5 Tips for Integrating Yoga into Your Daily Life
Being a wife, a mother, managing a whole family and working full-time as a founder and yoga teacher, I know how crazy it can get during the day. And then you ask yourself, how do I take time for myself, without feeling guilty and without loosing time for other important things on the to do list?
Over the last couple of years I have created a me-time-flow that actually works quite well. You don’t need an hour each day for your practice, you can keep it short and sweet with a few minutes of yoga every day.
WHAT’S YOUR INTENTION?
Before we go into the first steps of how to integrate Yoga into your daily life, you need to know your intention. Are you committed to have a healthy balanced lifestyle with yoga in it? It starts with your mindset. Your thoughts create your reality.
It is not easy to stay consistent having a yoga routine while everything is changing inside and outside of us. But it helps to be absolutely aware of the benefits and also challenges of yoga in daily life.
Being aware, that your overall well-being does not only affect your attitude, behaviour, immune system, mood and awareness but also influences the people and all living creatures around you, can help to prioritise this lifestyle.
Taking time for yourself can include different things like going to the gym, meeting friends, watching your favourite TV series, reading a book etc. When I talk about “taking time for yourself”, I mean first of all ‘creating space’. Creating space to reflect, to let go of tension and stress, to recharge yourself, to find stillness, to re-connect and to feel much better afterwards.
Yoga and Meditation is a powerful tool to cultivate awareness, find peace and get access to your inner wisdom.
So what can you do to build better willpower to integrate yoga into your daily life, so you can benefit from the incredible advantages:
- PLAN
- Analyse your daily routines and identify where you need an energetic or calming yoga and meditation session. Figure out what works best for you.
- If you can’t or don’t want to change your current schedule, it also helps to wake up 15-20 minutes earlier to start your day, so you have some extra time that can be used for a quick morning yoga practice. Just having a few minutes each morning for yourself can make your busy day much better. You can also find short and effective yoga sessions at Yuva Yoga Life, which are suitable before you go to bed and support a better sleep.
- Create your own schedule, but don’t stress about it. Start little and with short sessions. Since it’s a video platform with unlimited streaming, you can try and see what days and times suit you best and develop your personal rhythm over time.
- There will be days where you might not want to see your self doing yoga on the mat. You might feel too tired, too overwhelmed and that’s totally fine and belongs to the journey of self-discovery. You can practice awareness anytime, while washing the dishes, walking, talking to people or doing nothing.
- PREPARE
- The good thing about practicing yoga is, that you don’t need a lot of space, besides your mat and a few cm’s around it. Keep the area clean and have your mat close by. A candle helps to relax and is a great way to concentrate. Palo Santo purifies the area from negative energy and smells amazing. You don’t need any props for most of the classes. In winter time it’s good to cover your body with a blanket during the relaxation pose and meditation practice to keep warm.
- Make sure your devices are charged and you choose a spot with enough internet connection. Put your phone on silence and have it away from you, so your hand doesn’t grab and scroll through social media while being in a deep stretch.
- You can also prepare the space a night before, by rolling out your mat, organising your yoga clothes and choosing a video before you start.
- STAY CONSISTENT
- It helps to maintain a well balanced yoga practice when you stay connected to your self by having a few minutes for yourself each day, even if it’s very short. For example just stretching your back, taking a few deep breath and closing your eyes, even if you don’t practice with Yuva Yoga Life.
- Your first days of doing yoga regularly might bring up mixed feelings. You might experience ups and downs between being super excited about your practice and loosing your motivation and having no desire to do yoga anymore. You might feel you need a break. That’s totally normal! I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had those phases. Use that time to reflect, to breathe deeply, to maybe tidy up your closet, to be more social again, whatever that it is, that feels good for you right now. It will come back. Remember why you’ve started. Your soul is waiting for you to be discovered.
- ACCEPT
- Yoga helps to get rid of physical, mental and emotional blockages. You might find your self in tears during or after one of the sessions. It’s totally ok. 🙂 You are releasing stuck emotions and it feels so nice afterwards. Allow your body to heal.
- When emotions or tension come up, let them flow, don’t hold on to them during or even after your practice. Allow yourself to reset, renew & recharge during and after Yoga. Try to observe what is happening in your body and mind.
- Accept yourself, your body, your thoughts, your life just the way it is. It all starts with acceptance. Let go of judgement and pressure towards yourself and others and of the expectations of how you want the things exactly to be. In Yoga it is about letting go and opening up for the new. Be ready to transform, to grow and to be a better version of yourself.
- ENJOY
One final point is on keeping your practice joyful. Give your self a smile. It feels good. Don’t take things too seriously.
It’s all about your life. Create it with love!
Love,
Yesim