Developing a Home Practice
A yoga home practice is something more than taking online yoga classes in the comfort of your own living room.
International Ashtanga teacher John Scott says:
“The true self-practice is an enquiry into who you really are and what you are really capable of achieving by yourself.”
Practising on your own at home can feel a bit weird, almost like you’re practising yoga in a vacuum – there’s no-one else there with you, no-one is giving you instruction or feedback and it can be REALLY quiet, just you and your breath.
It can also be harder to stay focused when you’re alone, there are so many things to distract you – the pile of washing, dust bunnies under the sofa, family, pets, birds flying past the window, the wind catching the grass…
The list is endless and because of all these potential distractions it’s easy to think that your practice is “better’ when you join a class with a teacher to hold your attention.
But it’s like meditation, noticing when you get distracted and bringing your attention back again and again and again IS the practice.
I can’t tell you how many times every day I catch myself thinking about my to-do’s or having an imaginary conversation inside my head during practice!
Yoga practice is an exploration, an experiment, that only you can do
Your yoga practice is an exploration, an experiment, that only you can do. After all it’s all going on inside your body and every one of us different. We have different bodies which can do different things and we experience everything differently too. Good teachers can guide us and support us but ultimately it’s our yoga practice not theirs.
Practising on our own at home does give us time to faff about BUT it also gives us the time to figure things out, to try again a different way or with a different focus and we can concentrate on our breath and our experience instead of watching the teacher and trying to figure where they’re taking us next.
It’s really good for us to have the space to feel a little bit bored or lost. That’s when ideas can bubble to the surface. Think about it. When do you have your best ideas? If you’re a busy person who feels you have to be productive all the time, can you even remember the last time you had a great idea?
And then we need the space to try our ideas out. And if it’s that posture that you keep face planting out of then it can be good that no-one is watching!
The “three strikes and you’re out” rule
In my yoga practice I have a “three strikes and you’re out” rule when trying challenging postures again. Stop after the first attempt and that’s giving up, go on after three attempts and you risk getting tired and hurting yourself.
I’d love for you to develop a home practice during this time when we’re all being asked to stay at home much more than we normally would. It’s a great opportunity and I’m doing everything I can to support you.
A couple of good questions to ask yourself:
“Why am I practising?”
“What am I practising for?”
It’s tempting to think that your yoga practice is helping you to escape the stresses and challenges of life, to leave them behind for a short time while you’re in class.
But actually what we’re doing is checking in with ourselves and having an experience of what it feels like to really inhabit our bodies. We’re getting to know ourselves better and we’re creating some space in our minds and our bodies. We’re practising that so we can do that again during our day when we’re not on our yoga mat. And just maybe, act a little more skilfully, be a little more of who we know we can be – kind, compassionate and understanding.
Start developing your own home practice
We’ve got loads of help for you to start developing your own home practice. One of the hardest things is to get started in the morning so I’m sharing the beginning of my own home practice live on FaceBook at 6.30am every week Tuesday – Friday. This not only gets you started in the morning but will help you set a regular routine. Even if you do the Sun Salutations then go back to bed, it’s a practice.
Our MCY cheat sheets help you with what postures to do and we’ve even got one for Beginners. Download yours and print it out:
It’s a good exercise to start learning the sequence so that you don’t need the sheets and I shared my top tips for doing that HERE.
I’m regularly emailing short videos too, with really simple preps and exercises you can incorporate into your own home practice to help you explore and make progress. You can sign up below if you’re not already receiving my emails…
MCY favourite (and loving gardener!) Peg Mulqueen of Ashtanga Dispatch sums it up beautifully when she says:
“…digging in, planting seeds, and cultivating that which nourishes and is good for us IS a home yoga practice, right?”
Judi x
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