Yoga Hero: All of Yoga Podcast – Episode 15

Tips for developing a regular yoga practice

In our most recent episode – episode 14 – we covered how to prepare for your first yoga class. Well, once you’ve done your first class, it’s a lot easier to do your second, then your third and so on… So a sensible next step is looking to develop a regular, consistent and beneficial yoga practice.

If you’re looking to bring more yoga in to your life, to practice with more consistency or regularity and you’d like some motivation or guidance, this episode is for you; whether you’ve done 1 yoga class or 100!

Here’s a sneak peek at our top tips to develop a regular, beneficial yoga practice:

Know why you’re practicing yoga
Be open to trying different styles of yoga, and with different teachers
Listen to your body
Create the environment
Get the equipment
Get a membership
Start by moving your spine

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Tips for developing a regular yoga practice – Transcript

In our most recent episode – episode 14 we covered how to prepare for your first yoga class. Well, once you’ve done your first class, it’s a lot easier to do your second, then your third and so on… So a sensible next step is looking to develop a regular, consistent and beneficial yoga practice.

Developing a regular yoga practice is essentially developing a habit, and if you’re interesting in forming and keeping good habits we honestly can’t recommend the book ‘Atomic Habits’ enough, written by James Clear. It’s a no-nonsense guide to setting and keeping to habits and insight in to why it can sometimes be really hard. There’s a link in our show notes to get the book from bookshop.org.

Let’s crack on!

Know why you’re practicing yoga

There could be a gazillion different reasons that someone practices yoga. For you to have, in your back pocket, the motivation to practice when you just cannot be bothered, you need to know why you’re practicing. If you practice yoga because you have a sore lower back, and yoga helps, when you’re having a low motivation day, you can remember how much better your back feels and suddenly, it’s easier to get on your mat. If you practice to help manage stress levels, and you’re feeling de-motivated becuase you’ve had one of those days, remembering your why will help you dig deep and do a class. So, take a minute right now, and think ‘why do I practice yoga?’ – answer the question in your head, or out loud and keep it in your back pocket.

Be open to trying different styles of yoga, and different teachers

If you’ve, so far, attended challenging Power Flow style classes, you’re probably thinking ‘there’s no way I can do that every day’ – and nor is that what we would recommend either! Yoga includes breathing, meditation, Nidra which is essentially deep relaxation, Restorative yoga where the body is completely supported and poses are held for minutes at a time. It definitely does not have to be all active styles of yoga.

As part of your exploration, try styles that are new to you and try them with different teachers too. Some teachers teach from an anatomical viewpoint, some are very spiritual, some use lots of Sanskrit – the right teachers are out there for you, and when you find them, you’ll have a range of teachers and styles that you can turn to, to find the perfect class for what you need each day.

As part of our online All of Yoga membership which is just £9.99 per month includes our Yoga Beyond Asana classes, which incorporate basically all of the above – breathing practice, guided meditation even for people who really feel that they can’t meditate, some movement and an accessible insight in to a concept from yoga philosophy. So if you’re looking to develop a regular practice that goes beyond the physical, that could be perfect for you. It’s just £9.99 per month and there’s no minimum contract. There’s a link in our show notes to take a look!

Listen to your body

This is something that’s said a lot a lot in yoga classes… and it’s a bit of a toughy because if you don’t really know what it means… that’s not something that a yoga teacher can really help with – they can’t get inside of your body and read the messages and signals for you. So listening to your body – how can we do that? Well first of all, check that your yoga practice is distraction free, so no YouTube yoga classes whilst also watching the TV or being on the phone.

Then, have a little bank of questions that you can ask yourself in a pose:

‘How would I describe this sensation?’ – so if the sensation is ‘delightful, therapeutic, relaxing’ and so on, these are nice terms that indicate all is well in the pose. However if you’d term the sensation anything like ‘painful, hot’ sharp, on the edge’ – these indicate that all is not well in the pose. So how can you make it work better for you? Do something different or back off a little?

Back to our bank of questions, you could ask yourself

‘Can I go further, and do I want to?’ – yoga is not no pain, no gain. We’re not pushing ourselves just for the sake of pushing ourselves. However, if you have a bit more strength you can build within a pose, or a bit more space within a pose, there’s no bad thing about moving in to that. So if you ask yourself, in your head or out loud ‘Can I go a bit further, and do I want to?’ and the answer is yes – that is absolutely listening to your body!

‘Is this creating tension somewhere?’ – I will see people put such a lot of effort in to a lunge, making the stride very long, aiming to really open up the front of the hip of the back leg… but to do this, their jaw is clenched and their shoulders are doing a great job of appearing to be earrings. If you’re straining to be in a pose and to hold it, this is an indication that something can be tweaked to make the whole experience more beneficial to you. What is that? Less effort? Slightly less challenge?

‘Can I bring my focus to my breath?’ – If you can bring your focus to your breath and make your breath as steady as possible, thats a great indicator that what you’re doing is serving you.

Let’s just recap on those questions that you can ask yourself to help you listen to your body:

‘How would I describe this sensation?’

‘Can I go further, and do I want to?’

‘Is this creating tension somewhere?’

‘Can I bring my focus to my breath?’

Create the environment

If you’re practicing at a studio, then this is done for you. But if you’re practicing at home, consider creating a space with an environment where you really want to practice. It doesn’t have to be that your mat is always rolled out, ready to go – in fact in many homes this just isn’t realistic, but can you make the environment as close to ready as possible, so you only need to do one or two things to take it from existing space, to your yummy yoga space.

Get the equipment

This very much depends on you, and what you’re like as a person, but as a studio owner I really have noticed that when people treat themselves to their own mat, the regularity of their yoga practice increases – it’s like you’ve really committed to it somehow. Depending on your intention and your budget, you could also treat yourself to a bolster, a bolster is like a yoga pillow, you can lie over it in a number of different ways, or lean it on you in a number of different ways and it can really add to your practice. You might also consider a brick, and or a strap. If you practice in a studio, they will have props there already, and if you practice at home you can substitute props for household items so I’m most certainly not saying that you need them, hwoever, for some people, investing in props and having them can be a real motivator to practice more.

Get a membership

Similarly to the previous point – as a studio owner I have really noticed that people who have memberships with us at Yoga Hero practice 4 or 5 times a week, or even more. It’s like the barrier of paying per class has been removed, and there’s almost no reason to not come a few times a week. Our membership doesn’t have a minimum contract, so try that out in Leeds or if you want to practice with us online. If you practice at a different studio, please do check the T&Cs before signing up to a membership!

Start by moving your spine

If you move your spine in all the ways it moves, the rest of the body will follow. Take the pressure and the demand out of your physical practice – it doesn’t need to be a certain length of time or a certain level of physical demand, you can just roll out your mat, come to a comfortable seated position and move your spine in to a forward fold shape, remembering our ‘listen to your body’ questions to make sure it feels lovely. Then move the spine in to a back bend shape. Then twist the spine. Then side bend. Come on to your hands and knees and repeat; forward fold shape, backbend shape, twist and side bend to both sides. Then what… can you be lead by your body now! If yes; great, go for it. If no, well ok no problem, you’ve provided some movement for the spine, brilliant!

If you’re interested in anatomy, and how the body moves in yoga, we have a free Anatomy Hero Masterclass: the Spine in Yoga, which you’ll find really useful – the link to watch that is in our shownotes

Let’s just recap on those tips; some might be perfect for you, others maybe not so much, but one or two at least will help you develop a regular, beneficial yoga practice:

Know why you’re practicing yoga
Be open to trying different styles of yoga, and with different teachers
Listen to your body
Create the environment
Get the equipment
Get a membership
Start by moving your spine

So that’s it lovely heroes!

If you have a spare couple of seconds, we’d be so grateful if you could rate and review this podcast just where ever you’re listening to it, and if you could share with a friend too, well that would just be amazing!

Go and have a fabulous day, remember, you’re your own hero.

See you next time!