Time-time-time. Lack of time to do everything we need seems to be the bane of our modern lives. So many people complain ad nauseum that maintaining any exercise practice is so difficult because they "lack the time." However, I don't buy this argument...sorry! As I advocate in my book, Yoga at Home: Gain Energy, Flexibility, and Serenity in 20-30 Minutes a Day, just DE-CIDE (i.e., cut off other options) to practice yoga daily and carefully select your practice time so that it best suits your body clock and schedule.
However, you can't ignore the fact that "life happens" and our daily schedule doesn't always unfold as planned. You have a late night out galavanting on the town or maybe staring at the ceiling in bed because of insomnia. The following morning your plan to practice yoga gets shot to smithereens! Or, if you practice at lunch or in the afternoon, you get sidetracked by an important business luncheon or your kids' afternoon sports match runs overtime and again, your time for yoga gets away from you.
Well, you know how adamant I am about the need for a daily yoga practice (or at least 6 times a week) of at least 20-30 minutes to gain maximum results. But, I must admit, while I was writing my book several people advised me to change my title and advise readers that they could invest less time each day or fewer times per week. Well, no, I just couldn't back down from that. Seeing that my original yoga primers advocated a practice that would take at least 60-90 minutes a day, I think 20-30 minutes is reasonable for us busy 21st century citizens.
But, what do you do when your schedule gets disrupted? Be creative and just insert 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there in between your other activities. If you're at work, squeeze in neck rolls, breathing techniques, and side bends in the restroom that you can do in business attire. Another strategy is to divide up your practice between the morning and the evening.
The past few days I have had late bedtimes and haven't been able to get up as early in the morning as usual. I did not have time to do a full morning session of yoga. So, instead, I did half in the morning and half in the evening before dinner (ALWAYS exercise on an empty stomach, never after a meal!).
Now, I felt out of sync thinking about doing yoga in the evening because I am not conditioned to it. But, here's what I did to overcome my initial reluctance. I pretended I was an automaton and just had to do the practice no matter what. Without allowing time to think I rolled out the mat, quickly changed clothes, and then put on my favorite new CD of Latin jazz guitar music (by the band, Incendio). Then, I put my heart into my practice and it was easy to do so once I got onto the mat! And, I had especially wonderful practices the past two evenings.
Yours for creative ways to carve out daily time for yoga!
Laura Venecia Rodriguez
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