YOGA & MEDITATION
“There’s no time like the present”
I’ve been ‘threatening’ to incorporate these two things in my life for sometime now, I even made a failed attempt with the mediation back in February. Since then, I’ve been making silent excuses, moving, travelling, busy with school or swimming…you name it, and I excused myself because of it. But like ‘they’ say, there’s no time like the present and I am going to try and embrace that for the next few weeks leading into the start of my semester.
First of all, I want to make it clear why I have decided it necessary to incorporate these things into my life.
1. If you know me-you know that I can sometimes be here, there and everywhere with my ideas and goals, I am that girl who tries to do everything and anything all at once! Inevitably I get overwhelmed and find it hard to focus my energies in the right places.
2. I am also that girl who carries a ‘tough girl’ look on the outside, but I am not always so tough on the inside, this can also be overwhelming and bring out those ugly insecurities that I always try to hide.
3. I used to be the fearless girl...who believed I could do anything and did it, needless to say-I want that back, not the fearlessness, just the belief in myself & my goals.
4. I often think of myself as a ‘independent woman’, but in relationships I tend to lose a little of that if I am not careful. I feel that it is extremely important to maintain the idea of self-love with or without your significant other, I want to work on that.
5. Last but not least…I am a little bit of a control freak. I try to hide it, but I definitely have my issues with becoming extremely anxious and frazzled whenever something is out of my control. I want to learn to just LET IT BE.
Now, if you are wondering why I think mediation and yoga will help with these things…I suggest you take a look at this website, it does a great job of explaining the power of relaxation and meditation.
Below is a list of words that I am going to use to during this experiment to help keep my energies focused on my goals. Each word is meant to dictate a theme corresponding to the weak points I mentioned above. My idea is to have each yoga/meditation session follow one of these themes.
Focus
Courage
Believe
Love
Relax and Let it be
THE PLAN
Yes…I’m also a planner, but I actually think this is one of my good qualities, so here is THE PLAN!
Alana’s 30-day Yoga & Meditation Retreat
Note: I am giving myself 9 weeks to do my “30 day retreat”. The reason for this is because…well LIFE HAPPENS. I don’t want to set myself up for failure by trying to go from doing no Yoga or Meditation on a daily basis to do it every day for 30 days straight.
Rule #1 when setting out a new goal: Know thyself. Make sure your goal is challenging but doable. Do not make the mistake of trying to accomplish something too fast…they say it takes 66 days to form a new habit. For me, that is roughly 3 days a week of yoga/meditation. However, this number will obviously vary depending on the person and the habit. It is important when climbing the ladder to your ultimate goal that you create baby steps along the way. This does not mean you give yourself the easy way out, but it is human nature to be encouraged when we accomplish a goal, small or big. In this way, we are more likely to reach the ultimate goal-in my case, that is regularizing the habit of active relaxation.
Rule #2: If you don’t reach your goal in the allotted time, continue until you do reach it, then reboot, reflect & set yourself a new goal! This is a reminder for you, but also for me while going through this process. Also set a new goal if you did reach your goal. The second time around may not have to be so structured, but it is important that your goal become a life habit, not just a crash diet!
Rule # 3: While pursuing a new goal, or trying to form a new habit or break an old one, keeping a written record is extremely important! Yes, I know it may be a pain in the ass, or you may think you have no time, but you do, it only has to take 5 minutes of your day. This can also be structured-kind of like a check sheet if you want.
Rule # 4: Do not expect to introduce a new good habit into your life without getting rid of an old bad habit. In my case, I now need to free up at least an hour of my time on the days that I do my yoga & mediation. For me, that is going to come from the time I spend on social media!
In case you want to join me, here are the websites I am using for my yoga videos and meditation course.
Here are the Yoga Videos I am going to use. You can choose your own, and she does a new one every week!
Below are some lessons in Mediation from The Silva Life System that I am going to read weekly, along with doing the audio guided meditations which can be found here at the bottom of the page. I like this one, but it is a little long if you don't have time to do this everyday.
Here are some shorter ones from Oprah's website. Also, here is a good guided morning meditation that i like.
Week 1: Meditation Lesson
Week 2: Meditation Lesson
Week 3: Meditation Lesson
Week 4: Meditation Lesson
Week 5: Meditation Lesson
Week 7: Meditation Lesson
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