My Love Hate Relationship with Yoga

Today I wanted to talk about those things in life that we know we should do but for some reason never actually end up following through with. Whether we use the "I'll start tomorrow" excuse or something similar, we always come up with all sorts of justifications as to why we shouldn't start now (none of them ever that valid). For example, how many times have I said that I should get back into yoga? Probably more than I've actually started up the practice again. Still, it's on been on my mind a lot lately. The yoga world has become such a huge thing these days (both for better and worse I'd say), but still there is such an appeal. For starters, when we think yoga, we always get inundated with these kinds of images:

    

Well, you often get these pictures too, but you get my point:

  

Pictures like those first ones show that there's suppose to be a magic to yoga, a je ne said quoi about it that will do everything from make you a better person to give you Mr. Fantastic-type flexibility. (Oh no, Significant Other-based comic book references have officially entered my vocabulary... he'd be so proud.) When yoga is done properly, with the right mindset and intention, I actually don't deny any of those things, that's probably the biggest reason why I want to get back into it so much.

When I started my day by doing only 20 minute yoga routines every morning thanks to Yoga Download, I felt so much better. It cleared my mind, deepened my breath, helped with my strength and flexibility, created length... it was fantastic. Just 20 minutes, so why can't I get back into it? I can take about an hour to get to the gym every day but not 20 minutes to do yoga. I'm sure it would be easy to take just a fraction of the time I spent every day bumming around on Facebook or Pinterest or something to dedicate back to my yoga. And yet...

So many people have lots of different tricks to get back into things, whether its challenges, resolutions, etc. Sometimes, you just have to do it. Yesterday, I've rolled out my mat first thing in the morning and got it done. I want to start small. I just want to commit to doing this for a week. If it sticks, that's great, but I want to do at least that. I know all good habits start that way. It's like working out; you do it once, remember how good you feel and then it fuels of cycle of good feeling where you just can't stop. I'm just hoping I'll rebuild the habit with yoga. Starting now. 

I have to admit the first day on the mat was hard. It doesn't matter how much I stretch, how much I run, how much I lift, how much I dance. Yoga just works differently with your body. I thought I'd take it easy by starting by a simple Hatha routine, and ha, was I wrong about the "easy" part. I guess not following through with my practice has made me weak and tight in all the wrong places, but I'm fine with that. I'm accepting where I have to start, because of my own choices, and looking forward to getting back to where I was before and better!

Do you have have that thing you keep wanting to do but just can't seem to? If so, why not just give it a shot once, and then see if it sticks. And hey, it's the weekend! That's a great time to try something new!