Posts In: habits

Birds migrate, snows melt, green sprouts poke their courageous heads out of the earth, ready to live. It’s time to shrug off those winter blues and embrace warmer weather and a fresh start. While the San Diegan climate doesn’t allow for a lot of seasonal variation when it comes to temperature or rainfall, it’s hard to miss all the trees and flowers in bloom and the lengthening hours of daylight. With the official start of Spring right around the corner, the vernal equinox on March 20th, perhaps some yogic spring cleaning is in order. Here are five ways to re-center, re-invest and re-vitalize your commitment to your yoga practice!

1. Change it up! If you regularly go to the same class with the same instructor, try mixing up your schedule. Don’t worry about abandoning your favorite instructor, there’s a reason you love their teaching style and you’ll definitely be back. All it takes are a few words from a new teacher that strike you personally or the way your body feels doing a different type of yoga to renew your energy and passion.
2. Take the reins and actively direct your study of yoga. Re-invest in your education by signing up for a workshop, a private lesson or even making the leap to join the next Yoga One Teacher Training. Purchase or check out from the library a new book on yoga, read or re-read the Sutras. When you open the door to knowledge, you get to form new connections with yourself and the world around you.
3. Lighten up your diet. Don’t worry, this isn’t an injunction saying you must eat this and never eat that and so on. From a purely health-oriented perspective, I think we can all agree that more fruits and veggies are the way to go. Bonus points if they’re raw. When you eat healthy food, your body gets the nutrients it needs to help you feel lighter and more alert both on and off your mat.
4. Get a change of scenery, starting with your wardrobe. It’s no secret that we’re drawn to certain colors and assign them emotional meanings; so choose to wear colors that inspire you and represent the energy you’d like to have and project to others. Ditch the black and try out a fresh green, exuberant white or daring hot pink and notice the difference in your warrior two.
5. Break out of old habits by experiencing each pose as if you were brand new to yoga. We’ve said it before, begin again. When in doubt, focus on the breath. Take a few minutes each day to sit with yourself in silent meditation. By increasing your mindfulness, you welcome a heightened awareness into your everyday life which can lead to less anxiety and a clearer sense of purpose.

With social events and family gatherings right around the corner, it’s easy to stop doing some of the things you usually do, including established habits. It’s even easier to stop doing the new activities you’d like to transform into habits. Your yoga practice, whether fully integrated into daily life or a new-found activity you’d like to continue, is in danger of suffering this December. For some, the knowledge of having been dedicated to their practice for a long time can feel like permission to do less and focus on other matters. For others, yoga can feel like a personal luxury, one that can easily be picked up after everyone else’s problems and needs have been resolved.

We all struggle with the decision of what to do with the present moment. Most of us can only do one thing at a time; therefore a choice must be made between many tasks or activities of differing priority levels. Normally, there exists a careful balance between the things that need to be done and the things we would like to do. But during times of stress, we’re all guilty of compromising on the things we would like to do, the self-care activities that keep us happy and balanced, that we mortgage our own well-being. The parent who puts off treating themselves for some magical day in the future when they won’t have to drive half the soccer league to practice. The student who sacrifices good nutrition for convenience during finals week. The working professional who hasn’t taken a day off in years. We’ve all seen these people and we’ve all been these people.

I would like to put forth the outlandish proposal that healthy, well-cared-for people are happier people. More productive people. Even sexier people. In the midst of all the swirling activities and demands that December brings, make two lists for yourself. One you already have, whether it’s in your mind or written down on a scrap of paper. The other is a list of all the things you usually do for yourself or all the things you’d like to do for yourself. Add yoga to the top of both lists.

Beyond the realm of exercise, yoga calms the nerves, deepens the breath and establishes a mind-body connection to counteract all the spinning the mind does on its own. We all know that yoga makes us feel good, but yoga is also something we need, especially when life gets chaotic. When you carve out time to care for your own well-being, both physical and mental, then you’ll find that you command such superpowers as increased energy, more focused attention, emotional empathy to spare, and that rarest of all gems, peace of mind.

Go forth. Do yoga. Spread Joy.