Everyone is struggling to find time these days, too many things are keeping us busy. Besides the job and home responsibilities we also have an entire online world to explore.

Sometimes maybe we have the time but we don’t have any energy left to use it on things that we love doing because we are exhausted after a day of work. You take and you take until you feel like you are actually not in control of your own time anymore.

I felt like this for quite a while. I live in London where things are always taking a long time because of the distance between things. Especially when I used to commute, at the end of each day I was looking back at how I spent my time and very little of it was for myself. And even having couple of hours for myself didn’t leave me with enough energy to go to the gym for example or go for a run.

So for a long while I was in this state of blaming myself that I don’t exercise enough. I tried different things, I even “paid” myself let’s say £10 every time when I exercised and gathered that money for buying myself something. That worked for a while because I had a goal, I worked towards it. But then I would get into a period of stress at work or I would buy what I wanted to buy and I would stopp exercising for a while.

Something changed when I watched a yoga YouTube video, I don’t even remember which one because I tried to follow quite a few. The person doing the video said something that stayed with me. They said that doing yoga is about giving yourself time, is not about putting time and effort. Then they asked: “How much time do you want to give yourself today? Do you have 3 minutes? Maybe 5? Even one minute is good”. This went straight to my head and my heart. How many minutes do I actually give myself for my own mental and physical health? How did I ended up in a state where I give everyone and everything else the time but I fail myself? I stopped and really thought about it.

From that moment I started to do yoga at home every single day. I started with 5 minutes. I watched enough tutorials t understand how to do some postures and I started to practice offline, without any screen in front of me. I put some music in the background and a timer that went off every minute. After every minute I changed the posture. I didn’t push myself at all in the beginning, I just did whatever posture felt good, 5 postures every day. Sometimes I would attempt a plank and even if I couldn’t hold it for a minute, I continued it with a stretch. My body absolutely loved those 5 minutes per day. After less than a week I increased the time and started to look forward to every session.

I started this routine at the end of January this year and haven’t missed a day! Some days were more difficult than others, I had trouble focusing but I still pushed, because it has become my routine. For a few months now I am doing 20 minutes of yoga every day. I have a few routines that I follow, mostly beginners postures, but I am very proud of it. Some days I am holding postures that are more challenging for me, like side plank and dolphin plank. Some days I do maybe one of them and combine it with other exercises. When I feel exhausted after a posture I combine it with a stretch, I basically do whatever feels good for my body. But I give myself 20 minutes every day and I am looking forward to this like it’s a treat! I found a sustainable form of constant exercise.

And since I am doing yoga daily for 6 months now I noticed a few changes.

• My golf swing has improved a lot because I have more stability and core strength.
• I even pushed myself to run more often and I get less tired because the core is helping. I run 3km, sometimes 4/5 km without being absolutely exhausted.
• My posture is improving. I am much more conscious about how to hold my posture when I am working at my desk or when I am walking for example.
• A sea of calm is washing over me after every session and I am sustaining most of that calm through the day. I also feel like I am kinder towards myself, maybe is because I am proud that I can keep a good routine.

So if you are struggling with finding an exercise routine that is sustainable, think about what you would really like doing and start very small. Give yourself 5 minutes per day for that. Doing something constantly, even is not the most intense form of exercise, is very good for your body.

Since I proved myself that I can do yoga every day, I completely changed the attitude towards myself. Instead of blaming or even punishing myself that I haven’t run for a while for example, I do a walk instead. I am not competing with anyone, I am only competing with myself, I want to be a bit better than yesterday. A walk can make that difference, 5 minutes of yoga can make that difference. And that is enough.

How many minutes can you give yourself today?