The First 102 Days (And the Myths Surrounding a Daily Yoga Practice)
I realized two days ago (in the middle of class at the studio) that I had reached my 100th consecutive day of practicing yoga. With any luck, this first milestone is only the first of many, but really, it was far more attainable than expected. I recommend it to anyone. Do what works for you, and don’t get caught up in any of these myths:
Myth 1: You need to have some sort of spiritual awakening or noble intention to start a daily practice.
I started out of pure competitiveness and determination. Is that anti-yogic? On March 1, I spent four challenging hours in New York at an arm balance workshop with a cover-of-Yoga Journal-famous teacher. I attempted poses I had never heard of (even in teacher training), fangirled a bit, fell down a lot, observed even more, and came home with a vow to get these advanced arm balances. In order to do so, I needed to push myself beyond my current (perfectly enjoyable, moderately challenging) yoga routine. The initial plan: I will practice arm balances every day in March.
Myth 2: Your practice must be an exhaustive 90-minute sequence every day. It would be lovely to spend time at the studio every day or explore long sequences through online classes. But if that’s the only version of practice that qualifies, many of us would need to give up on practicing daily. You decide what constitutes a “practice.” Out of necessity, my definition has been flexible. Sometimes it means a few sun salutations in the living room while dinner cooks, or a short restorative sequence before bed.
Myth 3: If you travel, work long hours, or have family commitments, you can’t do this. In the past few weeks alone on the travel front, my daily practice has survived a weeklong business trip to Nashville, a whirlwind long weekend in Chicago (complete with a 14-hour return trip disaster), and a music festival on the Jersey shore. The world doesn’t pause for your yoga. You have to sneak it in somewhere. There’s a great quotation about how it’s not that we “don’t have time” for something; we choose how we allocate our time, and (with rare exceptions) we find time for what we want to find time for.
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hotel yoga, Nashville[/caption]
Also, foldable travel mat. It’s all about the foldable travel mat, especially if you travel only with carry-on luggage.
Myth 4: It’s hard to remember to practice.
Sure, it can be tough to grab that time on your calendar at first, especially if your schedule demands prevent you from practicing at the same time each day. But after the first month or so, I felt physically and emotionally incomplete and plain weird if nighttime was creeping in and I hadn’t practiced yet. On some occasions, I even came home from class the studio in the evenings and auto-piloted to the thought that now that I was home, I needed to roll out my mat and practice. Wait. Nope. I’m covered already for the day.
Myth 5: If you just practice every day, you will automatically be able to do [challenging pose of choice].
Sorry. Not necessarily. Practice makes… better. If you start a daily practice just to be more Instagrammable in the showiest poses and focus solely on those, you just might end up disappointed (and possibly injured). The benefits are often more subtle, though no less important. At this point, I feel far stronger and more fluid in many foundational poses, and sometimes flows feel like an effortless dance thanks to increased muscle memory. I still can’t do most of those advanced arm balances from the March workshop. Maybe after the next 102 days…
