Deepening your yoga practice

Yoga gently but firmly pushes me out of my self-constructed limitations and beliefs. Although part of me feels like I am a seasoned yogini, another part of me is aware of the wealth of information on the subject. It would take a thousand lifetimes to acquire such vast knowledge.

When you’ve been doing yoga for a while it’s common to get to this point when you feel you want to take your practice further. You sense that you are just scratching the surface of what yoga truly is and are eager to go deeper. Or perhaps you feel like you have hit a plateau and want to make changes.

When I am stuck, complacent and stagnant, yoga helps me notice and acknowledge. It usually starts somewhere in my life: at work, with my partner, or in my hobbies. Soon enough it shows up on my yoga mat. I start to get bored of whatever sadhana (personal daily spiritual practice) I am doing and create excuses to skip or shorten my practice. I develop a sense of I am “not good at it” and tell myself I am not making any progress. I may even feel like giving up.

Gratefully, I journal. In doing so I identify these patterns, recognize them, and take action to halt the downward spiral.

I have developed steps to emerge from this stagnation, rediscover myself, and evolve and deepen my yoga practice.

Below are my suggestions – in no particular order – for developing your practice. Consider that you may find one step serves you, while another does not and that the effects can be cumulative. 

1. Set clear intentions

The most powerful step I can take when I am ready to revamp and rediscover my yoga practice is to know the why. Knowing why-you-do-what-you-do will benefit you on those days when you wonder why the hell you embarked on such a journey in the first place. A reassessment of your intentions helps when you start slacking off, or worse, consider giving up.

So, know why you practice. Do you do it for your physical well-being? Is it about creating balance in your life through asana and meditation? Do you practice to connect to your own spirituality and to the God of your own understanding? Whatever your reasons may be, make them clear; write them down, read them often.

2. Explore different styles of yoga

When it comes to physical yoga (or yoga asana) in the Western World, Hatha yoga is probably the most mainstream of them all. However, Hatha yoga is just one of many styles of yoga asana. I believe it is worth exploring the variety of practices, as each discipline has its own benefits and limitations. You may find that one style fits your lifestyle or worldview, while another may feel completely disconnected. Nevertheless, trying different approaches will give you new perspectives and insights into your practice.

So, take time to explore different yoga styles. There’s Yin Yoga, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Jivamukti, Restorative, Vinyasa, and many more. 

3. Learn about all 8 limbs of yoga

In my first yoga teacher training, it was eye-opening to learn that yoga is not simply about the physical postures. According to Patanjali, yoga Asana is only one of the eight limbs of yoga. The others being:

1. Yamas (external disciplines)

2. Niyamas (internal disciplines)

3. Asana (physical postures)

4. Pranayama (breath control or techniques)

5. Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses)

6. Dharana (focus, concentration)

7. Dhyana (meditation)

8. Samadhi (union, integration, bliss)

Although playing with advanced yoga poses can be fun, studying the limbs helped me realize that practicing asana is simply a gateway to a deeper, more fulfilling practice that encompasses body, mind and soul. 

On the days I may be physically unable to move my body (lack of time, illness, etc.), I can continue to practice and engage in yoga without ever getting in a yoga pose. It doesn’t make you less of a yogi or yogini.

The eight limbs are a profound and enlightening path of growth and I would highly-recommend exploring them.

4. Find teachers that you connect with

Finding teachers that inspire and keep me coming back to the mat makes a huge difference in my practice. Even as a teacher myself, I often pull out my mat and wonder what the heck I should do. Oftentimes I will sit, breathe, listen to my body, and move from a place of exploration and freedom. But I can also get very lazy, do the bare minimum, and call it a day. 

I come to my mat refreshed when I have teachers I enjoy. They encourage growth and exploration that might be inaccessible on my own.

Take the time to look around for a teacher you love, whether you like to practice in a studio or online. Make a list of your favourite teachers (hopefully in a variety of styles) and commit to periodically taking their classes. When you find someone you truly connect with, your practice will grow, and your chances of sticking with it will improve!

5. Commit to your practice

Be realistic! Sometimes I get overly excited when creating my weekly, monthly, or seasonal timetable. I’ll schedule a routine of daily hour-long morning and evening practices. As phenomenal and beneficial as this could be, it is probably not realistic. An unattainable schedule leads to feelings of failure. I sometimes forget that life happens.

I recommend a sustainable, stress-free commitment to practicing. What length of time can you really commit to regularly? As mentioned before, yoga has cumulative effects. A 20-minute daily session coupled with 5 minutes of meditation before bed is more beneficial than a 90-minute class once a week.  To really commit to your practice, it’s key to intentionally commit to a routine that you’re able to stick to as much as possible.

6. Create a sacred space

It’s important to set up a space that is yours and designated for your yoga practice, whether you live in a tiny house, a flat, or a large home. Again, it is easy to get caught up and think that you’ll redo your office into a yoga room. But try to be practical. If you can renovate, go for it. But remember that you don’t need a big, fancy space. Your yoga space can be in the balcony, right next to your bed, or in the corner of your living room. 

Whatever space you choose, take time to declutter and make it special in your own way. You may want to even create an altar with crystals or flowers. Maybe even put some plants around your mat.

Create a space designated for your practice that you’ll want to show up to. If possible, leave your mat unrolled on the floor. I find that I am more likely to do the yoga if all I must do is step onto my mat.

Remember, the more you show up, the more your practice will evolve. 

7. Develop community

Yoga means to yoke, to come together, with oneself, others, and the Universe. Get involved in your yoga community in a way that supports others and allows others to support you. Find a local studio, a yoga book club, create your own group to practice together at a park, or join an online community like EkhartYoga and follow a program together.

Find and create community in a way that will support your growth and encourage you to continue your yoga practice. There are many possibilities and the search may involve a bit of trial and error until you find the right energy for you. But it’s out there. And if the right energy isn’t, create it! 

8. Give yourself grace

Give yourself grace. I believe that this is the most important tip of all. As you deepen your practice remember that growth isn’t linear. You will find rocks in your path. Sometimes you may not practice, you may get sick and need reinvent how you do yoga. Consider the principle of Vairagya or non-attachment in your practice. Life will happen. You are practicing the true yoga if you remember to breathe, stay present, and remain open to and grateful for life.

You, my friend, have chosen the yogic path. And although finding the path may be difficult, seeking it is certainly worthwhile.

So, keep practicing. Keep growing. Keep living your life with a sense of wonder and gratitude, and the rest will fall into place as it may. 

Yoga for mental health

The ancient science of yoga unites poses with breathing and concentration to build strength, awareness and harmony between mind and body. Yoga provides many obvious physical benefits – flexibility, stamina, circulatory health, to name a few – and now more than ever, we realise its important role in our mental wellness too.

Self-care is a hot topic, thankfully, as with life continuing to pick up speed all around us – we’ve got to slow down and look inward, at our own mental health.

Yoga helps our mental health by:

• Relieving anxiety

• Lowering depression

• Promoting better sleep

• Fighting fatigue

• Decreasing stress

• Improving focus

• Increasing tolerance

Up the ante with the extensive neurological benefits of meditation. Studies show that it increases focus and concentration, and lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Anxiety, stress and depression are often inter-linked. They manifest in many different ways, causing everyones’ experience of mental illness to be unique, sometimes including:

• Physical sickness

• Difficulty breathing

• Emotional outbursts

• Low mood

• Poor sleep

• Physical aches and pains

• Coping strategies such as addictions

Yoga and meditation promote relaxation

Yoga and meditation promote relaxation – the opposite of anxiety, stress and depression. They build our ability to stay centred, which is vital for stress management. By pausing to breathe, meditate or stretch, the mind is directed away from the trigger and a biological reaction of calming begins.

Specific yoga and meditation practices stimulate our vagus nerve which is involved in our parasympathetic nervous system – our rest and digest response.

These simple practices amplify awareness of what’s happening in our body, making it possible to detect changes and early signs of mental health issues. How? One way is by teaching us to be present, rather than worrying about what’s occured in the past or what may happen in the future.

And… Exercise naturally increases the flow of serotonin, ‘the happy hormone’. So moving and relaxing our body calms the mind, and enhancing our mental health positively affects our physical health.

When the world feels out of balance, unequal or low, yoga can help us maintain our internal equilibrium and elevate our experience of daily life. And it’s available to us anywhere, any time.

Yoga poses for the modern day office worker

Whether you started working from home, started an online business, got your Uber license, had a baby or have been sitting for prolonged periods for any other reason (Netflix, anyone?) – you may have noticed yourself sitting a lot more over the past couple of years! In other words, moving your body less and stressing your mind more.

If your home office (or the equivalent) set-up is less than ideal, you’re probably familiar with stiff shoulders, back discomfort, pinchy hips, overworked eyes, the merging of work and personal life into one neverending sit-a-thon…Many of us are aware of the quote, ‘sitting is the new smoking’ and while we’re not fans of sensationalist headlines, there’s no doubt that sitting for prolonged periods can have a detrimental effect on our health.

So we’ve put together a survival guide for preventing and dealing with working-from-home aches and pains – including yoga poses and exercises to ease tension in your body and mind!

Hip flexors

Sitting for long periods of time is the first suspect when it comes to tight hip flexors. Whether your posture is perfect or you’re slouched over, extended sitting sessions will shorten your hip flexors.

The ‘hip flexors’ include multiple muscles which support the pelvis in balancing over the legs. The main ones are the iliopsoas (the psoas major and the iliacus together), the rectus femoris (one of the quadriceps) and the sartorius.

Simple actions can help improve balance between the legs, pelvis and back, which relieve and release the hip flexors, including:

• Low Lunge

• Bridge

• Happy Baby

Psoas-specific

Sensations of the psoas are subtle. This hip flexor (which most of us had never even heard of until a yoga teacher mentioned it) is buried in the lower lumbar region, extends through the pelvis to the femur and tends to engage in habitual holding patterns – especially when sitting a lot.

The psoas flexes the hip joint and lifts the upper leg towards the body – it’s in action when you’re walking.

Deeply linked to emotions, the psoas responds best to quiet attention, patience, and perseverance. And here are some yoga poses to nurture that:

• Pigeon

• Tree

• Reclined Butterfly

Shoulders

Shoulders have a leading role in almost every yoga pose, and much of life in general. Their mobility and flexibility, or lack thereof, affects us constantly – especially while many of us are relentlessly hunched over phones, computers and steering wheels, which means our shoulders are in protraction for long periods.

Strength is important, but so are flexibility and mobility. These yoga poses will provide a stretch to open the smallest fibres between your joints:

• Cow Face pose

• Melting Heart Pose

• Melting Heart

Back

The spine moves forward and backward (flexion and extension), side to side (lateral flexion), and twists too. Sitting loads, especially if slumping over a computer, encourages flexion but misses out all the other movements.

Adding side bending, back bending and twisting to the natural forward motion of sitting helps improve posture and reduce back pain by bringing strength and flexibility to the muscles that stabilise the spine. These yoga poses do just that:

• Extended Side Angle

• Revolved Head to Knee Pose

• Reclined Twist

Eyes

Are your eyes dry, scratchy, burning or tired? Is your vision blurry? Screen time strains the eyes – whether you’re working from home or binging on Netflix, most of our oculus uterque are suffering. Tired eyes can lead to headaches and difficulty concentration, as well as physical ailments such as tight shoulders and back pain.

We can remedy eye strain with care, rest and yoga. Try these eye strengthening exercises:

• Move. Without moving your head, look up and down, left and right, and diagonally a few times each way.

• Close/Blink. Keep your eyes moist by lowering your lids regularly.

• Warm. Rub your palms together, then place your warm hands gently over closed eyes.

• Stare. Focus your eyes and stare at an object without blinking.

And a few yoga poses to sort out your sore eyes:

• Child’s Pose

• Downward Facing Dog

• Forward Fold

So…

Whether you’ve got a minute or an hour – treat yourself to a break from sitting! Try some of our yoga suggestions, or just stand up, shake it off (literally!) or have a mini dance-off! “You put your whole self in, you take your whole self out, you put your whole self in and you shake it all about…”

Breathwork: Taking a deep breath into calm.

In the yoga tradition, the individual soul is called “Atman.” From the Sanskrit root “at,” meaning “to breathe,” a soul is defined as “That Which Breathes.”

Our life begins with a breath. We know that a baby has been born successfully when we hear a loud cry. Our life ends with a breath. When a body exhales then no longer inhales, we know the soul is gone. If breath is what defines life, breath IS life energy. In yoga, we call this “prana,” which simultaneously means both “breath” and “life-force energy.” The two are seen as virtually the same thing. It follows that there is no quicker way to transform your energy than to alter your breathing pattern.

Like training our bodies or training our minds, our breath can also be trained. Not because it’s bad and needs to be fixed, but so that it can be harnessed to work more effectively for us. We are made up of body, mind, and breath, and the breath for many of us is the last frontier. If you’ve been doing practices for the mind and body, but are still struggling with stress or your mood, you may be skipping yoga’s “secret sauce.” Breathwork is the most effective practice for your vibe, otherwise known as your feeling tone or how you show up in the world. 

One of the quickest ways to determine if someone is healthy is to examine their breathing pattern. If the breath is slow or shallow, rapid or irregular, you know that something is off. While doing breathwork cannot replace seeking medical help, it can be used to shift your energy and state of mind. For example, when someone is having a panic attack, we’ve all been taught to have them breathe into a paper bag. The idea is that if a person is panicking, they are usually also hyperventilating. The panic alters the breath cycle and the altered breath cycle creates more panic. This can quickly become a downward spiral.

The wise, old method of breathing into a paper bag does two things. First, it makes the person breathe in more carbon dioxide, which they’ve been losing through their quickened breath. Second, because the bag creates a sort of drag, it slows the breathing down. When the breath is slowed, the body takes the cue and thinks there is nothing to worry about. The act of slowing down your breathing is incredibly potent. Think of it like lifting weights with your lungs. It can be done by anyone, at any time, through techniques that are thousands of years old. It doesn’t require you to be spiritually elevated or psychologically evolved. On the contrary – it costs nothing and is simple to learn.

YOGA AND BREATH

Just like yoga and meditation, breathwork has a variety of styles and techniques with corresponding benefits. it can leave you feeling uplifted, focused, calm, or ready for sleep—depending on what type you do. There are energizing practices that require quick, short breaths and those that lengthen the breath for a more relaxing effect. Some techniques retain the breath at certain times or direct you to breathe out of just one nostril. 

While some of it can seem a bit unusual at first, just like embarking on your first downward dog, have an open mind and a sense of adventure. However, remember that no matter what the teacher says, you are in charge of you. If a teacher says “Twenty more like this,” and you feel that you need a break—take it! If nothing else, you are practicing to have a better sense of yourself.

While it may appear simple on the surface, in the yoga tradition, breathwork was often taught as one of the most advanced practices. Introduced to students after they had mastered physical yoga, breathwork is essentially the synergy, the alchemy, the powerful combination of all yogic practices. 

Why building a yoga community is to important

Community is about union and connection. The actual definition of community according to Webster’s Dictionary is, “A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.” It can be created because of a work culture, a commonality such as having a baby, or an interest a group of people shares such as yoga. Community requires a little something of each person as well. For example, if you’re going to be a part of a community, then you’ll have some responsibility to create a positive energy around the other people. By bringing positivity and a desire to impact others via new connections, a community can grow and be a safe area for expression.

Building a yoga community is a beneficial step to bringing every yogi together to increase positivity and health.

YOUR YOGA COMMUNITY

A practice community, sometimes known as a sangha in Buddhist circles, is a group of people that support you in your chosen lifestyle. Most often this support comes as a result of a shared set of values or ethics that need not be spoken about, but that you have all decided on for yourselves as a beneficial or healthy way of life, for example the Yoga Sutras. A practice community doesn’t have to be formally affiliated, and sometimes you even find yourself within such a network without having had the intention of joining or being part such a group.

Living ‘on the path’ of consciousness, towards enlightenment or awakening or even just with the intention of putting health and wellbeing before money and materialistic goals isn’t always easy. In many ways it feels as if you are swimming against the tide. Modern society has been built, to a large extent, on the premise that we all want to make a lot of money and spend it, while still thinking anxiously about what comes next. So if this isn’t your goal, if you’re working on a life of contentment, of being present and accepting of each moment as it shows up, then inevitably there will be times that you find yourself at odds with people around you or with processes that you are expected to participate in. This is when it helps to have other people that have similar goals or intentions to you that can help you remember what works for you, what is authentic for you, what helps you find happiness and health.

Humans, by nature, are social animals. From birth we rely on others to validate and confirm our existence. We watch the behavior of others to learn and seek out the support and comfort of others when we are sick or hurt. But we don’t always make the best choices for ourselves. And, just like with food, ‘we are what we eat’, or in this case, who we hang out with. This doesn’t mean we judge or look down upon those who live a different lifestyle than we do, but just begin to think about who you spend your time with and what you do when you are together. We have limited time here in this body, a finite period in which to experience life as a human being. If each minute were a dollar, how much would you pay to spend time with the people you choose to be around? Are these people your friends?

When you actively join a practice community, such as a yoga class or meditation group, you not only gain support for your lifestyle but you also take on responsibility for supporting others. Be considerate in the way you interact with those in your practice community. Remember to give what you would like to receive, share love and happiness rather than gossip and negative attitudes. Practice being happy and joyful for others, compassionate, grateful, non-judgmental and above all else, be a good friend to those in your practice community. Know when to set your ego aside and be present for others.

Are emotions stored in the hips?

How many times have you heard the phrase “emotions are stored in the hips” during a yoga class? I’m willing to bet: a lot! You may have even experienced a release of sadness, fear, frustration, anxiety, anger … yourself during a long-held Pigeon or Cow face pose.

But why? What is it about the hips in particular that amass such deep reserves of emotion? First, we’ll take a look at how hips can become ‘tight’ and why…

What are ‘tight’ hips and what causes them?

‘Tight hips’ is a term often used to describe tension or even pain down the top, front or the sides of the legs that feels as though whatever’s in there is so short it will never loosen or lengthen.

In Western cultures, tight hips are common. This is partly due to our excessive sitting, rather than squatting regularly like many Eastern and indigenous cultures do. But whether we’re sitting, standing, walking or running, our legs are always working to support our upper bodies and this constant effort can make hip muscles chronically tight.

Physical tightness in the hips has become normal. And along with it is the increased potential for emotion to become trapped inside.

A word on ‘hip-opening’

Before we dive deeper, I’d like to clarify what we mean by ‘hip opening’ – another term you’ve probably heard a lot in yoga. ‘Hip-opening’ is confusing; it implies that our hips open like a door or book, which suggests that our range of motion is limited to how wide we can open our legs. In fact, hips are ball and socket joints, which means they are able to do circumduction, i.e. move in a circle. So ‘opening our hips’ actually means creating mobility in all directions.

What affects our range of motion?

There are two physical factors which can limit our range of motion, or how ‘open’ our hips are:

• Flexibility – of the muscles, tendons and fascia in and around the joint. Yoga poses can, to some degree, increase this.

• Skeletal differences – a non-negotiable limit to our range of motion in all poses. Bone will not move past bone no matter how much yoga we do.

People’s skeletons vary hugely in terms of the width and angles of pelvis and femur, and how they unite. Deep external rotation for one person is shallow for the next. Your Pigeon pose looks completely different to mine – and so it should. Our bodies are also asymmetrical – think of how often one side often feels ‘easier’ in a pose than the other. 

How emotion gets trapped

When we’re angry, stressed, threatened, scared or even surprised, we often – unconsciously – clench our jaw or fists. We mobilise our hips to take flight (run away) or fight, or we bend forward and raise our knees to protect our core. This clenching and crunching is even our natural response even when someone launches a tickle attack!

Watch any toddler; when they’re sad, mad or frustrated, they curl up and cry. Adults do the same (though we may not do it as loudly or publicly) when we receive bad news. Activating the hip flexors to get foetal is an inherent reflex action.

No matter how real or serious (or not) the threat or perceived drama, drawing the knees in starts at the hips. And when the muscles clench, they shorten. If the tension is never fully released, not only is muscular tension trapped – so too is deep, cognitive emotion.

During the event that causes the hips to physically tense, our brain launches its custom cocktail of chemistry to inform the nervous system. The residue of this is emotion is stored – you’ve guessed it – in the hips.

Releasing physical and emotional tension

Working on the deep tissues in hip-focused postures such as Single and Double Pigeon asanas can release both physical and emotional tension. On a physical level, this can help free the spine and legs, increase mobility and improve overall health.

Stretching the hip muscles causes a release; pent-up emotions may resurface, suppressed memories may arise, unconscious tension still held onto from a traumatic event may bubble up. All of which may unleash a seemingly inexplicable barrage of tears. So along with ‘opening the hips’, it can seem as if we’re opening Pandora’s Box. 

Yin teachers say that one of the primary purposes of the practice is to teach us to become comfortable with discomfort. Practicing hip-focused poses may indeed feel like we’re opening Pandora’s box. But if we approach them with acceptance, presence and softness, the benefits of doing so far outweigh any short-lived discomfort we may experience.