Cultivating a Home Yoga Practice
Cultivating a Home Yoga Practice
Home practice is hard. Here are some ideas to make it a little bit easier.
I’m thankful that I already had a strong home Yoga practice before Covid quickly ushered us into shelter-in-place last March. Even when I’m regularly taking classes in a studio, I’ve found that I’m a more confident teacher when I consistently practice on my own and when I’m teaching what I’ve been practicing — particularly when that practice is guided by my own interests and exploration. To be the best teacher I can be, I must have a regular self-led practice; this is why I initially began practicing at home.
My home practice is what allows me to dive into poses, be that physically or philosophically. It gives me the time and space to feel into the energy of a pose and how it integrates in my body. Sometimes my home practice is inspired by something I’ve recently learned in class from another teacher, and others it’s out of necessity to address something specific happening in my body. Sometimes a practice transpires to bring rest to a sleepless night, and sometimes it’s simply about having fun. On occasion, my practice centers around the holes left by poses I often choose to ignore because they’re hard (and as we know, often times poses aren’t just “hard” in a physical sense). These past 18 months I’ve queued up a heavy share of pre-recorded videos and tuned into countless Zoom classes — whether for the opportunity to be in class with teachers I admire from across the globe, or because I just don’t have the capacity to parse out a self-led practice. Each of these core reasons for practicing holds value, and the beautiful thing about a home practice is that you get to choose-your-own-practice-adventure for whatever suits you in that moment. Unlike the choose-your-own-adventure editions of Goosebumps, there’s no wrong answer: no monster under the bridge, no dead end, and no need to turn back to page 34 to start over.
I’m not saying home practice is easy. Maybe it is for some people, but I am markedly not one of them. I live alone, I teach Yoga and movement, I’ve had a home practice of some flavor for over a decade, and I am still guilty of finding distractions, galore. For instance, tonight I got ready to practice, rolled out my mat, and immediately sat down at my computer to write about cultivating a home Yoga practice. (I’ll still practice. It’s just been delayed.)
If that’s not a tell-tale sign, distractions are one of my biggest challenges — there’s always going to be something else I could be doing. Then one day it seemed so obvious. I finally accepted that distractions are OK. Sure, a tight 90 minute class at a studio can be focused, and inspiring, and powerful. But home isn’t a studio: it’s home, and it’s inherently different. Similar to meditation, once I learned to acknowledge my distractions, my home Yoga practice became easier and lighter. I give the distractions a little wink, (though sometimes I give into them entirely… like, ahem, tonight…) and I’m on my way. If I can find a way to mindfully acknowledge my distractions, I can even find them, dare I say, delightful? Delighted by distraction.
I first considered the idea of a regular home practice when I was in the middle of my first 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training. One day our teacher recommended that if we planned to teach asana, we practice asana daily. She also recommended that most of this practice be a self-led practice. At that point, I’d played around with asana at home (which is, by the way, a valid and important element of home practice!) and followed along to a Yoga DVD from time to time, but it didn’t feel like a practice. And it certainly wasn’t daily, or even consistent.
The main obstacle in the way of my home practice was the idea that I needed to do everything “right,” and I didn’t know what “right” was. I didn’t know the right sequence, or how to do the poses right. I was unsure of the right amount of time to allot to practice, or how to properly use props. This commitment to practicing “right” barred me for years from even attempting a self-led home practice. But “right,” as we know, is always relative. (At this point, I think the most right thing is moving your body in just about any which-a-way that makes it feel good now, and ideally also helps it feel good in the long run.)
I’m unsure if our homes are finished moonlighting as Yoga studios, and a home practice can be rich even in the best of times when in-studio classes are available and safe. I can’t guarantee these ideas will work for you, but I can share what has helped me maintain a consistent home practice over the years.
Make it a ritual.
Whatever it is you do before you begin your practice, do it the same way every. single. time. Maybe that’s enjoying a cup of herbal tea, listening to your current favorite song, or petting your pet. Or maybe your ritual looks more like raging and having a good round at your punching bag before you roll out your mat. It could be reading something you connect with, taking a jog, or lighting a candle. Find a ritual that works for you.
My pre-practice ritual was born partially out of necessity. I have a dog, and we both have a lot of hair. I’ve learned that hair and dirt on the floor are a huge distraction for me when I practice — I’ll constantly brush it off my mat and pick it off leggings — so before I roll out my mat, I sweep the floor in my practice space. In a way, this is a multi-faceted activity: I enjoy sweeping, I find it meditative, it helps me shift my focus from the external to what is right in front of me, and I have a freshly cleaned floor to practice on. By sweeping, I begin to clear physical and mental distractions. Once I’ve swept, I change clothes, I roll out my mat, and I lay down.
* (Again, distractions are fine, but this one can be simply and easily eliminated, so why the hell not?)
Allow time to shift gears.
This past 18 months, our homes have been our everything: our workplace, our school room, our own personal restaurant, our movie theater and our gym. The same place we feel intense stress is where we are also supposed to relax. That’s a lot to ask from a space, and unless you have a dedicated room for each of those activities, I think it’s nearly an impossibly difficult ask.
I believe in the energy of a space, and the energy we imbue into a space. Just because you shut your laptop and roll out your mat doesn’t immediately transform your living room-home office into a home Yoga studio. And shutting down your work station is a good first step.
In the before times, even when we rushed from work to the Yoga studio to catch a class, we’d walk through the doors of a studio that was thoughtfully and specifically designed to be a studio. It felt easy to sink into practice — even if we’d just tackled a traffic jam after leaving a stressful meeting — because we’d arrived in a dedicated practice space. Now that we may not have the room to move into a different physical space, at the least, our nervous systems need time to make a shift to our internal space. Give yourself that time.
For me, that normally means laying on the ground, wiggling around, and taking a few deep breaths. For you, that could be doing some squat jumps, or letting loose a primal yell. Again, it’s giving yourself the time you need to energetically transition from your work/cook/play/live at home space, into your practice at home space.
Begin with something you love.
I love coffee. Sometimes I say that I feel excited to go to bed at night because I know that I get coffee in the morning.
I also love a simple supine twist. Nothing fancy, just the one where you lie on your back, drop your knees over to one side and then the other. After I lay on the floor, wiggle around and take a few deep breaths, I do a supine twist. I feel excited to practice because I know I get to start with a simple supine twist.
Give yourself a carrot. Begin your practice with something you love.
From here, practice in a way that inspires you! Play with a pose you love, or explore an idea you learned in a class. Sit in stillness, turn on a recorded Yoga video or log into a Zoom class. Wherever you go from here, I hope this helps, in any little way, to lay a foundation to help make practicing at home a little more fluid and a little bit easier.
Is this helpful for you? What does your home practice look like? How do you prepare? What are your rituals? If you implement any of these ideas, let me know how it goes by sharing below <3
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