15 minutes of yoga in the morning – that’s good!

Admittedly, it was tough the first couple of weeks. There’s that one darn moment in bed when you think about sleeping 20 minutes longer if you – today – only today, really! – would skip the practice.

You have to overcome it first. Interestingly, the tell-tale voice in your head gets quieter and quieter as the weeks go by, and at some point you just get up when the alarm goes off without even thinking about the fact that you might as well skip yoga. Then:

Reason 1: Yoga in the morning is so good!

It sounds like a cliché, but it really is like this: Yoga makes you healthy, happy, and joyful. I have fewer headaches, I am seldom tense, less ill – and my first exercise session is over before breakfast. Never again have a guilty conscience when I go straight to the couch from the editorial office in the evening! Yay!

Is that just me? I spoke to the yoga teacher Bärbel Miessner who worked on her YouTube channel “Yogamour” shows many short yoga units that are great to practice at home. I like to go to the mat every morning with her videos.

She says: “Regular practice creates a spiral of positive thoughts. You just want more. Most people who practice yoga at some point think about: what about the things I eat and question their diet. Can I move differently in everyday life? Do I need more sleep? You become more creative and begin to be interested in other things, in the capacities you have yourself, you let yourself be inspired. You get a taste for life , on nature, on friends. “

Reason 2: Always go 15 minutes of yoga!

We all constantly complain that we don’t have time, but with her videos Bärbel Miessner takes away a bit of the opportunity to find excuses. They usually last between 15 and 25 minutes. “They’re meant to help you develop a short personal routine. If you start right away at 60 minutes, it’s way too complicated.

You have to factor in so much time that you’d rather not do it after all. But there is always time for a quarter of an hour. If you then calculate to people how many quarter of an hour they spend a day on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube – that’s a lot more than just a yoga tour. Except that it is absolutely not sustainable for the body and mind.

In my opinion, you have to have a quarter of an hour a day for yourself. Otherwise you will get sick. If you can’t take the time, then everything is too late. “(Bärbel Miessner)

Reason 3: 15 minutes of yoga are enough!

I simply plan these 15 minutes for myself when I set my alarm clock in the evening and then prepare everything so that I just have to fall on the mat in the morning. And in contrast to other workouts, 15 minutes are completely sufficient to wake up, loosen up and train the whole body.

That is due to the special breath in yoga, explains Bärbel to me. “The core of yoga asana practice is the breath. I keep talking about Ujjayī breath. the Ujjayī Breath is a technique that draws the breath out. You breathe deeper and slower. And this deep, long breath in connection with these movements naturally makes you warm. “

Of course, you shouldn’t expect fitness miracles from 15 minutes a day: “You won’t get biceps or six packs if you only practice a quarter of an hour a day. But I believe that if muscles are moved regularly, it is good for them. And I even believe that it is more sustainable if it is less intense and regularly, because that is simply the gentler method. “

Reason 4: You benefit from it all day

We owe that to our breath, too, explains Bärbel to me when I tell her that I rarely feel tense after work and that I feel good all day. “It has something to do with this technique. It’s a core breath that happens deep inside. […]If you really practice that properly for a quarter of an hour every day, then you transfer it. You take part of it with you into everyday life. It is possible that – without noticing it – you breathe calmer, deeper and more evenly even at your desk and thereby also relax. “

And that’s not all! “From a purely physiological point of view, breathing is something that happens automatically. That regulates the autonomous nervous system. We breathe. You don’t think when you’re sitting at your desk, ‘now I have to breathe in, now I have to breathe out’ ‘, but that will be done for you. And when you are tense, the breath will surely be shallower, shorter. When you are excited, it will go faster. If you are relaxed, it will almost certainly go slower. In yoga we have the option of To perceive breath as a very powerful tool and to say: I am now breathing in the Ujjayī -Breath and it goes deep and even. With that you outsmart the nervous system. You say, ‘I breathe deeply and evenly, so please drive down.’ You can just grab the tools from your tool box that you always have with you without having to carry them. Just take it here when you need it, breathe deeply and evenly. “

Reason 5: Yoga speaks to the whole body

What is quickly noticeable when you practice with the videos by Bärbel Miessner: They follow a certain pattern and almost always contain a dynamic sun salutation that wakes up the body, bending forward and backward, twists, inverted postures, the final relaxation Shavasana and meditation. Why? So that it feels round and the whole body is addressed, she explains to me.

This is due to the so-called fascia, the connective tissue sheaths of our muscles, which are intensely stretched during yoga: the fascia tracts on the front with the back bends, the back of the body with the bends, the sides with the twist and the deep fascia tracts over the breath. “And then you have the most complete training – if you want to call it ‘training’ – that you can get. You don’t get that when you run, you don’t swim or you do Pilates,” says Bärbel Miessner.

Reason 6: Yoga is never boring!

Even if the yoga sequences are always the same after a few weeks – they are still different every day. Because depending on how you are at the moment, what condition your body is in and how well and fit you feel, the exercises always feel different. You learn to listen to your body and to practice in the way that is good for you that day. Depending on how I feel, I practice light, hard and dynamic exercises Vinyasa flow-Exercises, sometimes held passively Yin yogaExercises. Sometimes I use other exercise programs, like “Yoga Everyday” by Ursula Karven or “Yoga macht Fröhlich” by Susanne Fröhlich. Always the way I feel right now.

“This mindfulness in yoga is worth a lot. If a yoga teacher can teach you that – be mindful of yourself and hear how your body works – this is a wonderful way to train self-love and to accept yourself, how to function and how you tick. And then it’s important to accept that and to smile a bit about it. Don’t always take everything so seriously. Let go – on all levels! “

And that applies not only to the yoga practice itself, but also around it. “If someone tells me: Yoga is my sport, I do 90 minutes of yoga every day and otherwise I’m in the office, then I think that’s wrong. Because I think the yoga asanas are a wonderful addition to everything else with his body, his mind. It is also important to be outside, to move around, to go for a walk. “

BONUS reason: You like to do something good for yourself

So why stop doing yoga when you are already doing something good for yourself. Here too, Bärbel Miessner and I agree: going for a walk is an essential part of it. “I try to really do this for half an hour every day and be mindful, with a peripheral view.

So not just staring at the street in front of me and indulging in my thoughts, but I try to be mindful, as in yoga practice and in meditation, to see myself outside in nature, to see what is around me, how does it smell, how does it look, how does it feel? That is incredibly good. Apart from that: looking into the green is good anyway. Green is the color of the heart, the heart chakra. It just makes you happy, whether you want it or not. If you look out into the green, you’re fine. “

With this in mind, I hope you enjoy doing something good for you more often from now on, and I say: Namasté!

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