100 Things I Learned From Doing Yoga Every Morning for a Year
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:
- 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.
- I’m not as inflexible as I thought (proud tap on my shoulder).
- Alas, I’m also not as flexible as I thought I’d be from doing yoga after day.
- 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.
- Even though you may look like a walrus trying to smell his toes, you can still feel graceful and elegant.
- How you feel when doing your poses is more important than what you look like or what others may think.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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).
- Having a visual of your 10 basic poses next to you on the wall helps for quick glances.
- I still like to check and slightly correct my form in basic poses, even after having done them over 300 times.
- Balancing is hard!
- I did not believe past fitness instructors when they claimed balancing strengthens muscles, but I’m willing to believe it does now.
- 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).
- Some of the simplest poses (like Urdhva Hastasana) have the most complicated names.
- More complicated poses are often blandly called “warrior,” or “triangle”.
- Breathing calmly is not everything during yoga (as I was tired of hearing), but it does help.
- I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment after every session, especially if I wasn’t in the mood.
- 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.
- 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.
- I do love my cat enough to feed her at least a little nibble before most yoga sessions.
- It feels so good to stretch. Every damn time. Even when it hurts. Stretching feels good.
- It’s indeed possible to reduce muscle tension and stress with yoga.
- Yoga does center you, even though nobody really knows what that means.
- I have yoga-d my way from a post-sleep headache to a headache-free day a few times.
- Unfortunately, yoga is not a magical all-time healing source for chronic headaches.
- 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.
- Sometimes yoga doesn’t feel fun, but I do it anyway.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- It’s more important to do the poses correctly and slowly than to look good or stretch the farthest or anything.
- I still try to beat my own stretching because it feels good to show off to yourself.
- I still cannot stretch as far as I hoped I could after one year.
- I’m secretly competing with my cat in stretches.
- Remembering to point your toes is harder than you think.
- You don’t need much room to do yoga, but having a clear space the length of your body helps.
- There’s a lot of cat hair and other little fluff on the carpet in my bedroom.
- I always remember that I need to vacuum my bedroom floor while doing yoga, never after.
- If you’re in need of a pedicure, you will be reminded of it. Every. Single. Day. Until you get or give yourself one.
- 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.
- Planks are hard.
- Sometimes 60 seconds (holding a plank) can go by quickly, and sometimes they take forever.
- 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.
- I’m okay with never being able to do a full split. There are more important things in life.
- I often wonder about yoga names while I’m looking at my printout during my poses.
- I don’t understand yoga names, but it doesn’t matter.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Surprisingly, my mind is usually focused on yoga and not much else during my routine.
- I have secretly developed some favorite and less favorite poses.
- Pee being starting yoga.
- Popping joints are some of the most enjoyable satisfying sounds and/or feelings. I don’t know why, but I enjoy them immensely.
- I have certain poses where I hope to get my joints to pop. Sometimes I repeat them until I get that “popping” sensation.
- Sometimes you may sneeze during yoga — have a tissue nearby.
- Sometimes you may fart during yoga — oops! (Thank the pandemic-gods you’re not in yoga class but alone at home!)
- I’m grateful to whoever invented yoga. I’ve thought this to myself more times than I thought I would.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- I tend to get general anxiety, and while I haven’t made any specific experiments, I feel daily yoga helps ease that a bit.
- Yoga honestly just feels so damn good.
- 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.
- 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).
- Sometimes I get dizzy during certain poses, and closing my eyes usually helps; plus, it makes me feel more zen.
- Sometimes I do yoga barefoot, sometimes in my socks. I don’t really know why.
- My hands may get sweaty, especially during a plank, and I don’t love that fact.
- My feet may get sweaty too, and I don’t love that fact, either.
- I try to ignore the little negative side effects of yoga, and focus on the benefits.
- I want to take more pictures of my toes, especially when I had just put a fresh coat of nail polish on them.
- I wonder if it’s boring to always paint my toes some shade of red and if I should switch it up.
- I often analyze my toes obsessively when the pose makes me look at them.
- 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.
- I may have developed an “analyzing toes fetish” with my own feet.
- Yoga is not primarily meant to build muscle or tone you up.
- I had secretly hoped that doing yoga consistently would tone up some areas. It doesn’t.
- 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.
- I never do yoga in proper “yoga clothes” at home. Pajamas are my morning-yoga gear.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- In the beginning, my yoga sessions were shorter than they are now.
- 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.
- Balancing is more about the focus of the mind than the body.
- Several times, I end up doing yoga for exactly 34 minutes. I get a kick out of repeating the exact same time unintentionally.
- Breakfast tastes better after yoga than it did to me before.
- 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.
- Sometimes I cheat and move to the next pose when I’m still at “six” in my head.
- 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.
- Touching my toes isn’t really that hard (anymore?), but I still feel incredibly proud for being able to do so.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.)
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.
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