Wake Up & Yoga: How to Start Home Yoga Practice?
To start your adventure with yoga, all you need is a desire to begin the practice. If you can breathe - you are able to practice! You may want to start yoga for many reasons- maybe you are looking to calm your mind, relax, find some peace in your day to day life- a nice break from rushing around and continuously completing jobs and moving to the next thing. Maybe, you want to start yoga purely for the physical reasons- to strengthen your body, tone up and just be more healthy? Whatever your reason, yoga can fullfill all of these things- you can make your yoga practice super dynamic or equally a super relaxing one too. It is all up to you but today I want to give you couple of tips on how to begin practicing yoga at home.
Dedicate space in your home
To start practicing yoga at home dedicate a specific place in your home where you are going to practice. Ideally, this space should be free of furniture and other stuff that you may bump into when you are practising! In my case the decision on "where to practice" was super easy as my flat is quite small so the only free space where I could roll out my matt was my living room but maybe you have a bit more space so you can even dedicate a part of the room to yoga? Ideally, try to make some space available by the wall. This may be useful for a lot of postures especially when you start practicing inversions so keep it in mind.
Yoga Mat
To start practising yoga you don't need a lot of equipment. All you will need is a yoga mat and some props. Looking at the mat, to start off you don't need to buy a fancy Lululemon or other expensive brand mat. As much as these are amazing, you really will not need any of these to begin with. I have to share with you, that I actually practiced for couple of years on a very basic, "whatever was available at TK Max at the time" sort of mat. This never stopped me for developing my regular home practice further. This year I got a Lululemon mat- a birthday present from my boyfriend and I do have to say- the quality it great and you cannot compare it to the basic mat! You do get much more grippiness than with a regular basic mat which helps you to stay in a desired position without sliding out of it. Additionally, these mats are also much heavier, which makes them stick to the surface you are practicing on. So, overall there are huge benefits of owning a good quality yoga mat but just remember don't let the matt be an excuse for you not to start yoga. Just that you may not want or have x amount of money to spend for a fancy matt does not mean that your home practice cannot happen.
Create Distraction Free Environment
Think of your yoga space as a relaxing spa. Put on some relaxing music- you can find a lot of yoga playlists on Spotify- you are welcome to listen to the playlists that I created or if you are not a Spotify user go on youtube for some relaxing tunes. Some playlists on youtube are 45 minutes- an hour long so you won't need to worry about finding another song during your practice. Equally, feel free to listen to any music that you may like. It happens that it is pop/ dance/ hip hop? Whatever makes you happy is fine! Don't feel like yoga must be practiced only with a meditative, relaxing tune. Put your favourite candle on or an intense stick to help you get into "yoga mood". To make sure nothing disturbs your practice let your other half or flatmates know not to disturb you for the next hour. Ohh and one more thing here- Switch off your phone!!! A last thing you need during your practice is a Facebook notification that your friend is going to that birthday party on Saturday!
Dedicate Time of the Day
Are you a morning person or would you prefer to practice in the evening? Or maybe you have time during lunch time? How much time can you spare? Try to think about these questions and choose the time of the day that works for you. The same principle applies with dedicating towards the length of your practice. Do you have 10 minutes to spare or are you able to do an hour long flow? Be realistic to start off and don't set your plans too ambitious plans. Maybe start with 10 or 20 minutes sequences and then slowly increase the time you spend on the matt and the frequency of practice. Don't get me wrong- I'm super ambitious but setting realistic goals will help you being happy with yourself as you will achieve them instead of beating yourself up for not being able to make it to your mat every day for an hour. Think- a little, couple of times a week.
Start with Youtube Videos
To begin with, it is nice to have some guidance from the teacher. As you may know, Youtube is a paradise for yoga videos tutorials/ full length classes etc. To recommend few virtual teachers out there, try Yoga with Adrianne who literally has a class for everything and lots of videos for beginners! My other favourite is Kino yoga- a Miami based teacher that will brighten your day with some Floridian sunshine anytime!
To start practicing yoga at home dedicate a specific place in your home where you are going to practice. Ideally, this space should be free of furniture and other stuff that you may bump into when you are practising! In my case the decision on "where to practice" was super easy as my flat is quite small so the only free space where I could roll out my matt was my living room but maybe you have a bit more space so you can even dedicate a part of the room to yoga? Ideally, try to make some space available by the wall. This may be useful for a lot of postures especially when you start practicing inversions so keep it in mind.
Yoga Mat
To start practising yoga you don't need a lot of equipment. All you will need is a yoga mat and some props. Looking at the mat, to start off you don't need to buy a fancy Lululemon or other expensive brand mat. As much as these are amazing, you really will not need any of these to begin with. I have to share with you, that I actually practiced for couple of years on a very basic, "whatever was available at TK Max at the time" sort of mat. This never stopped me for developing my regular home practice further. This year I got a Lululemon mat- a birthday present from my boyfriend and I do have to say- the quality it great and you cannot compare it to the basic mat! You do get much more grippiness than with a regular basic mat which helps you to stay in a desired position without sliding out of it. Additionally, these mats are also much heavier, which makes them stick to the surface you are practicing on. So, overall there are huge benefits of owning a good quality yoga mat but just remember don't let the matt be an excuse for you not to start yoga. Just that you may not want or have x amount of money to spend for a fancy matt does not mean that your home practice cannot happen.
Create Distraction Free Environment
Think of your yoga space as a relaxing spa. Put on some relaxing music- you can find a lot of yoga playlists on Spotify- you are welcome to listen to the playlists that I created or if you are not a Spotify user go on youtube for some relaxing tunes. Some playlists on youtube are 45 minutes- an hour long so you won't need to worry about finding another song during your practice. Equally, feel free to listen to any music that you may like. It happens that it is pop/ dance/ hip hop? Whatever makes you happy is fine! Don't feel like yoga must be practiced only with a meditative, relaxing tune. Put your favourite candle on or an intense stick to help you get into "yoga mood". To make sure nothing disturbs your practice let your other half or flatmates know not to disturb you for the next hour. Ohh and one more thing here- Switch off your phone!!! A last thing you need during your practice is a Facebook notification that your friend is going to that birthday party on Saturday!
Dedicate Time of the Day
Are you a morning person or would you prefer to practice in the evening? Or maybe you have time during lunch time? How much time can you spare? Try to think about these questions and choose the time of the day that works for you. The same principle applies with dedicating towards the length of your practice. Do you have 10 minutes to spare or are you able to do an hour long flow? Be realistic to start off and don't set your plans too ambitious plans. Maybe start with 10 or 20 minutes sequences and then slowly increase the time you spend on the matt and the frequency of practice. Don't get me wrong- I'm super ambitious but setting realistic goals will help you being happy with yourself as you will achieve them instead of beating yourself up for not being able to make it to your mat every day for an hour. Think- a little, couple of times a week.
Start with Youtube Videos
To begin with, it is nice to have some guidance from the teacher. As you may know, Youtube is a paradise for yoga videos tutorials/ full length classes etc. To recommend few virtual teachers out there, try Yoga with Adrianne who literally has a class for everything and lots of videos for beginners! My other favourite is Kino yoga- a Miami based teacher that will brighten your day with some Floridian sunshine anytime!
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Do the Poses You Enjoy to Start Off
To begin do possess that feel right for your body- the poses that you like, even if you are practicing with your "youtube teacher". This will enable you to enjoy your practice! Then slowly start to add more difficult poses which your body may resist to. Breath through the poses you resist and slowly increase the time you spend in them.
I hope that you found this post helpful and you feel like you are ready to begin your home yoga practice!
To begin do possess that feel right for your body- the poses that you like, even if you are practicing with your "youtube teacher". This will enable you to enjoy your practice! Then slowly start to add more difficult poses which your body may resist to. Breath through the poses you resist and slowly increase the time you spend in them.
I hope that you found this post helpful and you feel like you are ready to begin your home yoga practice!