I Did Yoga Every Morning for 2 Months. Here’s How it Changed My Life
3 surprising ways 10 minutes of daily Yoga transformed my life
I started Yoga at the lowest point in my life. I had just moved to a small town after living in a big city for several months. I started a new job and had no friends. My workout and sleep schedule were severely messed up. In short, I was lost.
One morning, I woke up with a slight pain in my lower back for sleeping in so long. I’d heard that Yoga helps in relieving pain, but I had zero prior experience. So, I searched for “morning Yoga” on YouTube and found a channel called Yoga with Kassandra that had a series of 10-minute Yoga sessions. I picked one video at random, pulled out my mat, and followed everything the instructor told me to do.
I bent my body in interesting new shapes. I thought it would be hard, but it was incredibly fun. I didn’t sweat. I didn’t feel pressured. It was so soothing, that when the instructor said the session is over, I had to check my watch to make sure the ten minutes were actually up. My back pain was gone. My whole body felt alive somehow. My mind was at peace and I was ready to start the day with an excitement I hadn’t felt in weeks.
After that first session, I’ve been practicing 10 minutes of Yoga every morning for two months now. Here’s how it changed my life.
I start my day with intention
Yoga helped me focus on my breath and be mindful of which parts of my body were stretching and twisting as I moved. By the time each session was done, the instructor prompted me to pick a word that would decide all my actions for the day ahead.
I thought this might be hard, but with time, the words came to me easily. On some days, it was “joy”, on others, “ambition,” and on really tough days, I chose “courage.” Setting this one-word intention defined the mood I was going to have for the rest of the day. The emotion I chose permeated beyond just my workout, helping me reap its benefits all day long.
I built a morning routine without knowing it
Psychologists believe that having a morning routine sets you up for a productive day. I’d always had trouble with building one because I never woke up at the same time and always had too much work to do right after I got out of bed.
But since I started my Yoga practice, it grounded me and prompted me to build a morning routine around it. It’s been two months into this practice. Now, I wake up, drink a glass of water, brush my teeth, put on my workout clothes, and start the Yoga session. It’s a small four-step routine, but it has helped fixed my sleep schedule and bring structure into my day.
I was inspired to build a workout schedule
When I first started the Yoga practice, I felt too good about myself to care for anything else. A few weeks in, my body felt so alive, it craved some exercise. And since I’d already changed into my workout clothes, I figured there's no harm in doing a quick 15-minute full-body Pilates routine.
It started as a quick workout, but with time, has evolved into an elaborate sequence of exercises targeting each part of my body that lasts around 45 minutes. I wasn’t doing it consciously, but Yoga helped me get my workout plans back on track.
Final words
If you’re planning to get started with Yoga or flexibility training, doing a ten-minute session in the morning can be a great way to start. It will not only serve as a great warmup for any exercises you plan to do next but will also put you in a great mood for the rest of the day. Yoga helped me embrace mindfulness and gratitude. It gave me a morning routine that fixed my sleep schedule and boosted my productivity.
If you desire all these amazing changes, all you need is ten minutes every morning. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and start today!