Many people want to cultivate a home practice but struggle making it stick. We have busy, hectic lives and while we know that yoga helps us to feel better and ease our suffering; it can be challenging to stick to a home practice. The good news is that a few tiny adjustments can make a huge difference and help to make the home practice stick - whether it is daily or weekly practice.
In the yoga sutras, Patanjali explains the importance of a consistency in yoga, known as sadhana. Patanjali highlights in Yoga Sutra 1.14 the importance of consistent and dedicated practice, abhyasa. He emphasizes that when practice is approached with consistent effort, over an extended period of time, and with sincere dedication, it becomes firmly established and yields meaningful results.
To put it plainly, your practice doesn't need to be fancy, long or complex if you don't have time for that. Instead it should be loving, joyful and manageable so that you feel like sticking with it. Take the pressure off and make this a happy and meaningful time to connect with yourself and be still. We aren't aiming for perfection, some instagram ideal, or hard rigid techniques. Our aim for a home practice is peace.
This means you don't have to drop everything to have a long, expansive daily practice. It means that there are a few key tweaks we can make to our lifestyle to be able to experience the joy, good-health and peace that a regular, simple practice brings.
Why is your home yoga practice difficult to maintain? Here are some things that harm a home practice and ways to correct it:
1. It's not at a regular time each day or week.
Your practice doesn't have to be at the exact same time every day but should be at the same time in your routine. For example, wake up, wash up, and sit for meditation. Regularity of time is key for sustainable habits. If you have a weekly practice, or take a weekly class try to stay consistent and show up to it, or schedule it at the same time or location each week.
2. It's too complex.
Keep it simple! Your regular practice should be simple, straightforward, and to the point. If yoga is about stillness and peace of mind, why are you doing complicated flows and sequences? Even 10 minutes can shift your day into one that is peaceful and powerful. Simplicity is the key!
3. Coffee before you practice.
Stimulants can complicate a meditation and yoga practice. Caffeine stimulates the brain and body, which can be helpful at times, but will challenge the essence of yoga, as summarized in Yoga Sutra 1.2: "The purpose of yoga is to still the mind."
4. It keeps changing.
Keep your practice simple and relatively similar day to day. Variations, options, and working with cyclical rhythms aside, try to avoid a completely different sequence each day in order to sustain simplicity of mind.
5. Too much pressure.
We don't have to be perfect <3, and the practice will never be perfect. Life happens, and days off are fine. Missing it from time to time is normal! Soften expectations. Even 5 minutes of breathing will help you feel great and get you back on track!
You've got this! Share this post and reach out if you need help with your practice! -Aarti
Comments