yoga for beginners - dealing with obstacles

Building discipline into your day.

Discipline is such an emotive word. if you are like me, I associate discipline to being told what to do and when I don't, the resulting consequence.

However, self-discipline is a whole different kettle of fish. Once we realise certain things are good for us and would be beneficial to add to our day, such as physical exercise or taking time out to smell the roses, actually putting this into practice can seem like too much hard work.

The secret is to start small and no matter how many times we don't do it, remember to be kind and forgiving and encourage ourselves to do it today. Slowly over time, actions become part of our daily routine and before you know it, you are doing it every day.

Take physical exercise as an example. Many people take out gym memberships in the new year but slowly life gets in the way. But what if you were able to make yourself go to the gym no matter what. Would you start to see great results? Would you feel better? Would you look amazing? The answer is most probably yes.

Some people call this the fast forward button and Phil Stutz calls it the Jeopardy tool but if you are given a choice between rushing from work to get to class and making a leisurely return home to a warm and inviting evening of TV and Pizza, the outcome seems inevitable. Another missed class, late cancel and one more day we didn't quite manage to do things the way we had planned.

How can you change this outcome. Instead of focussing on the warm and inviting evening ahead, fast forward to several months or even years and imagine your future self encouraging you to look after yourself. What advice would you give? Which person would you rather be? Energised, fabulous, injury free, slim and enriched with a full life or wallowing in self pity because you just don't have the energy to get to class and anyway you had a crap day so why not have another pizza. Besides, your gym gear doesn't look great on you anymore, you need to go shopping for a larger size and you put your back out last week lifting a stupid box at work?

Enough said?

There is always a reward for everything we do, but we have the ability to fast forward and see what the true reward is. This helps me to keep going even when I don't feel like it. Maybe it will help you too. There are two pains each of us feel. The pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Which would you rather?

Remember, beginner's workshop for October is this Saturday 2pm, book online at wandsworthpoweryoga.com, next workshop will be November when we are also running a special Yoga for Men event.

Have a harmonious day!

Peter