There are mornings when everything just gets late, and one is feeling a bit drained to show up for things one knows are important.

Monday mornings are rife for such feelings. Especially when progesterone is taking over one’s body…the sleep is most delicious. And the body feeling sluggish means, one does not want to get dressed and leave a cozy home to get out into a dark wet breezy October morning…thinking one is already 30 minutes behind the regular schedule, so what even is the point.

Of course, I am talking about myself this morning. My brain was telling me to go to yoga, and I had the excitement for it after taking the weekend off. But my body was the one saying, it’s nice just here…could we sleep a bit more please? I did oblige by staying in bed 20 minutes longer, and then taking my time getting ready. 

Even when I was ready, I looked at the time and groaned, wondering if there was any point showing up this late for what…a 45 minute practice- 30 minutes less my usual time at the yoga studio?

Doing a quick sweep of my emails as I was sipping on my warm electrolyte drink (salt, honey, lemon, turmeric, cayenne, a pinch of matcha) I came across a line in some newsletter saying how every little bit counts. The specific example was about yoga! The story was about how this person, with a tight hip, did 5 minutes of stretches every single night before bed was able to do certain poses unavailable to them before. Six months later they were able to do that pose.

I took this as a sign. I could have ignored it and moved on. But I was considering whether or not to go to yoga. So this struck me more than it may have otherwise. Not that it was a direct application for me. But it just reminded me of the fact that we don’t need make big things everyday. Some days, just laying a brick or two counts towards the building we are trying to build. And some other days we may be able to build a whole wall.

It’s important to recognize that not every day will be a big one. But consistency is what counts…in big or small ways. And knowing this also removes some pressure to be perfect every single day- I know I would burn out pretty fast under that pressure! But I can do small things on the days big things seem out of reach.

And with that example, I did show up at my yoga studio for a short, not intense practice. I did my surya namaskars followed by standing poses. But I didn’t really get into the sitting poses. Instead I did some stretches my body was craving. Then I called it done.

I also got a great walk back and forth to the studio.

And all of that counts towards my consistency goal, and my health related goal. Not perfect practice goal- which I don’t ever want to get tied to. But the goal to just show up, and do your best for THAT day.

And seriously, community helps- real or virtual.