A Yoga Self Practice

I was so delighted on Saturday to share my passion for a Self Practice with a wonderful group of Yogi’s who came along to get themselves kick started with their own Self Practice at my Develop Your Yoga Self Practice Workshop.

And I’m even more delighted to hear they’ve already rolled out their mats at home and put into practice what they learned, as they develop their own Self Practice. 

I created the workshop as a regular Self Practice has been a game changer for my Wellness, and I kept hearing from Yogis that they found it a challenge to get on their mats at home and do some Yoga without someone leading them, that they; “just didn’t know where to start”.

My Purpose is all about empowering people to heal and flourish in their lives. So what better way to do that than to help Yogi’s start to develop their own Self Practice. 

And for those who couldn’t make the workshop, I wanted to share some of the guiding principles that we went through in the workshop in this Blog to help inspire more people to a Yoga Self Practice.

So starting with the question, what is a Yoga Self Practice?

Self Practice is simply Yoga with no teacher led instruction. 

And why develop a Self Practice??

The biggest one for me is that a Self Practice enables us to tailor the movement to what our body, mind and energy need in that moment. So depending on how I feel, I can tailor my yoga to fit that. 

And it also enables us to fit more Yoga into our daily lives and a busy schedule. I remember reading over 20 years ago that doing 10 minutes of yoga a day, can be more beneficial than one class a week. And that really stuck with me. Thinking of 10 minutes can be so much more manageable when life is busy.

And there’s a whole host of other benefits from boosting creativity, challenging our brains to learn and remember, tailoring around an injury or niggle, to; having the freedom to practice anywhere, anytime, in almost any clothing! 

And lastly, it builds a vital skill - the ability to listen to our own bodies. Something that so so many of us have lost. A great Self Practice asks us to listen to our bodies, minds, and energies so that we can move in a way that works for us in that moment. 

So how do we create a Self Practice?

In the workshop I shared a Framework to help Yogi’s break it down, to make a Self Practice less daunting, to give it a loose structure that they could use, but without losing the creativity and freedom that a Self Practice brings.

And I also shared key tips for a Self Practice, some of these are below:

• Be realistic about the time you have for a Self Practice; set yourself up to succeed.

• Find a space and time away from distractions.

• Make a little ritual of it, make that time for yourself even more special.

• There is no wrong or right way; as long as you're listening to your body.

• A mish mash of poses that feels good in your body is a great Self Practice.

• Keep with your breath, a useful rule can be exhale on effort, but it’s not a binding rule, your body will guide you if it prefers an exhale or inhale on each movement. Listen and learn. The key is to just keep breathing your slow deep rhythmic diaphragmatic breath. 

And an interesting question came up during the Workshop; ‘Would it be better to have a list of poses that go well together, that Yogi’s could select from it to create a Self Practice’?

There are Yoga Sequencing card decks and various guides online, which will tell you for example, that Triangle goes well with Warrior 2 etc. 

And there can be a place for that level of structural detail when sequencing.

But in the Self Practice I love to do and teach, it's to really listen to our bodies, minds and energies, and to explore and learn. So I want to be able to listen and say I feel my lower back is tight. I then do the poses and movements that feel good for MY lower back, and I learn, and I build something that I can go back to which really works in my body.

Plus I want that freedom and creativity!

This approach needs a level of understanding of Yoga which we can get from our Group Classes, and from online Yoga. We use those classes to get inspired, to build our knowledge to then apply in our Self Practice. Plus in in-person Group Classes, you get to ask your teacher questions!

And as one Workshop Yogi has said to me; she can feel she’s much more present in her Self Practice, focused and moving with intention. That it’s shown her that she can be more present in group and online classes, connecting to the poses and what’s happening in her body, so she can learn, rather than just follow what the teacher says. 

Isn’t that the true development of a Yoga practice, to go deeper, not physically in a pose, but in our understanding, our presence, and in our ability to listen to our bodies, minds and energies.

Without sounding patronising! I’m so proud of the Yogi’s who came, that they’ve taken that step after the Workshop to start developing their Self Practice, one little practice at a time.

If this has wet your appetite to learn more, then I’ll be running another Develop Your Yoga Self Practice Workshop in the Spring, so please sign up for my Newsletter to be the first to hear about it.