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exercise

The Yoga Habit ~ 30 Day Yoga Challenge

July 2, 2009

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“This practice becomes firmly rooted when it is cultivated skillfully and continuously for a long time.” – The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali 1:14

If you’re anything like me, then you may have noticed that the intensity of your yoga practice surges at times and then peters out at times.  You practice regularly for a week or two, and then nothing.   You move on to something else for a while and then realize one day that you haven’t seen your yoga mat for a month.  It’s a strong likelihood that this pattern of inconsistency affects not only your yoga practice, but other aspects in your life.  It’s human nature.  While this pattern is certainly natural, for many people it becomes a habit that hinders them from taking their performance and skill in any activity to the next level.  For most people, myself included, it’s not that they one day decide they don’t enjoy yoga practice, it’s just that they have not taken the necessary steps to develop the yoga habit.

Habits

“It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Habits are powerful, unconscious patterns of behavior that once formed, play a large role in influencing the direction of one’s life.  To a certain degree, our lives go where our habits take us.  Our bodies, the vehicle; our habits, the chauffeur.

How to Form a Habit. Habits can be both good and bad, and interestingly enough, creating a good habit pretty much involves the same process as making a bad habit.  Without delving into neurological explanations for habit formation (check out Scott Young’s great explanation here), the bottom line is that habits form through REPETITION. The philosopher Aristotle nailed it on the head: “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”

To form a habit, all you need to do is repeat the activity over a period of time.  Opinions vary on the length of time it takes to form a habit, but most agree that it takes anywhere from three to six weeks of conscious, consistent, repetitive, and focused behavior to develop a new good habit.  It’s not always easy, but the end results are almost always worth it.

The Yoga Habit ~ 30 Day Yoga Challenge

If you want to consistently enjoy the benefits of yoga, then you need to take the steps necessary to make it a habit.  One of the best ways to develop the yoga habit is to commit to a 30 day yoga challenge.  

30 Day Yoga Challenge.   The heart of the 30 day challenge is commitment.  It means making a promise to yourself and following through on it.   It means banishing from your life all your old wimpy excuses for failure.  It means promising to practice for a certain amount of time each day and just doing it.  If you commit to 15 minutes a day, then you practice for 15 minutes every day.  If you commit to an hour each day, then you practice for an hour.  Don’t set unrealistic expectations, but commit to a goal that pushes you.  Whatever you commit to, do it for 30 days and you will drastically improve your chances of turning your yoga practice into a habit.

Here are a few suggestions for succeeding in creating a yoga habit.

1.  Make yourself accountable. Another aspect of commitment is accountability.  Write down your goal and/or tell someone about your plans.    Memorializing the commitment on paper or telling a friend helps set it deep into your mind that you will practice yoga for 30 days in a row.  Make yourself accountable to prove that you can do anything you set your mind to.

2.  Prioritize your life. If a 30 day yoga challenge is something you want to commit to, then make it a priority.   Use these 30 days to simplify and streamline your life.  Examine your current daily routine and activities and determine what really needs to stay and what needs to get the axe.   Maybe that means watching less TV or cutting back on social web surfing so you have time to dedicate to your practice.  Most people have plenty of time, they just don’t use it well.  Depending on how high the yoga challenge ranks in your priorities, you may also decide to temporarily give up otherwise worthwhile activities to create the necessary time.  Chances are if you cut something out of your life, you won’t even notice it’s gone in a month.

3.  Set a time and have a practice plan. A lot of our daily routine, i.e. when, where, and how we do things, is determined by our habits.  Since you’re trying to make yoga a habit, figure out the best time in the day and place for you to get on your yoga mat.  Morning or night doesn’t matter so much as picking a time and then sticking to it as best as possible.   Maybe there are certain yoga classes you want to attend.  Plan for it.  Remember, you’re trying to form a habit, and consistency will help with that.  Not many people can make it to the yoga studio for 30 days in a row, so you will also have a chance to work on your home practice.  For many people,  myself included, home practice is the only option available.  My advice is to go to bed a little earlier so you can practice in the quiet of the morning before the world wakes up.  However, when setting your schedule, also allow for some flexibility.  Life would be boring if there weren’t any surprises.  If you know your regular practice time won’t work one day,  or something unexpected pops up, have a backup plan in place already so you’re not tempted to skip a day.

4.  Educate yourself. This is also a very important step in maintaining your motivation throughout the 30 day yoga challenge.  Spend some time at the bookstore or library and browse through the yoga section.   If you see a book that interests you, buy it; you’ll probably never be more deserving of a purchase for yourself.   Throughout the month, turn to your yoga library and other yoga-related magazines, DVDs, and websites to increase your understanding of whatever aspect of yoga interests you, be it asana sequences, philosophy, history, whatever.

Here are a few good places to start:

5.  Write about it. Keep track of your 30 day yoga challenge by writing about it in your journal or blog.  You may even consider following this 30 day yoga journey designed by Florian Yoga Companion.  If nothing else, at least have a calendar to mark off each day that you practice.  Nobody wants to have an empty square on their 30 day yoga challenge calendar:) If you do  decide to write about your 30 day yoga challenge, let us know so we can cheer you on!

Just Do It!

Completing your own 30 day yoga challenge will require discipline, commitment, focus, and sacrifice.  It won’t guarantee that you have a yoga habit for life – you can fall out of good habits just as easily as you fall into bad ones – but it will be a step in the right direction.   So take the leap, start a 30 day yoga challenge, and enjoy the journey of a daily yoga habit.

Tagged as: 30 day yoga challenge, habits, lifehack, yoga, yogahack

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Yoga Journal: My Secret Guilty Pleasure

June 21, 2009

Yoga JournalYoga Journal is my secret guilty pleasure of sorts.  I’m not sure why, maybe it’s the high school locker room dude in me, but I still get uptight about people knowing that I read and enjoy a magazine that 1) is about yoga (which is still weird to a lot of people I hang out with), 2) caters heavily to women, and 3) regularly has a pink or purple cover.  Much less for reason 1 than reasons 2 and 3, I read YJ at home and take Runner’s World to work just to keep up pretenses….

But behind closed doors, YJ and I have been tight for almost eight years now.   Up until last year when I decided to declutter my office, I had every issue since 2001.  Last year, at the prompting of my lovely wife, I went back through every single page of every issue and cut out all the articles I wanted to keep and organized them in a binder.  Definitely a good project, but tearing out pages of an old friend was both disturbing and painful.  I couldn’t say how many editor’s and redesigns we’ve been through, but I can say that I’ve pretty much read every article in the last eight years, and plan on reading every article for the next eight.

Even though YJ and I have basically been together as long as I’ve been married, I’ve never really cheated on her I guess you could say with any other yoga magazines.  Unlike in my actual marriage where there’s a “don’t look, don’t touch” policy, I have on occasion looked and briefly touched other yoga publications on the racks at Barnes and Noble.  I have never, however, walked out of the store with a copy in my hand.  That would surely be cheating.  It’s never really been a temptation until the other day when I was meandering through one of the PX’s (Post Exchange for the non-military oriented) at the base I live at in Iraq (yes, I am now living in hell, or at least it feels that way sometimes:) and was shocked to see copies of both Fit Yoga and Yoga + Joyful Living nestled in between your standard Muscle & Fitness type magazines that you’d expect to find on a military base.  Now, my question is, if I were to cheat, which one should I pick?

Tagged as: product review, yoga, yoga journal

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Sticky Yoga Mats Avoid Sticky Recession

May 28, 2009

Although lots of people have cut back on luxury item purchases recently, apparently luxury yoga mat sales have never been stronger.  A Time magazine article reports that Manduka, the undisputed Porsche/Ferrari/Cadillac/[insert your favorite luxury car] of yoga mats, has seen its sales rise 55% in the first quarter of 2009.  A slightly odd trend when apparently moola is in short supply.

So, how do you explain the numbers?  One smart sounding marketing professor explained, “With hedonic consumption, at some point you’re going to feel quite a bit of guilt,” but “[i]f the luxury item has some kind of functional value, you’re not going to feel that guilt.”  I certainly can’t disagree with that assessment, especially when yoga makes you feel so good.  I also think the rise in sales simply has to do with the ever-growing number of people trying out yoga, wearing out their first yoga mat, and then deciding to upgrade.  Honestly, is there ever a bad time to buy a yoga mat?

I definitely love my Black Mat Pro (I mean everyone’s buying one so I had to get one too).  I just wish it wasn’t so heavy or I would have lugged it out to the lovely desert.  Currently I’m searching for anything that resembles a mat, luxury or otherwise.  I certainly wouldn’t mind the Manduka Prolite, but I have to draw the luxury line somewhere, so basically I’m considering using an old pink blanket a previous occupant left in my room as a yoga mat.  You do what you have to do.

And if you really want to splurge, why not just get the package deal?

Tagged as: manduka, product review, yoga, yoga mats, yoga news

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Video Review: Yoga Foundations with Hillary Rubin

January 31, 2009


If you’re into yoga podcasts, then there’s a very good chance you know Hillary Rubin.  She has a great blog full of yoga wisdom and routines that are perfect when your home practice needs some motivation.   A certified Anusara Yoga teacher, Hillary has a great story that illustrates the power yoga has to improve lives.  Taking her teaching to the next level, Hillary recently released a DVD, Yoga Foundations with Hillary Rubin.

For the last couple weeks, both myself and my four year old daughter, Kennedy, have enjoyed lining up our yoga mats and practicing to the DVD.  It’s not too long and it’s not too short.  Kennedy is a great yoga buddy and it makes me laugh every time she calls downward facing dog “hot dog.”

One of the interesting things about Hillary’s new DVD is that I didn’t really pay attention to the title of the practice, “Yoga Foundations,” until after I was partway through it the first time and started thinking to myself how grounded my body felt as I implemented the various corrections Hillary suggested.  I was surprised at how some of the subtle adjustments Hillary recommended entirely changed the way certain poses felt.  While the main practice is not too complex or physically demanding, it effectively does what it sets out to do:  create and cultivate a strong foundation.  Highly recommended for those looking for an easy-to-follow introducation to yoga.  Kennedy gives it two thumbs up.

Tagged as: product review, yoga, yoga videos

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