by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat
Last week, after publishing the article outlining Forty Days of Yoga, I received an email from a reader excited about the book. She was particularly excited about having a set programme of yoga she and her students could do.
Pause.
A moment of clarity.
Forty Days of Yoga is not a set practice programme. There is no instruction on asana at all, and for very good reason.
The world does not need more information on what postures to do, how and when. There are many excellent videos, audio recordings, books, websites and classes out there that can show you what to do in a practice.
Despite this wealth of information on yoga practices, people say this to me all the time:
I want to practice yoga at home but I don’t know what to do.
I used to wonder why they didn’t find out what to do. Why hadn’t they:
- Bought a book with set sequences like Rodney Yee’s ‘Poetry of the Body’?
- Booked a couple of one-on-one sessions with a teacher and asked for a set practice?
- Paid more attention in class and every day teach yourself one posture from the class sequence?
- Googled sun salutations?
- Bought a wall poster with basic asana?
These are all easy steps that take care of the issue of “what” to do. Within a week, they could have been practicing.
Then I realised that the real reason many people who want to practice yoga at home don’t is they don’t know how to go about creating space and commitment in their life for a home yoga practice.
People don’t know:
- where to practice
- when to practice
- how long to practice for
- what to wear while practicing
- how to practice with a busy family life
- how to practice with looming work deadlines
- how to know what counts as a yoga practice
- why to practice
- how to overcome mat resistance
- how to get friends and family onside so they support your commitment
People needed to know how to create a home yoga practice and stick to it, not what to do in a practice.
So I wrote Forty Days of Yoga – the how of practice, not the what of practice.
Through the book and it’s worksheets I take you on a process that creates change in your psyche so you figure out how to make a home yoga practice happen for yourself. The book helps you create your own tools and strategies specific to your life and your challenges, so once you start your Forty Days, nothing can derail you.
All this process work soon makes it clear that in the end, the only thing that ever stops us practicing yoga is our mind.
When I wrote Forty Days of YogaI distilled down the process I’ve used over the last eight years of home yoga practice to observe and work with my mind so I am in charge of it and so I keep coming back to my mat.
I didn’t know if my process would work for other people. But I figured if it worked for me, there was a good chance it would work for you too.
It does.
Before this 40 days of yoga started (only 2 weeks ago!), there is no way I would have even considered doing yoga (or anything for that matter) after a long, tiring day. I would have done what needed to be done and then flaked with a book or watched tv.
After only 13 days, my mind doesn’t argue or offer alternatives, it just follows behind me, obediently, like a well trained dog. Sara Foley, Smells Good, Feels Good
That’s what people need.
Not a set yoga programme (although these are valuable tools often necessary to help us create our home yoga practice).
But a process that helps you understand and master your minds so you can practice yoga every day no matter what.
So my lovely reader Crystal, I haven’t created a set yoga practice. What I’ve created is the process you need to make a set yoga practice work for you. That’s an infinitely more powerful tool.
Welcome to Forty Days of Yoga. Coming January.
What do you think? Do you wish you had a home yoga practice and don’t (yet)? Is it because you don’t know what to do in your practice?
Buy Forty Days of Yoga here.
I think the reason people can’t build a home practice is because most Yoga classes are just a series of asanas called out by the instructor. Yoga is not taught in a Yoga class. Teaching happens during teacher training, for about $3000. When I switched to Iyengar Yoga (after Anusara imploded) I discovered that Iyengar instructors actually teach Yoga at every class. I journal the class later, writing down poses and instructions, even if some of the poses/instructions are repeated. Plus I practice the Geeta Iyengar weekly sequences in the back of her Preliminary Course book. I look forward to your book, “Forty Days of Yoga”.
Hey Ed,
Most excellent point! There’s a difference between instructing asana and teaching yoga, and it would be helpful if we were able to use language to make it clear which is which. Sounds like you’ve got a great system for internalising what you learn in class.
Many blessings,
KL
I have had a similar experience, Ed. After discovering Iyengar yoga 12 years ago, I find every other class a pale imitiation. I don’t want to watch the teacher doing yoga! i want him/her to teach, correct, adjust and talk me through it. Now I know how to do it, it’s much easier to have a regular, fulfilling yoga practice at home (thanks to Kara-Leah’s 40 days of yoga that is!)
Kara-Leah, Sara, I’m on a two week break between Iyengar classes. I planned to take one or two classes at the health club where I started my Yoga quest. I was procrastinating whether to go to a class and I heard myself say, “But if I practice at home I get to do my Yoga”. That was a wow! moment. Can’t wait to tell my Iyengar teacher in January (Mayan calendar notwithstanding). Ed
Hey Ed,
Yes!!!! The perfect time to commit to your own home yoga practice, where you get to practice exactly what it is you need. Here’s to many more ‘Wow!’ moments.
Hey Sara,
When you find the yoga that’s right for you… you sure know eh?