5 Simple Ways to Take Your Yoga Practice to the Next Level
Use these five simple steps to improve your yoga practice from the comfort of home and ride out the Covid-19 pandemic with strength and flexibility.
Guest Writer: Sheila Johnson
Creator of WellSheila.net
People practice yoga for various mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual reasons. Some use the postures as a way to tone muscles, some to increase flexibility, and others for an improved sense of balance (1). Maybe you appreciate the way focusing on your breath helps clear the mind after a long day at work (2). Whatever it is that you love about yoga, here are five safe, affordable ways to keep yourself on track if you’ve yet to return to in-studio classes or if you’ve decided after sheltering-in-place that an at-home practice works best for you!
1. Invest in the Right Equipment.
Certain yoga props are essential to avoiding injury and staying safe during your practice. For instance, a cushioned mat reduces impact on our joints, while yoga blocks and straps assist with deeper stretches. Yoga props aid in our ability to find flexibility, release tension and gain greater mobility. In a class, or perhaps even at home, too often our ego might stop us from using these aids. If we shift our mentality away from seeing props as a crutch and see them rather as aids helping us achieve our potential, we can connect and flow with a positive spirit that massages our muscles deeper.
-Yoga Props Perfect for a Home Practice-
When on a budget, we might worry that these essentials will be out of reach. However, discounted yoga gear can be found easily online with a multitude of sales helping to ease the transition from studio classes to a more at-home focused practice. You may even find lightly used products available on sites such as Ebay or get creative and supplement store bought props with belts, a stack of books and a couple layers of large beach towels.
Props can help take our yoga practice deeper.
2. Work With a Knowledgeable Teacher.
To become a better yoga practitioner, you don’t have to take a lavish, month-long yoga retreat, enroll in an expensive teacher-training program, or travel to India to find a guru—although any of those steps will certainly help you take your home practice to new heights! Whether you’re a total beginner or have been practicing asanas for years, the first step to leveling up your yoga practice is to have the right teacher.
With many yoga studios still closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, search for a teacher to work with exclusively online. Read their bios. Look at their their training credentials and certifications. You may want to ask:
How many hours of teaching experience do they have?
Are they certified in a style of yoga that you’d like to learn?
Are they certified or registered as a teacher through a reputable organization, such as Yoga Alliance?
As an alternative, you can save by following along at home with free YouTube videos or installing a free yoga app on your smartphone. Above all else, your ideal yoga teacher should be well-trained and you should enjoy taking their classes.
-Dive deeper thru Books, Online Memberships & Technology-
3. Set an Intention or Goal.
Once you’ve settled on a teacher and have the yoga props you need, set an intention or goal for your yoga practice. Perhaps you set an overarching goal such as soothing anxiety (3) or easing symptoms of PTSD (4). Then focus a new intention for each daily practice. For example, a larger goal might be to live more consistently at ease. To help reach that goal, today relax into savasana for ten minutes with thoughts of kindness toward the mind, body and soul.
If you’re having trouble thinking of an intention, why not let the ancient Sanskrit yoga sutras guide you? One famous yoga sutra is “yogas citta vrtti nirodhah (5).” When translated into English, this wise text proclaims that yoga is the “cessation” of thoughts, which cause “fluctuations, or whirling of the mind.” Although mainstream society frequently focuses on poses, or asanas, yoga at its most basic roots has the power to create a still, peaceful mind (6).
Make your home a sanctuary of health, wellness & positivity.
4. Find Peace Where You Are.
There is a saying in many yoga classes: “Stay on your mat.” This saying is a gentle reminder to stay present and in the current moment. Try to resist the temptation to compare yourself to others. Remember, we all have to start somewhere. As you watch yoga videos online, remember that most people will be at a different place in their yoga journey than you.
When the urge to compare yourself surfaces, notice your thoughts and take a deep breath. Thank those thoughts as they are a gift, if even in disguise, encouraging us to seek more. If you can, quickly find a way to positively twist the thoughts while returning focus back to your yoga posture just as it is with content and gratitude.
Comparing ourselves to others is often the inner desire to be what our mind would say is “better.” These can be healthy thoughts if we find the yin yang balance. You should be exactly where you are right now, but change, growth and evolution is possible if there’s a direction you’d like to go. Find your limit and push just a little beyond; or don’t, stay exactly where you are in your practice today. That’s ok too. Yoga, while physically beneficial, should fill the soul with satisfaction and peace.
5. Relax, Recover and Repeat.
Now that we’ve finished another solid practice on the mat, it’s time to relax into the work put in. Our bodies are warm. They’re letting go of released toxins and making space to generation of new cells. Relax. All too often yogis, athletes, health hackers; Western Society at large, we tend to ignore a fundamental step in our journeys. Recovery. Our accomplishment-focused model of success has us finishing one activity, only to start another without giving our bodies, minds and souls time to process what it is we’ve just gone through.
Never has the simple act of relaxing into recovery been more important as it is during this pandemic. While continuing to move, continuing to stay active, is imperative, so is giving ourselves the gift of time to do little but meditate, relax and unwind. Light a candle. Massage out our limbs. Cuddle up in a cozy blanket. We’re living through a time of collective trauma. By stepping onto our mats, getting into flow and then releasing it all- our practice and the world- we can better find ways to navigate the waves of challenge currently presenting themselves while we carry on the moments that truly matter. Relax more. Sleep more. Recover more.
-Recovery is Sometimes Best with Assistance-
Through setting intentions, doing research, looking for a discounts, and not comparing yourself to others while tapping into peace, budget-friendly ways to bring more yoga into our lives is within reach. Once the pandemic is over, you’ll be fresh, energetic, stronger and more flexible than ever, ready to start attending yoga classes at your studio once again!
About the Writer:
Writer Sheila Johnson was a successful career woman working at a fast-paced tech company, working 80-hour work weeks to climb the corporate ladder. But her health was another story. She left the corporate world to start her own business, on her own schedule while achieving greater personal success with her health and wellness routine. In creating wellsheila.net, she hopes her story will help and inspire others.
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