Motivation & Discipline – Part II: Find your happy place!

Maybe it sounds too flaky hippy to tell you to find your happy place, but I don’t know how else to describe it. It is within all of us just waiting to be discovered!

After I started practicing on my own I found that I didn’t need to search for motivation or discipline. Yoga made me feel so happy and incredible that suddenly I had the power and motivation inside me! It was just hard to find.

Here is how I found it… At some point in my practice, usually early on during the lunges or standing poses a feeling of peace and calm would wash over me. I would feel incredible in my body. Once it comes over me I let it consume my mind and body and allow it to build inside me. It is such an amazing experience, and hands down the best part of yoga. It will make all of your problems of the day wash away and seem minuscule.

It is this blissful feeling that translated into motivation and discipline for me. No longer did those words have a negative connotation. That feeling is what draws me to my practice.

I discovered this happy place through yoga, and now it has translated into my daily life! I hope that I can help you realize this amazing effect of yoga. You have this ability within your body and just have to tap into it. Then yoga is easy, your body will crave it, and it will make you feel so good that you cannot even imagine a life before it.

Motivation & Discipline

Part 1: Where do I get some of that?

Motivation and discipline are characteristics that I felt I didn’t have and struggled with for quite a while. I spent four years going to drop in or structured classes and learned some, but felt I couldn’t bring it home. I had trouble just getting on my mat and practicing.

At first it did take a little discipline. Ok, a lot! I would come home from work, put on my 3 second breath cycle cd, and set up my practice area. I still found ways to avoid the practice for a while spending time cleaning up my apartment or calling friends. But after a while I would know I had to get some type of a practice in. I followed the structure my teacher had given me with the Smart Yoga approach. Sometimes I would use a pranayama exercise to calm my mind and breath. When I first started practicing on my own it wouldn’t be for very long. Sometimes only half an hour. And I always experienced great benefits from any little bit of yoga I did.

Yoga builds. My practice built slowly. But now there are times when I loose hours to practicing yoga within that happy realm of motion. It might not be everyday, but it is constantly evolving.

When you get home, clear a space, roll out your mat and enjoy your body!

Everyone has the time to do some yoga. The hard part is disciplining yourself and finding the motivation. It is hard when we all work day jobs and come home tired after work. Before I started yoga I would fall asleep on the couch in front of the tv, wake up to cook dinner, and then be too full to do anything for the rest of the night. The next day I would go to work again and do the whole thing over. The only way I would get out and do something would be if I had plans with friends or had signed up for a class or something like that.

Once I started a home yoga practice I found it hard to work into my weekday schedule. Honestly I still do. The weekend seemed easy to get a practice in at least. That’s good enough, right?

I started getting stricter with myself. I would come home from work, have a light snack, roll out my mat and put on the breath beats cd. The cd was really key for me (I’ll explain the cd in a blog soon). I would still find little things to do around the house like the dishes, or make the bed, or put on a load of laundry first, or maybe I’ll call that person I should call. I should do this, I should do that…etc. (Note: please don’t should yourself!) And then finally I would calm down and come to my mat.

You just have to do it. Set out your mat, whatever props you want, put on comfy yoga clothes and get to it! The cd was a constant reminder to me that my intention was to do yoga. And I would start to breath deeply along with it. Oh, and remember after practicing you will feel AMAZING! There is nothing else like it. The time spent in meditative movement is so incredible for your mind and body and you will feel it after! It may be hard to get going, but there is huge reward!