HOME PRACTICE - SEE WHAT HAPPENS

I gravitated to home practice out of necessity and will. Necessity due to the constraints of time equals if I want to take a class today I am going to have to tack on additional driving and preparation time and I don't have that time. Will due to equaling I am not always getting what I need in class and need to refine my practice.

Setting up a home practice involves, first of all, well putting a mat down on the floor. The next hurdle is what do I do? This is the most perplexing issue for people comtemplating a home practice. Luckily there are a lot of options. You can practice your favorite studio class. If you can't remember the poses or sequence of your favorite class, you can always buy a dvd or find an online streamed class. There are many options and this at least gives you a structure.

You can always start with sun salutations. That is a normal yoga warm up and a lot of times it will lead you into following your intuition. For me, a few sun sals move me into a place where I can access my intuition. Maybe I decide to focus on balance poses. One day last week I did almost all inversions. Of course, this method will be harder for a new practitioner, but you can always start somewhere. Just sitting on your mat might lead you into some nice hip stretches or core work.

My main problem at home is FOCUS. I don't have a lot of focus to begin with. Also, I am a NOTORIOUS muli-tasker so a lot of times I find that my practice at home can involve laundry, cooking dinner, vacuuming the hall, wiping a floor, and weeding the garden too on really unfocused days. Luckily I RECOGNIZE when I start losing focus and then I resort to dvds. I have a large library of great dvds from all my favorite master teachers. Even if I never get a chance to go to a training or workshop with teachers I admire, I can get a little taste of it at home.

Even though a lot of people have no interest in home practice, I usually get a lot of questions on students immersed in daily practice who have an occasion where they can't get to studio, like a vacation or a business trip. You can always use google to see if there is a studio you can visit. I have found this to be a lot of fun and usually going to a new studio is a great learning experience. Also since the yoga community is always so warm and welcoming I always feel at home in a studio when I am away from home.

But remember, if you are going somewhere with no studio, mats are mobile. Take one with you and destress in meditation or do some sun sals on the beach or in your hotel room just to get into your breath and body. Follow your intuition and see what happens. You might access your great internal teacher - YOU.