How Yoga Makes a Difference to my Lifestyle

It’s been more than a hundred days in lockdown and yoga has been my saving grace. By writing that sentence, it doesn’t mean that I’ve been practising every day, that I’ve always completed an hour of practice, it means that yoga has calmed my mindset during this crazy (unprecedented) time.

There isn’t a specific yoga routine that I follow, sometimes it is all about rolling out your yoga mat and sitting down. It isn’t all about being able to touch your toes or being able to do a headstand.

Pre-lockdown, life and our minds could often be going a hundred miles a minute. As we entered lockdown, life slowed down and it was (and still is) UNCERTAIN. Here come the feelings of anxiety and overthinking. But since yoga encourages your mind to benefit from stillness, here’s how yoga has been keeping me sane.

Online Yoga Classes. I’ve been lucky to know a wonderful yoga instructor who has been doing online classes whilst the studios are shut. YOGAnnick (Karine) has weekly schedule of yoga and meditation classes and it’s kept an element of normality to my life. At university, I tended to go to one class a week and Karine has enabled me to keep that going during lockdown! (You can find her website and weekly class schedule here).

10 Minutes on the Mat. There have been days of pretty much no movement, apart from to the kettle for cups of coffee. The days when it’s really raining (Where has the warm weather GONE?!) and you don’t want to step out of the house, that’s when I need yoga the most. To give my body some movement and my mind a bit of quiet time, when you’re feeling a bit sluggish.

Schedule in some time. Working from home can quite easily ‘blur’ the lines between work and home. But we need that time to ourselves. Before lockdown, the time that you had to yourself may have been the commute home from work, the time spent cooking dinner. If yoga is your thing (or you’re going to give it a go), I’ve found it really works to set some time aside. I’ve been setting reminders on my phone and writing Karine’s classes into my Google Calendar – I know this sounds CRAZY because I’ve spent pretty much the last three months at home, but as the days blur into one, you need that reminder!

Adding yoga or meditation to my morning/evening routine. Depending on the practice, yoga can either wake you up for the day or shake out the stresses as you go to bed. I think I prefer morning yoga at home, but it is so good to wind down and calm your mind from the day with some yoga or mediation. Karine’s yin yoga classes have been perfect for the evenings and of course, pyjama’s are the best clothes for yoga at home.