When You Don't Practice Yoga

You will slowly start to notice that your yoga practice on the mat pales in comparison to your yoga practice in daily life. Even if you are practicing for an entire hour there are 23 other hours in the day. The time on the mat restores our sense of the connection, nourishes our inner wells, and allows us greater capacity to meet our daily life with an open mind, heart, and hands. As we understand this fact, our dedicated practice time becomes less of a luxury and more of a necessity. There is no need to feel bad about missing your practice. In fact, please resist the temptation to self-scold as the inner criticism and judgment are both addictive and taxing on the nervous system. Here at Yoga Anytime, we do our best to share practices that require less than 5 minutes to help counter the argument of not having enough time. This one, Meet your Breath, is only 5 minutes long. Meanwhile, the days we don’t get to roll around on our mat are the days we find out if our practice is working. Because not getting to do what we want, missing our medicine, being denied the relief that comes with the practice, and still finding a way to be present and patient is the real mark of an effective practice.