Creating A Practice

​When it comes to yoga, people seem to treat it either as a practice or as a hobby. Those who treat yoga as a practice seem to get for more benefit from it.  Those who treat it as a hobby seem to get some benefit from it, but often their practice is not sustainable and they often lose touch with their yoga when they need it most.

What is the difference between a practice and a hobby? A practice is something you do whether you feel like it or not.  A hobby is something you do when you feel like doing it. Yoga is meant to be a daily practice. Honestly it's meant to be practiced at all times in a sense, but we need to take baby steps. We will get there eventually.

If you want to get the most out of your yoga practice it is essential to create a daily practice. That means something you can do at the same time, the same way, every single day.

Because we are looking to do this practice every single day I suggest something between 5 and 15 minutes. You can always add more when you are done. The point is to pick something you can commit to every single day for the foreseeable future. 

You can choose from a morning, afternoon or night practice. It's up to you. You can use your daily practice to energize and motivate for the day or you can use it to unwind and relax. Just pick something simple that you are absolutely sure you can commit to doing every single day. 

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

Morning:

5 Tibetan Rites

Sun Salutations
Spinning Twists
Warm-Up Exercises of Your Choice
Seated Meditation
Breathing Exercises

Night:
Meditation/Visualization
Stretching 
Gentle Twists
Savasana
Alternate Nostril Breathing

For years my go to daily practice has been the five tibetan rites, which I love. To learn more check out: