Habits

Yoga is a good example of exercise that is meditative. Or rather, it’s the other way around: yoga is more like meditation that is also good exercise. Or at the very least, when we talk about yoga as exercise, we’re usually referring to the āsanas (i.e., poses) and vinyāsa style yoga (i.e., sequences of poses) that are part of the practice. But yoga is much more than that. It’s a philosophy, a way of life, a spiritual practice. And it’s all of these things at once.

It’s surprisingly easy to form habits. And it’s less difficult to break them than it may seem at first, with some exceptions (nicotine, for example, is notoriously addictive and hard to quit). I read Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, and I found it to be a lot of words to say something that could be summarized in a few sentences. But the core idea is solid: start small and slowly build up until a thing becomes habitual. Breaking habits is the same but opposite: quitting cold turkey often fails, but slowly reducing the habit can be effective.