Post holiday blues have hit us hard this week, but kick starting a yoga routine softened the blow.

We returned to grey, windy, cold Manchester and those beautiful mountains and blue skies quickly felt like a distant memory. Reality hit us hard, including a big tax bill we weren’t expecting. It was all a bit sobering and we both felt quite flattened. And when you’re both feeling like that, it’s hard to generate good energy.

Whilst we were away snowboarding on the slopes of Serre Chevalier, we had talked about taking up yoga again.

Our yoga back stories

I’ve done yoga intermittently since my twenties. I love it, but I find it really hard to commit to consistently. Jamie had a brief spell of doing yoga a few years ago and absolutely loved it. He was unemployed for a while after leaving his corporate job and was in a limbo period in his life, and the weekly yoga class he went to was incredibly grounding. He always slept brilliantly afterwards and it really improved his flexibility.

So he has very fond memories of yoga and he’s keen to get that flexibility back again because he’s incredibly stiff from being a snowboard instructor.

We decided we’d start when we got back to Manchester. Our plan was to just do it at home using YouTube.

No motivation for yoga post holiday

But by midweek of our return, we hadn’t started and we were both stuck in a low energy fug.

Luckily, on a Freshwalks that I led on Wednesday, I chatted about this with a PT who was on the walk. Her advice was simple – to just do a minute of yoga a day.

She said not to set the bar too high and keep it ridiculously simple. I loved that idea. A minute a day felt completely doable. So I came home and suggested it to Jamie.

We’re now five days in and doing yoga every evening. And we’ve actually made it up to 30 minutes most nights. 

I love things like this, where with a tiny bit of effort you can quickly start seeing exciting green shoots of progress.

Quick results

Jamie’s already noticing the difference in his body and is able to stretch a little bit further every day. And I can feel that it’s good for my sore hips and my mood. 

We’ve been doing Yoga With Adriene sessions on YouTube – it’s free and very easy to follow. They’re slow, gentle and very accessible routines suitable for beginners.

Although one unexpected side effect seems to be that certain poses induce the loudest comedy farts imaginable from Jamie, which adds a whole extra layer of entertainment.

So if there’s something in your life you’ve been wanting to get on with, try starting with one minute a day. You might be surprised where it leads.