Or at the least, go on at length about something yoga-related.
I've met and worked with many wonderful people since arriving at Yab Yum resort, where we are teaching for the season, and a question that continually seems to arise is what to practice at home, and how to motivate oneself to practice when back in typically frantic work/family/social life. It's all well and good to go deeply into these potent practices while living by the sea with no responsibilities other than ordering yourself a strong cup of local chai and discovering the art of professional lounging, but more often than not, any gains we may have made in terms of feeling more peaceful within ourselves tend to disappear upon re-entry into our usual stomping ground.
The fact is that most, if not all of us require some manner of discipline in regards to pacifying our frantic and overactive minds.
"Discipline" is often seen as a dirty word, imagined as a straitjacket tying us down to unpleasant but necessary pursuits. However, when approached correctly, it can give us a beautiful sense of balance, and a firm and stable ground from which to leap and fly freely through our lives. If we find our ideal yoga practice, and simply do it daily, regardless of our mood on any given day, our lives become richer and fuller, and we are present to a much greater degree in all the myriad experiences each day brings us. Our yoga practice can become a bedrock from which to move freely and joyfully through whatever comes our way.
The tricky part is of course to figure out exactly what our ideal yoga practice is.
Because I was born in Austria and have a natural proclivity for a good cake, I will use a cake metaphor to explain how important finding our ideal practice really is. Imagine a chocolate cake for a minute, your ideal piece of chocolate cake, how you like it best. For some of you, it will be rich and moist, with masses of buttercream. For others, it will not have a lot of sugar, and be drier. For others again, it should be very light and fluffy, with perhaps a little cream cheese frosting in-between layers. For some people, chocolate is abhorrent (hard to imagine, I know), and a whole different type of cake is desired. Some of you won't even like cake at all!
Yoga practice is exactly the same. I have yet to come across a practice that will suit everybody, and will in all likelihood go into shock if I ever do. We are all different people, with different lifestyles, different likes and dislikes, different schedules, different everything! One size fits all is not anywhere near the realms of possibility when approaching yogic practice. Some of you will need to practice intensely, sweating, huffing and puffing away, in order to feel any benefit. Some prefer to sit quietly, spending a long time in each posture. Some will only have time in the evening, some in the morning. Some may have two hours free for practice daily, some will only have fifteen minutes. It's all and well and good having high aims and feeling like "I should do this type of practice, this many times a week", but if it's not appropriate or realistic for you, it's not going to be sustained. Once your willpower runs out, or the slightest obstacle presents itself, that's it. Practice is stopped. I've seen it time and again in my students as well as fellow practitioners.
What to do about it? The simple answer is that you have to be realistic. If you want to reap the tremendous benefits of a regular yoga practice, you must engage with it regularly, 5-7 days a week. Yet, it is not necessary, or in fact appropriate for most people, to do a multi-hour asana, pranayama and meditation practice every day. When figuring out how to establish a routine, think about the following:
- How much time do I have every day?
- What time of the day can I realistically practice with regularity?
- Why am I doing yoga practices in the first place?
- What practices do I love to do?
- What practices do I need to do?
If you only have fifteen minutes a day, that's fine! For most people, getting up fifteen minutes earlier is not within the realm of impossibility. Above all, be realistic here. You are trying to establish a routine that will not break at the first sign of strain. Start small, and if that's easy to fit in and maintain, add little pieces, one at a time. If you work shifts, you may need to practice three mornings and two evenings a week, which is also fine. Just adjust your practice accordingly.
Asking yourself why you're doing all this stuff is vital. Know why you are practicing, and don't be too lofty or idealistic. You must be honest to yourself, or you won't get very far. If you are practicing yoga in order to attain self-realisation, know that about yourself, and don't apologise for it. If you are practicing in order to live a calmer, more peaceful internal existence, know that about yourself, and don't apologise for it. If you practice because you want to lose weight and feel better in your body, know that about yourself, and don't apologise for it. It's refreshing to meet students who know why they are practicing and know this about themselves. Besides, a lot of these aims will change over time. Many people start purely in the physical sphere, but are gradually drawn more and more toward the other arenas yoga travels in.
When it comes to actually designing a practice sequence for yourself, balance it carefully between what you love to do, as in what feels good, and what you need to do, as in what often doesn't quite feel so good, but needs to be addressed. For example, if you love working with your body, but your mind is always scattered and unfocused, you would need to practice at least a little meditation and/or pranayama. I have met many people who, even after years of asana practice, find it very difficult to sit still for a few minutes. A simple strategy here would be to really go for the physical stuff, and enjoy it, then always put in five to ten minutes of quiet breathing at the end, or the beginning, of the session. Conversely, if all you want to do is meditate and sit, but you have no connection to your body, spend plenty of time in meditation, but do at least ten to fifteen minutes of asana to awaken your physicality. The same concept applies within asana, within pranayama, within meditation and so on: if your hips are stiff, you must spend some time working with your hips, and if you lack energy but find kapalabhati (a fast breath, characterised by the strong exhalation) too much work, you will need to find a way around your reluctance.
Doing what you love gets you on the mat. Doing what you need brings about change and balance.
In terms of what to actually do, for that you need more than just this little blog post, I'm afraid. Find a good teacher, whether it involves taking a class that you like or seeing him or her privately, and go from there. If your preferred yoga practice involves a set sequence, learn it, and do as much or as little of it as appropriate. If you instead prefer a more free-flowing, changing practice, build a vocabulary of exercises and over time, choose whatever works best as a balance between what you love and need.
In a nutshell, figure out what's appropriate for you, with help if needs be, set your practice times and content, and get cracking!