Starting and maintaining a daily practice can be really tough to get into the habit of.
Life is busy and we all have things to do and having a daily or regular practice is so beneficial in so many ways.
It gets you back in touch with yourself, it grounds you, it makes you more present, it helps regulate you, it makes you feel connected and so much more.
If you are wanting to create or maintain a daily or regular practice or you’re finding it difficult to do so, here are some tips to help you, to inspire you. Adapt anything you see below to suit you, take an idea and turn it into something else, take what you want and leave the rest.
1) Decide on the best time of day, that works for you.
You might have heard that the best time of day to practice kundalini yoga is between the hours of 3-5am and while that is a magical time to practice, it’s not realistic for a lot of people.
You can practice kundalini yoga anytime. Aside from a morning practice, you can have a relaxing wind down routine in the evenings with kundalini yoga and this is so very beneficial.
You can practice at different times everyday. It doesn’t need to be set in stone when you have your practice, it can be flexible to suit your schedule and needs. I find looking at the week ahead will give me a decent idea of when I will practice everyday.
The most important thing with your practice is to practice at a time that you can be fully present in. A time that you can enter each movement and breath fully.
Your practice is your time for you and going inward and slowing down and hitting the reset button. Give your practice the amount of time you can and go fully into it, even if it’s 10 minutes.
2) Schedule in your practice.
Scheduling in your practice and seeing it written in your planner will keep it fresh on your mind instead of going the whole week and realising you’ve totally forgotten.
Scheduling in is a great way to block out a chunk of time that’s for you and your practice.
I tend to look at my week ahead on a sunday and I check in with my planner every evening. I have an idea of how each day is laid out and from that I decide when I’m going to practice. I don’t have it set in stone and the time of day I practice can sometimes change on the day depending on what’s going on and how I’m feeling.
By now I pretty much have a set morning and evening time for when I’ll do my practice. Over time I’ve found good times of the day that work for me pretty much everyday. If I’m home, 10am is a great time and days I’m out, 8pm is a great time. Some days I do both. By trying different times I’ve discovered that these are best for me.
Decide how long you will practice for, 10,20,30 minutes are also suitable time frames and it doesn’t always need to be a long practice on the daily.
Days I’m out of the house alot, I practice shorter amounts of time and when I’m home all day I can have a longer class.
To get started, get your planner out and schedule in a chunk of time that’s realistic to you right now and choose a few days of the week to practice on and start there.
3) Outline your practice ahead of time.
Sometimes when I don’t have an outline of what my practice will look like, I can get distracted easily because I have no focus on what I’m doing. I find having an outline of what I want to practice ahead of time really helpful.
Plus if I keep a written record of what kriya or meditation I’m working on, then I don’t forget what I’m working on and realise a few days later that I’ve been forgetting to do Kirtan Kriya, which is what actually happened to me recently!! True story.
So if you’re anything like me and sometimes life just gets in the way and you forget stuff, then maybe try an outline for your practice or some kind of written record.
Here are a few ideas:
- Decide beforehand what your practice will look like.
- Maybe you have a favourite class you can attend online.
- Perhaps you want to work on a 40 day practice of a particular kriya or meditation.
- Maybe you want to do part of your practice on your own and then do a meditation along to a video.
- Your practice can change everyday if that’s what feels right for you. It doesn’t have to be all about 40 day sets of the same thing.
- Check in with how you’re feeling and ask yourself ‘what do I need right now?’ and decide from there.
- If you’re creating your own practice, you could write down an outline of what warm up exercises, kriya or meditation you will do.
It doesn’t have to be set in stone but having an outline is a great way to prepare your practice beforehand so all you have to do is get on your mat.
If you love digital journals, I have created a Kundalini yoga 40 day sadhana journal you can download for FREE Download your copy here.
4) Set up your space
To make it real easy to get on your mat, set up your practice space ahead of time. Perhaps you can set up a corner of your room or maybe you have a cool little nookie space in your house.
Lay out your mat, candles, incense, crystals, your journal and a pen, a blanket, any of the things that you like to have with you.
Get all your fav things together and ready so all you have left to do is to get on your mat.
If you’re going outside, have everything ready by the door.
Whatever you choose, the trick is to make it easy to get on your mat.
5) Eliminate distractions as best you can
Distractions will happen (Hello my cat!!) and sometimes we are just distracted with too much going on. So here are a few ideas that might help with distractions.
- Write down anything that’s on your mind before your practice begins. Anything that’s worrying you, thoughts you’re having about the day or something in your life. Write down anything that you need to do, that you need to get. Get it all down on paper and let it all out.
- Tell anyone in your living space that you’re gonna do your practice and how long for or let them know when you’re gonna do your practice in advance.
- Try to do your practice when you have some alone time Or try to carve out some alone time to do your practice.
- And Turn off that phone, yes, leave the phone somewhere else preferably on mute or airplane mode (if you can), in the next room or under the bed, anywhere but beside you with 200 notifications popping up every 2 minutes. 🤪
Most of all, Enjoy your practice 🙂
I hope these tips help or inspire you with some ideas of your own if you’re finding it difficult to start or maintain a daily practice.
Sat Nam
Heather xox
If you’re new to kundalini yoga or have taken a class or two and wondered what was going on, I have created a FREE Beginners Guide to Kundalini Yoga just for you to get you started.