How to practice Yoga in your home:
To become a yogi for life establishing a home practice is essential. When you attend yoga classes there is a natural tendency to be competitive compare yourself with others and go overboard in trying to prove to others that you can do difficult poses too. At times this may result in injury. In yoga slow and steady is the way forward. Also, yoga is about accepting your body the way it is and increasing flexibility with consistent practice. So accept your body limitations and with consistent practice you can increase achieve the desired flexibility. All these can be achieved only at home, where there is nobody to judge you.
If you are a beginner, then you need to attend yoga classes and first learn to do each pose or the set of poses that you want to repeat at home. Give importance to the alignment, and the way you can get into the pose. Once you know the sequence and how it is done you can start your home practice
To establish the home routine, create a space that is calm and serene. It could be a corner of a room of your chiece Try to practice in the same spot as the spot will have energy once you establish a regular practice. If you can practice at the same time, it would be ideal. Rising early and practicing yoga would help if you have a busy life.
Understanding the different styles of yogas can also aid in choosing the practice that resonates most with an individual’s goals and preferences.
Some popular styles are:
- Hata yoga: Focuses on physical postures(asanas) and breath control (pranayam), aiming to
balance body and mind. - Ashtanga yoga: A physically demanding practice involving a specific sequence of poses
performed in a flowing manner, synchronized with breath. - Iyengar yoga: Emphasizes precise alignment and the use of props to support the body in
achieving correct postures. - Vinyasa yoga: characterized by fluid transitions between poses, coordinated with breadth
Each style offers unique benefits and caters to different needs, preferences, and levels of
experience. Exploring these styles can enrich one’s yoga journey and deepen one’s
understanding of their practice
The sequence of asanas to include for your practice would be as follows:
1. Warm up with pavana muktha asanas
2. Surya namaskar – 3 times or 5 times
3. Standing asanas- 5 nos
4. 1 Balancing pose
5. Backbend -2 nos
6. Twisting pose – 1 no
7. Forward bend -2
8. Inversion – 1 or 2
9. Sava asana
10. Pranayama
Follow a set pattern for 2 weeks and then you can tweak it after 2 weeks, keep a journal, and record how it feels after doing yoga each day. Also, in the journal record approximately how much time you were able to hold each position. To make it more challenging, hold poses for a longer time. Be patient with your body, just see how much you can go today without straining your body. You will be surprised with constant practice, how slowly your body starts opening and becomes more flexible. Also, note how you felt the whole day after you did yoga and record your mood on days you did not do yoga. This will motivate you to practice yoga daily.
