A beginners guide to home practice...

1. Clear a space. Roll out a yoga mat if you have one or move things out the way. Make it look, smell and feel good if you want, light candles etc, just don't spend all of your practice time on this step!

2. Put yourself in the space. Sit, Stand or lie down.

3. Be still. Bring your awareness into your body. Notice without veto how it feels. Notice the mind, the emotions as well. Allow all sensations to be valid. It's ok to feel like crap, but its also ok to have days were you feel absolutely amazing. Own whatever is there. 

4. Let your body breathe. (through the nose) No effort, just watch this amazing thing that sustains life. Be amazed by it. Give thanks for it. Enjoy the sensation of the breath moving through you.

5. Let the breath start to move you. Belly out as you inhale, in as you exhale, fingers spread with your inhale,palms soften with the exhale. Slowly, let the movements grow. 

6. Maintain your internal sense of what the body wants and move it somehow. Maybe it wants to stretch out, maybe it wants to move quickly or slowly. Move from lying, from sitting, from kneeling, from standing. Try not to think about achieving something. It doesn't need to look like something you would see in a  book, or even like anything we have done in class, but trust that what we have done in class will be remembered by your body as you go.   Feel from the inside rather than trying to imagine with your mind what it looks like from the outside. Any movement is good, especially if you keep noticing the breath while you're moving. 

7. Stop and be still again. How does the body feel now? The mind? The breath?

8. Repeat step 5, 6 and 7 if you have time, and especially if your body is suggesting you need to move differently to how you just did to even out the left and right sides of the body, or the front and back etc.

9. Always lie flat or with knees bent after you've had enough. Even if there isn't time to do it. For as long as you can allow. Be still and breathe.  Count the breath backwards from 21 or 12 or 3 or 108. (Chose a number between 1 and infinity)

10. Come out slowly to sit or stand. Finish mindfully with a breath or an internal thank you or an intention for the rest of your day.  Enjoy the benefits of connecting with yourself from your practice.

 

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