I’ve practiced yoga for 365 days. Here’s what happened.
It was nearly the end of 2018, and I was on edge. I felt comfortable — too comfortable, and I felt like it was time to change something. I didn’t feel excited at work. In fact, what used to give me a sense of freedom now annoyed me. I was ready for a change in my career.
But what kind of change? I had no idea.
I’ve worked in hostels around Europe (mainly Spain, Poland, Portugal, and England) for 10 years. It felt like it was time to move on. But what were my options? Should I climb the latter of the reception hierarchy? Is this what I want?
SOMETHING DIDN’T FEEL RIGHT whenever I imagined myself working as the front desk manager or hostel manager.
Earlier that year, I got a paid writing side gig: write four posts for 20$. At that moment, I felt the rush of excitement that someone actually paid me for writing. Though 20$ is not something, I could leave my job for and become a full-time writer.
Then, another time I got paid 120$ for writing an 800-word article in the hospitality niche. Oh, my imagination was running loose at that moment, making calculations and scenarios of how many articles I should write per month to earn a good living. If I do that, I could say adios to hostels and sip white wine while writing.
(now I know my brain definitely can’t work after one glass of wine — it becomes a sponge.)
Maybe the universe was giving me a sign?
For a few years already, I’ve been blogging about hostels as an addition to full-time working in hostels. I felt I needed to write more — the thing I promised myself every year and guess what — every year, I failed. I had no excuse — I could find time, but the ideas vanished in thin air whenever I sat in front of the computer screen.
So I’ve decided to challenge myself. What’s funny about it is, I didn’t think at that moment to challenge myself with writing. I guess I knew I would fail anyway; that’s why the challenge needed to be something different.
I have never had in my life a problem with doing sport. So, hey! Why not try to practice yoga every single day for a whole year?
Have I done yoga before? A few times, but I have always treated it as a necessary evil to stretch after jogging.
So with the first day of cold but sunny January 2019, my yoga adventure has begun. I have started from Yoga with Adriene. Her practice felt sweet as honey on my soul. When I felt stronger, I switched to more demanding yoga classes of Boho Beautiful.
After a few months of treating my daily yoga practice as another sport, something started to switch in my head. However, it wasn’t until I found Allie from The Journey Junkie that I realized that change.
First, I’ve become more conscious during my practice — with each breath I took on the mat, I was living in the moment. I loved learning about yoga history, its philosophy components, and what was lying below the surface of physical asanas.
A daily habit stopped being an obligation but a necessity. It felt like a safe space — somewhere I could hide and unwind after a hectic day.
I’ve started to listen to my body and stopped forcing movements. If Downward-facing Dog hasn’t felt right — it was OK to let it go.
(not a final resting pose Savasana tho — for this one, my body is always ready)
Then I started to journal every week, some weeks, even daily. Which I haven’t done for ages, despite having a journal for a few years now.
During all these days on the mat, memories of the kiddo who loved creating stories began emerging in my head.
What always pushed me towards writing was the ability to create your own world. And no one can tell you that it’s wrong or how you should do it because it’s your imagination and your story. When you write, you can create adventures that might never happen to you in real life, but they will in your writing. That’s beautiful — to create a magical world of your own.
The change was slow but steady. It felt like my head was bursting with the lava stream of words. The warm tickling in my chest, caused by losing myself in words.
This whole yoga quest of mine started becoming something more than physical exercise. More spiritual.
Did I want to let it go sometimes? Damn yes! I had days when I felt like giving up — after all, I was doing it every day! Still, every time I got off the mat, it felt so sweet. What kept me going was the realization that yoga doesn’t have to be all physical. Sometimes — if my body didn’t feel right — I meditated and journaled or did breathing exercises.
And I was writing. A lot.
Honestly, I didn’t expect that kind of outcome. I wanted to show myself that, yes, I can stick to anything I set my mind to. So why wasn’t writing between this “anything” before?
All that time, I’ve been holding back from writing, anticipating an inspiration to strike me, as if it’s the only way I can write, and guess what? In order to write, I need to…write.
After practicing yoga for 365 days:
- I’ve learned to deal with anxiety.
- I stopped forcing myself and instead started listening to my body.
- “I can and I will” mantra works — you should try it too.
- Change happens from within
- Life is meant to be lived fully in the moment you’re in.
- It’s totally OK to let go.
- It’s OK to not be OK — I accept every feeling, and I love myself.
- I realized that my energy has cycles, and so are my body and life.
I gained clarity that I seriously want to turn my writing into a career and become a freelancer.
(BTW, I used to think I would never become a freelancer and that forever and ever, I will work in hostels — that’s how I’m fixated on hostels).
On one of the days well into 2019, I’ve stumbled upon copywriting. You can visualize a bolt of light bulb lightning up suddenly in my head. I could connect my hospitality experience and copywriting and turn it into a career!
Did my yoga practice cause that I was writing more?
Perhaps the flexibility I gained in my body and soul also opened my heart and reminded me why I love writing in the first place. And this is the place to start.
Maybe, despite that I liked writing before, I was forcing it because I treated it as an obligation? And so I didn’t enjoy it. Perhaps I needed to accept that I wasn’t into it at that moment of my life.
Who knows — maybe I wasn’t ready?
But a year after doing yoga every-damn-day (well, OK, maybe I’ve missed 5–7 days, to be honest), I haven’t stopped. It’s no longer a daily routine, but it’s built into my system now, and so is writing.
I don’t wait for inspiration anymore. I just sit down and write.
