Are you out of sync with your yoga practice? Trying to get re-inspired after a yoga break? Here are 3 helpful tips for getting back on your mat…

As much as we may love yoga and have good intentions of doing it every day, there are times when our yoga practice somehow falls by the wayside. This usually happens for me in the summer, when summer travel coupled with long evenings in the garden tend to disrupt my usual yoga routine. I’m ashamed to admit I’ll sometimes go a whole month without unrolling my yoga mat! 🙁

However, once fall comes, I return to my favorite yoga DVDs after my yoga break with a fresh mindset and renewed appreciation for the wonderful benefits that yoga can bring to my life.

It can sometimes be difficult to get back on the “yoga wagon” once you’ve fallen out of your regular yoga habit, but even if it has been a while and you’re feeling a little rusty, you can still get back on track!

Here are a few tips to help you get back on your mat and remember all of the wonderful reasons why you started yoga in the first place:

1.) Start small

It can be helpful to remember that yoga doesn’t have to mean a full hour or more of physical asana practice. We can still experience the benefits and joy of yoga from a few minutes in meditation, a short session of pranayama, or with a 10-minute online class or just a few simple yoga poses.

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2.) Get motivated

The physical benefits of yoga such as increased mobility and flexibility, core strength, and greater body awareness don’t disappear when we step off the mat – we carry these benefits with us all day, and they enhance every moment to come. The best way to experience this is of course through feeling it for yourself through practice but if you haven’t yet found your way back, it might be worth doing some research for your own inspiration.

Search online for ‘yoga benefits’ and you’ll be inundated not just with personal triumphs and anecdotal transformations (and some dubious claims), but increasingly you’ll also find robust evidence about the positive benefits yoga can have on blood pressure, inflammation, joint pain and addiction, anxiety, mood swings and hormone issues, back pain and cognitive function. A regular practice is also an incredible way to prevent aches and pains from occurring in the first place, and the research into yoga’s ability to increase bone density and prevent injury is so widespread that everywhere from retirement homes to football clubs are adopting it.

3.) Inspire your mind

… At a time when many of us can barely keep up with our own schedules and reach for our phones every few minutes, dedicating time to simply being, breathing and moving is a welcome and much-needed antidote.

Indeed, a yoga practice is an incredibly important piece of the puzzle when it comes to figuring out how to feel more peaceful and positive, self-loving and truly ‘in the moment’. Creative thinking and great ideas need time and space to breed, and they’re able to flourish when we’re in a state of relaxed awareness, meditative absorption and flow – just as we are when practicing yoga.

Read more at EkhartYoga.com…