Home Practice

For some of you getting to class once a week is a big effort and a great start for your yoga journey. For others coming twice a week really makes a difference. That second class carries you deeper so you don’t feel like each class you are starting over but continuing where you left off.

Ideally a yoga class is a launching pad for your own practice at home. What you learn and do in class you bring home to your mat: you interpret the instruction into your body and digest it further to move into a deeper understanding of your yoga practice.

When I started my own home practice I fell into all the traps possible to make it not happen - “self sabotage” and it still can raise its unwanted head. To be able to recognise your own methods of sabotage helps to prevent it. Be mindful not to indulge in them but to know your habits so as to deal with them and address them front on.

To help you begin a home practice I have some points that have worked for me.

• Practise early in the morning. In the morning you are fresher and your mind is clearer. I found that after a full days work I was too tired mentally to think about what to practise. Also in the morning your stomach is empty. The best way to practise is with an empty stomach and bowel. The household is usually asleep so you are free from disturbances. Getting up early is really only possible if you get to bed early. I run Early Morning Intensives a couple a times throughout the year. They can initiate the routine of rising early. 

• Start with a short practise. A short practice is easy to implement and sustain hence can become a part of your routine. When I started a home practice for some reason I felt it had to be a 2 hour practise like a class with the same intensity otherwise it was not credible. A home practice can be simple, quick and easy: a great place to start. Once you start a practice it will have a momentum of its own, evolving steadily into a deeper longer sustainable practice.

• What to practice? I always say practice what ever you remember from class and don’t worry if it’s not the most perfect Trikonasana you have ever done. “The How to Use Yoga” book by Mira Mehta $15 has simple sequences to follow. Over time your body will begin to feel its way from one pose to the next. Usually it is the poses you least like that are the most beneficial to your body conditions, so be guided by the honesty of what you are feeling. When you hit the poses that you feel stiff, stuck, tight, angry, sad etc, stay with them and breathe.

• Time! Seems to be a very pressing point. When you can appreciate the benefits of yoga, your yoga practice finds its way to being a priority. But I know life’s other priorities can become overwhelming – so don’t feel guilty. If a home practice is something you would like to do, let it “manifest”; let life around you align until it is possible.

For me the more yoga I do the more benefits I feel: I’m more contented with who I am and where I’m at, I feel happier in my own skin. Yoga keeps the” I wants” & the “I have to haves” at bay. The changes in my life have occurred very subtly but very profoundly. Happiness does not have to be an elusive state set in the future with precise criteria. My yoga practice keeps me earthed and centred and generally happy. 

A home practice is best combined with classes. Attending class challenges your yoga practice and steers it in a positive direction, cautioning you from unforeseen habits. The class energy can help carry you deeper and stay longer in poses. Home practice on the other hand is quiet. Your state of being is more obvious: your focus is able to draw inward. Being alone on your mat gives space to be and to explore. At times this is difficult but it allows for reflection and in turn integration which brings a “knowing”. It is this ”knowing” that we take with us when we leave the mat. 

 “ You do not need to seek freedom in some distant land, for it exists within your own body, heart, mind and soul. Illuminated emancipation, freedom, unalloyed and untainted bliss awaits you, but you must choose to embark in the Inward Journey to discover it”.   BKS Iyengar