Look Up - 31 Day Yoga Tracker
Look Up - 31 Day Yoga Tracker
Does your body need more than a weekly drop in class?
Aloha and welcome to Kerrville Yoga! My name’s Mae. I’m a massage therapist by day and a yoga teacher by night. I’m here sharing bodywork offerings and yoga techniques to encourage you to live a life of peace.
Accept my challenge to do yoga every blessed day for the month of October 2022! Keep track of how often you get on the mat by using the Yoga Time Tracker. Monitor your progress. Empower your body. Get started today!
Using the Yoga Time Tracker will help you to gain insight into your challenges and work through the days when you feel stuck. Keep moving towards your goals by keeping yourself accountable. When you take small steps every day, you will be surprised at how fast you can achieve your goals.
Inquire Within
Before you get started on your yoga journey, ask yourself a few key questions to help you emotionally or logically connect to your decision to unroll the mat or take a seat on your dining room chair to do yoga.
Do you feel an emotional or logical connection to the yogic path? Do you have 5 minutes or 90 minutes to practice self care? When is a good time for you energetically? Morning? Evening? Do you like the studio or home setting? What is a practical goal that yoga can help you achieve? Do you want to see a real transformation in 31 days?
You will find four boxes at the bottom of the second page of the Yoga Time Tracker. These question boxes are designed to help you get crystal clear on your motives behind doing yoga. Does your practice have to look a certain way? No! Do you have to literally do yoga every day? It’s okay if you need to skip! Just be honest with yourself. You can do whatever feels good for your body for as long as or as little as you like.
Let’s review the 4 questions. Get out a pen and paper, write this down if you aren’t able to download my free yoga tracker right now.
Why do I need yoga?
When is it a good time for me to do yoga?
Where is a good place for me to do yoga?
What do I want to achieve in my yoga practice?
Meditate on the Answer
I have asked my readers these questions in the past and the number one answer I get for the last questions is consistency. People want consistency.
You want to see yourself healthy and in shape everyday. Not just once a month, at 9am, on a Saturday, but every. single. day.
You navigate the universe on a planet held down by gravity, in a world that you can feel beneath your feet, interacting with electricity and hydraulics in a watered down meat machine, all while processing physical, mental, and emotional stimuli from the past, present, and future. It’s a lot to take in. If you feel overwhelmed, you are not alone.
You need peace amid the chaos.
However, you sometimes struggle with staying motivated so you’re looking for
something that will
keep
you
disciplined.
There will be days when you are tired, you get distracted, you simply have no interest in doing much of anything because existing is hard enough as it is. If you have anxiety or depression, even the most necessary and basic of tasks, the ones that literally keep you alive, can be grueling. Adding in a health and self care routine is not going to be a priority for you if you’re not feeling great.
The best way that you can still make progress on your “off” days is to sneak yoga into your mundane tasks.
If you have low energy, nurture yourself with a bit of tea. While you’re in the kitchen, do a down dog on the counter. NO, I don’t mean jump on the counter and put your heels on the cutting board! I mean put your hands on the edge of your counter, take a few steps back, bring your head between your arms and take several deep, thoughtful breaths. There! That counts as a down dog! You can log your yoga practice for the day! Do you see how easy it can be to do yoga every blessed day?
Is It Worth It?
“If you do not fight for what you want, don’t cry over what you lost. Likewise, nothing depends on luck, everything depends on work because even luck has to work.”
Krishna, Bhagavad Gita 1.36
I don’t know where this english translation from the original sanskrit comes from, but it’s made its rounds on twitter and instagram many times over. I want to make a comment with my own interpretation of the text.
Look Up
The context of the quote comes from a cry for help to Lord Krishna from Arjuna, the Hindu warrior. Arjuna is confused about what to do in the religious war he is fighting in. He wonders how killing can be justified. He asks God for help.
Krishna answers the cry by telling Arjuna that his religious duty is to continue fighting for religious freedom. In the future, if he neglects his duty, he will be a slave, weeping and nashing his teeth because he can’t openly worship whom he pleases.
Krishna goes on to say, in the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, that not only must Arjuna not cry over what he’s lost, he must also not make a big deal over what he gains. The natural flow of life is to live and let die. Just let go of the outcome.
God Himself works without attachment.
However, as humans, it can be hard to let go. We might want to let go, but what exactly are we letting go of?
I am a visual person. It helps to see everything mapped out in front of me in black and white, red, yellow, purple, it doesn’t matter. As long as I have a clear visual of what will happen if I do or do not do my current task it’s a lot easier for me to pick the right thing.
I think of being in Arjuna’s shoes. Do I keep fighting for religious freedom? Do I take a break from killing random people I don’t know who might be innocent? Is any of this worth it? God, what do I do!?!
And *BOOM* God’s like, “Arjuna, the main character in many great and spectacular Indian epics, keep fighting! Don’t end up cryin’ like a sweet little baby precious.”
And when you get that clear visual of what you DON’T want, it can be so much easier to focus on what you DO want. Start small. Focus on eliminating what you don’t want. That’s actually in alignment with the 8 limbs of yoga, start with the don'ts before you get on with the do’s.
Keep Going
Whether your goal is to be a freedom fighter or just reduce some stress, create consistency in your life today. Align yourself with the goals you desire. Put the Yoga Tracker up somewhere you can look up and fill it out when you do your yoga.
Follow along with Kerrville Yoga’s Daily Yoga Challenge for short clips and fun tips on how to do gentle, beginner yoga every blessed day. You can practice from the comfort of your home, or bring your phone to the empty studio at the gym. Below is the link to Kerrville Yoga’s Yoga Time Tracker where you can log your progress and track your transformation little by little.
Download the yoga time tracker to get started on tracking your yoga journey today! Watch how quickly you can manifest a flexible yet disciplined body and mindset.
The hardest part is getting started.
Namaste.