Missoula News

Yoga On & Off the Mat

Inspiring Reasons to Practice Yoga at Home

By Brooke Hewes, 3-20-08

Below: Me practicing solo in Guatemala (perk 2,000 of a home practice)

When I first started Hatha Yoga, asana took place in the studio—exclusively, which was, honestly, plenty posture for me. I wouldn’t feel comfortable practicing at home anyway without a teacher to safely guide me from posture to posture. And, of course, it’s quite likely I wouldn’t know what to do. Class after class, year after year, though, poses and their individualized soundtracks (the echoes of tag-along verbal instructions) have filed themselves into my brain and body. Now, alone on my mat, I can still hear my teacher’s oral cues walking me through Trikonasana (triangle pose), Janu Sirsasana (head-to-knee pose) and, among others, Navasana (boat pose).  Her voice is easily recalled—which I mostly welcome, except on those more tired days when I can also hear her corrections of my lazy, shoulders-up-around-my-ears modifications.

I cherish my home practice. My body, my energy, my wall clock call the shots.  Also, at home the teacher-student ratio shifts, and my monkey mind and body become my primary instructors. Sure, it shouldn’t take a home practice to fully focus on how I feel, but in a studio—where collective energy is paramount and wonderfully powerful—breath and body may move in ways other than what comes most naturally. Other than what flows when I’m flying solo. 

With that, I deem a home practice a good, no great, idea because:

Class or no class, your practice goes on. There are many a Monday evening when I just can’t seem to muster the energy to get downtown to the yoga studio where I practice.  I can, however, wrangle my mind and body onto my mat in the next room. Here I know that if I still feel lethargic after a half hour, I can wrap it up with some backbends and a headstand and call it a day. Usually, though, once I start, I don’t stop, and before I know it an hour passes and my lethargy disappears.

Early risers may have difficulty finding classes before sun up. With a personal practice, however, you could be in savasana by 7:30 a.m. and dressed and ready for work by 8 a.m. Randa Chehab, owner of the Down to Earth Yoga studio in Bozeman, Montana, practices solo at her studio before any classes are scheduled. This, she says, “sets the tone and gives me a daily platform from which I teach.”

Home Practices are Flexible. In the morning, as you transition from sleep, you can choose postures based on how your body feels, which for more folks tends toward the stiff and sore end of the spectrum. The same is true for the afternoon, when you may be more flexible but more tired. Though a regular practice will ultimately lend flexibility, strength and clarity regardless of the hour, in the meantime, a home practice is entirely self created and flexibility-catered.

A Home Practice is Sustainable. Practicing at home, on your time, is something that you can do forever—all you need, as Iyengar says in his book “Light on Yoga,” is “a clean, airy place, a blanket and determination.” For these reasons, a home practice is also ecologically sustainable—energy-intensive machines are not required for this total body/mind workout. Finally, a home practice is economically sustainable, too, unlike “other systems of physical training [where] one needs large playing fields and costly equipment.” Simply, asanas “can be done alone, as the limbs provide the necessary weights and counter-weights.” (Iyengar, “Like on Yoga”)

A Home Practice Teaches You about You. You may linger. You may cruise. You may choose savasana after five postures. Whatever it is that you do, you decide, and in deciding, you learn about resistance—physically, emotionally—and persistence. You learn about your hips day to day, as well as (and likely because of) your moment-to-moment thoughts and preoccupations. The analogy of self acquaintance, of course (surprise, surprise), extends well beyond your mat-bound practice—as Mark Whitwell of the L.A.-based Heart of Yoga Association succinctly says in Yoga Journal’s article on establishing a “Home Stretch” (9/07): “When you practice at home you get to explore the exquisite relationship between the body, and the breath and life itself. The whole reason for doing yoga is to enjoy this relationship, this natural intimacy with life.”

Practicing at Home Fits Your Schedule. Really, though, one of the shining beauties of a home practice is the whole “time” thing. We just don’t seem to have enough of it. At home, however, you can practice exactly when you have the time and/or energy for it. If noon to 2 best suits your body and brain, then noon to 2 p.m. it is. If 5:50 a.m. is the only time you can possibly fit in asanas, then 5:30 a.m. it is—no matter the studio’s schedule.

Practicing at home brings you in touch with your body as it changes. As YJ’s Kaitlin Quistgaard writes in the June 2007 Editor Letter, you can design a sequence for yourself, “something to complement [your] energy level or mood at the moment.”Also, you can choose poses not just to suit your a.m. vs. p.m. mood, but that support your adolescence vs. childbearing vs. perimenopause vs. postmenopausal mood.

Practicing at home builds on what you learn in class. At home, in your comfortable corner of the world, you can play. You can practice and fall and get back up without any ego reminding you that the other people in the class don’t seem to having any trouble with their lotus…. In time, a home practice builds strength and confidence, and maintains a more intimate sense of how dynamic your practice and body are –as well as what, exactly, “your practice” is.

You get the chance to try some of those cool moves in Yoga Journal’s Home Practice section. In every edition of Yoga Journal there is a section entitled “Home Practice.” Different sequences are shown and explained, replete with instructions to “cut out and save!” These sections are great fodder to nudge you over the “I-wouldn’t-know-what-to-do” intimidation of practicing at home sans teacher. And then, when you feel playful and warm, flip to the “Master Class” and try some more-advanced moves.

Of course, this list is far from comprehensive. I would love to hear from readers why, when and how you practice at home.

Next Up: Tips on Creating a Yoga Space at Home

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