7 Lessons from 30 Days of Yoga (with Adriene)
/When was the last time you committed to do something for yourself every single day?
On January first a friend of mine posted on Facebook:
Anyone want to do 30 days of Yoga with Adriene with me??
My gut reaction was, “No way.” There is no FRICKin way I can commit to doing something EVERY DAY for thirty days. Even if it is only 30 minutes.
Then I asked myself, “why not?”
Why can’t I carve out 20-35 minute for myself every day for an entire month? What could possibly get in the way of my doing that?
An almost 9-month old
Working part-time (during naptime) from home
The fact that I had already committed to myself to complete a 21 day fitness program over the month of January
An almost 9-month old
The fact that my husband has been working 45-50 hours a week lately
The fact that I prioritize homemade meals for everyone in my house (us AND Clara)
Oh, and did I mention a teething, pulling up, trying her hardest to figure out how to walk almost 9-month old?
It would be crazy to commit to. Right? Right?
But what if…
What if just for this one month I committed to 20-35 minutes a day just for me? My fitness workouts would be no longer than 30 minutes, and I technically had already built 10 rest days into my month, so if I wasn’t able to get to them on a particular day, I’d still be able to finish within my projected time-frame.
What if, instead of letting all the other “stuff” of life I prioritized myself?
The thought literally scared me. Scared, but also excited me. So I said I’d do it.
And spoiler alert- I did. I finished all 30 days. On the day that I was supposed to do them. The only thing I fudged on was the very last day when I only did 45 minutes of the 50 minute practice. Day 30 was a “practice on your own” session- and while I was really in my own flow for about the first 35 minutes, Clara woke up from her nap and while we did 10 minutes “together,” I couldn’t quite get back into it. I’m not mad about it. It was exactly what I needed, which was kind of the whole point.
So about now you may be saying, “Okay Erin, good for you. You did something every day for 30 days. Woohoo.” And you may be thinking it’s no big deal, OR you may think I’m bragging and there’s no way you could ever do something like that yourself. I get it, from both angles.
But what I really want to share with you is not that fact that I completed those 30 days (though, if you’d like to give me a gold star, I’ll take it), but what I LEARNED while I completed those 30 days.
What I Learned by Sticking with 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene (Every. Dang. Day.)
It really is Do-able. If you REALLY want to make something happen every day, you can do it. It may not always be easy, and you may not always want to do it, but it’s possible.
Timing is everything. Each video was released daily, and I didn’t realize until day 29 that there was a calendar that listed the times for the videos for the whole month. (ugh) So how long the practice would be each day was literally a surprise for me when I woke up in the morning. Once I knew how long the practice would be for the day, I’d decide when I was going to do it. Depending on when Clara went down for a nap, would I be able to get it done before I had a virtual training session with a client? Would I have to wait until after the session and cross my fingers that she’d do her normal long morning nap? Or would I have to try to get it done as soon as she fell asleep for her second nap?
Sometimes you have to ask for help. Speaking of timing- weekends can be weird around here. Clara and I will get into a good routine during the week, but during the weekends- it’s like all bets are off. In a nutshell, I think it’s partially because Rob is home more and Clara wants to spend time with him and vice versa. (I know, cute, but also it can make planning around naptime challenging.) However, since Rob was home, I could ask him for help. Sometimes it was letting him know that I was getting started and asking him to get her if she woke up from her nap. And sometimes it was literally asking him to go play with her for 20 minutes in another room. Either way, while I often struggle asking for help (and did for the first half of the month), when I finally gave in and started asking for help, weekends became a lot easier.
It’s okay to doubt yourself sometimes. It’s crazy how proud of myself I am for completing 30 consecutive days of yoga. I’d be lying if I didn’t say there was a tiny speck of doubt in the back of my head even as I committed. And I’d be lying if there weren’t days when naps weren’t aligning and the idea of taking 20 minutes to breathe felt like the last thing in the world that I had “time” for. However, even with that doubt (that happened more than I’d care to admit), I was still able to accomplish what I set out to do. You don’t have to be 100% confident to make something happen. Don’t wait for that confidence. Sometimes, you just have to start.
The dishes really can wait. Just typing that still makes me cringe a little, but it’s true. There were some days that instead of getting dishes done and cleaned right away, I let them sit for a while. Sometimes (gasp) even overnight! I love a clean house, there’s something about organization that makes everything right in the world. However, the world didn’t end if I had a few dishes in the sink (and sometimes, by waiting until the end of the day to do all the kitchen clean-up, I ended up saving time because I was doing less task-switching).
Get Creative with Your Time- not everything has to happen during naptime. Depending on your child(ren) and how old they are, naptime may be the easiest time to get things done, but it’s not necessarily the only time to get things done. One of the things I realized over my month of yoga was figuring out what really “needed” to be done during naptime versus what I would like to get done during naptime.
For example- my yoga really needed to be alone time, but a strength training or cardio workout? Not so much. In fact, I found that Clara enjoyed watching me workout, which may have been because of the extra silly noises and faces I made at her while I was doing it. On the other hand… the silliness made my workouts a bit more fun in the process. Win-win.Just because you did it once, doesn’t mean you have to do it again. My 30 day journey was awesome. Really, it was. I was shocked on day 30 that I was able to get into the flow for as long as I was without having to look to Adriene for cues. However all that being said, yoga every single day isn’t in the cards for me in this season of my life. I love strength training, and I’m working to get my overall strength back to a place that feels comfortable in my body. I love other forms of movement like dance and kickboxing and I want to be able to prioritize my movement love language, PiYo, as well. But yoga more often? Yes please. Over the next couple months I’m going to work to find my sweet spot, but I have a feeling it’s going to be closer to 3 times a week instead of 7. Enough days to get the mental benefits, but not so many days that I have to abandon other forms of movement that I also enjoy.
That being said, I’ll add one more item to this list that I didn’t learn while doing my 30 days of Yoga, but something I learned during my first Happiness Project experiment.It’s okay to change your mind. That’s right. It’s okay to change your mind. While I don’t promote quitting or giving up, I do think it’s okay to change your mind, especially if it doesn’t impact anyone else (if it does impact someone else- that’s a different story depending on the impact). If you decide to try something, but realize once you get started that it isn’t for you, there’s nothing that says you have to continue. For example, during my previous happiness project one of my monthly goals for “energy” was to take a silly picture every single day. But I found that being “forced” to be silly ended up being stressful, strained, and draining; in direct conflict with my goal. So instead of forcing the silly, I changed my goal to something that created
So take a deep breath, my friend, and believe in yourself. If you want to accomplish something, you can. It is entirely possible to find 30 minutes a day to work towards your goals. Whether they are health, fitness, or wellness related. Whether they are business, growth, or relationship related. Or if they are something else entirely. It’s possible.
It may not always be easy. It may not always be fun. But it will be worth it.
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