How to build a home practice

PRACTICE ON
Now, more than ever before, your yoga practice is a complete support system for all your physical and mental needs. In all this uncertainty your home practice will give you back a sense of empowerment again. We are all feeling varying degrees of anxiety and fear. Yoga, the breath and a meditation practice will help you get through this unprecedented and challenging period. Cultivating a safe space at home and building a calm environment will not only benefit you, it will also benefit worried kids, family or whoever you may be sharing a space with. To help you get started with these mini flows visit my YouTube where you will find a series of tutorials to accompany these sequences.

THERE TO SUPPORT YOU
We are going through some tough emotional times. Learning to listen to what you need when you step on your mat, and having no expectations of your strength or flexibility, will help to stay calm and well. Be guided by how the practice sits with you, everyday you will feel differently. Some days you might be feeling quite anxious and haven't slept very well. Your practice for that day might be a restorative pose to help you dissolve all your worries away. Other days you might be feeling more energetic and ready to move. Try to get onto your mat each day, even if it is just for a few minutes to mobilise all your joints (ankles, knees, hips, spine & shoulders) to move and sit with more ease for the rest of your day. Home practice will help you to process all that is going on in the world and give you the strength to see this tough period through to the other side.

GETTING STARTED
There are three home sequences to get you started above. The warm ups and cool downs are the same throughout to keep it simple and let you concentrate your energies on the standing sequences. Before you start with the five rounds of cat/cow, lie on your back, place your hands on your belly and take five deep breaths. Then spend a few moments waking up all the joints. Hug your knees to your chest and roll around on your lower back. Keep the left knee hugging and stretch your right leg up and slowly circle the ankle, bend and straighten the leg a few times. Drop your left leg down, hold onto your right knee and circle the knee to warm up the hip joint. Repeat on the left side and you're ready to get started. I have focused on the most common poses in yoga to make sure you can follow the asana illustrations. If there is a pose that you’re not sure of you can find all 108 poses in my asana section. You can narrow down your search by clicking into the asana families in the bar on the right.

When you’re ready to move on you will find lots more in the sequences section. As you become more in tune with what your body needs, delve into the asana section and pick some poses that you’d like to explore. Start with poses that are familiar to you before you get more adventurous. Remember to always take Savasana at the end of your practice to assimilate the time you have invested in your wellness. But most of all, own your practice and enjoy it!

SUN SALUTATIONS
Traditionally practised in the morning as a salute to the rising sun, the Surynamaskaras or Sun Salutations are multifunctional and can be practised at any time of the day. They are the perfect way to start building a home practice. The three versions strengthen and stretch all the main muscle groups, build stamina and prepare you for more challenging poses. They also build heat and increase circulation throughout the whole body.

They include standing poses, forward bends, backbends and inversions. Each asana correlates to either an ‘inhale’ or an ‘exhale’. This makes it a good start to your practice to establish the link between breath and movement. The repetitive quality of the movements relaxes the mind and reduces stress and anxiety.

TRANSITIONS
Bringing your attention to transitions and moving consciously from pose to pose threads the practice together like a string of pearls and cultivates a meditative flow. Slow your practice down and savour the in between moments just as much as the poses themselves.

Sequences are often built of mini flows where you step from one pose straight to the next. You will see these in your four home practice sequences as a selection of 2-5 poses enclosed by two arrowed lines. You flow through these connected poses on the right side first (right foot forward) and then take those poses on the left side (left foot forward). Downward Dog or simply Tadasana are often used as the transitional pose between mini flows.

The breath is one of the most important elements of stress relief in yoga. As you move try not to get caught up too much on whether it should be an inhale or an exhale, just don’t forget to keep breathing!

If you have any questions or are struggling with knowing where to start please feel free to email me at ruth@yogaru.ie. In the face of adversity communities knitting together to help each other is what will see us through this.

Stay safe.

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Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

10 tips to develop a home practice

SELF SUPPORTIVE PRACTICE
My yoga practice is my comfort blanket, it reminds me that I am perfectly imperfect – I turn to it to find grounding; bring myself back to me; keep calm in the face of adversity; find space to breathe a full breath; and live a more conscious life in a world that is becoming more and more unconscious. Developing a self practice means that you have a ready to use tool at your fingertips to self support from life’s challenges. It counteracts the busy lives we lead and helps us deal with everyday situations.

For most people home practice is the natural progression of their yoga path. Starting a self practice can feel quite daunting at first. We feel secure in the safety of a led class and go blank the minute we stand at the top of the mat at home. Online yoga classes can be useful to get a feel for practicing at home, but it’s important to remember one of the best things about yoga is how it gives you a break from the busyness of modern society, and a welcome chance to step away from technology and screens. Self practice lets you take ownership of your personal practice – tailoring to your specific needs; getting the most out of your time on the mat; and is available to you anytime of the day at home or when traveling. Empowering you to react to changing circumstances and find balance again.

There is no secret formula to sequencing kept under lock and key! The best place to start with is some simple rounds of your favourite Sury Namaskara. They are designed to give you a little bit of everything to wake up the whole body. That is why you frequently find them positioned at the start of a sequence. Once you are comfortable, and you are ready to move on, add in some standing poses that you are familiar with. Getting to know your own practice – your strengths, your limitations, your favourite asana – helps you become more intune with your physical and emotional needs. It won’t be long before your intuition kicks in and you will instinctively know what poses to add to your practice for your requirements on each unique day.

The transition from class to home practice doesn’t have to be quite so overwhelming if you keep it simple and follow these 10 tips to get you started:

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Tip 1 - Little and often is better than trying to get on your mat once a week and do a full hour practice. Start small with just 10 minutes, three times a week and let it naturally grow from there.

Tip 2 - Accept that you may have a few false starts – it’s ok to miss a practice, if you don’t make it onto the mat don’t beat yourself up. You need to give yourself a bit of time to train your brain into this new healthy habit.

Tip 3 - You don’t need a sacred space to practice. Anywhere your mat fits is perfect – end of your bed, kitchen floor, sitting room. From the get go politely let your housemates know that while you are practicing you are not available for them. I have an ‘unless it’s urgent’ rule for when I’m practicing or meditating.

Tip 4 - Try incorporate your home practice into your morning routine. I find getting on my mat before I start into anything else works best for me. With the best will in the world life, or housemates, can often take over and prevent you from getting onto your mat later in the day.

Tip 5 - Have very manageable time expectations. Do what feels good to you and fits into your day even if it’s just ten minutes first thing in the morning to open your lungs, stretch out the morning stiffness and focus your mind for the day ahead.

Tip 6 - At first, practice what is familiar to you. Bring a notebook to class and straight after write down a few poses that you enjoyed or are curious to explore in the comfort of your own home. Ask questions and get advice. Your yoga teacher will be delighted that you are progressing your practice.

Tip 7 - Move nice and slowly through your practice and enjoy being the boss. Get close to your breath, and take extra breaths in poses you are enjoying. Don’t panic when you need to move from one pose to the next. Keep your transitions simple and when in doubt link pose through a Downward Dog or come back to Tadasana and take a half Sury Namaskara.

Tip 8 - Keep learning and keep reading, explore the areas of yoga that interest you – asana, yoga philosophy, anatomy, breathwork. Have a look at my List of Favourites for some yoga book recommendations. I find podcasts a very handy way to keep learning while I walk and run at the same time!

Tip 9 - It doesn’t have to be a new sequence everyday. Pick a theme that will support you – a pose you’re working towards; an area of the body that needs attention; or finding support for a specific emotional need – and pick some poses that will help you achieve this. You will find info graphic to help you pick poses for specific needs on the homepage of my website. Practice the same or a similar sequence for one to two weeks. Moving on when you feel curious to try a new sequence or life has thrown a new challenge your way.

Tip 10 - Explore other ‘off the mat’ yoga lifestyle choices like mindfulness, conscious living, an eco challenge – embedding the concept of yoga into your whole life.

My 108 Asana sequencing cards are the perfect tool to help you comfortably bridge the gap between classes and home practice. You’ll also find lots of ready made free sequences in the Sequences section of my website. Download them print them out and get started. Everyone has very different strengths and weaknesses. You can decide on certain days to work with your weak areas or on other days to enjoy your strengths. The best thing about your home practice is that you get to decide, and you can get the yoga ‘feel good factor’ everyday if you choose to.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

The benefits of a morning practice

ONE STEP AHEAD
There’s a reason why the birds sing in the morning - they know that it’s the best part of the day! When you exercise in the morning, you take back a part of your day from all the phone calls, messages and emails. It’s a peaceful and sacred time, which these days is rare!

If you’re thinking ‘I’m not a morning person’, don’t worry, it gets easier the more you do it, and very soon it’ll be second nature to you! Early morning starts also encourage you to get to bed on time and, as a extra bonus, get a better night's sleep. When you have a morning routine it’s easier to stick to it, with the added benefit of leaving your evenings free. With the best will in the world, a busy day, or other evening commitments, can often stop you from getting onto your mat.

GET MOVING
Life is more static than ever before. In the past people were used to daily manual labour and physical activity. These days we have cleverly designed electrical devices to do all the work for us, and we’ve replaced this ‘free time’ with sitting at our desks. To every action there is a reaction, and physical labour has been replaced by overworking our poor brains in a very static environment. Businesses are starting to see the detrimental effect this has on the health of their staff, and are beginning to encourage more activity and mindfulness. In return, they reap the benefits of staff who feel cared for, more alert and productive throughout the day. The physical and mental benefits to your health are well-documented and a hot topic in the media.

THE BENEFITS OF YOGA
Yoga has an abundant range of benefits at any time of day – from an early morning stretch to a lunchtime de-stress or an evening wind-down. The time of day that works best for me is early morning, before I start my day. It resets my system and prepares me for whatever is in store. Starting your day with movement gets you ready for the day and, for those with desk jobs, helps you sit with ease for the rest of your day. Yoga breath awareness helps you use the breath throughout the day to cultivate calm and combat moments of tension in the workplace, with your children, or whatever your daily challenges are, reminding you to pause before you react to situations.

Because of the variety of movements yoga offers, it stretches and strengthens your whole body and helps alleviate morning stiffness. It lubricates and stretches all the connective fascial tissue, which supports the entire musculoskeletal system. It also helps to build a healthy spine - a spine that has been well oiled first thing in the morning is less likely to pinch or tweak during the day. All the supporting muscles have been switched on, and are ready to support the spine for the day. Yoga also improves balance and coordination, building spatial awareness which helps prevent injury.

We are all beginning to understand the importance of good digestion to all-round health. A morning practice wakes up the digestive system. Twisting, stimulating and massaging all our internal organs, it alleviates bloating and helps with a good morning elimination! It also raises the metabolism and keeps it elevated for hours afterwards.

Putting aside some time for yourself is the kindest and most nourishing gift you can give to yourself. This kindness encourages you to make healthy choices for the rest of the day by starting as you mean to go on. Set an intention or a focus and revisit it throughout your day. It’ll bring you back to your mat, your ‘happy space’, and give you renewed strength for the day.

The illustration below shows the huge variety of the benefits yoga offers. If we could start our day with even one or two of the benefits wouldn’t it be worth that little push to roll yourself out of bed and onto your mat to the tune of the early birds?

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

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