This is something I hear very often: I would like to do yoga, but I just don’t have the time.
Swami Vishnudevananda used to say: “if you have time to eat and sleep, you have time to do yoga”. To modernize this statement one could say: “if you have time to browse internet or watch TV, you have time to exercise”.
It sounds very simple, but habits are very tough to break, especially when we don’t realize we have them: we often underestimate the amount of time we spend engaging in idle activities because it’s easy to lose track of it. Just imagine the benefits you would receive from spending that time doing yoga or any other exercise on a regular basis.
So what is the solution?
Follow these five simple steps to get yourself on the path to incorporating yoga (or exercise of your choice) into your daily routine:
1. Acknowledge. Be mindful of how you spend your time. Take note for a week of what your go-to activities are during your spare time and how much time you spend on each of those.
2. Re-evaluate. Take a look at the list you created in step 1 and see which activities could be reduced or even eliminated.
3. Plan. Put together an action plan. For example, your findings indicate that you spend 3 hours each night from 7pm to 10 pm browsing the web. As part of step 2, you decide that this activity could be reduced to 2 hours per night. Your sample plan might be to use the first hour (7-8pm) to exercise.
4. Action. Once you have a plan, stick with it. Continuing with our earlier example, every time the clock hits 7 pm, make an effort to exercise. If you don’t feel like it – convince yourself to do it.
5. Be persistent. There may be days when you fall back into your old routine and that’s okay. Changes take time and effort. Acknowledge it and move on, you will do better tomorrow.