5 Tips to Boost Your Home Yoga Practice
May 19, 2020
#1. Prepared Environment: Have a space where your mat fits without having to move items out of way. Sure, during practice you may be *gently* moving a dog or toddler to the side, but give your mat space a bit of reverence for your asana practice.
#2. Loving Self-talk: Remember yoga is Sanskrit for "union". Practicing yoga goes far beyond our asana practice. Are you taking your intentions off the mat? Are the words you are ingesting during your self-talk empowering to your spirit? If not so much, how can you start being kinder to yourself on a daily basis?
Even placing a small reminder around the house can be helpful, a note on the mirror, on the fridge, nightstand or your car that encourages more loving self-talk:
I am safe and grounded.
I am in the process of becoming the best version of myself.
I have the freedom to create the life I desire.
My possibilities are endless.
I am worthy of my dreams.
I am enough.
I do not have to explain taking care of myself.
#3. Nutrition: When you look at your grocery cart, and your plate of food, how close is the energy you are consuming related to its natural state? Let thy food be thy medicine!
#4. Consume less, create more: The more we clutter our spaces with unnecessary objects the more we clutter minds. I tend to over-utilize free little libraries and then I have a stack of 8-10 books that I'm attempting to go through at once, and I get too overwhelmed to read any of them!
These questions have helped me to curb some of my habits:
Can I afford this?
Do I need this?
Do I have something similar, could I borrow it or buy secondhand?
Do I love it?
Will I get a lot of use out of this?
What will I do with it when I no longer need it?
If the item was full price, would I still buy it?
The more we work on calming our minds and finding yoga in our everyday actions and choices, the more we dedicate to our true selves.
#5. Consistency: As mentioned above with Loving Self-talk, what we choose to spend our energy on is where our body follows. So choosing to spend 15 minutes a few times a week to consciously breath and stretch allows our body to know it's value and respond with more restful sleep.
Adding an hour long practice, once a week, gives muscle memory as you flow through your asana practice healing and nurturing systems within our body that thrive on twists, balancing and lengthening the spine. Two or three hour long practices a week allows your practice to improve in ways that seem *magical* and may plant a desire within to journal your dreams, try new recipes, and/or reach out to certain people in your life or begin to create firmer boundaries with certain people in your life.