Personal Yoga Practice- Motivation

In the beforetimes, we talked about HYP, or Home Yoga Practice. Then, for more than a year, HYP was all that was available and we brought our classes into our homes. So it seems appropriate that now we distinguish Personal Yoga Practice from Class Yoga Practice.

PYP is independent yoga practice, when you roll out your mat and yoga yourself without a video or audio, allowing your body to lead you, your breath to motivate and instruct you and your planning mind to take a back seat. This is essential for teachers, and for yogis who attend classes, it’s hands down the best way to enhance and sustain elements of the post-Savasanah bliss. 15 minutes of yoga practice most days will do more for your cruise than a 90 minute yoga practice once a week.

The best way to quiet the planning mind…. is to have a plan. Surprised? Just because you have a plan, doesn’t make it the boss of you, but it creates safety and containment. And your motivation is front and center; in fact it’s the most important part.

In this section, we take a deep dive into motivation first - feel free to get out the magazines, the stamps and the markers and dream board it! Then we take that motivation and translate it into a yoga pose. In the next section, we integrate that one pose into a practice - aka “I rolled out my yoga mat. Now What?" In the final section, we look at how to make Personal Yoga Practice a habit you don’t want to break.

Answering the questions below is the key to a sustainable Personal Yoga Practice. Answering them anew periodically is the “secret” to keeping it fresh. This answer for any month, day or practice will help you discern whether energetic, yin or restorative is the best fit. Your answer will guide the type of breath, the length, the pose you pick to key your practice on. Your answer is the “personal” in PYP.

And it’s basically two questions in one:

• Why do I practice yoga right now, today?

And...

• What do I need and want from my movement, breath and meditation practice that spans this time in my life.

Go ahead, I’ll wait right here. Go with your gut responses - write them down. Get your journal or a napkin or write them on your hand. These are your starting places and your keystones, where you’ll return when it’s difficult to face the mat, when your usual “routine” has gone stale and when you need the comfort and stability of connecting to your breath.
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Got those written down somewhere? Excellent! Consider making that somewhere the start of your yoga journal. No! Not the fancy, glossy Yoga Journal Magazine… though who knows where it’ll lead?! Your PYP Journal. It can be as detailed or as simple as you’d like.

Some questions to help you get really clear on your Whys:

• What physical experience do you want from your time on the mat? To feel alive? To relax? To help your knee (or fill in body part that needs your attention)?

• What health benefits are you focused on? Are you focused on better sleep? (hint: that doesn’t just mean a “sleep routine,” it could mean an energetic morning routine! More on that later…) Have you read that yoga helps with cholesterol, heart health, blood sugar and more? Are you trying to reduce inflammation? Increase energy? Balance hormones?

• What psychological benefits interest you the most? Are you just interested in getting through that one meeting a week without wanting to say something inappropriate? Are you trying to get more comfortable with silence, or yourself? Are you seeking less anxiety and more peace in general? Do you have a specific stressor in your near future you’re trying to approach with more empowerment?

• What do you want to want? This sounds weird at first, but it’s asking about long term vs short term and about identity. Like, right now I might really want ice cream, but I want to want bountiful salads full of dark leafy greens, healthy nuts and berries, seasonal veg and tangy lime juice. I want to be that person, that version of myself. Sometimes knowing what you want to want, helps you discern how to satisfy your actual, current desires while making your long term desires more feasible.

  • So maybe I grab a small salad and one of those tiny tubs of ice cream to build a bridge between those desires while affirming my current state and observing non-judgmentally how it feels in the hours after.

  • Applied to PYP: I just want to sleep more right now, but I want to want to rise and shine at 6am - but I don’t. Want to today. Maybe I didn’t sleep so good last night and I know I really do need the shut eye. So my PYP today will be sitting on a rock in the back yard and feeling my breath for one minute when I get up at 7 after sleeping another hour. I’ll get sunlight on my eyeballs and the sleep I know I need, and this will make it more likely I’ll a) sleep better tonight, and b) get up when I intend to in the morning.

Your Big Picture Why will span months, sometimes years with check ins. And day to day you’ll have challenges that need your attention: a big test or presentation, a medical exam or vacation. Having your Big Why and your Why for Today helps you to rudder through the currents of life.

Now, when you take a yoga class - a led yoga practice - notice what poses, breathing patterns and images give you the feelings and results you have identified. Write them down. That’s part of your yoga journal.

Each day or week or month, you’ll choose a pose or poses that give you that feeling or result, whether it’s “my knee feels great!” or “less likely to choke Sally.” This will be your key or pinnacle pose. If you have one pose in mind when you roll out your mat, you have a practice.

• What other poses will help you with that one? If it’s Dancer’s Pose (holding your foot behind you while you stand on one leg), maybe cat-dog, sphinx, cobra, down dog and child’s pose before an easier standing pose, then tree at the wall would help you lead into this pose.

• What other poses are the opposite of this pose? In our Dancer’s pose example, maybe it’s a standing forward fold.

• How do you want to begin? Standing, sitting, laying down?

• Always end with bridge, laying down twist and Savasanahhhhh! Lasting at least 10% of your practice time (2 minutes for a 15-20 minute practice).

In two weeks we’ll talk more about “What To Do?” in terms of the arc of practice, counterpose and choosing energetic, yin or restorative practice. For now, live with your Whys for a few days and let them sink in, transform and transform you. Go to the mat when you want (or want to want to ;>). Choose simple poses you already feel confident with at first. Ask your teacher questions. Take notes on your led practice experiences.

Congratulations on starting or renewing your PYPractice! The combination of Personal and Led yoga practices is the most effective way toward healing and supporting your powerful body-mind! My clients who practice regularly between sessions with me or our other teachers experience results exponentially faster than others. You’re taking a crucial step in your own health and healing journey.