10 Ways To Add Yoga To Your Everyday Life
I recently completed a 26-day yoga course. The experience was a transformative one —every hour of every day was planned to give us complete immersion into the concepts and practices of yoga.
Tucked away, on a small island in Goa, India, away from the business of city life, there was ample time to introspect and internalise these ideas. The next step, of course, is to apply them to my everyday life.
But, before that, I’d like to share them with you too. Perhaps, you’ll find them useful… Perhaps they’ll help you find some calm in the chaos.
So, here are my top 10 takeaways on how yoga can be incorporated into our lives to make it more balanced, peaceful and joyful…
1. Get a Discipline
There can be no practice of any kind — yoga, exercise, or meditation — till we create time for it in our lives. Herein lies the power of routine — a structure that clearly allocates time for different activities in the day.
At the course, each hour was planned, with enough time for recreation and relaxation too. This structure gave us no time to think of anything else, or even get bored. Also, little time was wasted on planning and indecision, which can otherwise create some stress in our daily lives. The 26 days thus moved smoothly, and we accomplished a little more each day.
2. Be Grateful
A feeling of contentment in our lives primarily originates from a feeling of gratitude. Contentment is not just a hallmark of the yogic way of life, but also for every person who wishes to feel more joyful and fulfilled.
While doing the course, at the end of each day, we reflected upon and wrote down a few points of gratitude for the happenings of the day. The end result: we felt blessed for what we had received — from a nice meal, to a pleasant encounter, to a good lecture or asana class!
This practice can be done everyday of your life, all it takes is a few minutes, paper, pen…and a thankful heart!
3. Stay Positive
An important concept of yoga is to transform a negative thought into a positive one… In Sanskrit, it is called pratipaksha bhavana, the ability to become consciously aware of a negative thought, and quickly replace it with a positive one.
Other than making you feel positive, this exercise stops your mind from going into a negative spiral, which often happens when you complain too much, criticise, feel dejected, or sad about something or someone…
Pratipaksha bhavana works on helping you seek a more uplifting and empowering alternative.
4. Breathe Consciously
We take our breath for granted, and almost forget about it, as we get engrossed in living and working… But your breath is your life force, without which nothing would be possible.
Breathing exercises, or pranayama, is thus at the centre of yoga… Just by mere observation, and breath awareness, you can control the functioning of your mind and body, and create a state of calm and equilibrium.
The breath and its patterns, also help you attain a deep and uninterrupted meditative state — the ultimate goal of yoga.
5. Stretch to Capacity
Yogic postures and breathing techniques should always be done as per individual capacity… Because the main objective of yoga postures is for an individual to be in a steady, joyful, and comfortable state. A practitioner of yoga must thus work at making slow and steady progress, rather than pushing yourself too much on the first day itself.
In life too, we have to stretch ourselves only as per our capacity… If we decide to do too much too soon, we will get burned out. Likewise, if we don’t push ourselves to capacity, we won’t know how much we are capable of…
The right balance has to be struck to realise contentment and comfort in all we do.
6. Work Without Expectation
Karma yoga, a concept I wrote about in my last blog, is about working without the expectation of any reward. It is largely looked upon as social or community service, which is done to contribute to the well-being of the world.
Such acts of service, unlike our regular jobs and chores, are very therapeutic as they are done mindfully, without any pressure to ‘achieve’, because here the doing itself is the reward.
As we picked up fallen leaves from the gardens, or ploughed away for the next season’s crop, our minds were immersed in the activity, ensuring we looked down, and peacefully paid attention to the job at hand.
7. Watch What You Eat
Yoga believes that it’s the food you eat that makes you who you are… And it’s not just the kind of food, but also how much you eat, and how many times a day. Yoga emphasises the need for moderation in diet, where one must eat till the stomach is only half full, and leave the rest of the space for air and water.
Additionally, yoga highlights the importance of eating fresh seasonal and local fruits and vegetables, which are lightly cooked without too much spice... Essentially, eating only foods that give you more energy. It also discourages the consumption of packaged and stale foods, that slow down digestion.
At the course, we were lucky to eat freshly harvested vegetables grown on patches of the property.
8. Learn to Relax
Relaxation is highly underrated, but immensely beneficial. Yoga puts great emphasis on relaxation at the end of very strenuous activities. No asana practice should end without a few minutes of relaxation.
The classical shavasana, or ‘corpse pose’, where you lie down completely still — like a corpse — with feet and hands apart, can help you achieve a relaxed state.
Likewise, try to incorporate short spells of relaxation throughout the day. Just 10–15 minutes of sitting or lying down, in complete silence and stillness, can help calm your mind and body. Relaxation of this kind can be done anywhere and has similar benefits of a power nap.
9. Observe Silence When Possible
Mauna or silence is an important component of the yogic journey. Being silent does more than help you look inward; it conserves energy that is normally frittered away in aimless conversation.
Everyday at the yoga retreat, we would observe half an hour of silence. Meals were also eaten in silence, and some zones were marked as silent zones. This practice helped us get more introspective and self-reliant…
You no longer feel the need for external stimulation or entertainment. You simply get busy doing, and become more mindful. We also heard no cell phones beep during this time…a pleasant change from our city lives!
10. Pray often
Yoga believes that one must do all the virtuous things one can, but finally surrender all of one’s acts, and their outcomes, to a higher reality. A feeling of complete faith and devotion to this Higher order will eventually take one closer to the goal of salvation or liberation.
In life too, if we can simply do our job, and leave the rest to God, or however else we would like to term this Supreme Reality, we would then be free of all anxiety, uncertainty, doubt and worry…
Just knowing we are safe and taken care of, is enough to help us live a life of greater joy and contentment!
My experience at the yoga retreat was a deeply enriching and transformative one. And I truly believe that it is only the start of the journey…one that may have its ups and downs, but will reflect and express who I am and who I want to be.
Because ultimately yoga is a journey of self-love, and only when you’ve learned to love yourself, can you love the world around you, and everything it has to offer!
If you liked the blog, do applaud, share, or comment below. For more stories from Pink Pinjra, simply click the ‘follow’ button in green!
