I have a dream, a vision, of daily yoga, the sun warm on my face, the white sand beneath my toes, birds in the trees and me looking fabulous in a pair of leggings and vest top.  
 
The reality is that yes, I love yoga…I just rarely get around to doing it!  Even though I know that after a workout I feel so much better, lengthened, alive, present in myself and my soul, able to breathe…when the alarm goes off in the morning I would rather dive under the duvet for another few minutes, inevitably stumbling my way through a shower and dealing (often badly) with the noise and stress of trying to get the kids ready for school all whilst still trying to wake up properly.  And once my day gets going there really isn’t much time to fit in a yoga routine unless falling over a pile of toys and landing with my legs in the air counts!  As for the rest of my dream...well, living in a small UK town in January means no warm sun, no white sand and as for leggings and a vest top...well maybe not just yet! 

Oh, how I envy those people who spring out of bed at 5am and start their day with a few sun salutations, a healthy smoothie and then glow their way through the rest of the day all shiny and happy. 

Well, I’m going to try and be one of them…for 10 days anyway and see whether or not it makes a difference in my life.  This is the first in one of my mini-projects for 2013 and I am hoping it may kickstart my yoga habit and at the very least get me in better shape for my upcoming month in New Zealand

The main problems I envisage are:

1                     I am not a morning person and the fact that here in the UK it is dark until about 8am makes getting up early pretty cold and miserable.

2                     I am not a morning person and my husband is no early bird either so leaving him snug and cosy in bed is going to be hard whilst I go downstairs in several layers to keep warm

3                     I am not a morning person and my dog thinks that yoga = playtime so I have to figure out how to keep him out of the sitting room whilst I try to contort my body into strange and interesting shapes…without his help!

4                     I am not a morning person and anytime I do try to get up early some sort of invisible alarm goes off alerting my youngest to the fact that mummy is up and therefore it must be playtime – perhaps I can get her and the dog together!

So, these minor obstacles apart, I am determined to get my yoga goddess on for the next few days and see what happens.  As I mentioned in a previous post i am always setting myself big goals but this year is different hence the 10 days of yoga instead of the annual attempt at 365 - of which I usually manage about 5!

Starting next Monday (21st January) for 10 days (not including Saturday and Sunday - come on, it's the weekend!) I will attempt to do a different routine (lasting from 20-60 minutes) each day first thing in the morning (about 6am – 5am is just too early for this English rose in the winter).  My aim is to try out different types of yoga as well as explore different methods of doing 'home yoga' and discover some new teachers. 

I will be posting my progress on the blog and Facebook and giving links to the routines/resources that I am using so if you want to yoga along with me you can and do share how you are getting on – I will need lots of encouragement and am happy to be your cheerleader too.

So, Namaste my lovelies and fingers crossed for a good start on Monday!

P.S.  If you want to get started with me on Monday then my first routine is: 4 sun salutations followed by the Warrior yoga workout below (total time is about 35 minutes)