A woman practices yoga on the balcony of her apartment during the Covid- lock down in Geneva, Switzerland. The sun shines on the balcony as she maximizes the space available to work out from home.

I love the idea of morning meditation – calmly sitting in a quiet corner of my apartment with my eyes closed, focusing on each individual inhale and exhale as it comes.

Unfortunately, I have yet to fall in love with actually practicing meditation in the morning. I typically sit for a few minutes with my eyes closed, fidget, talk myself out of checking my phone, and give in to my anxious energy.

To top it all off, I have a really hard time sitting still in the morning – hence why I clean the living room or start a load of laundry while drinking my coffee.

Mindful running has worked for me in the past, so I decided to try a similarly active approach at quieting my mind with yoga flow classes on my Peloton app.

Nearly every morning for the past three weeks, I ve been waking up right after sunrise to spend – minutes on my yoga mat – sometimes I ll even head up to my building s rooftop for a breezy outdoor practice.

I fight myself through the introductory minutes of class, resisting the urge to call it quits and jump around with a HIIT workout instead.

By the time my instructor calls for Sun Salutations – roughly three minutes into class – my anxiousness subsides and my focus is set on my deep, meaningful breaths.

I m by no means a seasoned yogi, but instead of getting down on myself about the advanced poses I can t do, I try to take my instructor s words to heart – accepting and being thankful for where I m at in my journey on my mat.

My initial intention for this experience was to connect with the present, start the day with positivity, and address my emotions while getting in a great workout at the same time, and I m happy to say I accomplished that.

Unintentionally, though, morning yoga helped me concentrate on a physical goal I ve been neglecting for some time – stretching and caring for my joints through gentle strength training. I didn t realize a simple Downward Dog could do so much for loosening up stiffness in my body.

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One day, I hope to be able to sit peacefully on a meditation cushion and stretch without a prompt, but for now, my yoga mat is fitting the bill.