Does anyone really want to be up at 5 a.m.?

I would have rather stayed there in bed, to be quite honest. All week I’ve been up late and up early. Today it finally really hit me:

Five a.m. is really early when you go to bed at midnight and stare at the clock for half an hour!

Getting out of bed was chilly, but okay. Getting clothes on and drinking some water was pretty effortless. And then, as I got started, somehow I went right from Chaturanga to Lay-on-the-floorasana. Lay-on-the-floorasana is extremely hard to get out of when you’ve only gotten about four hours of sleep.

Don’t let the light behind me fool you.

It’s just a lamp. The sun was nowhere near ready to come up.

So, when we don’t get enough sleep, we have three basic options in our practices:

1. Take the day off. Roll over and go back to sleep.

2. Get up and force our way through the whole thing, pushing ourselves as hard as possible.

3. Be middle-way about it and practice gently.

(I went with number three. P.S. Some day soon I should go see my buddy Jamie and have her take nice yoga pictures of me instead of just taking pictures of myself sulking.)

By practicing gently, I mean no pushing further than normal. No trying something new. Keep it basic. And then, remember that an essential part of your practice is getting to bed at a decent time—most of the time. This morning was some quiet time with Surya Namaskar A and B. Nothing fancy; just enough.

Since so many people asked, here is how I make my Tea Tree oil spray:

1. Take a two-ounce glass spray bottle. I like this size because it fits in pretty much any bag I use. You can use plastic, but I prefer glass, especially when using essential oils.

2. Add 10 drops tea tree oil, five drops lavender oil and five drops grapefruit oil. Fill the bottle the rest of the way with water. All three of these are great for your skin, so I like to spray this on my skin, freshen up my face, my mat, sweaters—pretty much anything I want to freshen up a little bit. The tea tree oil has anti-bacterial properties, as does the grapefruit. The lavender is both a calming scent and good for soothing any irritation, so it’s nice to spray on dry skin before putting on moisturizer.

3. I am not brand loyal where essential oils are concerned, but I do recommend buying organic if you can find and afford it, and always buying actual essential oils—not fragrance oils.

4. Once in awhile, your mat will need more than this, but it’s a great way to freshen it up. I spray it all over from about six inches away, and then wipe it off with a clean towel.

What was your practice like today?Are you doing #yogaeverydamnday this month? Check back for my updates and follow along on Twitter @kate_bartolotta and Pinterest.

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