After two years of fairly consistent practice, I think I might finally consider myself a yogi. I’ve bought into the full lifestyle. Early mornings, meditation, a vegetarian diet, and now a mala that I slip on every morning before doing anything else. The progression towards this way of living was incredibly slow; a series of smaller decisions which lead to bigger decisions, which lead to rather life-overhauling decisions. I think everything starts out that way.

When I was in university, I didn’t have very many healthy habits.

Yes, I exercised frequently but I didn’t really know what I was doing. My mantra was go hard, go long, go until you want to cry. Although it made me feel good once it was over, exercise sort of felt like a sadistic form of punishment.

Then there was meal hall. Cinnamon toast crunch in the mornings, peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. Combine that with six hours of sleep and you’ve got a recipe for getting sick all the time… which I did. I also fell asleep frequently throughout the day.

Then I moved to Vancouver – the health capital of Canada.

Slowly things started to change. My first introduction to yoga was through P90X. It was actually an hour and a half of completely fitness-focused “yoga,” and it was brutal. Naturally, I loved it. Around that same time I started playing with my diet. For eight months I cut out gluten (after it came up as a small allergy in a skin prick test). I was forced to start thinking about food in a different way. All three of my meals had previously featured wheat as the central ingredient. What could I eat now? I started listening to health podcasts, learning about macronutrients and micronutrients, and (most importantly) about mindset.

All these small changes bled together; enhancing one another. I made a lot of mistakes. I played with calories for awhile: eating too little, then eating too much. At one point I exercised my boobs away. Every decision led to another, healthier decision as I tried to find the right answers. With so many “healthy” habits to choose from, I couldn’t choose them all (even if I wanted to). I had to experiment and find the ones that made me feel amazing. My health started to improve… significantly!

The better I began to feel, the more curious I got about how much better I could feel.

I made even more changes and adjustments. Yoga with P90X turned into yoga at a studio, which introduced me to pranayama, which introduced me to meditation – which I resisted like crazy.

Then, three weeks ago, myself and two friends started a goal-setting group. I said I wanted to start meditating everyday. We set up a consequence system, and that was enough of an incentive to help me keep my word.  A gentle nudge and a new habit was born.

An all or nothing attitude usually fails  — at least in my own personal experience. What’s worked for me is a series of small decisions. As my resolve and willpower muscles have strengthened, those smaller decisions/ changes have been able to get a little bit bigger, and a little bit easier to follow-through on. 

What I’ve learned is that just simply doing these practices won’t make you feel good. You have to know why you’re doing what you’re doing. These habits have to figure into your own personal beliefs. It all starts with learning. You have to learn for yourself how these practices and habits could enhance your life and go from there. You have to make it personal… otherwise it just becomes about chasing some misconstrued form of perfection. It’s taken me a long time to realize this.

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Mala Collective was started by Matt and Ashley after a trip to Bali and the discovery of the unqiue rudraksha bead jewelry. “The gemstones are believed to hold their own healing qualities, while the rudraksha beads are thought to have the power of healing, and creating peace of mind.” I received the I am adventurous mala bracelet from mala collective. These blog posts are a reflection on my experience wearing them.