Six Tips to Cultivate a Home Practice
Practicing yoga at home encourages self-reflection and introspection AND if that doesn’t float your boat, let me sell it to you this way…the more we practice, the more we capitalise on yoga’s profound physical, mental and emotional benefits! When you practice at home without distractions or external influences, you can deepen your connection with your body, breath, and mind. Winning! This mindful awareness helps you cultivate a deeper understanding of yourself and develop a more profound sense of presence during your practice. BUT, developing a home practice can be challenging for a number of reasons, so for those who are keen to practice at home while we are on break or if you just want to practice more, I have listed six tips that have supported me to cultivate a solid self-practice.
1. Understand your why
Understanding why you practice will support you to practice at home even when you don’t feel like it. Your whyis your deeper motivation for practice…For the first few years of my practice, I really struggled with getting on my mat and I fought myself the whole way. I didn’t have a yoga shala to practice in so my only option was to practice at home. Waking up early felt hard, getting on my mat felt hard…once I got there it felt hard…it was just plain ol hard. And then, when I didn’t get out of bed to practice, I would beat myself up about it…Yeesh! I’m not sure what shifted for me, but I decided to change my relationship with myself and my practice. I was the boss of me and I decided that I was no longer going to use my practice as another form of feeling like I was letting myself down. Instead, I got clear on why I practised. In short, I practice because I feel better when I practice. My practice is where I get to practice loving myself with my breath and moving my body through time and space with loving kindness. So now, when I wake up and feel tired, I remember why I practice. This also means that when I wake up and am feeling unwell or run-down, I practice loving myself by resting for longer or whatever loving myself at the time looks like – guilt free!
2. Create a ritual
Rituals support us to establish intention and infuse our practice with a sense of sacredness and nourishing energy. Rituals also help to foster consistency and discipline within our lives – so when we wake up, there is no question or time to faff about. The creative part unfolds as the day opens up to us.
When I wake up, I remind myself how amazing it is that I get to wake up and live this very cool life. In the cooler months, I have all of my warm clothes beside me so that I’m snug as a bug first thing. Then, I turn my coffee machine on, go have a shower, make my coffee, go into my dedicated space, light a candle and I sit with myself and I savour each mouthful of my coffee! Then…I practice. For me, my little ritual creates a special time of day for me – where the day has yet to begin and I’m free to create
3. Practice consistency
Setting your alarm for the same time every day (except weekends of course) helps create consistency. When you know you’re up early each day, your more inclined to eat dinner earlier, get to bed earlier and so on.
4. Set realistic practice expectations
If you’re anything like me, in those first few years of practice, when my alarm would wake me up, I would move my mind through my entire practice and think how hard that all sounded – while still in bed!!! So, just start off with committing to something short – maybe just one Sun Salutation and then see what happens. Loving kindness is key to establishing a home practice.
5. Create a dedicated space
Designate a specific area in your home for your yoga practice. This can be a spare room, a corner in your living room, or even just a yoga mat in a quiet spot. Having a dedicated space can make it easier to transition into your practice. Sometimes, our space at home isn’t ideal…I get it! Before I had the Shala, I practised in a small room that felt very cluttered and I had some pretty good stories that would float around in my mind about it which made me feel quite resistant to practice… and there I was on struggle street again. So, I changed my mind, I figured that this was just another way I got to practice being flexible – because life is not always ideal and if I could get used to practicing someplace that wasn’t ideal and still feel good about it, life was going to feel better!! Sometimes you just gotta do what you can, with what you got.
6. Roll up your mat
When you finish your practice, roll your mat up so that when you roll it out tomorrow, it’s as fresh as the new day. For me, this helps to keep the practice sacred. Plus, it means the dogs/cats/children/husband/wife are not going to reuse or upcycle it as their sleeping mat/chew toy/picnic mat/bike protector etc. This one I learnt from Donna Farhi in her book, Bringing Yoga to Life.
Remember, loving kindness and consistency are key when it comes to cultivating a regular yoga practice. Be patient with yourself, listen to your body, and enjoy the journey of self-discovery and well-being that yoga offers. Also, let me know what tips you have also!