2015 is ending on a high note for us here at YogaByCandace, so I am excited to keep the good times going with a new 31 Day New You Yoga Program. The programs have been a hit in the past and I am hoping you'll love this one just as much as the others!

What is the New You Yoga Program?

This is a program for people who are ready to jumpstart their practice and dive deeper. What I love about the YBC Programs is that they're entirely customizable. If you're just starting out with the yoga practice, this program is an opportunity to develop a strong personal practice. If you're an experienced yogi, this is an opportunity to create new goals and commit to reaching them. If you're someone who has loved yoga for a while but got distracted by, well, life - then this program is an opportunity to get back on the horse and ease your way down the yoga path. Ready? Here's how it will work.

How It Works

Set a goal. What is it that you want at the end of these 31 days? To be able to do a beautiful split? To feel less stressed? Decide what your goal is and write that shiz down.
Grab a notebook. Speaking of writing shiz down, grab a notebook and use this for your 31 days. It's important to keep track of how you felt about your practices and the mindset you had going into it or coming out of it because how we feel internally is often reflected on the mat. I love these notebooks because they have a little pocket for tucking inspirational clippings or readings I come across.
Set a schedule and enlist support. The toughest part about starting anything new, whether it be a yoga practice, learning a new language, or, I dunno, underwater basket weaving is finding the time and following through. To deal with these issues, I suggest two things:
1. Set a schedule. What time works best for you? Morning, before work? Lunch break? After dinner? Whatever time it is, set an alarm in your phone and consider it a meeting with your boss. There are very few times you would cancel a meeting with your boss (major illness, family emergency, etc). Only cancel on yourself if one of these things happens.
2. Follow through by enlisting the help of an accountability buddy. Over on the YBC Yoga Forum, we have hundreds of kind and supportive people ready and willing to buddy up. You can message them there and chat about anything that comes up throughout the program for you - and who knows, you might make your new best friend!
Begin. With the exception of January 1st, each Monday I will post a suggested schedule for the week that you can follow along to. Do what works for you, skip what doesn't. The program is designed to work the entire body and includes meditation as well for a well-rounded yoga practice. The program is designed to build strength, improve flexibility, and develop endurance, and each practice builds upon one another. There will be options for beginners where applicable.
Keep track of your goal. I encourage you to write in your yoga journal and take pictures throughout the program. Yep, I said take pictures. The reason for this is that whenever I do anything for the long haul, I without a doubt get down on myself within the first few weeks/months/whatever. I feel like I haven't made any real progress and that's usually the time when I abandon things. But I've learned that when we do things for the long haul, our progress is so small that we don't notice it until way down the line. To deal with this, I take photos because that way I can look back and compare then and now. We'll use the hashtags #ybcyogis and #newmewithybc on instagram if you want to share. Feel free to search the hashtags and virtually meet other YBCers! Introduce yourself on their photos, say hi, offer encouragement, whatevs! Each week we'll feature a picture or someone using the #newmewithybc in our weekend newsletter. If your goal is something you can't really snap a picture of (like reducing your stress levels), consider the aforementioned journal your "picture". Write daily about whatever your goal is. For example, if I were working on reducing stress, I would write about how my mental state is, how I feel physically, anything going on in my life that I could weed out or deal with better, etc. Essentially, find a way to keep track of your goal whether that's with pictures or a journal or both.

Troubleshooting

What happens when you have to skip things? This is a question I get a lot and my answer is usually a more eloquent: Who freaking cares? You have no one to impress, there are no rules, this is a program for you. Trust yourself, do the best you can, and let go of preconceived ideas about what you 'should' be doing. If you're exhausted on the day that it calls for a power yoga class, just do yin yoga. Or if you're not feeling yin yoga, just do a good savasana. Bring it back to the idea of a meeting with the boss. You're too tired to go to the meeting, so what do you do, do you cancel? No, you show up and kind of daze off, haha. Hey, if that's all you've got in you, that's what you do! So do the same thing for your yoga practice. Get on the mat, and take savasana or child's pose for 20 minutes if you need to. Getting on your mat counts as a practice. What you do during the practice is up to you.

Pin now for easy access to the New You Yoga Program!

Supplemental Content

Note: If you have been a subscriber to the YBC Official App for a while, I'll be pulling in content from the past as part of this program. If you have not opted in to the paid portion of the YBC App, no worries- I have alternatives for you. But if you do want to opt-in, it's $1.99/mo and you will get a 20 minute video right away and then each week you'll receive either a recorded message (a quote, a meditation or a yoga tip) or a yoga video that we will use in future programs. You will not have access to past content, only because it's not fair to those who have been paid members from day 1, but don't worry because each week your content will grow and it'll be used in future programs that you can follow along to when the programs are released.

So who's in?! Who is ready to dedicate the next 31 days to improving themselves and finishing the program with a renewed sense of self?! Let me know down in the comments below!

Program:

Shop the look below