The energy and fun of practicing with a community of people, learning, sweating and breathing together is amazing but we also love working one-on-one! Whether you are Yoga newbie or have been practicing for some time private yoga sessions has amazing benefits. In fact Yoga was traditionally designed to be taught in this way. If you are new to Yoga and feel intimidated by the idea of going into a room full of people, you can learn the basic poses safely and at your own pace. If you are more experienced and want to deepen your existing practice or nail some more advanced postures you can get specific guidance on how to do this. Check out 5 other benefits of Private Yoga....
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Have you every been a stressed out student? Maybe you are doing your finals right now and feel like your brain is about to explode with all the information you need to remember. We study our whole lives and in the modern world there is a lot of credit and importance on studying. We go to school as little children, then high school, maybe college, universtity. Then we have to do extra trainings at work, studying the Ikea instructions on how to put your furniture together, learn to drive, learn another language or whatever. As we keep learning we keep growing and this keeps our minds active and alert! We can also become masters on certain topics and subjects. But what about mastering ourselves? “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” - Aristotle In Yoga we have Niyamas, which are kind of ethical codes towards ourselves. Svadhaya is one of these Niyamas and means Self Study. We could call this principle 'the journey within' or exploring 'inner space' instead of outer space! How can we apply this to our own physical Yoga practice? When we practice asanas (the Yoga poses) we are becoming more mindful and aware of ourselves. Instead of checking a heart rate monitor to see how many calories we are burning, we can feel our heart rate as we bring our hands to the centre of our chest in Anjali Mudra (prayer position). Notice how the quality of breath changes as we move through a backbend or bound positions. Notice your thoughts and the feeling of the letting the body relax in Savasana. By simply watching ourselves on the Yoga mat we are studying ourselves, our bodies and our minds. We can look within and realise a great many things that about ourselves. Maybe this will lead to some new ways of feeling and seeing.
We may live in London, New York, Paris or Rome, but we all firstly live in our bodies. There is so much to be learnt and so many wonderful things we can learn about ourselves from on the wonderful internal journey of a Yoga practice! Hey there lovely people. This is a funny topic. Hana and I had a little discussion with each other about this last night. So basically one of is a night owl and the other an early bird. After much heated discussion we conclude that we don't think its better to practice in the morning than any other time. It just totally depends on you and your life, your personality, preferences and circumstances at this moment. Daily life schedules change at times for all of us. Being flexible enough to go with flow regarding times and lengths of our practice is important. Aiming to stick with rigid schedules can sometimes exhaust us or leave us feeling like a failure if we don't stick to it. There are many benefits of practicing in both the morning and evening. So we thought we would bring you some ideas from both sides. “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” Albert Einstein You may have heard that its traditional to practice Yoga in the morning, and it is. There are many reasons for this. Its is very hot in India so the early morning may well be the only time of day that a physical practice bearable. But we aren't living the ashram life, we are living the crazy city life. Honoring traditions are great but honoring yourself and your circumstances is just as important. Here are some pros to morning Yoga Practice.
And here my loves are some reasons that a morning practice may not be for you....at the moment!
“I want to caution you against the idea that balance has to be a routine that looks the same week in and week out.” Kevin Thoman Well we hope we that you practice Yoga and keep enjoying and reaping the many benefits. Whether you practice in the morning, evening or the middle of the day. At home, in your office, workplace or studio. It's all good!
Lots of Love to you. Thank you for reading. Have you ever taken a Yoga class and felt so happy that you achieved a new pose? Or felt amazing that you were stronger or more flexible? But what happens when the thing you did last week doesn't happen today? Struggling to achieve the amazing Yoga pose we did last week or maintain a certain "level" of practice could leave us feeling frustrated, unsatisfied and defeated :( "There is no end of craving. Hence contentment alone is the best way to happiness, therefore acquire contentment" Swami Sivananda Its easy to feel wonderful when things are going well. The problem can be when we get too attached to that. Maybe we go back to a class to get that same good feeling and then its not the same. We might not feel great, wobble all over the place, feel irritated by others around us or ourselves and our body. We can so easily come out of being present and go to a place of judging ourselves. After all we come from a culture of being judged very often, grades at school, college, university, assessed in our workplace and finances and probably worst of all by ourselves. But fret not friends....the answer lies in 'Santosha' Santosha is one of the Niyamas (a kind of ethical code towards yourself in Yoga). It means Contentment. Santosha helps us to be at peace with what is here now. Being present in our Yoga practice means accepting the way our body is today rather than wishing it was how it was 2 weeks ago, 5 years ago or 6 months into the future. Mentally cursing out your tight hamstrings is not the way to path to happiness. Practicing contentment means dropping the judgements, pressure and negative mind chatter and replacing it with love, self acceptance and honour for our bodies.
Remember if you are city dwellers like us life is always go, go, go. Practicing contentment on the Yoga mat can give us that unconditonal safe space to check in and come home to ourselves. Remember, contentment in Yoga isn't something that needs to be achieved it is something we can allow. Santosha-Contentment can keep our Yoga journey full of happiness, peace and joy! Om Shanti! Saucha meaning cleanliness or purity is a Niyama in Yoga. The Niyamas could be described as guidelines, duties or ethical codes towards yourself that help you along the Yogic Path. In our day to day life off the Yoga Mat we can relate Saucha to our outsides (e.g taking a shower) our insides (what we eat, drink) as well as the way we think, speak and do things. If you practice, sweat, breathe, mediate and search for inner peace on your mat....its nice to have it clean. But you may be wondering how do I clean my Yoga mat? Here are a few ways....
How do you clean your mat? Have any amazing homemade recipes for a lush smelling mat spray? Would love to know. Let us know in the comments below. Until next time. Happy cleaning.
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