How to Build a Home Yoga Practice – Part 1
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. 
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