If you’re missing more than a couple of days in a row of your 15 minutes of yoga, here’s a piece of wisdom to get you back on track. It’s based on the work of Japanese psychiatrist Dr Shoma Morita.
Does this sound familiar?
You’ve just got home from work and you’re shattered. All you want to do is switch off and sink down in front of the TV but you know you need to do some yoga. A few stretches will ease your achy back and shoulders, loosen up your hips and help you to get a better night’s sleep.
But you just don’t feel like doing it.
And that’s your first mistake. Your feelings are not under your control.
YOGA ON TAP
I recently went to Whistler for a few weeks with a friend of mine. A passionate and highly-skilled downhill mountain biker. Every morning and sometimes in the evening too, he rode hard for 2 or 3 hours. (No gondolas for this one.) Now, my friend is no stranger to yoga. It has saved his lower back many times in the past and he readily acknowledges the “night and day difference” it makes to his riding. I offered to take him through the yoga stretches he needed every evening…but he just didn’t feel like doing it.
GETTING IT DONE
“Effort is good fortune.”Dr Shoma Morita
No-one feels like bashing out hill sprints or 50 burpees in a row. You do it because you know how great you’ll feel afterwards. How much faster, stronger and more competitive you’ll be.
Your emotional state depends on innumerable factors outside of your control: what you’ve eaten, how much sleep you’ve had, how loved and appreciated you feel, if it’s sunny outside or cold and grey, if you’ve just received good or bad news.
If we allowed ourselves always to be dictated to by our feelings, we’d never get anything difficult or important done.
DR SHOMA MORITA’S WISDOM
Accept your feelings, know your purpose and do what needs to be done.
That’s it. Nothing could be simpler. You need to do some yoga? Just do it. Do one pose. Practice for 5 minutes. No excuses. No-one said you have to do it well. No-one said that you’ll experience mind-blowing benefits after each session. You just do it. Then, when you’ve done it a few times, you’ll have established the habit and you don’t need to worry about your feelings anymore. Your actions will be automatic and you won’t have to go to battle with your mind every time you want to do a little stretching.
Nike put it best: “Your body will thank you later.” #justdoit
I’d love to hear what tricks you have up your sleeve to motivate you when your willpower wanes and you need to bring out the big guns.
Motivation Tricks;
Habit habit habit habit.
Mentally link the yoga to something desirable and rewarding. For me the gains in performance and feedback surfing.
Also, I watched my kids be motivated to clean up the house via a star chart, and though it could work for me too. Guess what? It does! Big kid.
Yoga is intrinsically desirable and rewarding! Hehe. That feedback and increase in performance/abilities is crucial. And you have just inspired me to set up a Yoga 15 Star Chart!
Yes sensei 🙂