10 reasons to build a home practice

MEETING YOUR NEEDS ON YOUR MAT
Home practice gives you the freedom, in the safety of your own home, to step on your mat when it suits you and practice exactly what you need, as often as you like. Putting aside some time for yourself and developing a home practice gives you the tools to take ownership of your wellness through yoga. Building a relationship with your practice, and getting to know your strengths, your limitations, your favourite asana, helps you tailor your practice to suit your needs.

HOW CAN MY HOME PRACTICE HELP ME TODAY?
Learning to listen to what you need each time you practice and having no expectations of yourself, is an important part of home practice. Each time you turn up to your mat is a new experience and is best treated with fresh curiosity and self inquiry. When you step on your mat take a few moments to work out how your practice can help you today. Ask yourself these questions:

You may not have the answer to all the questions but it will help remind you if you have an injury you are minding, if you need to go easy because you have a full day ahead or if you are dealing with something else in life that might require you to be extra kind to yourself. Using the benefits list below and the answer to your questions you can start to build a practice unique to you and your needs.

10 REASONS TO BUILD A HOME PRACTICE
1. Covid friendly! - Yes, my number one reason to build your home practice is to build resilience in a world that is in complete turmoil. Covid, and all the anxieties of uncertainty that come with it, will be with us for some time to come. Your wellness is in your hands, it is your responsibility. Investing in your home practice will help you feel stronger physically, mentally and emotionally. You will feel more able to deal with this unprecedented and challenging period in time. It is also a sole practice, an added Covid bonus!

2. Your home practice is there to support you, when it suits you, as often as you like - now that lots of us are working from home it is the perfect time to build a home practice into your day. We all know that building good routines is an important part of wellness. A morning home practice will get you up at a set time, start your day off the best way possible and you will feel the benefits for the rest of the day. Alternatively an evening home practice will set an end time to your home working day and help you wind down for the evening. You can also take bite sized movement breaks of a few seated or standing poses during your working day without inquisitive eyes on you! You choose, you are the boss of your practice.

3. You can create a practice relevant to your needs - your home practice is all about you! You have the freedom to practice exactly what you want each time you practice. This can be as simple as reading your energy levels and practising accordingly, or going into more depth and working out which poses will support your specific needs using the benefits list and the self inquiry questions above.

4. You get the most out of your time on your mat - in your home practice you can get straight to the point and address your needs in a shorter practice to make the most of your time on your mat. Your morning practice can be as simple as a 10 minute mobilisation of your whole body to sit more comfortably if you are working from home.

5. You can play around with your favorite poses - you can practice at your level and not feel you need to sit out poses that don’t suit you the way you might have to in a class scenario. You can also spend more time breaking down and playing around with poses that you find more challenging or poses that you just love.

6. You get the ‘feel good factor’ at your fingertips - for many reasons yoga has the ‘feel good factor’. We all need as much feel good factor as we can get at the moment. Developing a home practice means that you have this fabulous benefit available at arms reach. Yoga doesn’t take up much room and doesn’t require expensive equipment. Fancy yoga gear is optional, all you really need is a yoga mat and you are ready to go.

7. You can practice in private - with the best will in the world we are naturally curious to see what everyone else is doing in a yoga class and comparing ourselves to them. In your home practice you are less inclined to get stuck in self judgement and are more able to practice what is right for you in the privacy of your own home.

8. You build a relationship with your practice - taking ownership of your practice deepens your self awareness. When you build a relationship with your practice it gets easier to notice what feels good v’s what doesn’t, and what feels like enough v’s what feels like too much. In a class setting we are very subservient and are inclined to do as we see or as we are told, even if the poses don’t suit our level of experience or our anatomy.

9. You can support other hobbies and sports - whether you are a cyclist, runner, golfer, hiker – yoga can support you. In your home practice you can incorporate poses that specifically target areas that need strengthening or stretching to support and help you excel at other sporting interests.

10. It is free! - need I say more. With the cloud of uncertainty looming over many of us, free and ready when you need it self care is music to our ears.

JUST GET STARTED
My mission is to help you evolve and develop your home practice. On my website you will find every tool you could ever need to get you started. Have a read of How to build a home practice for a step to step guide to get you started, with YouTube videos to guide you through each of the Home Flows. You’ll also find tips on building good practice routines in 10 Tips to develop a home practice. There are over 100 FREE downloadable sequences in my Sequences section with pose breakdown, pose prep and pose versions too.

My 108 Asana sequencing cards and posters are also the perfect tool to give you alignment cues on each of the poses and a simple method for building sequences tailored to your needs. The best thing about your home practice is that each time you step on your mat you are moving in a way that will support and nourish your unique needs.

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

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

Simplify your day

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LIFE LESSONS
“Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated” Confucius

Each September I’m given a reminder to slow down. Last year I tripped on the pavement and fell, leaving me with the map of the world on my knee and cuts to challenge any six year old. This year my gift from September was an eye infection, but not just your regular eye infection! After the annoyance and injustice of a healthy living person like me getting an eye infection, I conceded to the fact that these things happen, submitted to slowing down and started working on cutting down my ‘to do’ list and simplifying my day. But, like most people, slowing down does not come easily to me!

Why do we thrive on over-complicating situations and endless lists of tasks. I love lists, they help me focus and it’s so satisfying to tick off a completed task on the list! But when the lists become the length of your arm they can do more harm than good to your anxiety levels.

WAYS TO SIMPLIFY YOUR DAY
Sometimes it's as simple as making one or two changes to your day to find that extra bit of space to breath. Have a read through these suggestions and see what you can easily apply to your day:

• Take a moment to work out what you really need to do and what can comfortably be left for another day, or isn’t necessary at all.

• Make a short ‘to do’ list for the day. Don’t be tempted to write a long list or you will feel like you have failed at the end of the day.

• Build morning and bedtime routines to start and end the day with the comfort of familiarity

• Learn to politely say ‘no’ to requests if you simply don’t have time, or it’s beyond the acceptable scope of helping others.

• Monitor your time spent on Social Media. Keep your phone out of arms reach at mealtimes and try to stay off screens for at least 2 hours before bedtime.

• Prioritise putting aside time for yourself each day, even if it’s just for a few minutes.

• Look at simple tasks in life with fresh eyes and be present with even the simplest of chore.

• Simplify your day and give space to be present!

Find what you need in simplicity and self care this September.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru