Self practice
Experiment, play and grow
Self practice: cornerstone of your yoga practice
Here you can play and invent, experiment and discover, and put into practice what you learn in class. Maybe you want to practice at home, but it’s hard to find the motivation, space or equipment. And there is no one around to help you. We offer you the possibility to practice in our studio – you do your own thing, but with each other. You see teachers in the room, you can ask questions or work together. It’s a bit like practicing at the Iyengar Institute in Pune (but quieter – see photo).
This is how you practice
How?
What do you do? For how long? And how do you know if you’re doing it right? These questions are asked a lot. We even dedicated a blog post to it once. But here we briefly summarize what you can do to develop your own practice, with us in the studio or at home.
How long will it take?
It depends! Your own practice doesn’t have to be the same as a class in terms of time or intensity. Start with 15 or 20 minutes. It’s better to do a little, a lot than to do a lot, a little’ said BKS Iyengar. In the beginning, you may be able to hold a pose for 30 or 45 seconds. After a while, this will get longer. For beginners, it is better to repeat a posture more often than to hold it for a long time.
Am I doing it right?
You should be able to keep breathing gently while practicing. If your breath stalls or gets heavy, get out of the pose. You want to use the muscles you need, and relax where you don’t need muscle tension. For example, around your diaphragm, throat, jaws, tongue, lips and eyes.
you can just start
How do you know what to do?
You can start by doing what you remember from the classes. Or look in a book, search for pictures or videos on the internet, or click on the links below. Don’t worry too much in the beginning if you don’t know exactly if you’re doing it ‘right’. Eventually you will get a better understanding of what to do and when. Building a good sequence is a bit like cooking: you have to do it with the ingredients you can get, and the result depends on many factors.
Home practice sequence Level 1
Home practice sequence Level 2
Great sequences and instructions on Joan White’s website
A collection of sequences on our Pinterest board