One of the best courses I have ever attended was a course on effective time management. The course was centred around the concept that time is NOT unlimited .Take a 24 hours period , how many hours do you actually have left to do what you may WANT to do once you taken away all the hours spent doing what you HAVE to do?
Not many,right?
We sleep for about 7 hours , we spend about 1 to 2 hours preparing food and eating , 8 hours ( at least !) working , 2 hours coming and going from work (maybe more) , that leaves about 6 hours a day for us to do SOMETHING. If you then count the time we spend watching TV, socialising on-line maybe doing some house chores or doing the shopping we are left with maybe a couple of hours.
Enter the OTHERS! What about the time you spend interacting with others, maybe your spouse, your parents or children. Before you know it the day is gone.
So how do you find the time to practice yoga or meditation on a daily basis? When I first decided to train to become a teacher I managed to establish a daily practice for several months and this allowed be to become fitter and increase my knowledge dramatically. It also made me feel more energised and relaxed at the same time.
If you want to establish a daily yoga practice or perhaps just a more frequent personal practice here are my top 5 tips :
1) set a realistic intention : there is no point in starting off with a practice that may not be sustainable. Make sure that you start slow to allow you to adjust your current daily routine. Committing to just 10-15 minutes a day is a great start and in the long term you can get great benefits from a very small investment.
2) create a dedicated space : this is fundamental! If you want to make sure you practice you have to prepare. Roll your mat out before going to bed, make it inviting by perhaps placing a colourful cushion on the mat or perhaps a candle ready to be lit.
If you have a dedicated room that is great but if you do not that is not a problem. Just make sure it's clutter free or arrange your mat so that distractions ( the ironing, the kids toys, the random collection of tennis rackets ) are kept to a minimum or perhaps just out of your line of sight . Adding an inspiring object like a lantern, a Buddha statue or pretty plant is a very inexpensive way to create a sanctuary anywhere in your home.
3) set the time for your practice wisely: decide WHEN it's best for you to practice. If you choose the morning , then you will need to set your alarm a little earlier and remember that in Winter it will be harder because of the dark mornings . If it's the evening , make sure you set some special time aside, away from the business of family life. There will always be something you need to do instead but if you add to your busy schedule "yoga time at 9.30 pm" every night then nothing else will take its place.
4) be compassionate towards yourself : don't be mad with yourself if you don't manage to keep at it, we do live busy lives and things happen. Remember it takes 21 days for a behaviour to become a habit so if you can manage for 3 weeks to keep an almost daily routine then you are well on your way! You may even notice that if one day you happen not to practice your body feels like it's missing something.
5) make it fun : keep your interest by choosing an interesting sequence, perhaps you can challenge yourself to achieve a certain number of sun salutations by a certain date or you can join my on-line class program this Summer available to BUY NOW .There are several 30 minutes classes to choose from and more shorter 15 minutes classes will be added soon. Access costs £10 and videos will be available until end of October.
I hope this helps and remember that in order to have time for the things you love you have to MAKE time, the time you have is all you have so use it wisely!
Thank you for taking the time to read this .
Namaste
Marzia
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