As human beings, we seem to be extremely quick and good at adapting things, thoughts, and habits, which aren’t good for us, and at times taking things to an extreme. For instance, alcohol, food, and procrastination. We know excess of these isn’t good for us. Yet, we indulge in these and find them hard to get rid of. A similar thing is with negative thoughts and fear. These seem to act as a downward spiral and often push us into anxiety, and even depression. We aren’t that great at adopting good habits as easily as exercise, patience, perseverance, moderation, etc.
Short-Term Gratification Over Long Term Goals
We’ll often give up on long-term goals over short-term goals. We’ll end up prioritizing watching a series on Netflix, over investing that time doing our exercise. A renowned researcher and author of Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely mentions, “why do millions of gym memberships go unused or why do people risk their own and others’ lives to write a text message while they’re driving?” He adds, Our emotions get the better of us, and we tend to forsake our long-term goals in favor of short-term desires. It’s a major source of human misery.
Lack of Consistency With Yoga – The Major Blocker
The same is true for our Yoga Practice. We tend to neglect it, put it on a side burner, and over time even forget it. The biggest roadblock to progressing in our Yoga practice is the lack of consistency. We live in a world where we want instant results, instant gratification. This is further fuelled by instant responses that we are used to on social media. The truth of deriving benefits from Yoga practice is consistency. The moment you loose consistency, the benefits quickly disappear. It happens to the best of us. The need for consistency has been also highlighted in multiple scriptures including ancient sage Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
If you have been a regular practitioner and are experiencing the benefits of Yoga, and you suddenly decide to stop it due to any reasons, the benefits quickly disappear. The biggest challenge is that your mind again gets unprotected. Regular Pranayama leads to a calm mind with greater control over your thoughts. Once your stop practicing, the control disappears.
The key is to be regular and have faith in the process
Eight percent of success is just showing up
Woody Allen
The key to success with your Yoga practice is simply doing it regularly and having faith in the process. One of the big reasons, I see people drop out is that they don’t seem to see any positive results coming or they are too impatient. You also don’t need to have long and elaborate Yoga sequence at the beginning. The key is to be regular and have faith in the process. Even if you can’t do it every day, target at least 3-4 times/week. You do this patiently and you’ll see results coming (without having any expectations).
💡Do share with us tips on what’s worked or not worked for you in the comments section below (and we’ll feature it)