Why autumn fitness season is the perfect time to build your practice.
Pumpkin Spice is back at Starbucks. Kids are picking out binders. University dorms are welcoming students back to campus. Whether you’re holding onto the last dregs of summer as tight as you can or pulling your favorite cardigans out of the closet – it’s inevitable, fall is right around the corner. If the beginning of the academic year signals a big schedule shift for you or your children, you might already be trying to get your calendar in order for the months to come. But even if September is jut another month in your year, you might find that as the community shift towards something new, it’s the perfect time for you to incorporate a new practice into your schedule as well. Here are five reasons yoga should play a part in your back-to-school season.
- It’s Important to Schedule Time for Stress Relief
Autumn can be an exciting time, but it can also be a stressful one. New opportunities mean new commitments, new responsibilities, and new challenges. It’s great to challenge yourself, but it’s also important to remember to take care of yourself. Yoga’s stress-relieving components like meditation, focusing on the present, and releasing physical stress might be the outlet you need to balance any stressors you’re introducing into your life in the new season.
- It’s an Opportunity to Find a New Community
As you step into a new season of your life, you may find yourself surrounded by new people. Maybe you’re starting school or a new job in a new city, or maybe you’re wishing you could find more community in the place you’ve always lived. Picking out a yoga or fitness class to attend every week could be the perfect place to meet some new people, and over time those relationships could just grow to be some of the friends and community you cherish the most.
- Keeping Warm Can Keep You Motivated
If you’ve been getting in your active time outside over the summer, it might be tempting to let the impending cloudy days keep you from sticking to your workout schedule. If you make a hot yoga class a part of your workout routine, then you can flip that impulse! By the time winter rolls around, you’ll be thinking of your workout as the place you can guarantee you’ll be warm for an hour or two. We’re more likely to stick to habits that bring us pleasure, so picking out a workout you look forward to could help to keep you motivated no matter the season.
- You Can Use Habit-Stacking to Your Advantage
Nine months into the year, it can be tempting to push any New Year Resolutions you haven’t stuck to aside and hope you’ll have better luck next year. But, there’s no reason to wait for a new year to make a new resolution. While it can be easy to let our habits slide over summer vacation, odds are you’re getting back into the groove of your usual schedule and responsibilities as fall comes along. And if you’re someone who has trouble sticking to new habits, it might be easier to create a new habit when you’re in a season that comes with more regularly scheduled commitments. It can be easier to stack new habits on top of habits you’ve already built in your life, a tactic known as habit stacking. Think about what things you already have in your schedule for fall and then you might be able to find a way to connect a yoga or fitness practice to these habits.
- It’s Time to Take Time For Yourself
I think we can all relate to fall being a season that goes by in a blur. One day summer is just ending, and before we know it the air is bitingly cold, and holiday season is right around the corner. Amidst holiday parties and family and friends visiting and planning for everything in between, it can be easy to let caring for ourselves slip through the cracks. Before we get all the way to the chaos that is the holiday season, take the opportunity now to implement self-care into your schedule by making a yoga or fitness class part of your week.
To decide what workout class you want to try this season, check out the schedule for your local Oxygen Yoga & Fitness.