Tips for Success

I'd like to offer seven tips for setting up for success for our Mindful Movement course together. Number one, space. You may or may not have the luxury of leaving your yoga mat out in a specific place, it's fine to put it out and roll it up, but it's good to designate some space in your home or your office or wherever you're going to practice that is going to be the place where you practice every day for these seven days. I'd go to that place now, clean it up, make it look nice if you like a little vase of flowers or a candle, something to make it feel special, and it's like you're a sanctuary for this time of practice, so it's good just to designate space for yourself to practice. Number two is the toolkit.

I encourage you to have a yoga mat that will help so that you don't slip when you're doing the yoga poses, two yoga blocks, and you can also use some thick books, they don't have to be official yoga blocks, a couple of blankets, and again any blankets you have around your house, a strap, it can be a strap, you can also use a towel. One day we're using a strap to stretch the legs with the foot up into the air, and then also a chair or a couch, something to sit on. In the seated meditations I'm going to offer sitting in a chair, and there's also one day when we're going to rest the shins on a chair in a restorative pose. Number three is to prioritize. This can easily slip to the end of the day and then the day's over and you haven't done your practice.

I know this well. It's an effort to get to the mat, to take some energy, a real commitment, and since you've decided to do this, I really suggest that you do dive in and make it not negotiable for yourself. Just like you brush your teeth, you do your practice. It's helpful to have at the same time every day, if possible, to get up early. If you have other people in your house, get up before they get up to do this 30-minute practice.

It is a dedication, it's a commitment, but it can be fruitful. You can do it at any point of the day, but I encourage you to try to stay consistent and write it down in your calendar. Just like any important meeting, you are going to show up for this practice. Number four, get comfy. When you come to your mat, wear something that you can move in, something you feel comfortable in.

For the active part of the practice, we almost always do yoga in bare feet so that there's traction and we're not slipping in socks, but for the meditation part, feel free to slide on some cozy socks, get a shawl or something to stay warm. It's important that, especially if your space is cool or you're doing it in the winter, that you feel warm. Also, try not to have a big meal before you come to your mat. We're going to do twisting and moving around and it's best to have a relatively empty stomach. Number five, accountability buddy.

Community is a helpful thing for practice. If there's somebody that pops to mind, you think might want to hop on this journey with you, have them sign up and do it with you. You can either be in the same space together, that would be fun, but it might not be possible. You could just do it even across the world, you could do this with a friend and then you can text them when you're done or call and see how it's going. You could discuss homework.

You could even gather a group of people to do it. It'd be really a fun project and nourishing and good for you and your community. Number six, off-the-mat work. It's really important that we not isolate our practices to the mat or to the meditation cushion, but to translate the practices out into the world, into the rest of your life. This does happen, kind of by osmosis, it happens kind of magically, but at the end of each day of this course, I'm offering a specific tip of how to move your practice off the mat and into the world.

I don't want to sound too much like a teacher, but do your homework. Make it carry out and the homework is designed to be fun and nourishing and help you create more ease in your life. It's all for the benefit of yourself and your joy. The last thing is just that, fun. Number seven, fun.

You want this to be a part of your day that feels good. It might be a struggle to get there, but I'm hoping once you arrive with me on your mat, there's some kind of feeling of delight or accomplishment or ease or joy of connecting to yourself and your body. I'm going to ask you to stick with it for, try to stick it with it the full seven days, but on day five or day six, you're just like, I don't like this. This isn't working for me. Feel free to do something else with your time, but I think you'll enjoy it and we'll stick together for the seven days and then you can see the fruits of your efforts.

Have fun. Join me. It's a cool course. I'm excited to share it with you. Thank you.