New yoga students often ask me, "How often should I practice yoga?" It's a complicated question to answer.
Theoretically, one should practice every day. But realistically, once or twice per week may be all you have time for.
Chances are you'd like to practice more than you currently are. How can you make it happen? Here are 3 simple tips for improving your consistency:
1. Shift your mindset
Sometimes we think about yoga as a luxury or as a fun social activity, which makes it really easy to bail on our practice in favor of something more "important". Shift your thinking!
Think about yoga as preventative maintenance and fuel, all in one. For your car, you need an oil change every 5,000 miles, and you also need gas about every 400 miles. Yoga addresses both of those needs for your body and mind. Yoga keeps your body and mind limber and strong, and it also provides energy to help you power through your days and sleep well at night.
Remind yourself that yoga helps keep you stronger, more flexible, less stressed, normalizes blood pressure and blood sugar, and actually slows the process of aging. Thinking about the benefits of yoga is a great motivator to help you get on your mat!
2. Develop a routine
About a year ago, we began scheduling our classes for consistency on MWF and TT. For example, you can find Adria teaching Moderate on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 8:30 a.m. We set up our schedule this way to help you build a consistent routine.
Once you find a time, a class, and a teacher who work well for you, you can consistently attend those classes throughout the week! The more you develop your routine, the more successful you will be at consistent practice!
3. Schedule your practices on your calendar
Just like your meetings and appointments are important, so is your yoga practice! Prioritize your practice by scheduling your classes on your calendar, then fit other tasks around your practice.
At the top of our Class Schedule, we indicate the start and end date of the schedule. Generally, our schedules run
- January - May
- June & July
- August - December
This means that you can actually set up your practice as a reoccurring appointment on your electronic calendar. Say you practice with Adria on MWF at 8:30 a.m. - set it up to run from now through the end of May! Then as soon as the summer schedule comes out, you can program your June and July practices as well.
I hope this helps!
Questions? Comments? I'd love to hear from you! Let me know if these tips are workable for you (or not!), and if you have any additional tips that help you keep your yoga practice consistent.
See you soon!
All the best,
