Posted on by Katie

1000 days of Yoga and Meditation

At the end of September I reached a milestone – 1000 days of yoga and meditation. That’s 1000 consecutive days of practising either yoga or meditation. Today I want to share my yoga story and some insights with you.

1000 days of yoga and meditation - montage

The Beginning

My 1000 days started on 1st January 2017 with Yoga for Adriene’s free January daily yoga programme – Yoga Revolution. I certainly didn’t start out thinking about reaching 1000 days. I started out hoping I’d get to the end of January. Feeling boosted by completing the January series – I carried on – picking each day from the many free practices available. I got into a rhythm and realised that the time spent on the mat was helping me every single day. I tracked my practices and progress in my Bullet Journal and it felt great to update my yoga tracker each day (like a giant tick in my self care box!).

The Messy Middle

It wasn’t an easy jump from 30 days to a 1000. I tried to celebrate milestones as I went…100 days, 500 days, 2 years. Even at 500 days I don’t think I’d decided I would aim for 1000. I just kept going.

I didn’t set myself any rules in terms of practice duration or type. A lot of days I did short practices (under 10 minutes), quite a few days I did 2 minutes. It all counted.

I did yoga:

  • in my lounge (with the YWA practices playing on the television),
  • beside the Christmas tree,
  • on our upstairs skinny landing (hallway),
  • on my bed (the bedtime ones are awesome right before you tuck yourself in to sleep),
  • in hotel rooms,
  • in 4 different countries,
  • at school with my son,
  • in the garden (only once or twice),
  • with Adriene and 2000 others at Alexandra Palace in London and
  • at a local class with a friend.
It all counted.

I found peaks and troughs with my enthusiasm and with the types of practices I sought out. I mixed things up. And I took part in online yoga retreats and 7 day programmes. I did each of the January daily programmes as they were released.

Some days I would bitch and moan that I hadn’t yet yoga’d and I had to do it before I could go to sleep…sometimes those were the magic days – the ones where I’d drop onto my mat and into the practice and remember why I kept showing up. Some days I didn’t enjoy practicing at all but those days have been far and few between.

Reaching 1000 Days of Yoga and Meditation

At the beginning of 2019 I came up with 2 yoga related goals. I wanted to practice 100 (or more) hours of yoga this year. And I wanted to reach the 1000 day milestone.

For the majority of the 1000 days it was yoga I was practicing. This year I’ve found myself looking for more gentle practices and this led me to meditation. This year has not been without its challenges. I occasionally suffer from tendonitis in my wrists and I hope I’m becoming more attuned to what my body needs. Sometimes that is stillness. I adapted my goal (thank goodness I get to make the “rules”!) to include meditation.

I can now confidently say that the numbers don’t matter. The number of days or minutes practiced don’t matter. In fact – I did think about missing a day before I reached the 1000 milestone just to prove the point…but I really wanted to write about this journey and 1000 had a nice ring to it!

What matters is the connection to something more. Treating my body and myself with respect. That I can show up for myself every single day. I have learnt to accept the ebb and flow. When I can push myself and when to ease back. And that something as simple as the way you breathe can change your mood, your outlook and your whole day. Yoga IS life-changing. (Yoga is life.)

Follow my Yoga Journey

I’ve shared a few posts now about my yoga practice. If you’re keen to read more have a look at these:

What Now? Another 1000 days of Yoga and Meditation?!

At the time of writing this I haven’t yet broken the chain! I am at 1009 days. It’s likely the chain will be broken some time this month to ensure I don’t fall into the trap of aiming for 2000 days!

I did something for 1000 days and I’m not sick of it. I might not continue practicing every single day but I intend to include yoga and meditation in my day to day life as often as I can. And I know there is so much more I can learn about yoga and life. I’m keen to study and dive deeper.

*

If you have any questions please do reach out (you can leave a comment below this post). I’d love to connect with you.
Namaste.

1000 days of yoga and meditation pin