With midterm season now close behind us, I’m sure we’re all feeling the mid-quarter slump. Lately, I’ve woken up feeling exhausted and unexcited to spend my days behind a computer screen. With a class schedule full of early mornings, I don’t like starting my days like this, and I’m sure none of you do either.
In high-school, I was an early riser. A competitive swimmer for basically my whole life, I started my mornings at 5:00 am in the pool. Yes, 4:30 wakeups were painful and difficult, but I miss the accomplished, energized feeling after working out in the morning. So, I’m turning to fitness to perk up my morning routine. Every day for a week, I started my mornings with 20 minutes of YouTube yoga on my dorm floor. Here’s how it went:
- Monday
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I’m not going to lie; I didn’t wake up in time for yoga this day. With midterms fast approaching, I spent my Sunday night hunched over my computer doing chemistry problems. Before I knew it, it was 2:00 am. I rolled out of bed before my 9:00 am but didn’t have time for yoga. And that’s okay. Life happens. In any journey to try to be healthier, it’s important to give yourself room to slip up and have off-days.
- Tuesday
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I guess the second time’s a charm, because I finally woke up early enough on Tuesday for yoga and a long shower before class. On this day, I used the 20-minute Morning Yoga (Full Body Flow/Stretch for Beginners) tutorial by MadFit on YouTube. Being new to yoga, I definitely felt awkward trying out some of the positions. Figuring out how to contort into some of the trickier positions was definitely validating. I left my first yoga session feeling confident, energized and ready for a hot shower.
Working out and showering before class also definitely changed my in-class experience. Staring at a screen first thing in the morning interfered with my ability to focus. With an hour-long, mood-boosting buffer between when I woke up and when I logged into zoom made a noticeable difference in how engaged I was with my lecture.
- Wednesday
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On day three, I tried MadFit’s 20-min Full Body Stretch/Yoga for Stress & Anxiety Relief video, which was more focused on breathing patterns and stretching. I loved this video’s emphasis on stress and anxiety relief, which is something we, as college students, could all use a little more of. With an exam that day, I definitely woke up in an anxious headspace. I found that this morning’s yoga routine helped clear my head; I approached my day in a better headspace than I woke up in.
- Thursday
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I woke up Thursday feeling exhausted from my exam and sore from my Wednesday night workout. So, I wasn’t very excited for yoga. I pushed through for the sake of this article and I’m glad that I did; yoga ended up being exactly what I needed. I knew I needed a good stretch, so I chose the same video as the day before. With a few days of morning yoga under my belt, I was more confident and comfortable this morning, leading to one of my favorite yoga sessions of the week.
- Friday
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Waking up on Friday, I felt both excited that a stressful week was over and a little sad that my yoga-every-day journey was coming to an end. I finished out the week with MadFit’s 15 min Full Body Stretch/Yoga for Stress & Anxiety relief. In terms of tough mornings, Friday always takes the cake; most of my classes have Friday morning deadlines, so I rarely leave Tech, my favorite study spot on campus, before midnight on a Thursday. On top of that, I sit on zoom for three hours on Friday mornings, taking back-to-back-to-back classes. This week, however, I entered and left my three-hour class block without the usual feeling of exhaustion. Sure, my mind wandered during lectures and at times I desperately wanted to roll back into bed, but this Friday was much better than others.
As much as I enjoyed my week of yoga, I’m not sure that this daily routine is practical. I doubt that I’ll be able to wake up for yoga every day without the commitment to writing about it but I want to try. As with most things, moderation is important. Some mornings, I’ll wake up feeling excited to roll out a yoga mat. Some mornings, I’ll hit the snooze button. Regardless, I challenge all of you to a week of morning yoga. It might not change your life but you’ll be thankful for it when you’re not falling asleep in your morning classes.