Luxuriating yoga sessions while at home can offer some of the richest experiences of centering that you may ever have. To achieve this, you’ll need to face the demons of procrastination and laziness as well as doubt about whether you’ll know what to do without a teacher instructing. We have a tendency to slide into comfortable patterns, known in Sanskrit as samskara. Developing new habits, which transcend our own samskaras, can lead us to delicious states of consciousness including extended periods of a very clear mind. When the internal chatter quiets down and we access sacred moments, we experience an obvious pay-off.


Inspiration

I often shower before sunrise and then walk into my closet and wonder about the day ahead. It would be efficient to predict what clothing works for the activities I’ve planned. Instead, I rebel and reach up toward the ceiling or press my palms into the top of the door frame – just high enough to stretch my spine and release the sacrum. That’s all I need to ignite the yoga bug. Then I feel a natural desire to progress to a forward bend; and my spine is so grateful to feel gravity that I often feel a sense of release in my neck. Before I can resist, I’m practicing sun salutations in my closet, between the summer dresses and winter slacks.

Imbue your practice territory with a spirit of commitment. Search your home for a more permanent location than your closet. Find an airy spot with little cross traffic. Remove any clutter that may seduce your mind away from yoga. Some furniture might be hazardous if you tumble into it, so make sure to choose a spot away from sharp corners, metal or glass. If you have the option of leaving your mat and props out, you may visit your yoga space more regularly. Place an object to gaze at such as a candle, flower, inspirational photo or sacred geometric image such as a Yantra (check out the monthly Yantra series on the final page of LA YOGA).

Getting Started

Add more time to your morning by rising earlier if you want to practice yoga before breakfast. Find time before you feel beholden to carpools and household obligations. Advantages to a morning practice include the opportunity to counteract early stiffness. I enjoy morning much more since I started my AM practice because my muscles shorten while sleeping and yoga re-sets the stretch points. Morning yoga helps me meet whatever the new day offers. If morning is not an option, try before lunch, dinner or bedtime.

If you do need a guide, try listening to audio recordings with sequencing prompts to help keep your mind involved in your yoga practice. In order to prevent neck strain while watching a screen, I find audio recordings preferable if you are familiar with the postures. Recordings allow your eyes to rest and your mind to drift inward. Transitioning from audio recordings to self-guided practice is ideal. If you are still beginning or becoming comfortable with your practice, I recommend a combination of beginners’ classes, DVDs and books. Watching a DVD before a practice session can give ideas or creative inspiration.

Improvise your home practice. Trust your instincts; your body will lead you from one posture to the next. I start with seven very slow sun salutes to increase circulation of blood, lymph and oxygen through dynamic movement. My body tells me loud and clear what it needs that day. If something feels good I hold it for extra breath cycles. If something feels difficult, I modify. For instance, I love the feeling of plank and downward facing dog in the morning. Child’s pose feels better after a few lunges stretch the tops of my thighs and hip joint. If my hamstrings are tight, I keep my knees bent during forward bends. I follow an inner voice and let my breath lead my body as it opens and closes, expands and contracts.

In your home yoga session, you can counteract the way you habitually use your body during the day by bending the opposite way. For example, a variety of professions involve hours hunched forward (if you’re not careful about body mechanics), and if you spend a lot of time at a computer, on a bicycle or leaning over people doing hair or makeup, bodywork, or are balancing trays at a restaurant, be sure to include some gentle backbends in a home practice.

Cultivate a state of meditation in any pose. While watching the cycles of breath, thoughts about alignment will invariably float through your consciousness. You may have internalized alignment instructions from teachers. Stay with it. Make minute adjustments and let those shifts infiltrate the rest of your body as you continue to hold the pose.

Questions around sequences and counterposes will arise directing your study to experts including books or your favorite class. Yoga is a life-long relationship between your body, breath, mind and spirit. Making space to be consciously present with those elements in the sanctuary of your own home is an enduring gift of self-love.

Julie Carmen, MA, LMFT, ERYT-500 is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice in Malibu and a certified yoga therapist on the faculty of LMU Yoga Therapy Rx. She’s been teaching at Exhale Center for Sacred Movement since 2001 and has been Suzanne Somers private yoga teacher since 2003. Julie Carmen’s YOGA SLOW FLOW DVD and YOGA FOR HORMONES CD are available at www.yogatalks.com

Credits: Organic cotton tops courtesy of lululemon in Calabasas, CA; Jewelry by Leslie Bixler; Hair and makeup by Erica Ocampo, toobadyrcute@hotmail.com; Photos by Adam Latham, angeladam.com. © Julie Carmen, 2008.

 

Stay Informed & Inspired

Stay informed and inspired with the best of the week in Los Angeles, etc. and more ...

Stay informed & Inspired

Stay Informed & Inspired

Stay informed and inspired with the best of the week in Los Angeles, etc. and more ...

Stay informed & Inspired