Build a Daily Practice

Photo Credit: Israel Rydie

One of my personal goals over the last two years has been in cultivating a healthier morning routine. As remote work became my new normal, I saw work slowly creeping into my “off” hours through phone notifications, email checks, and chats. What I first justified as “checking to mentally prepare for the workday ahead,” evolved into logging into work apps as soon as woke up and being too apprehensive about the tasks pending in my inbox to actually enjoy any wake-up routine. This had to stop.

I made changes in increments. Building habits takes time. I started by turning off my notifications and committing to using my phone to only shut off my alarm until after breakfast. I once again was able to sit and enjoy breakfast and a cup of tea. I was already better mentally prepared for my day, and honestly, a better employee because of it. But, I wanted more.

I added a consistent devotional and journaling time to my morning. Sit, sip, reflect. Nothing crazy, maybe 15-20 minutes alongside my cup of tea. But this is probably one of my favorite parts of the day. To make this space, I committed to rising earlier. However, watching the sun rise while journaling is a lot more restorative than rolling over in bed 30 minutes later to log straight onto work chats.

One thing which was conspicuously absent from my new and improved morning routine was yoga. As a yoga teacher, I almost feel ashamed to admit I didn’t have a daily practice. A regular practice, absolutely, but daily, no. This year, my incremental change to my budding restorative morning habit is bumping back my alarm a little further to create space for 10-15 minutes of a restorative morning yoga flow. Stretch, sit, sip, reflect is now my new normal. And, it’s done wonders for my mental, physical, and emotional health. I honestly look forward to this morning routine. It doesn’t mean it makes it easier to get up in the pitch black when it’s freezing outside. But, I do look forward to this “me” time I’ve carved out of a busy schedule, and the impacts are totally worth the time. Now, I can proudly say I have a daily practice. Yes, 10-15 minutes of yoga counts!

In fact, there are a lot of benefits to 15 minutes of yoga a day. If you’re interested in carving out your own restorative morning, take a look at some of the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of building a daily practice:

Flexibility and Functional Mobility

o The key to flexibility and mobility is consistency. Use or lose it! Quality over quantity here can go a long way to maintaining and improving functional mobility and flexibility. Incorporating a consistent yoga practice even in small doses over time will have a positive impact on mobility and flexibility by lengthening muscles and releasing fascia binds from repetitive movements of daily life. Many yoga postures, like downward facing dog, engage a range of motion outside of the realm of normal daily work and activities and release the pressure of gravity on the body. The movement of yoga additionally supports joint health by encouraging circulation of synovial or joint fluid to hydrate the joints. Hydrated joints support smoother movement and reduced feelings of compression during movement. Exploring the full range of motion of major joints and safely moving the spine through a guided yoga practice can improve joint health and movement even if only practiced for 15 minutes a day.

Balance

o The brain also gets a workout during yoga. Postures which require balance like tree pose activate neurons which support spatial awareness and balance. These postures also engage smaller stabilizer muscles which are hard to target in other workouts which often focus on the larger muscle groups. Exercising these neural pathways through a daily practice, coupled with the improved functional mobility and stabilizer strength can result in improved balance and stability.

Stress and Anxiety Regulation

o Engaging in a restorative yoga practice, supports parasympathetic nervous system health. Your autonomic nervous system which controls the autonomous (without conscious thought) actions in the body like heart rate, sweating, pupil dilation, etc. is divided into two complementary halves: the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. Yin and Yang. The sympathetic system is your flight or fight response. It is the system which gets you going in order to respond to stimuli. Meanwhile, the parasympathetic system is the voice of calm which brings things back down. The two work in tandem to find balance in the body: homeostasis. However, in our busy lives, the sympathetic nervous system is often overstimulated and our parasympathetic system takes a back seat. Restorative yoga allows the parasympathetic system to take the wheel. A restorative practice focuses less on stretching and strength and more on quietly settling into a pose and enjoying stillness. Even a short time in restorative yoga postures, 10-15 minutes, has been shown to have positive effects in reducing stress and anxiety. During this period, we allow the parasympathetic system to do its job and release the hormones and initiate the body processes which reduce feelings of fight or flight and increase inner calm.

Strength

o Yoga postures often deceptively require a lot of active muscle engagement. Even mountain pose, tadasana, activates muscles from the ankles and feet all the way up the back through the fingertips when practiced mindfully. A consistent yoga practice engages a wide range of muscle groups and builds strength over time. Several studies have shown that individuals with consistent yoga practices demonstrate significant improvements in muscle strength metrics compared to those without a yoga practice.

Weight Management

o Did you know stress can slow your metabolism? The same sympathetic system which controls fight or flight regulates metabolic speed as a component of your body’s readiness to respond. Let’s be honest, being chased by a bear isn’t the best time for you to digest that cheeseburger. Because of this, the sympathetic nervous system slows metabolic activity to conserve energy in order to respond to external stimuli. Meanwhile, the parasympathetic system, the yin, actually stimulates metabolic activity. Engaging this system through cultivating a period of calmness and quiet through yoga can actually kick start your metabolism for the day.

Mindfulness and Body Awareness

o Slowing down to bring awareness back to your body and your breath each day gives you a moment to check in. Over time, cultivating this habit brings a greater awareness to how your body is feeling and your mental state, both on and off the mat. After building a daily practice, you might find yourself more aware of your shallow breathing in the workday and feelings of anxiety and pause to correct it. You may more keenly notice your keyboard slump, and sit up straighter or take a standing break. The skills of breath awareness and control and mental focus built in a consistent yoga practice are transferrable off the mat. When we invite these skills into our daily routine, incorporating them outside of a yoga flow begins to feel more natural.

Energy, Mood, and Thought Clarity

o Many yogis find they feel both relaxed and energized after a yoga practice. Since we teach yoga at a climbing gym, we often hear yogis talk about how they love rock climbing after yoga because they are able to mentally focus on a climb and have the physical energy to complete it. When we quiet the mind from distraction, we are better able to direct our energy and focus to tasks at hand. A consistent yoga practice can oxygenate our brain and increase energy levels, release “feel good” hormones, and improve our thought clarity as we direct that focus in a less anxious body to the task at hand.

Sleep

o Particularly if you choose to incorporate a daily evening practice into your life, yoga can assist in healthy sleep patterns by providing an outlet to wind down, release pent up tension in the body, slow the heart rate and breathing, and quiet the mind. There’s nothing quite like getting into bed after a deep savasana….Utter bliss.

So, perhaps it’s time to take the plunge and build a daily practice, one posture at a time. There are lots of great options out there on YouTube and other platforms for short, 10-15 minute yoga sequences. You can also work on incorporating familiar sequences or postures from instructors you know. I’ve also posted some suggested sequences on this blog. Check out the integration and surrender series for a good wake up and wind down option that can fit into a 10-minute yoga habit.

Below, I’ve posted a link to a video of some of my favorite moves to incorporate into a gentle morning yoga routine:

https://youtu.be/BeU5lPsMC4s

Enjoy and as always, Namaste!