Building A Daily Practice

Building a daily practice..

This was a big life changer for me. I love public classes, I have alwaysss loved public classes even more so since becoming a teacher. Each and every class, every teacher shows me something new, there is always something to learn. A new breathe technique, a new mantra, a new way of executing a posture, a powerful one liner that the mind can rest in ~ however it is very easy to become attached to public classes, relying on the teacher to guide us rather then taking the time to tap into the body and decipher what we really need. After all, this is the true practice of yoga, removing all external things and tapping into a deeper realm of awareness.

In the world we live in, its totally normal for us to be living in our mind and thinking everything has to be in a set system to see the results or to be doing it “right”.. its like that check list we can tick off to prove we have done the work. Its very common to begin yoga and relate it to every other physical activity, however this is when self practice can come in as a pithy tool and assist you in looking into blockages in the body where we have stored emotions, experiences, expression and so much more. By tapping in and seeing these spaces of suppression, we can then see and understand ourselves more and more.

Im going to share with you my journey to self practice, what and how each stepped helped me and what my self practice looks like (with space to be constantly shifting and changing).

Discovering a set system:

There are certain yoga practices that are designed to be a set system, these are amazing tools to teach us discipline, structure and to help us to understand our bodies.

My first introduction to yoga was Ashtanga, ashtanga is a set system - meaning every time you get on the mat you flow through the same series of postures and as you master each posture your teacher then gifts you a new pose to practice and incorporate, eventually making your way through all 4 series.

Ashtanga is an incredibly strong practice. Physically & mentally - it was originally created for 18 year old men who were entering the army to build strength & discipline, and is known to be a very masculine practice.

I have always been a free spirit - moving through life day to day feeling into what comes next, although being this way has blessed me profoundly, during my early teens it also presented a great deal of laziness and indecisiveness. So for me - the discipline and structure was exactly what I needed.

I still jump on my mat from time to time and call on the Ashtanga system, it really is such a beautiful practice when you allow the feminine aspect of the breathe to take the lead and experience each movement as a moving meditation.

Im a high advisor of learning a set system when first stepping into the practice of yoga, to set your foundation. A lot of the time we are first exposed to yoga with very little body awareness, so when you walk into a class and the teacher says “just breathe, feel into the body” we don’t actually even know how to do that - it ain’t easy to unwind, to un-do, not to mention all the emotion that can arise with it and not knowing what to do with it.

The benefits of learning a set system are:

• Having a set foundation to learn - which you can then later expand & explore.

• Not having to think about what postures you are going to practice - just jumping on your mat and being able to completely tap into the breath and body.

• Practicing the same postures everyday to learn the names (western & Sanskrit)

• Set systems are also known as moving meditation, so if you have a hard time sitting in meditation this is a great tool.

• Set systems are generally traditionally designed - so by learning a traditional practice to begin with, you are starting off your yoga journey on a very powerful foot.

*For every class you do publicly, I advise you do at home 10 times before stepping into another guided class (helping to remove external distraction and influences). This also helps us in the transition of moving from a class room to different environments, like home, or wherever you choose to do your self practice.*

Exposing yourself to different classes:

Just by this step you should have a pretty good idea about:

• The names of commonly used postures and how they are executed

• What a deep yoga asana practice feels like

• What a yoga asana practice can do to the body/mind

• A deeper understanding of your body - what it benefits from and what just isn’t working for you right now.

From this foundation, its a really good time to experience different styles of yoga asana. There are so many and a lot of us don’t even know!

Hatha, Vinyasa, Kundalini, Yin, Restorative, Mandala Flow, Ashtanga, Restorative, Iyengar the list goes on and on.

Hopefully you have gained what was noted in bullet points above (and possibly even more!), your practice now is to forget the logistics and linear movements and hopefully step into a class agenda-less, open to a new experience. It is great to learn new transitions and how it can completely change your practice and is great to take these with you when creating a self practice, to adjust to the bodies daily needs.

Create your space:

You have potentially already been practicing bits and pieces out of the studio now - from here I highllllyyyy recommend creating your maha(abundant) shala space at home !

This is such a treat - make it a gift to yourself! A reflection of you, what you are manifesting, what you are invoking into your life.. what inspires you, builds you & provides strength.

Create an alter that you can put your favourite deities on, a photo of your family members, crystals, flowers, your favourite incense, anything you desire ! Make this space an offering to yourself, so you can step away feeling gratitude and peace in your heart knowing that you have begun &/or ended your day with an offering to yourself, a gift of love. Bring in speakers if you enjoy practicing to music, Candles for a soothing touch, Oil diffusers, anything! This is your space, There are no rules !

My only offering of advice: avoid adding mirrors. Unless its a small mirror you wish to add to your alter, in which case your are choosing to see your light and give gratitude to all of your beautiful attributes you withhold. Otherwise avoid adding mirrors which will distract your senses. Forget about what the pose looks like, feel it. We want to consciously remove all senses and completely go in - In the 8 limbs of Ashtanga yoga we call this Pratyahara, the fifth limb.

Get clear about your intention:

What are you wishing to focus on today ?

Building strength ? Inversions ? Heart opening ? Hips ? Restoration ? These are some physical examples or we can touch on the subtle layers and focus on sending the compassion of the practice to a member of our family who needs it the most, or your practice may be to slow down if your in an rajastic dominant state, it may be to push yourself a little further if you are quite tamasic.. meaning lethargic, heavy & groggy.. we want to balance these gunas to create a Sattvic, balanced state.

There is infinite possibilities you can focus your intention on before beginning your practice but I advise you to get clear on this before you begin. Set the tone so that your mind is not wondering and wavering through your practice. Use this intention to come back to when the monkey mind steps in.

How are you going to create a practice that balances you, from this self investigation.

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Roll out your mat, close your eyes and breathe..

Be kind to yourself ~ some days the creativity, movement & strength is light, accessible & profound, and in other times the gift is to witness the movement in the stillness and accept with full validation.. this is yoga.

As my teacher says, “everyday is a new experience, a surprise party!”. To take this with us beginning our practice it creates space for the new and unexpected to arise and be welcomed. How we choose to deal with the unexpected is solely up to us individually. We use our yoga asana as a tool to build strength and agility, to create openness and spaciousness to be able to move in and out of the forever arising unexpected flow of life.

Enjoy your practice! Incorporate some of these tools, feel what works for you. We call it a practice for a reason, there is never an end point, yet there is never anywhere to get to. You are already it.

Happy Yoga,

I love you !

Ellie