When summer arrives, it can be hard to keep up with your yoga practice. With longer days and better weather, we spend more time outdoors, traveling, and hanging out with family and friends. And if you have children, their summer schedules may keep you busy shuttling them from activity to activity.
This doesn’t mean that you have to choose between enjoying summer and sticking with your yoga practice. You can have it all.
However, you may have to shift your expectations about what your yoga practice looks like during the summer. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes mixing things up a little can breathe new life into your yoga practice.
Here are 7 ways to keep up with your yoga practice this summer.
1. Try out a shorter yoga practice
We sometimes think that we need to do at least 60 or 90 minutes of yoga for it to “count.” This may be because that’s how long most group yoga classes are — which makes sense, because why go all the way to the yoga studio for a shorter class?
When you practice yoga at home, though, you can do as much or as little yoga as you want. Even five to 15 minutes of yoga can have powerful effects on your body and mind, especially when you do it regularly. So when thinking about how long to practice yoga this summer, ask yourself what you can realistically do on most days.
2. Adapt your yoga to your summer schedule
If you always practice yoga at a certain time of day, you may find that when summer activities conflict with that time slot, you let your yoga practice fall by the wayside.
Instead, try being flexible about when to do yoga — maybe early morning before everyone wakes up is the best time, or you can squeeze it in while the kids are relaxing after their trip to the pool.
Keep in mind that you may need to do a different kind of yoga depending on the time of day that you practice. A vigorous practice late at night can sometimes keep you awake, while restorative yoga at 4 a.m. could put you back to sleep on your yoga mat.
3. Make a date with your yoga practice
Being flexible about when to do your yoga practice is good, because then you won’t get stressed if another summer activity interrupts your regularly scheduled yoga practice. But sometimes planning ahead can make it easier to get to the mat.
So take a look at your schedule for the next day or the next week and block off the best times for your yoga practice. Set a reminder on your phone or post the times on your kitchen or office bulletin board. Think of it as a date with yourself. This means showing up when you say you will — flowers are optional though.
4. Try more pranayama and meditation
We sometimes think that yoga isn’t yoga if we aren’t doing downward-facing dogs, warrior I’s and II’s, or other yoga poses. However, in traditional yoga, the poses are used to prepare your body and mind for doing pranayama (aka breathing exercises), which prepares you for meditation.
When you shift your practice to be more about meditation, you quickly realize that it doesn’t take that long to find a little bit of stillness — a couple gentle movements, some breathing and a visualization is sometimes all it takes.
5. Check out new group yoga classes
Summer is all about fun, so why not treat yourself to a yoga class with a different teacher or another yoga studio. If you are traveling, this can be a great time to find something that pushes you outside your comfort zone and inspires your yoga practice.
This might mean taking a restorative yoga class or trying goat or cat yoga. Or try out a stand up paddle board class on the water. You don’t have to do it alone, either. Bring along your family or friends, go to lunch afterwards, and make it an outing.
6. Complement your summer activities with yoga
If you are busy playing golf, hiking, biking, swimming, or doing other physical activities, try doing yoga poses that complement those movements. This can help release any tension that’s built up and get you ready for the next day’s fun. You can even do yoga to recover from spending all day in the heat and sun.
Backbends and shoulder openers can be a nice release after riding a bicycle for miles. Legs-up-the-wall pose can feel great after hiking all day. Gentle movements of the spine can help release the tension of 18 holes of golf.
7. Focus on what inspires you
It’s really hard for your yoga practice to compete with swimming or barbecuing if you are doing poses that you dread. So this summer, try focusing on the poses that bring you the most joy or the biggest release (aka “Ahhhhhh”).
You want your yoga practice to be something that you look forward to doing, especially if you only have 15 minutes a day to devote to it. The true test is whether you feel better after you practice. If not, it may be time to shift things around.
