How to keep yoga as a priority in your life

Alice has a date tonight. It has been on her calendar for weeks now. She finally settled on the right clothes to wear and she is ready to go. And when Alice gets home, she is going to write about her date in her diary.

There is a lot of similarity between Alice’s date and your yoga practice.

Establishing a new habit and keeping it is a challenge. Especially if it is something that is good for you. You need all of the help you can get to establish and keep the habit.

There are many things that you can do that will help you keep the enthusiasm going. Here are three things that can help:

1. Get a yoga buddy
2. Make it a date
3. Keep a journal

One of the best things that you can do is to get a yoga buddy.

1 Get a Yoga Buddy

A yoga buddy is someone that you go to yoga classes with. Your yoga buddy could be a neighbour, a friend, a relative, or someone from the yoga studio.

One of the important considerations when you are finding a yoga buddy is that you are both somewhat compatible in your desire to practice yoga. You want a yoga buddy that is planning on attending yoga as often as you are. If you are planning on going to yoga class three times a week and your buddy is planning on once a month then this is not going to work and you need to find another buddy.

A yoga buddy will help you to keep going to class. When they call to say they are on their way to pick you up for class, even if you are discouraged about going tonight. The commitment you made to go to yoga with them gets you over you lack of enthusiasm and off to class you go. And you know that you will feel so much better once you get to the yoga studio.

Once you have a yoga buddy the next thing you need to do is agree on the dates that you are going to practice yoga together.

2. Make a date

Let’s say that you have decided to practice yoga three times a week. This is an excellent decision and you will rapidly develop a strong yoga practice with this frequency of classes.

Making the decision is one thing, but there is an even more important thing that you need to do. You need to decide which nights during the week and which class on those nights that you are going. Once you have decided on the night and the class you need to write it down.

Get out your planning calendar and block out those days and times on it for the next couple of months. Blocking the times out on the calendar will prevent other activities from pushing yoga aside.

Before you go any further you need to make a date with your yoga buddy. Check with your yoga buddy to make sure that they are available on the same nights. Have them block off the times in their calendar as well.

You known that stuff always comes up that could potentially bump your yoga practice. To help keep your practice frequency at the level you want, you should select an additional time during the week as an alternate night. When you have to cancel one of your regular nights you can fall back on this contingency night.

Booking your yoga practice time in your calendar will increase the likelihood that you will get to practice as often as you planned.

Not only do you need to write down when you are going to do your yoga practice, you also need to keep a record of how well your yoga practice is going.

3. Keep a journal

You need to get a journal to keep a diary of your yoga practice.

You can record many things in your journal including

• How well your practice went
• What did you learn
• What did not go so well and why
• What were you thinking about tonight. Were you focused on your practice or were you distracted.
• Record your progress in a particular pose
• Record any insights you may have had

The list of what you can write about in your journal can go on and on.

You should make your journal entry as soon as you get home while it is still fresh in your mind. If you wait too long you could forget to do and you will forget some of the details that you want to record.

There are several reasons why should you keep a journal:

• You will have a record of the progress that you have made in your yoga practice.
• When you are feeling discouraged about your yoga practice you can look back in your journal and see the progress you have made and how much better you are feeling.

Your journal will give you a positive boost when you need it to keep going with your yoga practice.

Summary

There are three things that you can do to keep your enthusiasm at a high level.

1. Get a yoga buddy
2. Make a date with yourself to attend classes each week and write it in your calendar.
3. Keep track of your progress in a journal.

When times get tough, your yoga buddy, your calendar full of dates and your journal will help to get your enthusiasm back up and you back out to yoga class.

Picking the right clothes for a yoga date with your buddy should not be as challenging as it was for Alice on her date.

Next Steps

Find yourself a yoga buddy and make a date with them to attend yoga classes several times a week.