The Inner Teacher

My teacher, Gloria, says that if you are going to class more than 2 times a week you are going too often. Her point being that the real learning happens on our mats with our own bodies. She says that we go to class to learn but the practice happens at home. 

Yoga in this country is consumed in great quantities. There are studios offering classes day and night. It is turning yoga into exercise and not a journey of personal discovery. Beginners strongly benefit from public classes. They need to learn the architecture of yoga and connect with their bodies before they begin doing anything extensive at home. Advanced beginners on up ideally should be on their mats at home a few days a week. Yoga is a practice of 'involution.' We can't do that in a room full of people with instructions being received from the outside in. The classroom is food for the internal process but yoga does not happen until you begin to look deep within - by yourself on your mat.

I resisted a home practice and was a studio bunny going 4-6 times a week to public classes. I was devoted to a teacher but still all my yoga happened in public. My teacher teaches publicly only twice a week and is gone a lot so for a good long while this meant I just practiced WAY less because I could not or would not commit to taking the mat out at home. Also, a home practice is required for my teacher training. Yet, I resisted. The lack of practice started to take a toll on my body until a certain point it became a choiceless choice.

With that being said, with the shift in my teaching schedule and the lack of Iyengar classes at their level, a few students have asked me about home practice. Here are some hints and ideas that come from my experience with this:

1.  Find your inner teacher- that innate intelligence we all have buried deep within our bodies. For more on this, check out a fellow teacher’s blog post: http://myfiveminuteyoga.com/2624/where-do-you-find-your-inner-teacher/) 
2.  Keep it simple – I do most of my advanced asana work in the studio with Manouso. Rarely, do I work on drop backs, Vrschikasana, or Eka Pada Rajokapotasana at home. I might work the preparatory actions but most of my mat work at home is on fundamentals.
3. Learn to listen. Start your practice this way: Adho Mukha Virasana, Adho Mukha Svanasana, Tadasana – Take your temperature with these pose – where is the unevenness? Where is the tightness? Where is the breath moving/not moving? This is where you practice can start from…Oh, my hamstrings feel tight and bound up and right hip is kicked out further to the side in Tadasana. Or, I am feeling lethargic and drained so I will go into handstand to wake-up.  The practice IS you – use it to heal, expand, unwind, and rest the parts of you that need it today.
4. Heal yourself.  I practiced through my back injury. It seemed nuts but Manouso gave me ways to work with it and I just did those poses over and over and over again. Seeking a little more space and a little more relief every day. The healing happened on my at home.
5. Start really small – everyone can find 15-20 mins everyday. Take out your mat and do standing poses. If you don’t know what to DO in your standing poses, think about what your teacher gave you in your last class and keep working with it.
6. Do your inversions if nothing else. If I can’t do a whole practice, I at least stand on my head and do some form of shoulder stand.
7. Use this time to work on YOUR challenges. Not every class is going to address what you need. If you shoulders are extremely tight – do arm work, setubandha work, and back bend prep work to open them up.
8. Watch the mind – it is going to find the television, the dog, the dinner, the book and a whole host of other things more interesting than being alone on the mat. Can you stay with it?
9.  Do savasana – a nice long juicy one. I sometimes give myself 10 whole minutes for this pose to really rest.
10. Use a timer – I start with 30 mins and then either see how I am at that point and keep going or stop and wrap up if that is all the time I have. Keeping time helps keep you on the mat. I ALWAYS use a timer for my inversions. Doing headstand without Manouso talking me through it and without a timer meant I would stay up for like 3 minutes and think it was 8. I now set the 7 or 8 mins on the timer where I can see it in my headstand. It keeps me up there.
11. Be creative – I usually don’t practice with music but hell if I need it on a certain day, I put it on. Use the counter, the stools and the couch in ways to improve your poses. Have fun.
12. You don’t need special clothes. I have practiced in a t-shirt and underwear, pajamas, loose baggy sweatpants and very rarely actually put on the yoga clothes.

Try it and tell me what happens to your practice. You learn a lot about yourself in that precious time on the mat alone. And the learning goes much deeper a perferct Utthita Trikoasana.

I am going to start posting some sequences to help people find their way on their mats and as always if there are questions please ask. In the meantime here are the foundation poses (I borrowed this from a fellow Iyengar teacher: http://www.yogawithholly.com/YogaPracticeHome.htm):

Yoga Essentials
Samasthiti (Mountain Pose)
Vrksasana (Tree Pose)
Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose)
Virabhadrasana 2 (Warrior 2 Pose) 
Dandasana (Staff Pose)
Padangustha Dandasana (use a belt around the feet) (Half-forward fold w/ concave spine)
Viparita Karanai (Legs up the wall pose)

Level 1
Samasthiti (and all arm work "hasta mudra") (Mountain Pose)
Vrksasana (Tree Pose)
Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose)
Virabhadrasana 2 (Warrior 2 Pose)
Utthita Parsvakonasana (Extended Side Angle Pose)
Vimanasana (Variation of Warrior 1 Pose)
Parsvottanasna (concave spine, then head down) 
Ardha Halasana to Eka Pada Sarvangasana (Hlaf-plough to one foot shoulderbalance using a wall or a chair, if needed)
Bharadvajasana 1 (Simple Twist) 
Dandasana to Paschimottanasana (Staff Pose to full forward bend)
Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclinging Bound Angle Pose)

Level 2
Samasthiti (and all arm work "hasta mudra")
Utthita Trikonasana
Virabhadrasana 2
Utthita Parsvakonasana
Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose)
Parvritta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle)
Prasarita Padottanasna (concave spine, head down) (Wide leg standing forward bend Pose)
Parvatasana in Virasana (then hands to soles of feet and fold forward, forehead to block or floor) (Hero's Pose)
Sirsasana (Headbalance)
Sarvangasana (Shoulderbalance)
Halasana (Plough Pose)
Dandasana to Paschimottanasana
Supta Baddha Konasana

You can also download sequences at www.IYNAUS.org.