This blog is about how I used my yoga practice for motivation, to move from feeling unmotivated and uninspired to energised and back on the path to being connected and inspired in my every day living.
I’ll be honest with you, at the beginning of the year, I just didn’t feel motivated to do much. I had a sense of emptiness, there were no ideas for my business and what I was going to do this year with it.
Go back 12 months and I had a huge plan to set off travelling around Western Australia and film as many yoga classes as a could (nature permitting) outdoors in stunning spots in this beautiful country I now call home.
We filmed classes in the vivid orange desert bush of Kalgoorlie (a small mining town in the middle of nowhere), the gorgeous beaches of Perth in stunning sunshine and Cape Le Grand National Park at the very Southern tip of Western Australia, to name a few spots that we visited. In total, I added almost 60 lessons to my website. No wonder I was a little tired by the end of the year.
Pictures below are Kalgoorlie, Perth and Cape Le Grand National Park.
I’m a person who likes to have many projects on the go at once and know where I’m heading so I became a little concerned that I had nothing. No ideas coming, no inspiration – just a big empty space.
My blog today is about how I’m travelling through this space to reconnect with a new level of ideas and inspiration.
A few months later I am back to feeling motivated, clear with the direction I’m heading, particularly with my business. Here’s what I have did to start to become motivated myself, using an online yoga, relaxation and meditation practice. I love the flexibility of a home yoga practice. I’ve explained a little more to show you how I created my very own home yoga practice in a way that worked for me.
1. I decided to sit with the feelings.
I recognised that I had no energy or vitality left for ideas and made a choice to go gently and be compassionate with myself rather than push as I would have done in the past.
This is not as easy as it sounds and I also got really busy doing other things at times, to avoid these feelings too! During this time I began to set a regular time for relaxation and started to meditate in the mornings, more regularly, to ground myself and ensure I was present for each day as it came.
This also helped me stay connected to the gentle path rather than forcing. Rebalancing your nervous system is a good idea at this point. From here you will start to make wiser choices rather than simply feel overwhelmed. I have a class for you to do just this below.
2. I started a short yoga practice to get my energy moving again.
I began to feel more present in my day to day life and started feeling some energy coming back. Now I’m not talking a long yoga practice here. I used the 10 – 20 minutes online yoga videos from our Soul Harmony Yoga Course Library.
The important shift was that I was happily waking up with enough time to do a short yoga practice before going on with the rest of my day.
I chose a yoga practice for motivation, one which would energise me, and rebalance myself including postures to strengthen my spine and my core representing the strengthening of my inner self too. Over time I felt motivated to take a longer class and added in an hour a week class into my practice, where I felt even more benefits of my practice.
3. I observed the ‘opposing thoughts’, as they arose and chose actions to increase my energy and vitality anyway.
Another shift that happened was when I practiced yoga and meditation more regularly I am able to catch my old patterns of thought, the sabotaging types, the ones that try and keep me in the safe comfortable space of not changing.
As you’ll know our brains are wired to keep us safe so anytime we challenge them with change, dreams, and goals our brains will ensure we are thinking in a way that keeps us safe and prevents this change.
All we need to do is be aware of this and recognise it when we can. You could even use a motivational journal and journal your experiences as you experience them. The important step is to keep choosing to continue with your practice and you’ll build a momentum of energy and vitality into your day.
4. I sat and reflected on all the beautiful things I already have in my life.
To address the self-sabotaging thoughts and deal with them I added in a gratitude practice to my day. Sometimes this is as simple as noticing something beautiful in my day as it happens or reflecting at night before I go to sleep.
Other times it’s using a Gratitude meditation to sit with this for little longer. It’s not new and you’ll have heard it before but it does work and I found I started to appreciate my life as it presented itself in the moment rather than thoughts of lack and wanting.
This brought an enjoyment to my day and this in itself I found energising. I noticed I had more energy for my work and I have started planning fun things to do in my spare time.
Would you like to set up a home yoga practice that truly nurtures you?
Where can I try out Soul Harmony Yoga Classes?
If you like what you’ve read and want to try out some our classes then you’ll like our Free Online Yoga Taster Sessions.
To sign up click here. Click ‘Access this Course’ once you get to our website and register your details to get started.
