Tracking your yoga journey is a beautiful thing. It provides a highlight reel of the accomplishments and insights gained from consistent yoga and/or meditation. This record of consistency serves as great motivation to stick with your practice, establishing a positive-feedback circle in which tracking your practice helps to maintain the practice.
So how do you actually track your yoga or meditation practice?
Here are 3 easy ways to begin right now! Plus, you don’t need anything other than your phone, a pen, and paper!
1 // Planner
Arguably the easiest and quickest method of tracking your yoga practice is to simply record the type of practice and duration in your planner. If you use a pen-and-paper planner, committing a small corner of each daily spread will do the job. If you schedule using the Calendar app on your phone, add a new “appointment” each day for this purpose.
I love this method because it is fast (under a minute!), making it suitable for habit-building. Plus, you’ll see visible consistency when you log your practice daily in a planner or the Calendar app! This consistency becomes great motivation to stick with your practice (especially during busy times). Get creative and include your peak pose, meditation practice, or any other tidbits of information you’ll want to save from the day’s practice.
Examples:
- Hatha Yoga, 45 min // Meditation, 20 min
- 90 min Ashtanga class (peak — wheel pose)
- 20 min stretch // 30 min meditation w/ 10 min pranayama
2 // Journal
Journaling allows for exploration of the physical, mental, and emotional experiences and sensations during your practice. A consistent post-practice journaling session promotes reflection, which can lead to improved awareness and presence during your yoga/meditation practice (it’s not as hard to recall the experience when you’re journaling if you were present and aware during it, right?). Journaling has improved my awareness of my mood, emotions, energy, physical limits, and self-imposed expectations, thereby increasing my overall self-awareness. Moreover, journaling is a great way to track–in detail–the accomplishments and new experiences in your yoga and meditation practices.
Journaling doesn’t have to take a lot of time (unless you feel like it!). If you want to try journaling, commit to writing a one-sentence reflection each day after your yoga or meditation practice. This builds the habit so that when you have adequate time, you’re ready to write longer journal entries! All you need is a notebook and pen, and the intention to write (at least) one sentence per day.
3 // Instagram
Perhaps you like visual arts endeavors better than writing. Or perhaps you spend way too much time on social media (guilty!). Maybe you are drawn to the idea of putting your practice out in the world.
All of these are great reasons to photographically document your yoga journey with your Instagram account (or create a separate IG dedicated to your yoga practice!).
The yoga community on Instagram is very welcoming and I (and many teachers I know) LOVE to see students sharing their yoga journeys on the social media platform. Plus, Instagram provides a fabulous way to connect with other yogis and yoga teachers around the world–from your fingertips!
If you’re drawn to the Instagram route, DM me on IG (@sydneyjohnstonyoga) so I can follow your journey!
And there you have it! Three easy ways to track your yoga journey. All of them require commitment, but the payoff will be tremendous–a record of your consistency and highlights that serves as motivation to continue the practice. Indeed, tracking your yoga journey is a tool that comes full circle and helps you stick to your journey. Keep up the practice, and you will be kept up.
Which way of tracking your yoga journey are YOU going to try? Comment below!