3 Reasons You Should Have a Home Yoga Practice

Have you ever practiced yoga at home? The process may seem overwhelming at first, but hang in there as soon you’ll be in tune with your body and your practice in ways you wouldn’t have imagined before.

Here are three reasons why you should have a home yoga practice:

1. You’ll Learn to Listen to Your Body. 

When it’s just you, your yoga mat and maybe some music, you're able to concentrate on which areas of your body need more attention, which areas need more breath breathed into them and which areas are becoming stronger. Your body tells you when you have gone too far or when too much is enough, so it's important to hone in on this information as it’ll serve you well off the mat as well.

 2. You Can Go at Your Pace. 

We all have those days where we are craving a strong workout and other days when we'd be content to spend the entire class in Child’s Pose. When you have a home practice, you can tailor it to your mood, but more importantly, you can hold Warrior II for five minutes on the side that's a bit tighter, while only holding the other side for two minutes. When you are attuned to your body’s needs, you can set the pace of your home yoga practice.

 3. You Can Make Yoga a Part of Your Schedule. 

Yes, we all have busy lives that don’t always allow us to run to a studio and back. Or, we may say we’ll run to the studio after work, but life simply happens. When you have a home yoga practice, you can sneak in ten minutes in as soon as you wake-up, or maybe you focus on your breath and some spine stretches during your lunch break. Remember, yoga doesn’t have to be a 60-minute practice for you to reap the benefits. Learn to fit it in when you can, and your body and mind will thank you.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when practicing yoga at home: 

1. Breathe! 

It becomes so easy to get wrapped up in figuring out a posture or wondering what everyone else is up to around you that you forget that yoga is about the breath. So, when practicing home yoga by yourself, don’t forget to have full, deep inhales and full, deep exhales.

2. Take time to Enjoy Corpse Pose/Savasana. 

You are at the end of your practice and ready to tackle that to-do list you've been trying to ignore throughout your practice. It may be tempting to skip Corpse Pose, but learn to savor it for at least five minutes. Find the comfort in allowing every muscle to soften and melt into the earth beneath you. (Once you get past that five minute hump, who knows, you may stay there for ten or more?)

3. Learn to Make Yoga Your Own. 

I have found that by practicing yoga at home, I’m able to not only feed my body’s need for yoga on a whim, but I have learned more about myself and yoga with each and every practice.