Yoga: 8 Mistakes People Make with Their Home Yoga Practice

 

1. Assuming you need at least 60 min.:

One pose counts…really.

 

2.  Doing the same 10 poses every time:

There are so many poses to yoga!  Each one will give you a different benefit.  Explore, experiment and discover!  (Need some inspiration?  Check out my other blog:  Musasana.  I explore one yoga pose each month.)

 

3.  Trying to find the “perfect” time during the day for your practice:

Know what the perfect time is?  Whenever you will do it!

 

4. Skipping Savasana:

It is the most important pose we can do.  Do not skip it.

 

5.  Assuming you need complete quiet, a candle burning, a meditational setting:

I dare you to do your practice with the kids playing around you, the phone ringing, and the clutter sitting in the corner staring at you.

 

6.  Doing the wrong practice for you:

Your practice needs to balance you and your natural tendencies.  If you tend toward being stressed out and doing all the time, you need a peaceful, calming practice.  If you tend toward inertia, having a hard time getting going, you need a more energetic practice.

 

7.  Forgetting the other legs to a Home Practice:

A “Yoga Practice” includes meditation, breathing (pranayama), studying the precepts (such as compassion, truthfulness, etc.) as well as the asanas.  My students frequently forget that spending a day focusing on being compassionate with their children IS practicing yoga!

 

8.  Always relying on someone else to lead you:

Class is great, DVDs can help, online videos fine, but a mature practice comes from within on most days. Find out what you need and do that.

 

May your yoga practice blossom as you let go of the “shoulds” and expand your practice!