Make yoga every day for 31 days: what sounds exhausting for some did me incredibly well. I was not always easy for self -experiments, but I learned a lot – and therefore repeated the challenge in 2025.
On 01.01.25 it was said again for me: I would like to climb the yoga mat every day for 31 days and thus deliberately start the new year and take a little time for me at time. I have repeated the Yoga Challenge in 2025 for the fourth time.
In the following I report how I felt after the challenge what made me hold out – and what I would like to change next year.
Why a yoga challenge?
The most common New Year’s proposals? Every year there are called: do more movement or sport and take more time for yourself. Since I want to give both things in my everyday life (more) time, I decided for the first time in early January 2023 for a special self -experiment. I registered for the 31-day yoga challenge that yoga teacher, YouTuber and blogger Mady Morrison has been offering for eight years in a row. There she puts together a training plan that provides for a different yoga unit every day.
Yoga means time for me that I consciously perceive and a physical activity that brings me down and relaxes, but at the same time demands me physically. I find it particularly practical that I can do yoga at any time and from home – without preparation time or a lot of equipment.
I have been practicing yoga quite regularly for several years, from autumn to spring I have been visiting a weekly yoga course for advanced users for several years. But making yoga every day is a little challenge for me. The Corona pandemic with a lot of time at home contributed a large part to me that I also implemented the project. So I thought in 2023: Time to try it again under “normal” conditions – and also implemented it in 2024 and 2025.
Yoga every day – won’t that be monotonous?
My plan looked as follows: Wednesdays I visited the yoga class on site, on the other days of the week I made the units from the yoga challenge “Inner Awakening” by Mady Morrison.
The nice thing about the challenge: Every day there is a new sequence with a different focus. Sometimes you primarily strengthen the middle of the body, sometimes the focus is on hip or heart openers. From 15-minute grinding yoga to a 45-minute unit yin yoga (here you hold the positions for several minutes) you complete a varied full body training.
My yoga diary: I learned that from the self-experiment in 31 days
Day 1-11: I started on 01.01.23 full of motivation. This continued unabated for eleven days. I usually took time for yoga right after work, once I also used the lunch break, another time I started the day with a short yoga unit. According to the Challenge Plan, a little longer sequences of about 45 minutes are planned at the weekend, which I was able to plan well.
Day 12-14: The first challenge-I had traveled to Rome with the night train. When I left I was not sure whether and how I would complete my yoga units there. But on two out of three days I made yoga in the hotel room and found that it works pretty well. However, I had deliberately saved shorter sessions for the vacation days and had already done the longer units at home beforehand or pushed it onto the Rome trip. I took home the one “missing day” on which I did not make a yoga in Rome as a souvenir.
After two weeks of yoga, a routine set up
Day 15-25: After two weeks of yoga, a certain routine set up; My printed training plan on the desk no longer had to remind me that I still had to “do yoga” today. The yoga unit developed much more into a firm and beautiful part of my day.
Day 25-31: The challenge did not go smoothly. I didn’t find the time for yoga every day. For example, when I didn’t go home after the office, but for dinner and then to the cinema. Once at home, I went straight to bed and saved the “detour” over the yoga mat.
How do I deal with the missed units? Sometimes I caught up on the following day or on weekends and let myself be guided through two yoga units every day, for example in the morning and after work. If that was not possible, I simply hung on the 31-day challenge for the missing days. My yoga challenge therefore did not take 31, but 34 days.
Self-experiment yoga challenge: You should consider that
One of my most important findings of the 31-day yoga challenge: You should never be prevented from the overall task by a missed yoga unit. After all, you can catch up with the exercise or simply extend the challenge around the days without yoga.
How do you find the time and motivation for yoga every day? I can say for myself: I can take the time every day – if I want. On days in the home office, I was happy to do the yoga units right after work or during the lunch break. Both helped switch off very well. I rarely had motivation problems. If so, it helped me to think about the satisfied feeling after training to get started.
For everyone who likes to be structured, I have a tip: Print out the yoga plan (Mady Morrison provides a calendar with the daily units for download) or digitally save and check off every completed session. This is how you see progress every day and have a little sense of achievement. At the same time, you notice how quickly the 31 days pass – that can be really motivating. If you do not follow any fixed course plan, you can still highlight the days on which yoga has been practiced.
The yoga challenge did that with me
Yoga helps me switch off and even weakened my headache over two days. I could also find a small physical difference: I noticed that I was more agile-and that some yoga characters still matters the form of the day. Sometimes the balance was very easy for me, sometimes I fluctuated strongly on one leg. The force in my arms is not always equally strong for me. But overall, after a month you can tell that you have more strength in your arms and that the down dog can really be a relaxation.
Conclusion: Yoga enriches the day
In the meantime, however, I have also understood: yoga is incredibly multifaceted, there is no yoga style. For myself, for example, I found for myself that the slow yin yoga is not my preference, but can be just right on individual days (for example, if I was jogging and used it to stretch the muscles).
Above all, the yoga challenge showed me that I can (almost) manage to take a little time slot for me and fill it as I want it. The exercises are a nice opportunity for me, but sometimes I prefer a good book or a walk in the fresh air.
For me, the yoga challenge is now an important part for a conscious start to the new year. I am already motivated for 2026 and am looking forward to the 31-day yoga challenge-then for the fifth time. I hope that even after long working days I like to put myself on the yoga mat and deliberately breathe. The nice thing: I have always practiced yoga several times a week in February and consciously took more time for me.
If you are interested in yoga, read too:
- Yoga for beginners: Inside – these tips make it easier for you to start
- Yoga accessories: You need that for training
- 11 Sustainable yoga brands-from yoga clothes to mats
- Yoga in bed: The 6 best exercises for morning or evening routine
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