Home Practice Pace

Hi Sandra

A home practice is your own! You can do what you like. You sound very ambitious and motivated. So let me see if I can guide you with a few suggestions to sustain your motivation and feed it so that you always enjoy your practice and learning something new every day, for the long term.

So here are several ideas for chunking your learning for success.

>> Start your first classes by watching the first set of each pose on DVD 1 (the double set classes) and then doing the second set. This will help you build strength and stamina too.

>> There is really no real benefit to making your class too long and introducing too many breaks. It’s very distracting for your mind and you may end up dreading the time it takes to finish a class. So try to limit it to about 90 minutes. It’s a pretty long time as it is. 😉

>> I would suggest that reading the introductory chapters in the manual will help you understand some more about some general principles of yoga and your own learning process.

>> To support your learning process you can choose to simply review one pose before class (from DVD 1 by selecting the pose only, and if you want very detailed information also read the corresponding chapter on that pose. It has the step by step process including photos of technique and then a comprehensive section on the common mistakes and how to fix them. The photos will help you recognize and therefore avoid making those mistakes from the get-go). Then after your review of that pose, you do the whole class and only refer to the manual if you really need to. Try to enjoy the flow of the class. Trust yourself!

>> For example a great place to start would be to review Pranayama breathing exercise.

>> You could choose any pose or a couple of poses after that. Here are a few important poses to review. Half Moon, Standing Head to Knee, Standing Bow, Standing Separate Leg Intense Stretch, Sit-Up, Camel, Rabbit, Floor Head to Knee and Floor Intense Stretch.

All these poses have some important mechanisms and principles to learn that will be repeated in some way in the rest of the class. I handpicked those poses above because they will address many safety issues for you and minimize any risk of injury.

I won’t give you the next few to review just yet. Please feel free to come back and ask me which ones to guide you through next. There is no need to overwhelm any new student with too many things to do (read about that in the introductory chapters “Learning About Learning” from page 14).

The main thing is to enjoy your process, your discovery. The poses are fascinating in themselves. But remember to let go of trying to do them perfectly right from the beginning. It’s OK to make mistakes. So just review a bit at a time. Take your cues from the stills in the DVDs which are clearly marked showing you technique and mistakes. You’ll also really value having the chance to go through a few poses without looking at the manual every few moments. It will help you get the meditative benefits of your practice and not just get the poses right. It is an holistic practice after all! So allow it to unfold.

OK now for your other question: Can you practice every day? Well, yes you can. Many people practice 5-6 times per week. It is important to give your body rest and recovery time whenever you need it. One day per week is sufficient. And a practice of 3-4 times per week is a very satisfying frequency.

I hope that at least begins to answer your questions! Remember, we’re here to help!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂