3 Unexpected Reasons To Consider a Daily Practice

I’m not much of a “do something daily” kind of gal. I love to be spontaneous. I also tend to get bored with too much routine. So when I kept seeing and hearing #yogaeverydamnday, I felt a lot of resistance. “Every day?”I started going to yoga at Mind the Mat about four years ago. I would practice three to five times per week. I felt like that was an excellent effort and I was proud of my commitment. I had no intentions of changing the frequency. But then on Christmas 2017, I made a spur of the moment decision to practice #yogaeverydamnday.My friends and family became concerned.“You’re going to hurt yourself!”“You’ll be exhausted!”“Your body needs rest!”I decided to throw caution to the wind and I gave it a try. For the first couple weeks, I was exhausted. Since this was over the holidays, work and kid activities were manageable, but I wasn’t sure I could keep up with the pace once life started to roll again.About three weeks in, I found a groove and I started to notice a few things shifting in my life. 

1. When invested in my health, it created more time.

As friends, colleagues, and neighbors dropped like flies from the flu, I had more energy than ever. For the first time, I escaped the winter months without as much as a sniffle. I calculated the amount of time I spent in yoga vs. the amount of time my friends were in bed sick. No contest. I was sold on yoga’s benefits to the immune system and saw that my time investment in yoga paid big dividends.  

2. I reshaped by beliefs about my body.

I didn’t set out to lose weight on this endeavor. I had come to terms with the “fact” that we gain weight in mid-life. At 47, I watched the scale creep up and figured it was normal. With yoga on my mind, I was much more mindful about how I treated my body all day long. I ate healthier and drank less. In three months, I lost more than ten pounds and I now feel stronger and leaner than I have in decades. So much for midlife weight gain being inevitable!  

3. I gained confidence that I can craft the life I want.

Four months ago, yoga every day seemed impossible, yet when I made it a priority, everything changed. I scheduled around it. I made different decisions. And I found myself fiercely protecting my yoga time. When yoga every day became possible, I recognized that anything is possible with conscious choices and firm priorities. I’m now ready to tackle business goals that seemed out of reach just months ago. More than a decade ago, my sister sent a card to me that read, “If you don’t take care of your body, where will you live?” I loved this card. And while I believe we are more than just our bodies, we need healthy bodies to help us make meaningful contributions to the world. I invite you to put your body first. If yoga isn’t your thing, find another physical practice that you can do every day and see what opens up for you.