Many people want to start yoga– they know it’s “good” for them: they know it will help prevent other sports injuries, will improve flexibility, or will help them relax– but often people aren’t quite sure how to get started. You might be one such person. Maybe your training buddy extols the (undeniable!) benefits of sun salutations on their hamstrings. Maybe your PT suggested a little yoga to prevent muscle imbalances that lead to injury. Maybe you’re looking for a way to manage stress and anxiety, whether that’s at work or before a big race. Whatever the case, you’ve heard that yoga is good for athletes, and you want in on the action but keep getting stymied.

Although I’ve practiced yoga for thirteen years, I currently find myself in the same situation.

After I finished my intensive yoga teacher training in 2014, I immediately became pregnant with my daughter. I continued to practice yoga nightly while I was pregnant, in addition to teaching three weekly “flow” classes up until I was 32 weeks along, and attending two or three weekly prenatal classes up to the day before I went in to labor. Not to mention some of the yoga exercises I did to manage labor pain. With all of this yoga, I felt awesome.

And then I stopped.

I’m not sure what happened (perhaps it was the tiny infant I was caring for, or finishing and defending my dissertation, or moving cross-country, or starting a new job…) but in the six months after I had my baby my mat started gathering some serious dust… and cat fur, let’s be honest.

Since then I’ve noticed an increasingly slumped posture (nursing + computer work), lower back pain that I never had before (repeatedly lifting 20 lbs that vocally demand “up” might be the cause), and a general inability to truly relax (but then again, what parent can truly relax??). In short, I know I need to break my yoga hiatus, but it’s proving to be more difficult than I anticipated.

Here are five things I’m doing to try to ease back in to my home practice, but they would help anyone who finds themselves stuck on the where and how of developing a personal yoga practice.

1) Keep your mat handy.

This one is pretty straightforward– if your mat is in a closet gathering dust, it will stay in the closet and continue to gather dust. It can be tricky, though. I thought I had the perfect yoga space carved out in our new house: right in the playroom, so I could practice alongside my daughter while she stacked her blocks. After a month in the new space, though, I found that I wasn’t motivated to practice with my daughter around. I moved my mat up to my bedroom, where I see it and am reminded to practice every night before I go to bed.

2) Start small.

You don’t have to do a full hour of yoga practice right off the bat. Or ever. Just ten minutes a day can make a huge difference in how you feel. If that’s too much, start with one pose. Just one. Try my favorite, reclined bound cobbler (supta baddha konasana), while you lay in bed at night and see how your hips feel afterward.

3) Double up.

I’ve ramped up my running over the last year and a half, to the point where it’s my primary sport (perish the thought!). I know I’m going to run, and it has become a well-ingrained habit to fit it in to my week. Rather than carve out a separate time to do a dedicated yoga practice, I tack on a few minutes of poses before and after my runs as a dynamic warm-up and cool-down.

4) Forget the “rules”.

Practice first thing in the morning. Wear snug, stretchy clothing. Do the same thing, in the same order, every day. Start seated, end in savasana. You may have heard some of these “rules” for practicing yoga, whether from a teacher or through a simple online search. They’re often a staple of beginners’ yoga classes, and I tried my best to adhere to these yoga gospels when I first started– even setting my alarm for 5:30am after being up all night with a nursing baby. I couldn’t drag myself out of bed, and I didn’t practice.

I finally decided to heck with all of that. I practice at night in my pajamas. I start either standing, or in cat-cow, and end in a well supported reclined cobbler pose. The rules are not really rules– everyone’s practice is their own, and there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to do it. Do what works– and feels good– to you. Part of the practice is learning what works and feels good in your body, and experimentation is key.

5) Revel in the little things.

I paint my toenails so that I can look at them while I’m on my mat. Really. Perhaps you don’t paint your toenails– but instead you have a song you love to listen to while you practice, a photo to look at, a special candle to smell, anything that you can look forward to that you only get to do when you’re on your mat. Jason Crandell says that watched the Simpsons when he started practicing– he was only allowed to watch while he was on his mat. For me, admiring my pink nails is motivation to take my shoes off and roll out my mat.