 10, 12:39 pmYou are awesome Esther, as always.
Comment by Jack Feb 02, 10, 10:12 pmI will try to involve some changes in my routine and set the schedule . Please, can you advice me the way that I could start excercising, I mean, what is better to perform on startup – a warming up sequence or a breath meditation and after that do the warm up?
Esther,
You’re just so lovely! I have found you and your videos on YouTube after being out of practicing yoga for about a year. You are so encouraging and endearing in your posts and videos it has really inspired me to get back into it. Now to master rolling out of bed before 7am!
I have one question: I am very stiff when I wake up, is there any harm in doing yoga stretches at this time? I’m just worried about pulling something in my back. I know the yoga motto is ’stretch but don’t strain’… any other words of wisdom?
Comment by Fiona Mar 04, 10, 10:35 pmIt is the hardest time but also the best time :) Just don’t expect to be able to stretch as far as when you would do it in the evenings. So be gentle and mindful about it. However when you do this every morning you will find you wake up more flexible before you know it!
Comment by Esther Mar 05, 10, 12:23 pmThanks Esther!!! I would like to practice yoga daily…but again, I have all the excuses eg: no time, tired, not enough sleep…
I will motivate myself again.
Oh ya, I love your videos. Short, sweet and simple.
Comment by Li Li Mar 13, 10, 1:40 pmEsther hallo from greece!! you are a great sweet teacher, i love your videos and i am thankfull i happen to come across your site. i am a new hatha yoga teacher and you help me a lot even from distance. it’s my first year of teaching and still i have so much to learn.hope to meet someday…namaste
Comment by alexia maritsa May 04, 10, 10:22 amEsther,
Comment by linda May 07, 10, 2:26 pmThank you for all you do – Can you help us with how to organize what we practice so there is a structure to it. I often practice the same postures and am not sure if I am getting a well rounded practice.
Namaste,
Linda
Working on that, will be coming soon!
Hello Esther,
I’m discovering your website and I really love it. Thanks for going back to the basics of the poses explaining what they’re good for and how to get to them, that’s really going to help me.
I’m pretty new into yoga practiced daily, a few weeks only, it’s been so hard to stop listening to the excuses but I’m on the good road…
What I’ve found helpful was to “force” myself to do at least a 10min morning energizing routine every day 1st thing after getting up and breathing deeply 10 cycles. 10 minutes is not long and it’s easier to commit to that than to an hour when you start.
After only 2weeks of that discipline (skipping a couple of times I have to admit) it is very difficult not to do it and the mornings I did not, I felt not as awoken and energized. I now push the practice to 30 or 45 min about every 2 mornings, just because the 10 min is not enough any more and that my body and mind want more. And the more it goes the more I do and more often ; for the mornings I don’t feel like doing anything, I still stick to my 10 min at least.
Oh and you’ve advised to Paul to take a 20 min nap if he’s tired, I’m currently “re-doing” my 10 min morning session. Is that ok or should I avoid?
Many thanks for this website,
Comment by Sandrine May 22, 10, 12:44 amSandrine
During the holidays I do a modified half bikram workout at home:
Comment by yoga wear & yoga classes May 25, 10, 12:18 pmie: the first exercise only of each pose, and go through the full sequence.
This only takes just over half an hour approx.
You feel like you have covered all the muscle groups with this modified workout and leaves you
plenty of time to squeeze in lifes busy demands.
Hi Esther,
Comment by aysha Jun 10, 10, 9:40 amI have bought a few dvd’s in the past and not entirely satisfied. They are either too long or not enough instruction.I would love to find something that i can fit in daily and your dvd sounds just right, is it possible to view a sample of it (i couldn’t see anything on your website) perhaps on you tube or your site? This is in order to make sure i am certain before i buy. Thanks.
Hi Aysha,
I don’t have a trailer yet, but hopefully soon. However the dvd is in the same style as my video’s . There is a 80 min full class, and optional alternative sequences of 20, 40 , 60 min. As well you can play the individual chapters, so lots of options to customize it to your own liking..
Warm regards,
Esther
Hi ,
Thanks for sharing your views.. But for me the troubles are even more..My husband though don’t object , never sleeps early . We live in one bed room apartment and he don’t let me make any sound till he awakes which never happens before 8 every day. He don’t let me sleep till late at night and I couldn’t get up early. I know I need to find a way to fit all these. just sharing my pain. With family members who don’t appreciate discipline , it is sad on my side desiring a discipline life. I will train myself to stand in a position to be able to live life as I appreciate it.
Comment by Valli Jun 20, 10, 9:10 pmWhen it feels good to you it is good, you an trust your instincts..