As yogis, we all struggle to keep our practice consistent. We get distracted by life and make excuses to skip one day, then the next, and pretty soon we find ourselves making a lasting indent into the couch–we are too defeated for that one down-ward dog that could turn it all around.

It seems like perfectionists catch the worst of this cycle. We like to feel like we are “being good,” “making progress,” and “on track.” Self-proclaimed perfectionist and yogi blogger Daniela Velázquez at TBO.com says “Yoga helps me cope with much of that fretting – until I stop
practicing. Then all of the anxiety creeps back and makes me want to
crawl in bed instead of working it out on my mat.”

And she’s not the only one who struggles with this all-or-nothing
mantra in her yoga practice and exercise routine.

“‘It makes it hard for people to stay motivated – they have to be
perfect in their diet plan and/or exercise plan,’ behavioral
psychologist Dean Anderson says. ‘When they inevitably aren’t, they
start getting down on themselves. They figure they’re never going to do
it,’ says Anderson, who writes for the weight-loss website SparkPeople.com under
the pen name Coach Dean.“

Velázquez