Is 5 minutes enough to find bliss in your yogic practice?

Time seemed in short supply last year. Regardless of the clock’s repeated insistence that 24 hours or 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds exist each day, it felt like it was fibbing. So when an invite came to try out A Daily Dose of Bliss, an online course for emotion regulation that involved a five- to 10-minute yogic practice daily for six weeks, it all seemed too much. Then curiosity kicked in, as well as rationality — after all, didn’t we feel “busy” even 2000 years ago when Seneca counselled his friend that “life is long if you know how to use it”? I signed up.

Soon after, a personalised email arrived from Dr Lauren Tober, the course founder, providing access to her online yoga shala — a resource hub for the daily lessons — as well as a closed Facebook group where participants could share their experiences. So far, so good: it seemed well organised and the website was gorgeous and easy to navigate.

What excited me about this particular course, though, was its content and the knowledge behind it. A senior yoga teacher and a doctor of clinical psychology, Tober has researched mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression and anxiety and spent almost 20 years studying, practising, researching and teaching in her hometown of Byron Bay as well as worldwide. A Daily Dose of Bliss is her effort to integrate her two strands of expertise and bring their benefits to a broader audience so they, too, can live a full, happy and blissful life.

Further, Tober has collaborated with 20 well-regarded teachers and musicians from all over the globe so participants can also hear from them over the six weeks. These guest-hosts range from psychologist and author of Hardwiring Happiness Dr Rick Hanson to Jivamukti Yoga co-founder Sharon Gannon to musician and yogic chanter Krishna Das. Some names were familiar to me, others new, but all sounded interesting.

Week one of the program was to be about establishing a practice and breathing well. Seven units, comprising four to six lessons each, would follow: balance, calming the mind, relaxing the body, energising, grounding, kindness and compassion, and bliss. Each day, I’d be emailed a yogic practice to stream then and there or to download for later use, along with brief written instructions. The ultimate aim is for you to finish with a set of practices to call on when you need, plus a powerful habit of setting aside a short time daily to practice yoga and calm your body-mind-spirit.

Each lesson built on the other, helping to reinforce earlier teachings and creating a seamless experience.

How much does that all cost? AU$159 (AU$129 for early birds), 10 per cent of which goes to support Krama Yoga, a non-governmental organisation in Cambodia that offers yoga and life skills to young people challenged by poverty and abuse.

On the first day of the course, I woke up a tad earlier than usual, earnestly rolled out my yoga mat, plugged the earphones into my smartphone and opened the first of the daily emails. It guided me in two things: how to create a sacred space at Home and mindful breathing. Cool, those were both manageable. I prepped my space, sat as instructed, read the brief description of the breathing exercise and then pressed play. After following my breath for 10 minutes, I was finished — and feeling calm.

As the days progressed, all the exercises felt eminently doable. Some would be a beautiful melody or chant to soak in, others a new meditation technique to try, others a pranayama (yogic breathing exercise), asana (posture) or mudra (hand gesture). Each lesson built on the other, helping to reinforce earlier teachings and creating a seamless experience. I like doing yoga or going for a walk in the early mornings, so it was nice to add in a bite-sized yogic practice. Some days, I did the lessons just before bed.

I started to anticipate the course emails in my inbox. They felt warm and inviting and, maybe it’s just me, but they seemed to exude an energetic pull. That said … I have to admit I didn’t always get around to opening them. In about week three, somewhere between learning about ujjayi and sheetali breathing, I fell into a bit of a funk — life felt busy-busy-busy and I didn’t read those emails. Fortunately, they were waiting in my inbox when I climbed out of that hole, so I could access the teachings online when I was ready. Thank goodness for technology.

Speaking of which, a handy thing about this course is that, once you sign up, you can access all the tools in the online shala for three months after it finishes. Participants can buy an ebook that includes all the teachings, too, for whenever you need a refresh.

When the six weeks were up, I felt I’d fine-tuned my understanding of the yoga basics, as well as learnt how to use certain techniques to achieve desired results; for example, calming yourself by using left nostril breathing and energising yourself with right nostril breathing. I’d also developed more of an appreciation for the Beauty of yogic chanting and learnt some creative new ways to meditate. I felt calmer and more connected; less worried about getting everything done and more focused on being present.

All up, if you don’t think you have the time to do yoga or meditate, this may be the course for you. It offers a nice little learning curve towards mindful, yogic living that anyone with access to the internet can do in just 5–10 minutes a day.