7 Steps to Create Your Home Yoga Practice
What’s your hardest yoga pose? If you and your yoga friends were to compare notes, you’d likely come up with a wide variety of answers. But virtually all practitioners will tell you that a greater challenge lies in developing and maintaining a home practice.
Beginners face the task of remembering poses to practice; more experienced students face the dilemma of deciding what emphasis to choose during any particular session. Even teachers and students with decades on the mat can be daunted by the difficulties of maintaining and renewing a home practice. Illness, family obligations, boredom, travel, and that universal bugaboo, a perceived lack of time—all these obstacles, and more, will inevitably appear.
Regardless of what you actually do, if your practice is an expression of what is alive in you now, that practice will help you stay present during your time on the mat. That experience can serve as a model for practicing presence all day long. It will also satisfy you and thus help give you the impetus to practice again tomorrow. If you force yourself to practice because you think you should, because you didn’t yesterday, or for any other more external reason, even the most technically polished poses will not answer your inner need for ease and wholeness.
No matter what your goal is, maintaining a home practice might be your most valuable tool for getting yourself there.
- Less Is More
In the beginning, a little yoga every day is likely to be more manageable than trying to squeeze in a longer session a few times a week. Try setting aside just 10 or 15 minutes in your day for some quiet exploration—perhaps when you first wake up, when you return home from work, or just before you sink into bed at night.
- Focus on a Single Pose
Each week, pick one pose you’d like to explore more deeply and commit to practicing it at least once a day. Consider choosing an asana your teacher has recently focused on in class, or flip through the pages of an introductory yoga book until you find a pose that speaks to your imagination. Stick with your exploration until you feel as comfortable in your chosen pose as you do in your favorite pair of jeans.
- Round Out Your Practice With Variety
Focus on a particular group of postures each day. Let your mood and energy level dictate which ones you do and when. On Mondays, for example, you might choose to focus on standing poses; on Tuesdays, you might tackle a few backbends. Wednesdays might be suited for concentrating on twists, Thursdays on forward bends. And Fridays,for many of us, are the perfect day to practice restorative postures.
- Slip Short Yoga Breaks Into Your Day
Just a few moments of mindfulness sprinkled throughout the day can go a long way toward helping create a more balanced and joyful life. This is easy to do: Focus on your breath while waiting at a stoplight. Practice Tadasana (Mountain Pose) while standing in line at the grocery store. Rise up into Vrksasana (Tree Pose) while brushing your teeth. With a bit of ingenuity, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to work a little yoga into your daily routine.
- Follow Along
Base your practice on an established sequence of postures shown in your favorite book or video. This can be a source of inspiration as well as an excellent way to learn the fundamentals of sequencing and to develop a well-rounded daily practice.
- Practice With a Friend
Roll up your sticky mat and head over to a friend’s house. Explore a few asanas together that you’ve learned in class or from a video, or take turns suggesting poses. As you move through the postures, share your questions, observations, and insights. You may find yourselves inspiring each other in ways you hadn’t expected.
- Look Inward
At the beginning of each session, sit quietly for a few moments and observe your state of being. Ask yourself what sort of practice will bring you into a deeper state of balance. Are you in need of a little heat and invigoration? Include a few Sun Salutations or standing postures in your practice. Looking for a little relaxation? Try some seated postures and restorative poses. Tailor your yoga to the poses and practices that move you in the direction of balance, wisdom, and ease. Claudia Cummings, Yoga Journal
Walnuts are a good source of vitamin B6. And folate. They are also rich in Omega 3 oils, the healthy fat found in fish that is cucial for healthy brain function. A recent study showed that eating just an ounce of walnuts a day can reduce cholestoral by 10%. Yoga Journal June 22, 2015
Serves 4
30 minutes or fewer
Four of these omega-3-packed bites served over grains makes a great supper.
- 1 cup walnut halves, plus 16 more for garnish
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 1 clove garlic, peeled
- ½ cup cooked brown lentils
- 4 tsp. balsamic vinegar, divided
- 1 tsp. dried rubbed sage
- 1 tsp. toasted walnut oil
- 16 large button mushrooms (2-inch diameter), stems removed
- 1 Tbs. olive oil
- ½ cup low-sodium vegetable broth
- Purée 1 cup walnuts with parsley and garlic in food processor until thick and pasty. Add lentils, 2 tsp. vinegar, sage, and walnut oil; purée until smooth. Season with salt and pepper if desired.
- Fill each mushroom cap with 11/2 Tbs. walnut mixture, and press remaining walnut halves into filling. Place on plate.
- Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, round side down, and cook 5 minutes, or until mushrooms begin to release their juices and brown on bottom, shaking pan occasionally. Carefully add broth to pan, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes, or until mushrooms are tender and filling has puffed and browned slightly. Remove mushrooms from pan, then add remaining 2 tsp. vinegar to pan. Simmer 1 to 2 minutes, or until sauce thickens slightly. Serve mushrooms drizzled with sauce. Vegetarian Times Magazine January/February 2015
Pose of the Month
Downward Facing Dog – Adho Mukha Svanasana
Downward-Facing Dog—a pose performed by standing on the hands and feet with the hips lifted to the sky—is one of the most popular yoga postures today. It is taught in many classes and is part of many styles of yoga. But why is it such an important posture? The simple answer is that it’s great for your health!
Down Dog calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression; it helps relieve the symptoms of menopause; it relieves menstrual discomfort when done with the head supported; it helps prevent osteoporosis; it improves digestion; it relieves headaches, insomnia, back pain, and fatigue; and it is therapeutic for high blood pressure, asthma, flat feet, sciatica, and sinusitis.
That’s Life
Part of the philosophy of yoga is that we can’t always change the world around us. No matter what we do, bad things will happen and stressful situations will arise. The only thing we have control over—the only thing we can change—is ourselves. We can decide how to react to situations that challenge us. Will we allow them to throw us off center, or will we take them in stride?
Yoga teaches us how to respond to stress patiently. We must experience the physical challenge of the postures without fear, and use deep, calm breaths to move through them. If we can take that lesson off the mat and into our daily lives, we will move closer to the goal of responding to stress in a careful and considered way.
Yoga Journal, June 2015.
If you wish to accomplish something, you must first expect it of yourself.
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