How to develop a successful yoga routine?

The key to success is consistency. That means repeating the behaviour that you want to become a habit over and over until it becomes a part of your normal routine.  

It is said that it takes at least 21 days to form a new habit but research shows that on average, people might need two months to make a habit stick. This is how to make your yoga at home a success:

1. The hardest part is making the decision to start something new. Once you’ve made that decision, you’ve actually made a great leap. From then on, it’s all down to practicalities! 
2. Come up with a realistic plan for one month – for example that you’ll do 15 minutes of yoga, three times a week, for a month. If you can tag the new habit-in-the-making onto something you already do on a regular basis, you’re more likely to stick to it. It could be that you’ll do yoga before breakfast, when you’ve come back from work, or when the kids leave for school. Make a plan and follow it – don’t make exceptions unless something serious happens. 
3. Make your plan easy to stick to – start small, for example with 10 or 15 minutes of yoga. The key is to make it really difficult for you to fail! Then, when you’ve succeeded, develop that habit – for example, extend it to 20 or 30 minutes of yoga. Be careful not to rush it, only change your plan after one month.
4. If you have to skip a practice, do it at a different time instead. Don’t just miss it. However, if you end up always skipping that particular yoga exercise, reconsider your plan at the end of the month and adapt it.
5. Develop your habit over time – you don’t need to increase the frequency or the length of your practice (unless you want to). Once you have your yoga routine down, you can progress by making it more challenging. Using a yoga app is great for this as you can just choose a more advanced yoga program or classes.