Health and Fitness | Achieving Goals and Benefits of Yoga
All photos are of me, by me.As a type-A busy bee, it’s often hard for me to slow down the pace. I'm either sprinting or thinking about sprinting while I sit and type on Steemit. ;) Every now and then I'll develop a nagging knee pain and wonder where on Earth it came from - all while fully acknowledging that I might have simply needed one or two rest days here and there to completely avoid the issue! After earning my knee pain for the third time in 5 years, I decided that I wanted to set a goal to practice yoga at least once a week. I’m currently 7 weeks in and sticking to it! The first few weeks were a bit challenging. I was able to help keep myself accountable by creating events in my calendar and penciling in the time for myself. As I started to see and feel the benefits my motivation increased. For the past 4 weeks I've had at least two sessions each week and am feeling incredible! I can move better, I have less knee pain, my shoulder spasms and neck pain from scoliosis are gone, and my hips feel less tight! Setting goals of any kind are often like this- difficult initially but if you can get yourself to stick to it then you'll find yourself nestled in a nice positive feedback cycle.
Having a workout buddy 🐶 can help keep you more accountable!If fitness or increased health is one of your goals I highly recommend adding 5-10 minutes of yoga or yoga-like movements into your day. It doesn't have to be anything crazy or time-consuming for you to reap the benefits! There are some great desk yoga movements or even 5-minute practices out there. I love to use The Yoga Collective because their search feature is incredible and I purchased a year’s membership for about $7 on Groupon (score!). Some other great videos I follow along with are on YouTube, like Yoga with Adrienne or Sarabeth Yoga. I hope to find and connect with some Yogi’s on @dtube too- how great would that be?!
Someone was trying to sneak up on me!
For me, yoga is very grounding and the focused breath work while I’m moving feels like a fusion of dance and meditation that feeds the soul! Yoga has been shown to lower your cortisol and adrenaline levels. These are the hormones that can cause you to feel stressed, panicky, moody, and increase your abdominal fat stores! Yoga has also been shown to help improve sleep quality as it naturally raises melatonin levels in the body. While everyone can benefit from this type of exercise, women, in particular, can benefit from their yoga practice as it balances out thyroid, prolactin, luteinizing hormone, and follicle stimulating hormones. 1.
Goals are great but if you don’t actually pencil in the time and make an appointment with yourself you’re much less likely to follow through! What are some of your health or fitness goals and…when is your next appointment with yourself!?
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Yoga is great exercise. I like the pics - cute dog. Thanks for sharing!
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Nice post, Melissa!! My actionable "take home" from this piece? "I was able to help keep myself accountable by creating events in my calendar and penciling in the time for myself." DOING IT NOW. Better self care helps everyone!! :)
Yes! I love that train of thought! I try to follow that guideline if it takes 2 minutes or less to do the task. It's been a while since I've read it but I think that was also in the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. Great advice @artemislives!
Just found this via steemsugars and I love it! Great content, lady! And YES. Booking in time with yourself to focus on development is SO important. Thank you for the reminder!
Hurray! I'm so happy you found me in there. I was trying to locate the code for our banner but I think I'll have to just not be lazy and put it up myself! ;) Most folks I know, especially women, will justify putting everyone and everything else ahead of their own needs. I tell myself 'if a tree isn't growing then it is dying', and I don't want to be dying! I hear so many reasons from Clients about they 'can't' workout or eat more healthy foods. But in reality: the kids usually won't fight badly enough to where someone would actually get hurt, the laundry can wait, facebook needs to be deleted anyway ;), you don't need to cook a different meal for four different people! I believe that if we don't take care of ourselves - mind, body, and soul - then we're setting ourselves up for failure. It's not a matter of the bridge collapsing, rather a matter of when!
YES. Totally agree with this and love the way you think. Keep the posts coming! I'll be following you!
I enjoyed reading it :) Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it! @kamile
Such a cute pupper!!! I completely understand the need to slow down and calm the mind and stretch the body with yoga. Once I added it into my weekly routine I've felt so much better physically and mentally.