All of these can be Home Yoga:
And YOU can have them all… and more.
Desire Lines, The Home Yoga Practice Workshop LIVE! We will practice together and then systematically …
connect to our motivations,
choose yoga techniques addressing each layer of motivation,
learn how to join them together skillfully in individual practice, and
apply the best tips from habit science to create a personalized starting (or returning) place for your Home Yoga Practice (HYP)!
You can even practice a 15-minute personal HYP before wrapping, which you will have created with my guidance, addressing your goals and needs and suited for your space.
“Desire Lines” are the paths worn between “official” walkways, structures and obstacles that represent where people actually go. I first learned this term watching a biographical documentary about the ground breaking (literally and figuratively) Beatrix Farrand, a noted landscape designer in the early 20th century. Immediately I knew she was a kindred spirit.
At Princeton, “She trained different varieties of trees and shrubs to grow up the sides of buildings. Allowed for elegant and proportioned open spaces and spent time watching the students - where did they go? And then put the paths there. And that is what we now call desire lines. Princeton’s supervising architect, Ralph Adams Cram, argued that Farrand’s ideas compromised the architects vision for the buildings and … dismissed her as “the bush woman, always out in the field agonizing over the placement of trees and shrubs…. She remained Princeton’s consulting landscape gardener for nearly 30 years. … “We all know that education is no mere matter of books,” she once wrote. “And that aesthetic environment contributes as much to mental growth as facts assimilated from a printed page. No life is well rounded without the subtle inspiration of beauty.” (21:35 - 23:00 minutes in Beatrix Farrand’s American Landscapes.)
In Home Yoga Practice (HYP) , we begin with our own desire lines, with observing what is actually the case, what we actually yearn for and where we are right now. Truth is the only possible foundation for a lasting habit, structure or support - but we often mistake our wishes, expectations or facade for true desire. We will clear a space and invite our desire for a Home Yoga Practice to be in conversation.
Desire is the center of motivation. We’ll practice a couple of exercises to facilitate deepening your understanding of your own Home Yoga Practice motivation. You’ll craft a sankalpa, or intention, and use it in a Yoga Nidra practice. From here, with a little information and help, you can craft an arc of practice as a container for your HYP.
In part 2, we’ll practice a few asana and pranayama together as well as a meditation. We’ll explore the traditional “uses” of these yogic techniques - and you’ll observe how they actually feel for you, today. This is our jumping off point for choosing a few postures for your first (or returning) HYP arc. This is a process you can repeat over and over using techniques you learn in your regular classes, but we’ll start with this first, simple one.
In part 3, we’ll consider your spaces, your obstacles, options and how your yoga practice will fit into your life. We’ll apply principles of habit science to create a flexible, adaptive relationship to your new habit.
Finally, we’ll practice together but separately - each our own practice, ending with a luscious Savasana. You’ll leave inspired, renewed with practical skills and a plan for transplanting your experience into your space.
Join us for this life changing workshop to begin or return to your HYP. Home Yoga practice is the sister of yoga classes. Home Yoga Practice, in conjunction with working with a skilled and experienced yoga instructor, will shift other habits, desires and your health. HYP is a keystone habit.
“You are your deepest, driving desire.
As is your desire, so is your will.
As is your will, so is your deed.
As is your deed, so is your destiny.”
~Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4:4-5
Your Home and Guided Yoga Practices will change your desire, and so your destiny. Starting from your understanding of your deepest, driving desire puts your feet on a path of fewer obstacles and more bliss - the path of yoga.
