Yoga Craving

A funny thing happened this morning: I did yoga all on my own; my body craved it.

It hasn’t been long since I took a renewed commitment to go to a single class per week, and yet my body is already naturally calling for it more frequently after merely 6 weeks or so.

Over the past few months I’ve been fighting pneumonia, losing 21 pounds (yay!), and struggling to keep it off. Yoga was one way.

Some may say that’s a ridiculous goal, but I made such a small commitment because I knew I could keep it.

This idea of making an incredibly small goal that could easily be accomplished with little to no effort was influenced by Leo Babuta:

Take an action, no matter how tiny.
You don’t need to fix everything in your life right now. You don’t even need to fix one thing.
You just need to do one little, minuscule, almost nothing thing.

Essentially, create a goal so small you could step over it; not ignore it.

As a deeply engaged father of two girls (3 and nearly 1), and in a job that allows me to schedule my own work time, makes it easy to avoid exercise.

My personal challenge was to do a single 1.5 hr class per week, which costs $15 and it’s a less than 5 minute walk from home. Seems easy - right?

Turned out, it wasn’t, and I found I had to push just to stay on track. I found the trick was to focus on the result of exercise not the doing, and that made it more palatable. Often my mind got in the way, making up all sorts of excuses – but that hurtle just needed to be blown past.

It’s only the first day, but I really thought it’d take longer for the habit to take hold, based on this great TED Talk on Happiness that challenges you to do anything for 21 days to make that habit permanent.

I have such a blissful feeling all over after merely 20 mins of yoga.

How enjoyable to simply follow your body’s guidance; such a delightful gift to yourself.