As a type-A busy bee, it’s often hard for me to slow down the pace. I'm either sprinting or thinking about sprinting while I sit and type on Steemit. ;) Every now and then I'll develop a nagging knee pain and wonder where on Earth it came from - all while fully acknowledging that I might have simply needed one or two rest days here and there to completely avoid the issue! After earning my knee pain for the third time in 5 years, I decided that I wanted to set a goal to practice yoga at least once a week. I’m currently 7 weeks in and sticking to it! The first few weeks were a bit challenging. I was able to help keep myself accountable by creating events in my calendar and penciling in the time for myself. As I started to see and feel the benefits my motivation increased. For the past 4 weeks I've had at least two sessions each week and am feeling incredible! I can move better, I have less knee pain, my shoulder spasms and neck pain from scoliosis are gone, and my hips feel less tight! Setting goals of any kind are often like this- difficult initially but if you can get yourself to stick to it then you'll find yourself nestled in a nice positive feedback cycle.

If fitness or increased health is one of your goals I highly recommend adding 5-10 minutes of yoga or yoga-like movements into your day. It doesn't have to be anything crazy or time-consuming for you to reap the benefits! There are some great desk yoga movements or even 5-minute practices out there. I love to use The Yoga Collective because their search feature is incredible and I purchased a year’s membership for about $7 on Groupon (score!). Some other great videos I follow along with are on YouTube, like Yoga with Adrienne or Sarabeth Yoga. I hope to find and connect with some Yogi’s on Hive account@dtube too- how great would that be?!

For me, yoga is very grounding and the focused breath work while I’m moving feels like a fusion of dance and meditation that feeds the soul! Yoga has been shown to lower your cortisol and adrenaline levels. These are the hormones that can cause you to feel stressed, panicky, moody, and increase your abdominal fat stores! Yoga has also been shown to help improve sleep quality as it naturally raises melatonin levels in the body. While everyone can benefit from this type of exercise, women, in particular, can benefit from their yoga practice as it balances out thyroid, prolactin, luteinizing hormone, and follicle stimulating hormones. 1.

Goals are great but if you don’t actually pencil in the time and make an appointment with yourself you’re much less likely to follow through! What are some of your health or fitness goals and…when is your next appointment with yourself!?

Hive account@steemsugars