100 Things I Learned From Doing Yoga Every Morning for a Year

Photo by Alexy Almond from Pexels

About a year and a half ago I made the conscious decision to do about 30 minutes of yoga every morning after I get up (I started with a set of 10 basic poses — you can see them below — that I researched, printed, and pinned on the wall next to my “yoga spot”). I started this practice mostly for no specific reason at all. I simply thought it would be good to “consciously move” at least to some degree every day. Which — you know — you should. Even, or especially, when you don’t feel like it.

During the coronavirus pandemic and lengthy stay-at-home orders, it also helped (still helps) me keep a bit of peace, sanity, and calmness.

Below are 100 things I learned from doing yoga every single morning:

1. You don’t have to be a yoga-pro or “yogi” to do yoga. Just put your body in pretzel-like poses (research this to be safe), try not to hurt yourself, keep breathing, and call it yoga.
2. I’m not as inflexible as I thought (proud tap on my shoulder).
3. Alas, I’m also not as flexible as I thought I’d be from doing yoga after day.
4. Even though you think you may look very graceful and elegant, you really look more like a walrus who’s trying to smell his toes.
5. Even though you may look like a walrus trying to smell his toes, you can still feel graceful and elegant.
6. How you feel when doing your poses is more important than what you look like or what others may think.
7. There’s something about doing yoga in the half-dark (early mornings and not many lights on) with the windows open, hearing all the early morning sounds from the outside, and a light fresh breeze, that makes you feel like you’re doing yoga on top of a mountain. #TFW-Goals!
8. I was more thankful than I thought to be able to draw on knowledge from a few past yoga and dance classes I have taken.
9. It’s fun to add your own poses over time (which I’ve done from a mix of poses that I had seen somewhere and poses from past classes that I remembered).
10. Having a visual of your 10 basic poses next to you on the wall helps for quick glances.
11. I still like to check and slightly correct my form in basic poses, even after having done them over 300 times.
12. Balancing is hard!
13. I did not believe past fitness instructors when they claimed balancing strengthens muscles, but I’m willing to believe it does now.
14. Nothing is more irritating than that subtle blinking smoke detector light when you’re doing Urdhva Hastasana (I do it on my toes so it’s an added challenge).
15. Some of the simplest poses (like Urdhva Hastasana) have the most complicated names.
16. More complicated poses are often blandly called “warrior,” or “triangle”.
17. Breathing calmly is not everything during yoga (as I was tired of hearing), but it does help.
18. I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment after every session, especially if I wasn’t in the mood.
19. I can do yoga up to 5 minutes before I have to leave the house if I have to, but I can’t get ready in under an hour under normal circumstances.
20. I like doing yoga first thing after getting up (after making my bed) — so much that sometimes my cat has to wait to be fed.
21. I do love my cat enough to feed her at least a little nibble before most yoga sessions.
22. It feels so good to stretch. Every damn time. Even when it hurts. Stretching feels good.
23. It’s indeed possible to reduce muscle tension and stress with yoga.
24. Yoga does center you, even though nobody really knows what that means.
25. I have yoga-d my way from a post-sleep headache to a headache-free day a few times.
26. Unfortunately, yoga is not a magical all-time healing source for chronic headaches.
27. I have a bit of a “mid-way point” of my yoga routine, and at the beginning, I often look forward to “crossing” it. Once I’m there, I’m often totally in the zone and enjoying it.
28. Sometimes yoga doesn’t feel fun, but I do it anyway.
29. It’s funner if I give myself some kind of “achievement sticker” after yoga (I do a simple checkmark-entry in my health-journal app, and it works perfectly for that).
30. I’ve never used a yoga mat for doing yoga at home (even though I own two); a simple towel or sometimes even your carpet is enough.
31. I did buy a “designated yoga towel” in my favorite color before starting, and I’ve noticed doing yoga on my favorite color adds a bit of random extra joy.
32. My yoga routine has become somewhat sacred to me, and I love keeping my “yoga towel” neat and clean, always folding it up nicely after I’m done.
33. I don’t think goat- or bunny-yoga (or whatever the latest animal-craze is) would be my thing because I think it would be insanely distracting, but I do enjoy having my cat pop in and out (and underneath) of my poses.
34. My cat loves to step over my extended right leg when I’m in my leg-split-stretch pose. Every time. She never considers the left leg. This baffles me endlessly.
35. It’s more important to do the poses correctly and slowly than to look good or stretch the farthest or anything.
36. I still try to beat my own stretching because it feels good to show off to yourself.
37. I still cannot stretch as far as I hoped I could after one year.
38. I’m secretly competing with my cat in stretches.
39. Remembering to point your toes is harder than you think.
40. You don’t need much room to do yoga, but having a clear space the length of your body helps.
41. There’s a lot of cat hair and other little fluff on the carpet in my bedroom.
42. I always remember that I need to vacuum my bedroom floor while doing yoga, never after.
43. If you’re in need of a pedicure, you will be reminded of it. Every. Single. Day. Until you get or give yourself one.
44. Sometimes, in the middle of the day, I randomly think about how happy and grateful and proud I am that I did my yoga routine that morning.
45. Planks are hard.
46. Sometimes 60 seconds (holding a plank) can go by quickly, and sometimes they take forever.
47. I still cannot do a full split, and am thinking I never will at this point, even though I had hoped I could if I practiced regularly.
48. I’m okay with never being able to do a full split. There are more important things in life.
49. I often wonder about yoga names while I’m looking at my printout during my poses.
50. I don’t understand yoga names, but it doesn’t matter.
51. Sometimes, while still in bed in the morning, I say to myself, “maybe just today, let’s skip yoga” (because I’m running late or am tired or need to get to my work, or whatever), but I have never allowed myself to do so — always being proud and glad I didn’t after.
52. The only time I really let myself skip yoga is when I’m truly sick and I don’t count that “against my quota” because I’m human and that’s okay.
53. Coupled with a new strict nightly teeth-flossing habit, doing yoga consistently every morning can mount to other solid, healthy habits and routines. There’s something about sticking to a couple of healthy habits that makes your body want to create others as well.
54. Surprisingly, my mind is usually focused on yoga and not much else during my routine.
55. I have secretly developed some favorite and less favorite poses.
56. Pee being starting yoga.
57. Popping joints are some of the most enjoyable satisfying sounds and/or feelings. I don’t know why, but I enjoy them immensely.
58. I have certain poses where I hope to get my joints to pop. Sometimes I repeat them until I get that “popping” sensation.
59. Sometimes you may sneeze during yoga — have a tissue nearby.
60. Sometimes you may fart during yoga — oops! (Thank the pandemic-gods you’re not in yoga class but alone at home!)
61. I’m grateful to whoever invented yoga. I’ve thought this to myself more times than I thought I would.
62. Even when I feel tired, weak or hungry, or not “strong” enough to do my session, I force myself to do it anyway, and always feel so much better afterward.
63. Mostly just “power through” all my poses, however when I feel I need a pause I give myself one, usually in downward dog or child pose and I just breathe for a few seconds, which helps restore my energy.
64. When I really lean into the movement, go a bit farther, focus on it, and do it slowly and consciously I feel myself enjoying the exercise the most. It also seems to prevent me from pulling muscles that way.
65. At times when I’m not doing a lot of other physical exercise (thanks, pandemic), I regard these 30 minutes of yoga as my “exercise for the day” and it makes me feel better to know that I’ve had at least a bit of a “workout” that day.
66. I tend to get general anxiety, and while I haven’t made any specific experiments, I feel daily yoga helps ease that a bit.
67. Yoga honestly just feels so damn good.
68. I don’t skip any poses. Ever. If I do, it’s usually because I forgot and I try to make that pose up as soon as I remember, or towards the end.
69. I’m proud of how much my mind can focus on just doing yoga, since that’s often not my strong suit (my mind often races and fills with needless clutter and worry).
70. Sometimes I get dizzy during certain poses, and closing my eyes usually helps; plus, it makes me feel more zen.
71. Sometimes I do yoga barefoot, sometimes in my socks. I don’t really know why.
72. My hands may get sweaty, especially during a plank, and I don’t love that fact.
73. My feet may get sweaty too, and I don’t love that fact, either.
74. I try to ignore the little negative side effects of yoga, and focus on the benefits.
75. I want to take more pictures of my toes, especially when I had just put a fresh coat of nail polish on them.
76. I wonder if it’s boring to always paint my toes some shade of red and if I should switch it up.
77. I often analyze my toes obsessively when the pose makes me look at them.
78. I was never a “toe or feet person,” but I started liking my toes more after having to stare at them during half my poses every morning.
79. I may have developed an “analyzing toes fetish” with my own feet.
80. Yoga is not primarily meant to build muscle or tone you up.
81. I had secretly hoped that doing yoga consistently would tone up some areas. It doesn’t.
82. I’m continuing to hope that doing yoga consistently may someday reveal toned up areas. Apparently, I’m not willing to let that hope go.
83. I never do yoga in proper “yoga clothes” at home. Pajamas are my morning-yoga gear.
84. Doing yoga every morning has given me an intrinsic belief that I can wear yoga pants all day long I’m when out, like a free pass. It makes me feel like I “earned” wearing those yoga pants (even though I didn’t do yoga in them).
85. I can shorten my yoga to a quick 20 minutes session (doing each pose for a shorter time), or I can extend it to a lengthier 40 minutes if I have the time.
86. Yoga surprisingly helped me breathe a bit better (I’m an anxious “breather;” I can never “focus on my breath” and it just makes me more anxious. Yoga actually alleviated that a bit).
87. Yoga did not (yet) deliver any miraculous transformations or cures (in terms of breathing, being super stretchy, or whatever). I’m not giving up hope.
88. You can do yoga in the tiniest shorts and tank top, or in long, thick sweat pants and a heavy sweater, depending on the weather; yoga doesn’t care and both work fine.
89. In the beginning, my yoga sessions were shorter than they are now.
90. I secretly think I’ve become some type of superwoman because I’m doing a strict yoga routine every morning. When I go out, I sometimes think of that and walk a little prouder.
91. Balancing is more about the focus of the mind than the body.
92. Several times, I end up doing yoga for exactly 34 minutes. I get a kick out of repeating the exact same time unintentionally.
93. Breakfast tastes better after yoga than it did to me before.
94. I’ve learned to count to eight in my head almost intuitively, and I can do it at varying speeds, depending on how long or short I want to hold a pose.
95. Sometimes I cheat and move to the next pose when I’m still at “six” in my head.
96. Often, my main objection to doing yoga is that I don’t want to spend the time (especially when I’m working from home and just want to get started with my work for the day). But I know that the investment of 20–40 mins is always worth it in the end.
97. Touching my toes isn’t really that hard (anymore?), but I still feel incredibly proud for being able to do so.
98. Even with me adding a few poses over time, they all seem to glide smoothly from one to the other in a perfect flow. I wonder if I subconsciously learned to do them at the right spot.
99. I don’t really know what type or “name” of yoga I’m doing. Whether it’s called Asana, Flow, Vinyasa, or something different, and I don’t really care.
100. After doing yoga every morning for a year (and continuing), I decided I can call myself a “yoga person” now, even though I’d still consider myself a beginner. But I feel I deserve some sort of title now.

Below are the 10 basic poses I started with. I eventually added a few, especially toward the end.

(Note: I put this scrappy collage together, but all images belong to the sites where I found them on. Here are the sources for Kristin McGee’s main poses and the Upward-Facing Dog pose (9. pose in the image), which my college dance teacher would, contrarily, call cat stretch pose.)

Image sources: A 10-Minute Morning Yoga Sequence for Beginners and 11 Yoga Poses for Back Pain Relief — Upward-Facing Dog

I’m Jenna — hi, I’m new to Medium! I’m a long-time writer/fresh copywriter. I’m on a journey to making writing my full-time gig. Jump in with me! On Medium, I write about life’s struggles and successes, the writing process itself, and how to live better. Many of my stories have a touch (or a lot) of personal experiences in it.

Follow me on Medium here. I’m also on Twitter and Instagram (all are @jennacopywrites).