Top 5 Motivation Tips to get you off the couch and onto the mat
When I asked my community what they struggled with the most in their yoga practice, it wasn’t being strong enough to hold crow pose for 30 seconds, or balanced enough to hold a headstand, or flexible enough to touch down in front splits. No, the most common thing my community struggles with is MOTIVATION.
When a lot of us first start yoga, we think WOW, what an awesome thing this is. I will do it EVERY DAY and become the most accomplished yogi ever by Christmas, but somewhere, we start to drop off a little bit. 5 days a week asana practice becomes 4, becomes 3 with a short meditation, and maybe even falling off entirely. Especially when we get hit by deeply traumatic and stressful periods of time, such as a 4-month lockdown and loss of work, like Vietnam is currently in!
So we need to get motivated to get on the mat again because this is exactly when our yoga practice can be so helpful to keep us up and moving and breathing and feeling, every day. If you’ve been starting your day with 3 hours of memes, this post is for YOU!
Start your day motivated
How we start our day plays a huge part in our mindset for that day. Did you get out of bed on the wrong side or the right side today? Here are some top tips for getting out of bed on the right side.
- Affirmations
- Start your day with Affirmations. Someone recently told me in a moon circle that she starts every day by telling herself, loud and proud, “I’m a bad-ass warrior!” How cool is that?! Affirmations make us speak positively to ourselves and can support feelings of self-esteem and optimism. Practicing affirmations may help reduce stress and increase neural pathways in our brain that lead to positive valuation and increases our ability to deal with threats and regulating our emotions. Source.
Check out my Affirmations workbook here.
- Intentions
- Set your intentions for the day. They can be small, they can be big! They say to ‘dream big’ as it’s better to aim high and miss than aim low and hit. Whether you achieve every intention is inconsequential, it’s all about the journey.
Check out my Intentions Workbook here.
- Set your intentions for the day. They can be small, they can be big! They say to ‘dream big’ as it’s better to aim high and miss than aim low and hit. Whether you achieve every intention is inconsequential, it’s all about the journey.
- Meditate. Focus.
- I try and start my day by sitting. I have my breathing oils – peppermint, tea tree and lavender – and my meditation cushion, and I sit and breath and calm the body, mind and nervous system before I do anything. You can do it outside on your balcony or in your garden, or you can do it on your yoga mat or even your bed. Try and sit every day for 5-10 minutes for 5 days and see how you feel, what changes or differences this practice has for you.
To help you get that focus, try Bhramari Hummingbee breath, it will help you to sit still.
- I try and start my day by sitting. I have my breathing oils – peppermint, tea tree and lavender – and my meditation cushion, and I sit and breath and calm the body, mind and nervous system before I do anything. You can do it outside on your balcony or in your garden, or you can do it on your yoga mat or even your bed. Try and sit every day for 5-10 minutes for 5 days and see how you feel, what changes or differences this practice has for you.
Get involved, get motivated
- Join a challenge or class! There are so many things to join in from online classes for HIIT or yoga or dance, to Instagram asana challenges focusing on a pose or a movement every day. Join something and commit to doing it and sharing your journey. Not only will you be pushed out of your comfort zone and learn something new, you’ll have the support of the community to help boost your motivation every day. If it means signing up and PAYING IN ADVANCE for the class, THEN DO IT! If you do, you will be SURE of joining every time while supporting the community that supports YOU!
Every few months, I run a FREE challenge in the Facebook group and am planning another one coming up very soon. Join the group and get on the email list to be sure you don’t miss the next one, and visit the previous challenge videos in the Yoga & Meditation Library. - Another solid way to really help you get on the mat as often as possible is, if the space is available to you, to have your mat out and ready ALL THE TIME. Now, obviously this is a bit easier, say, if you live on your own, you can dedicate an area of the living room or your bedroom where the mat always is so that you can just step on and move a little bit at any point of your day. For example, when you’re waking up in the morning and waiting for the kettle to boil for that first cup of coffee, you step onto the ready mat and do a couple of sun salutations. You’ve got this!
Learn from failure. Motivate your progress.
- “Failing in life is just learning how to succeed better” Elizabeth Day.
Failing isn’t just failing. It’s figuring out what went wrong and why, and how to pick ourselves back up and going for it again – with more knowledge and a better plan! Celebrate the big fails and the little ones. One way that I motivate myself is to listen to podcasts that motivate me, like ‘How to Fail’ by Elizabeth Day, who has made a career out of failure! Not only does she talk about her own failures but of so many SUCCESSFUL and brilliant people, I really recommend a listen. She approaches everyone and every topic with so much love and support, and will leave you feeling MOTIVATED AF.
Check out How to Fail here.
Take action! Celebrate the small things and motivate yourself to get up and try again and again.
- Get out there! My favourite affirmation for this is ‘I TAKE IMPERFECT ACTION’ because, like the failure point above, it tells us that not everything has to be perfect or complete or even successful! But it has to happen for us to move forward. Today, maybe that means, getting through half of a Vinyasa Conditioning & Transitioning class, doing just the conditioning part or just the flow part, or maybe it’s putting it on pants! Which leads me to the next part of taking action…
- Celebrate the small things! Give yourself a mini fist bump for whatever ‘good’ thing you achieved today! You ate something fresh and nutritious, like a banana. Mini fist bump! You practiced sun salutations even though it’s hot and humid. Mini first bump! You practiced gratitude for 7 days in a row. Mini fist bump!
Check out the 30 Days of Gratitude Workbook here. - Take breaks! As important as it is to take action, it’s equally important to take breaks. Allow your body, mind and soul to rest. Give yourself a home foot bath with a few drops of essential oils in a basin. Treat yo self to an avocado or a bag of M&Ms. You are worth indulging.
And finally, motivate yourself by living your personal legend
You don’t have to finish every intention check list before moving on or adding something new. Sometimes you’ll go on side quests, see where they go, and sometimes the side quests become the main quest, and sometimes they’re dead ends. But try to enjoy the journey and be flexible and open to your personal legend as it unfolds. And step on the mat every once in a while 😘
If this post has inspired you to get on your mat and live your best life, then I’d love to hear about it. You are so welcome to comment below the post or contact me through the website, Facebook or IG.
Have a super day!
Lolli the Yogicorn xxx
