This is a continuation of How to Build a Home Yoga Practice. Part 1 can be found here.
Create space
It sounds fairly obvious that the next stage of your plan, once you know when you are going to practice, is knowing where you are going to practice. You do not need a separate room or anything fancy. It may just be a part of a room that you can put your mat down or section off.
The space for your practice may be about 2.5 metres by 2 metres. This is actually a luxurious amount of space to practice in and you may feel comfortable using a lot less. These dimensions leave enough space around you so that you do not feel cramped or restricted in any way. It gives you enough space to be able to do a headstand for example, without having to worry about hitting a wall or any other object if you accidentally fall.
The space you practice in must be clean and free of clutter. It needs to be functional yet comfortable.
Develop a balanced sequence
The next tip for success at developing a home yoga practice, is to know in advance what postures you are going to practice. If you wait until you get onto the mat, it is almost certain that you will only do what you like to do.
A balanced program that includes poses that you do not necessarily like is essential. If you stick with a balanced program you are going to make far more progress than someone who wakes up in the morning and decides what to practice depending on how they feel at that moment or going with the flow.
To develop a sequence you may want to ask your teacher to select poses suitable for your capabilities. You will need a selection of about 25 – 30 poses from a variety of posture groups. In this respect the Knoff System is highly effective. The Knoff Yoga system has poses divided into 11 groups that are practised in the following order:
- Sun Salutations
- Inversions Heating (this includes poses like Dolphin Pose and Headstand)
- Standing Poses
- Arm Balances
- Forward Bends
- Seated Poses
- Abdominals
- Twists
- Backbends
- Inversions Cooling (Shoulderstand or Legs up the Wall)
- Relaxation (Savasana)
This sequencing of poses takes into account that in every practice, we want to work every part of the body. We also want to balance flexibility with strength.
By practising poses in this order, by the time you get to the end of arm balances for example, you may be feeling a little tired, and it is at that point that you get to sit down and do your forward bends. You will be warm from the poses beforehand and you will practice the forward bends with greater ease. At the same time you will be taking a little ‘breather’ from the more intense arm balances and standing poses. Backbends are placed near the end of the sequencing as they are the deepest movements of the spine and need all of the poses that went before to prepare for them.
Having worked with the Knoff system of sequencing for some time now, I can say that I do not think there is a better system for sequencing around.
When you do practice, ensure that you do at least one pose from every posture group for a balanced practice. In the first level of Knoff Yoga, there are 26 poses, if you practiced them all, holding a minimum of 5 breaths in each pose, it would take about 30 – 45 minutes to complete. So you can see that it is possible to do a balanced practice, practising only one of every posture group and it would take you around 15 or 20 minutes. There is no excuse for not doing a balanced practice.
If you have more time, you would do more than one pose from each group. When you practice, ensure you stay a minimum of 5 slow breaths in each pose. If you have more time, of course you can hold the postures longer. 
To be continued …
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My teacher, Nicky Knoff, is perhaps one of the most inspiring people I know. She will often advise you: “just get on your mat and do the work”. She is the living embodiment of this advice. I won’t give away her age, although I am sure she would not care, suffice to say that she is beyond retirement age. Each morning, before coming in to guide the teacher trainees through the rigours of their yoga practice, she gets up at 2 a.m. and does her own practice.
She has often completed her own Asana, Pranayama and Meditation practice before I have even thought of rising. It humbles me when I think of this as I struggle with the daily practice of just getting on the mat. After all, sleep is my favourite thing to do.
Students will often ask me when is the best time to practice yoga, what should they practice, how long should they hold poses? Yet they fail to ask the most important question; “How do I just get on the mat in the first place?” Many people who admonish you to just get on the mat, neglect to mention the months or years of failed attempts it took them to get to that point. Once they are managing to do it, of course they realise that all that was needed in the first place was to just get on the mat!
Before you can even think of getting on the yoga mat consistently however, there are some things that you will need to address. If you fail to address these things, then the ego, which is extremely clever, will make the solution to the problem the actual problem itself. What do I mean by that?
We realise that we feel better when we get on our yoga mat and practice. We are more energised, focused and calm amongst other things. However the ego does not like its reality altered and it is certainly not used to you feeling so good. A couple of things that the ego thrives on in many people is a feeling of inadequacy and guilt and so the ego will find all sorts of ways to sabotage your resolve. In this way, as you endeavour to fix the problem of not feeling good, the ego will find ways to make you fail so that you feel even worse, as you feel worse you are less likely to find the energy to stick to your resolve! That is what I mean by making the solution the problem. We seem to be addicted to unhappiness.
There are quite a few very obvious ways in which we sabotage ourselves, and I hope to address some of them in this article. Some of the more obvious ones are: “I don’t have time”, “I don’t know what to practice”, or even, “I can’t be bothered; I am too tired, too stressed, too lazy” – whatever.
Make a plan
The very first thing people fail to do when thinking of starting a home yoga practice is plan. Would you even think of building a house without some sort of plan? Probably not. You do not need to detail every scenario in your plan, but it does need to cover these basic points:
- Know what you are going to practice when you do get on the mat.
- Know where you are going to practice.
- Know what time is available.
- Know what you are going to do if/when you begin to sabotage yourself.
Make an appointment
If you want to see the dentist, you make an appointment. If your car needs servicing; you make an appointment. You probably know in advance when you are going to have lunch and how long it will last, you know when you are going to take holidays, and you have probably planned what you are going to do for your partners/childrens birthday.
So why would you assume that your yoga practice is any different? Why would you think that the time to practice is magically going to appear? It isn’t. For many people their day includes many things and it is appropriate and vital to schedule your yoga practice around those things. Let’s face it – not everyone is going to get up extra early to practice, and again, there are probably many reasons for that. This tip is aimed toward those people who find it difficult to rise early. If you can get up at 4 a.m. every day to practice, you don’t need my help and you are probably not interested in this article, because you are already doing it!
Take a look at your week, if you do not already have it organised, sit down and spend some time organising it so that you can see where the gaps are. Not every minute needs to be accounted for, you just need to see where the available times are. Prior preparation prevents poor performance!
You might notice that on Monday you have a free 1/2 hour available in the early afternoon, but on Wednesday, the day is going to be busy and so you had best do your practice first thing in the morning. It is important to remember that 20 minutes of practice daily is better than 2 hours once a week. Once you have identified possible times that you can practice, even if only for a few minutes, then book it in.
Make it an appointment as you would for the dentist. Then, and this is most important, keep the appointment! Only emergencies take precedence over this time once booked in. One way to feel lousy about yourself is to neglect to keep your word to yourself, so when you book in that time, make sure you are committed to keeping it. By organising your practice time at the times best suited to fit in with your daily schedule, you will be more likely to practice. It is quite possible that you will practice at a different time each day.
When you have a doctor’s appointment it may be necessary to ask someone to look after the children. Do the same for your practice, organise a play date for them or organise in advance for someone to look after them so that you can keep your appointment with your mat. This way you are setting yourself up for success rather than failure. Things may come up at the last minute, but that is the beauty of planning in this way, you can be flexible, instead of rigid. In an earthquake rigid things break.
Each week you would schedule in new times appropriate to your daily life.
The most important aspect of making appointments with your yoga mat is this: once you have committed to using that time for yoga, do NOT use it for anything else, and I mean anything – no cleaning, painting your nails, no watching television or drinking coffee or beating yourself up. I will address motivation and procrastination later, but for now know that if the allocated time arrives and you can not be bothered to practice, then sit there for the 20 minutes, the hour, or however long you have scheduled, and twiddle your thumbs. This is essential!
By doing this, you realise how valuable your time is and you will be less likely to waste it again.
Jump to Part 2
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In Knoff Yoga, Mindfulness is a Principle of Practice. It is at the core of practicing yoga. Yet do you often find yourself doing the shopping list or wondering what to have for dinner during your practice?
How can you work to develop mindfulness and reduce this nature of the egoic mind to be anywhere else except in the present?
In Knoff Yoga we use three specific elements to develop mindfulness:
The meditative quality of an asana can be greatly enhanced by simultaneously applying:
- Mula and Uddiyana Bandhas (and Jalandhara if applicable)
- Ujjayi Pranayama
- Drishti
None of these three techniques happen by themselves and require a focussed mind and plenty of practice to ensure their concurrent application.
When you practice the postures, applying these techniques will dramatically improve the effectiveness of your practice.
Drishti
Drishti are specific focal points for the eyes in various poses; in some poses we look toward the thumbs and beyond, at other times we may gaze toward the tip of the nose. Yet even if we are not given a specific drishti or focal point, we can still utilise this element of mindfulness in our practice. Once you are in the pose, direct your gaze to a specific unmoving point; it may be a point in front of you, or a point on the ceiling or floor, depending on the posture. Do not let the eyes wander, the moment the eyes dart around the room, the mind will also dart around which will be the opposite of what you were hoping to achieve when you started your practice. When you gaze at this specific point, allow the eyes to be soft in the socket, allow the muscles that surround the eyes to soften. You do not need to tense the eyes to be able to see what you are looking at.
When we utilise drishti, we want 80% or our attention directed inwards to the sensations of the body and the work we are doing, and only 20% outward.
Ujjayi Pranayama
Ujjayi is the soft rhythmic breath that has the slight sound in the throat. Normally, our breath regulates itself. The moment we breath in a specific manner we become aware and mindful, and we are able to utilise the breath to enhance our practice. In every pose we endeavour to create a smooth rhythmic breath, by focusing on this technique you will find that the muscles that are working will work more efficiently without excess tension. The soft sibilant sound created in the throat by practising Ujjayi will also have a calming effect on the mind and nerves.
Bandhas
Bandhas are a principle of practice in their own right, they help provide support and stability to various joints and structures in the body. Bandhas and are also utilised during Pranayama practice. In our poses, when we activate the two lower bandhas, Mula and Uddiyana (Minor), we have to maintain mindfulness for them to stay active, if our minds wander away from the task at hand the bandhas will be lost.
There can be a tendency to overdo the bandhas. When we activate too strongly, gross outside muscles will take over and do all of the work. This will lead to excess tension and fatigue. When we activate bandhas we almost want to think of under-doing them. When we draw back the lower abdominals it is only a distance of about an inch. When we lift the pelvic floor, we are not gripping for dear life, but merely activating the muscles gently. Not too much, not too little.
Try this: draw back the abdominals and lift the pelvic floor muscles as strongly as you can. Know what it feels like to overdo it, and then the next time you do it - apply only 5% of the energy necessary. In a way, when the bandhas are activated like this, it will feel more like a thought than a gross physical action. Maintaining the bandhas will keep the mind focussed and develops mindfulness.
Placement
In my practice and in my teaching, there are other elements that I also use to help with mindfulness. Placement is one of these. This means that whenever you move, do it deliberately, smoothly and be precise. Think of Tai-Chi; every movement and body part goes exactly where the practitioner places it, and so we also utilise this idea in our postures. Place your body parts exactly where you want them to be, the very first time you move. This will develop the focus and diligence in practice.
Get rid of excess
This concept is very closely related to placement. It involves doing only what is necessary and no more. For example when coming back to stand in Tadasana (Mountain) after Uttitha Trikonasana (Extended Triangle), come into the posture smoothly and precisely, and then do not fidget. Do you really need to adjust your shirt or fix your hair in mountain pose? If you have used placement to mindfully come into Tadasana then there is no need to add anything to the pose. Get rid of everything you do not need. This includes getting rid of excess movement.
When performing a pose that utilises both sides of the body at the same time, e.g., Virasana (Hero) or Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle), move both sides of the body at the same time. Why move one side and then the other? It is just a waste of energy, and more than likely you will always move the same side first. By moving both sides at the same time, you have to be mindful and aware of what you are doing. You will begin to remove unconcious habits of moving and tension.
Getting rid of excess also means letting go of any extra effort in the pose that is not necessary. Use only the amount of muscular effort required to come into and maintain the posture. Why tire yourself out? When you get rid of excess you are also relieving the body/mind of excess stress and strain.
Finally Knoff Yoga says this about mindfulness in practice:
Mindfulness is the feeling aspect of our practice. It means paying attention and taking care. We turn our minds inward (pratyahara) in order to observe and feel the internal environment … the main difference between yoga and exercise is the conscious involvement of attention to what we are doing. The moment we are inattentive we are no longer doing yoga … This mindfulness can be taken into daily life and into whatever we are doing – making our lives richer and fuller.
And after all, isn’t that the point?
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