This entry was posted on Aug 6, 2025 by Charlotte Bell.
Why follow yoga? There’s a multitude of various solutions to this query. As with all longterm relationship, over time, our follow evolves; it ebbs and flows. Typically our follow feels recent and very important; different instances it could really feel as if we’ve hit a plateau. At instances we could drop the follow for some time, and at others we could stay up for stepping onto the mat or sitting on our meditation cushion. It may be useful to recollect why we determined to prioritize yoga follow within the first place. Reflecting on our preliminary motivation to follow might help us preserve not solely consistency, but additionally inspiration.
3 Ideas for Creating Motivation to Observe
After I take a look at my motivation to follow, I’ve discovered that it’s actually easy. I follow as a result of after 37 years of meditation and 43 years of yoga, I acknowledge the immeasurable worth they carry to my life. I don’t follow as a result of some terrible hurt would befall me if I don’t. It’s not merely one thing I’ve added to my day by day to-do listing. It’s not a ought to. I belief the follow. I place confidence in the follow. And it’s not blind religion, however a religion that’s been verified by means of a long time of expertise.
How will we develop motivation to follow? Whether or not our core follow is yoga or meditation, we frequently must be reminded why we’re doing it. Listed here are some suggestions for staying on the trail:
- Consider your follow as a part of your morning ritual, a strategy to preserve the well being of your physique/thoughts. We don’t assume twice about consuming an honest breakfast, brushing our tooth, showering, and so forth. Yoga and meditation practices are they methods we deliver equilibrium to our our bodies and minds.
- If you put aside the time to follow, give it your full consideration. You’ve received loads of time to go over your to-do listing, or to replicate on that troublesome dialog you had with somebody yesterday. You’ve received time to formulate your reply to that individual—later. Use your follow time to speculate your full consciousness into what you’re feeling in your physique and thoughts, right here and now. Your follow time is treasured. It deserves your consideration and care.
- Mirror on the worth of your follow in your day by day life. In response to the yoga sutras, the good thing about asana follow is the cultivation of equanimity within the face of the ups and downs of our lives. This will apply to minute day by day annoyances, or it will probably apply to main challenges and losses. The advantages might be refined or apparent. What advantages have you ever skilled? Reflecting on this could remind you why you follow and might help you keep motivated.
Belief Your Yoga and Meditation Practices
Reflecting on the worth of follow in your life might be tough. Whereas there are advantages you may really feel straight away once you follow yoga and meditation, a few of the deeper advantages are refined. That is the place reflecting on the millennia-long historical past of those practices might be useful. Yoga and meditation have survived for 1000’s of years. They’ve survived as a result of thousands and thousands of individuals have reaped their advantages. So even in the event you’re simply beginning out, and the advantages you expertise are on the subtler aspect, belief the method. Method your follow with an open, curious thoughts. Mirror on why you like your follow. Then seize your meditation cushion or your yoga mat, open your thoughts and see the place your follow takes you at the moment.
About Charlotte Bell
Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started educating in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Observe and Yoga for Meditators, each printed by Rodmell Press. Her third e-book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Purple Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards.
