Cultivating An At Home Yoga Practice And Some Of The Reasons We Talk Ourselves Out Of It

When I opened the curtains this morning the sun came beaming through the windows and there was a flurry of soft white snow falling from the sky. It felt so good to be able to roll out my yoga mat and start my yoga practice in the warmth and comfort of my own home against this beautiful snowy backdrop.

As I’m one who believes she’s made for warmer climates, when it’s cold outside all I want to do is wrap myself up in a duvet and drink mugs of masala chai so it can take a bit of coaxing to get me out in the cold, that’s why on days like this I really appreciate my at home yoga practice.

It took me a long time to build up my confidence to practice at home. It was always in the back of my mind ‘what if I do a pose wrong’, ‘what if I injure myself’, ‘what poses would I do’ and it was only after I started missing a number of classes because of work and other commitments that I decided I really should give it a go.

These days there are so many yoga DVDs and YouTube Videos from established yoga teachers that the thought of coming up with my own routines was no longer a problem so that addressed one of my concerns. As for the other two, the worry about doing a pose wrong or injuring myself I always wanted my at home practice to compliment my studio practice and not replace it so if there were ever any poses I was worried about I would ask my yoga teacher to show me how to do them properly and if I was watching a video I would watch it all the way through first before carrying out the practice so I could see and understand what I was being asked to do before I did it. There’s nothing worse than having to stop halfway through a routine to look up at the screen to see what you’re meant to be doing.

One of the first things I did when I started my at home practice was to get myself some props. You don’t need to go overboard but it’s good to have the basics on hand just in case you need that extra support or help with your alignment. A yoga mat, two foam blocks, a bolster and a strap is more than enough to begin with but so long as you’ve got a mat you’re good to go.

So, what else do you need to cultivate your at home practice.

1. Space

Sounds simple doesn’t it, but you’ll be surprised how many people are put off by practicing at home because they feel they don’t have enough space or privacy. It’s not as difficult as you would think though, so long as you have enough space to stretch out without bumping into bits of furniture you’ll be fine. In terms of privacy I know it can be difficult to practice if you have a family and everybody’s home at the same time but I was once told that if you have a room with a lock why not use it 🙂

2. Time

Sometimes it can be difficult to commit to a specific time for a yoga practice but rather than being a hindrance this can actually work in your favour as it can offer you a certain degree of flexibility. If you want your home practice to be a regular occurrence you can pick a time that works best for you, your lifestyle and your mood. Are you a morning person or an evening person? Do you feel more energetic at certain times of the day or are there times of the day when you feel you’ll benefit from a nice, gentle practice.

If you’re thinking that you need to set aside an hour or hour and a half to practice and this is putting you off remember that there’s no set time for how long your yoga practice should be. Do what works for you. If ten minutes is all you can spare then go with it but make a commitment to yourself that you will do at least ten minutes of yoga everyday or you will practice at home if you miss a class.

3. Know your body

My yoga teacher always says that yoga should never cause you pain and if you’re in pain stop and go into resting pose. It’s important however, to know the difference between pain and discomfort, if you’re new to a certain pose or haven’t moved a particular part of your body for a while you may feel a little discomfort and may be able to carry on but if you feel a hot, sharp pain in any area, especially your joints stop straight away. If in doubt always err on the side of caution and stop at anytime you feel something doesn’t feel right.

I made the mistake of carrying on in a pose that didn’t feel right while in a Pilates class around seven years ago and ended up sustaining a shoulder injury that kept me out of action for 18 months. It was a very painful reminder that we know our bodies better than anyone and that we should listen to what our body is telling us.

4. Do your own thing

When you’ve been practicing for a while, either by watching videos or going to classes you will build up the confidence to put your own routines together and this is great because you can make your yoga serve you and how you’re feeling at that particular time.

Because I work from home most days there are some times during the day when I feel tension in my shoulders or in my neck from keeping my eyes glued to a laptop screen for hours on end so for times like this I can put the laptop to one side and do some neck and shoulder exercises or some seated poses even while I’m sitting on the sofa or at my desk. There are also times in the day when I’m feeling energetic or feel I need to give my energy levels a bit of a boost and at times like this I can do two or three repetitions of Sun Salutations.

5. Pranayama and Mindfulness

Unless we go to a specific meditation or guided relaxation class we may not get to spend as much time on our breathing exercises or practice mindfulness and meditation for as long as we would like (or need) so a home practice is the perfect way to spend some quality time focusing on our breath and mindfulness techniques.

When you’re at home you can make the space your own, you can light some candles, put on some nice relaxing music, have your personal photos or objects at hand that can help you focus and you can listen to any recordings of guided meditation and relaxation that you choose.

We often underestimate how important our breath (Pranayama) is. We all know we need to breathe to live but we don’t always give it the attention it deserves or understand how it works.

There are three elements that make up our breath, inhalation, exhalation and retention. Inhalation as you may remember from your Biology lessons is when our lungs take in air and oxygen passes into our body and into the bloodstream and exhalation is when the lungs expel carbon dioxide and other gaseous waste products from our body but we don’t hear so much about the importance of retention. Retention is when neither, inhalation or exhalation is taking place. When we inhale and hold our breath more oxygen passes from our lungs into our bloodstream so when we exhale more carbon dioxide and other gaseous products are eliminated from the body.

Understanding how the breath works and how different breathing exercises affect our body and how breathing in a certain way directs prana to specific parts of your body is very important in the practice of yoga. You’ll know yourself that when you’re moving in and out of asanas how the in breath and the out breath can ‘help’ you move effortlessly in and out of a pose.

Focusing on the breath calms your mind and often your emotions this is so important when you’re practicing mindfulness. There are so many breathing techniques for us to explore, too many to go into in one post and I, myself am only just discovering some of these so I will follow this up in future posts and share what I’ve learned.

6. Have fun with your practice

Don’t overthink it or let your practice become a chore. I don’t know about you but when I was at school I used to dread PE, I knew it was good for me but that wasn’t enough to make me like it. PE lessons were always so serious and although competition has its place there’s always a danger of feeling inadequate if you weren’t the fastest or the strongest in the class and you often felt judged. It’s the same with yoga, your yoga practice should be just for you, it doesn’t matter what the other yogis in the class are doing, how far they can bend or stretch and it doesn’t matter what you see on Instagram, just because these beautiful figures can contort their body into these weird and wonderful shapes their practice isn’t any more or less effective than yours. We’re all different, our bodies are different, we all have different strengths and weaknesses, some of us have injuries or medical conditions so it’s dangerous to pit ourselves against each other and strive for what we think is perfection.

This is where an at home practice is perfect because it’s just you and your yoga mat.

7. Persevere

Perseverance is key. Practicing at home can be challenging, it’s a little like working from home, there will always be other distractions so it’s up to you to make time, make an appointment with yourself and don’t cancel. Start off slow and set aside 5 minutes for a gentle yoga practice and then build it up slowly and before you know it will become like second nature to you.