3 Tips to Improve your Home Practice

By Michelle Owens

So often, I hear yoga students lament that they can’t find time for a home yoga practice. When I query them more closely, I find there’s a common misconception about what comprises a home practice. Many of us have lofty goals for a yoga practice we embrace outside the yoga studio. It has to be an hour-long sequence complete with sun salutations, bends, twists, balances and savasana. But that’s exactly what your home practice should not be!

The best yoga practice is the one you do. Therefore, simple and short is the key to a successful home practice. The Yoga Sutras, an ancient book of yoga wisdom, teaches that one of the most effective practices, or ahhyasa, is a mild practice approached with conviction {Sutras 1.19 -1.22}. In other words, no matter how busy you are each day, find a few moments to breathe with awareness, move mindfully,  connect with others, or simply be quiet. This is more effective than a long, challenging practice done sporadically.

Here are 3 Tips to Improve your Home Practice

1. Use Found Time

Be on the look out for little blocks of “found time.” Before you climb out of bed in the morning, when taking a bathroom break or waiting in the car pick up line at the kids’ school are all examples of found time. Can you do 5-10 minutes of yoga eye exercise, neck stretches and shoulder stretches when you first wake up in the morning instead of hitting the snooze button and hiding under the covers? You’ll be much better equipped to face the day. Use your bathroom break to practice a mindful mediation, affirmation or visualization

2. Practice Stealth Yoga

Standing in line at the grocery store, or sitting in a meeting are great opportunities to sneak in some yoga moves. Standing in lines gives you a chance to improve your balance with a few stealthy yoga poses. You can practice Mountain pose, heel lifts, toe lifts and the kick-stand version of Tree Pose (heel to ankle)  in public and no one will be the wiser. If someone does ask what you’re doing, tell them you’re doing yoga to improve your balance and reduce chances of falling as you age. Yoga can always use a good public service announcement! Other quick and effective yoga actions you can do on the sly include finger stretches, hand mudras, and deep breathing exercises.

3. Practice Wherever

The world is your yoga mat. You don’t have to be in a yoga studio, in a special room at home or a yoga retreat. You can do yoga wherever you are, whenever you are there. I’ve heard news stories about spontaneous yoga classes breaking out in airports when planes are grounded due to storms, and at crowded beaches among strangers.

These are great opportunities to not only practice the physical side of yoga, but also the spiritual side, which encourages connection with others. Remember yoga is derived from the work “yuj,” which means to yoke or unite. It’s all about connecting with your inner self as well as the greater world around us.

Fitting in a quick and easy yoga practice on those days you can’t make it to the yoga studio is one of the most important steps to becoming more advanced in your practice. It’s where you’ll be curious about yourself and find new or deeper self understanding. It’s where you’ll work out the tensions of life and solve persistent problems. So what are you waiting for? Go sneak in some yoga poses at the grocery store!