I'm completely used to keeping up with a Pilates calendar, adding in workouts, subtracting workouts, and following a schedule. Throwing in 30 days of yoga threw me off, but it threw me off because it consisted of 30 minute yoga videos for 2-3 weeks. That's a huge chunk out of the day for me and, while Pilates is conducive to being broken up into chunks (half a video in the morning, half at night, etc), yoga seems to flow better (literally) if you do it all at once.
So I ended up, in true upholder fashion, getting really stressed out and started tightening behaviors and started thinking about how I could incorporate yoga in a more long-term way. I always feel better when I do yoga but I don't do yoga nearly often enough. Immersing myself in 30 minutes a day was not the way to go though.
Could I have done 30 minutes of yoga each day? I guess. It would've left no time for my beloved Pilates and other things wouldn't have gotten done though. Maybe that was the point?
Here's why I gave up:
1. I don't have 30 minutes in the morning. I mean, I could. But then blogging, paperwork for work, and daily upkeep won't get done. I get up extra early to be able to fit things into my day. By replacing them with yoga (which I did try to do for a few days), I was constantly running behind. That isn't something I deal with well.
2. I don't have 30 minutes every evening. My muscles are more conducive to yoga at night because they're already warm. But by the time I showered, got things ready for the next day, etc, I was too tired to do yoga. 30 minutes is a long time when you're truly, truly tired. I thought about doing the workout earlier in the evening, and sometimes I did. But the relaxed state I needed to be in for that to happen wasn't happening at 6pm.
3. I fell behind on Pilates and realized how conducive my Pilates calendar really is to a busy life. The schedule I pay $9 for every month gives 3 short workouts and 2 long workouts a week. I usually change this to 3-4 long workouts plus the 3 short ones. Typically I break the long ones into two pieces and do 15-20 minutes a day, on average. Because the weekends are left open, I do anything I didn't get to M-F, on the weekend. It's a system that works for me.
4. I couldn't catch up on the weekends. With a 30 minute workout coming out every day (straight to my inbox, no less) there was no time to catch up. It was infuriating to my upholder nature, so I just had to stop.
I will absolutely finish these workouts/videos but I'll probably just do one a week for February. I like the way yoga makes me feel and I like the benefits of relaxation and flexibility I get from it. I believe in it. I just think this was a lesson in knowing myself and my current schedule and knowing what works for me and what doesn't. I think about all the days when I used to drive to a gym to work out and that certainly took chunks of time out of my day. I wasn't doing that every day though (unless it was summer). It was three days a week tops, not every day.
What do you think? Do you have 30 minutes every day for yoga?
