Practicing Solo

Well, what is yoga homework anyway? Yoga homework is the bits and pieces of your practice that you bring into your life outisde of the yoga studio, or away from your teacher. It could be on a mat at home, or it could be on a bus, in a line at the supermarket, while sitting at your desk in a cubicle on the 34th floor, while riding in the elevator to the 34th floor, while playing with your kids, while eating your breakfast.

Yoga homework is your ‘self practice.’ Until there is a self practice, the impact of your practice is limited to the time you share with your teacher.

Remember that ‘yoga’ is not just a set of asanas or postures, but a guide to living. So, our self practice can take many forms. Here are some more obvious examples of a self practice with some tips for starting up.

Pranayama | Take a comfortable seated posture on a firm surface where you can lengthen the spine. Place blankets or blocks beneath the bottom or under the knees, if needed, in order to allow the hips to relax. Practice kapal bhati and nadi shodhan (anuloma viloma) pranayama. It is best to learn from a teacher you know, but instruction videos are available at www.youtube .com (use with caution). Commence with five minutes in total of pranayama and gradually increase the length of time. These exercises will oxygenate the brain, cleanse the respiratory system, purify the nadis (internal energy channels of the body) and the nervous system, and clear the nasal passages so that you are able to breathe clearly from both nostrils.

Concentration/Meditation | Find a quiet space and sit in a comfortable position with the spine lengthened. Focus your attention on one thing – your breath or a point in your body (e.g. the third eye, the centre of the chest). Some people also use mantras (a word that is repeated in the mind or out loud) or yantras (a visual symbol which the attention can focus on). Start with five minutes, gradually increasing the amount of time.

Observe silence | Either sit quietly, intentionally observing silence for a period of time each day, or set a time of day or a day each week, where a number of minutes or hours are spent in silence. No television, no phone calls, no music, no speaking with those around you.

Asana Practice | Practice asana independently in a quiet place. You could even start out with just three to four postures, taking longer holds and repeating the postures twice, then ending with a short savasana. Yoga Journal has an excellent online sequence builder where you can select postures and then print out and follow your sequence. You could also practice a short series of restorative postures at home. Some of these can even be done in the comfort of your bed (e.g. happy baby’s pose, reclining butterfly, seated forward bending). Viparita karani, lying with the legs extending up the wall, is an excellent posture for oxygenating the brain, the heart and stimulating the first and second chakras as blood flows into the pelvic region. To really fancy up a home restorative practice, bolsters can be purchased at many yoga studios or online (www.halfmoon.bz).

Some less obvious ways you can develop your self practice follow:

Observe your breath | Take time, at any time, to come to your breath and become aware of your respiration. You don’t need to change or control your breath, just observe it. Observing the breath will keep you present, calm and possibly focus the mind and allow you to connect with your inner body.

Observe your thoughts – without judgment | Become a neutral observer of your thoughts. Thougts come and go, arise and pass away and therefore do not define who we are. Observing your thoughts without taking ownership of them will allow you to identify less with these temporary phenomena and therefore to gain perspective, to gain understanding of yourself.

Observe the sensations in your body | At any moment, you can become aware of sensations in the body. They maybe more apparent, gross sensations, such as a pain in your back, or the sensation of your feet touching the pavement as you walk. Or they may be subtle, finer sensations, even just tingling in the body. Like observing the breath, observing body sensations will keep you present, calm and possibly focus the mind and allow you to connect with your inner body.

Observe cravings | As soon as you sense yourself wanting something or wanting something to happen, encourage yourself to observe what is happening. As soon as we observe a craving, we put ourselves a little outside of it. We start to watch, and understand the mechanics of our repeated cravings for different stimuli.

Give – and receive | Do something for someone else without expectation of recognition or appreciation. Accept something given to you with grace and gratitude.

Practice gratitude | Practice giving thanks or expressing appreciation in a way that is comfortable for you. The more gratitude we have, the more contentment we have, the more happiness we have.

Lighten your schedule | When our lives are constantly busy, the mind reflects this continual pattern of motion. It becomes even harder to find some internal stillness when the outer is always moving. It also becomes harder to find time to do our yoga homework, to self practice, and we are always focussed on ‘getting things done’ rather than enjoying getting things done.

Journal daily | Take five minutes each day to reflect on your day in writing. What was your practice like? How did you take your practice into your regular day? Were you aware of your thoughts during the day? If so, what were you thinking about? When did you react? Why? What did you feel grateful for?

Find a practice place | Find a place in your home where you can return to for your at home practice. Maybe you will have a candle here or some incense, or something that symbolizes that this is your place that you will return to each time you do your at home practice.