A New Approach

I had a very strong home practice today, perhaps my strongest to date. And I did it without any preparation - I just focused on poses that I need and do not necessarily like. My focus was primarily on hip openers; something I have not been able to do much of since breaking down at the John Friend Workshop in LA a month ago (not without considerable anxiety anyways). It felt really good, empowering even. I also focused on some sitting poses - I intensely dislike these! They didn’t hurt as much as usual, but I definitely had to remind myself to breathe which helped immensely. I even incorporated some handstands and headstands.

I started and ended practice with an invocation - something I rarely do unless at the studio. I topped it all off with some journaling. Now if I can just keep it up! Honestly, I think it helped to have a beginning and an end, it extended my practice time to about a full hour without the journaling - not bad for a home practice. It was nice to spend some quiet time outside enjoying the day. Even better to be doing yoga while enjoying the day and the garden patio.

I’m feeling very happy with myself, quite the accomplishment really. I think have come to a place where I need to opt for a home practice more often (skipping studio classes a couple times a week) - shorten my asana practice time just a tad and take that extra time, plus what I gain from not having to travel, and use it to add consistent meditation and journaling to my practice.

Home Asana Practice Tips

In my Immersion, Michael has been strongly recommending a regular home asana (posture) practice. This is something that I have avoided in the last 3 1/2 years. For the first year after moving to Southern California, a home practice was the only practice that I had. I have since abandoned it because of the many distractions I find at home. I also found that as I started exploring styles outside of Kundalini that it seemed my home practice was becoming less and less productive. The most difficult part for me being finding a flow. I don’t care for videos and have avoided many bikram classes due to the monotony of doing the same poses every class. For awhile I even subscribed to sites that offered free class downloads but found it many times required too much of my attention to follow the teacher’s instruction (some teachers just aren’t that articulate). Other times I would have video streaming issues midway through the class. Looking back on it now, it seems that the reason my home practice was so successful early on was two-fold.  Not only did I had a designated space at home in which to practice, but the style of yoga I was practicing at the time was very conducive to it. Kundalini yoga kriyas are comprised of a sequence of postures/exercises, usually practiced for a specified amount of time. I found that it was easy to get into a flow with my Kundalini home practice since the sequencing was already done. I always knew where I was going next and for what amount of time, and to keep things from getting boring I would mix and match kriyas based on how I was feeling any given day. Read the rest of this entry »