10 Reasons Why You Should Practice Yoga at Home

One of the best ways to deepen your yoga practice is to start practicing yoga at home. Many yogis refer to this as a “home practice,” and it’s one of the easiest and best ways to practice yoga. Practicing yoga at home may seem easy, but there are many obstacles to starting a yoga practice at home. However, most of these obstacles exist in the yogis themselves. Whether it’s a lack of basic knowledge, fear of practicing alone, distractions at home, resistance to making a habit, or even being overwhelmed by the deluge of yoga resources online, there are many challenges when you start practicing at home. However, with a little forward planning and dedication, most of these challenges can be overcome. Over time, home practice will provide a yogi with countless physical and mental benefits.

Why Start a Home Yoga Practice?

There are many reasons to start practicing yoga at home, from accessibility and the financial benefit of not paying for classes, to more internal benefits like mindfulness and stress reduction. Also, starting a yoga practice at home doesn’t mean yogis have to stop attending public classes. Guidance from certified teachers combined with sangha or community is fantastic and should continue. However, think of yoga as a child learning a musical instrument such as a piano. Children can go to piano lessons, but unless they find time each week to practice piano at home, they won’t progress. The same goes for yoga, but the progression is not limited to physical asanas (postures), but also includes an inner spiritual journey.

A 2012 study illustrates the benefits of practicing yoga at home. For the study, researchers examined more than 1,000 responses to a survey of Iyengar yoga practitioners about their yoga practice and health. What they found surprised some in the yoga community. Neither the frequency of yoga classes nor the number of years participants practiced yoga was as predictive of health as whether participants practiced yoga at home. In short, practicing yoga at home can improve your health.

increase your mindfulness

Various forms of yoga can help a person develop mindfulness. What is mindfulness? It is the ability to separate your feelings and self from your real self and to observe the present moment with equanimity. Yoga teaches this by asking the yogi not only to breathe, but also to find calm in difficult poses. In these poses, the yogi learns his habits and thought patterns and develops mindfulness over time. A home yoga practice can improve mindfulness through the same model as a yoga class—with the benefit that a home yoga practice can introduce mindfulness into new situations.

get better with your body

Another benefit of practicing yoga at home is that you can become more in tune with your body. Of course, all types of yoga teach body awareness to some degree, but practicing at home can enhance the experience. As famous yoga teacher Rodney Yee puts it:

At home, you’ll learn to listen to your body’s needs for the day, move at your own pace, and develop an intuition for the sequence or type of yoga poses you most want and need to do on any given day.

By practicing yoga at home, a yogi can practice as soon as he wakes up and understand how his body feels in the morning. Or, at the end of a long day, they can practice and acknowledge how the day has taken them physically and emotionally. The flexibility of practicing at home means that the yogi chooses each pose himself: this decision-making responsibility is perfected over time as the yogi builds body intuition. Additionally, the privacy and intimacy of a home yoga practice reflects that the body is like a home.

sleep better

It’s not just anecdotal evidence that yoga promotes better sleep. In a recent survey, it was found that the majority of respondents said yoga helped them sleep better. Some researchers believe this improved sleep is due to the use of pranayama (breathing technique), an integral part of yoga, that regulates the body’s parasympathetic nervous system and stress response. Practicing yoga at home can promote better sleep than other forms of yoga practice because yoga can be practiced immediately before bed. There are many restorative yoga poses that can be practiced before bed (or even before bed), such as: B. Inclined Bound Angle Pose, Bridge Pose, Child’s Pose, and more. A few simple yoga poses before bed may be all you need to improve your sleep and start your yoga practice at home.

improve your self-motivation

There are many people who have practiced yoga for many years but find it difficult to develop a yoga practice at home. It’s not for lack of interest, love, or level advancement. The biggest stumbling block for many when it comes to a home yoga practice is motivation. It takes a lot of motivation to come home and roll out your mat for an at-home workout instead of lounging on the couch in front of the TV. However, by developing a yoga habit at home, not only can yoga-related motivation be improved, but other areas of a person’s life can also be affected.

let go of material things

Another stumbling block to growing a home yoga practice is the perception that there is a lot to do. Some people think they need specific fancy mats, expensive yoga clothes, props, yoga mats, straps, mirrors, etc. to practice at home. This could not be further from the truth. Mats are useful, but all things are people