Lessons in Yoga 9: Yoga at home? Or at home with Yoga?

Why is it so hard to practise yoga by yourself at home?

Sat, 21 Sep, 2013 - 01:00

Jessica Hatchett

These are some of my own well-honed excuses...

"Far too busy today...no time for yoga"

"The house is a mess, I need a pure spotlessly clean space for yoga"

"I'm tired, yoga will be tiring, checking Facebook won't be tiring...."

"Oh whoops! I forgot again … silly me!"

(Today I'm on number 3 by the way)

Ok. I will admit I do practise yoga most days, but it has taken me over 10 years and a million excuses to wrestle myself into a regular practice.

When one of my students says to me "I would really like to practise yoga at home, but I'm finding it really difficult". I always want to give them a hug and say

"I know! It's soooooo difficult. I understand. But please don't stop trying".

In trying to establish a regular yoga practice, you will learn so much about yourself.

What I learnt is...(cue minor chord violin sound track please) … how hard I find it to put my needs before other people's.

How uncomfortable I can sometimes feel in my own company.

How irritating, boring, uncomfortable and frustrating yoga can be. And yet …. When I do practise, something magic happens.

I feel the discomfort, the frustration, the irritation and instead of throwing in the towel, or mat, I stretch out those feelings, they surface, I feel them and they… dissolve.

What's interesting about a practice that involves spending undistracted time with yourself, is that you feel everything that's already there in you that day.

If you are bored, your practice will feel boring.

If you are tired, your practice will feel tiring.

If you are irritated, your practice will irritate you.

Your practice is a pressure cooker that will bubble to the surface all the feelings that are stewing in your depths. A regular practice will help to evaporate those feelings.

The important thing to note is that a yoga practice doesn't make you irritated and uncomfortable. The irritation and discomfort are there already, your practice just brings them to the surface.

You can be sure that at some point in your day if irritation and disappointment are stewing, they will bubble up. Probably in the face of someone you know and care about.

So how much better is it to simmer away by yourself and have a go at resolving difficult feelings in your yoga practice, rather than at the expense of others?

This might go some way to explain why, when we settle down on a yoga mat for a 'lovely stretch', it is not all that.

And perhaps why the majority of us mortals start a yoga or meditation practice and when confronted by the way it 'makes us feel' … stop.

If, though, we can take a slow and quiet approach to meeting ourselves on a yoga mat ... If we understand and appreciate the challenges involved and keep returning with compassion and a desire to get to know ourselves … then maybe it is possible.

A regular yoga practice will, and does, make you feel better.

But not in the way a course of antibiotics does. Yoga won't kill off all the nasty bits in you so you are sparkly clean and acceptable.

Yoga isn't something to be taken until you are better, then stopped.

Yoga is more like a marriage.

You start out with an interest that turns into a passion. You enjoy yourself, feel happy and rewarded, then the honeymoon is over and reality sets in.

You realise that, for this relationship with yoga to work, there needs to be: honesty, commitment, trust and lots of time spent together, on the good days and the bad.

With this, you can expect to enjoy a practice that gives back in spades.

Your body will feel fit, flexible and strong. Your day will feel spacious and calm. Your mind will be clear and positive and your emotions less volatile and confusing.

So shall we practise?

Warrior positions and Goddess pose are great for igniting an inner spark of enthusiasm.

They can test your balance, stamina and strength, which naturally draws irritation to the surface so you can observe it, breath thought it and help it dissolve.

Start standing facing the side of your mat with your feet wide apart. Don't be shy here. How hard the pose will be is determined by how much you bend your knees, not by the distance between your feet.

Having your feet too close together, actually makes it harder.

We will start with Goddess. Lift your arms up and inhale reaching up into your fingertips.

Exhale, and turning your toes out a bit, bring your hands down, bend your knees, sink down, pressing the back of your hands into your legs. Lift up on the inhale and sink down on the exhale, coming a bit lower each time.

Then try and stay in goddess for 5 breaths with your thighs parallel to the ground.

Feel the fiery feelings inside you bubbling to the surface, breath them out with a deep fiery exhale.

Then come back up and after a short rest … come back down to goddess, this time with a lateral stretch.

Leave your right hand inside your knee and stretch your left hand up and over to the right.

Keep both knees equally bent and stay here for up to 5 breaths. Then swap sides.

For Warrior 1: Keep your feet wide apart and face the side of your mat. Bring your arms up overhead again.

Turn your right foot out towards the front of your mat, then twist your left heel towards the back of your mat, as far as possible without it lifting. You should now feel your left hip turning towards your right foot.

Draw your left hip forward and push your left heel down. Bend your right knee over your little toe. You are aiming to have your right shin vertical and your thigh horizontal. But this is fairly demanding, so be prepared to build up to the full pose.

Stay in this position for about 6 breaths with your arms reaching up and back, your right knee sinking down and your left heel pushing down.

These competing directions of up, down, forward and back, are what make this position so beneficially strengthening and stabilising.

To come out, straighten your right knee, bring your arms down, turn back to the side of your mat and repeat on the other side.

For Warrior 2: Start as you did for Warrior 1, arms lifted, feet facing the side of your mat.

Turn your right foot towards the front of your mat, but keep your left foot where it is.

Lower your arms down to shoulder height and bend your right knee, notice how it takes an internal direction towards your big toe.

Straighten your knee and now bend it again, but this time over your little toe, as you do this notice how your left hip pulls forward. There are competing directions here of trying to keep your knee bent above your little toe and keep your left hip back above your left heel.

This work is what makes Warrior 2 a great hip opener and a stamina-building stretch for your legs. Stay in this pose for about 6 breaths, feeling the natural rise of interesting and possibly difficult feelings that come with yoga. Breathing through these feelings with care and love is like being there for your partner at the end of a tough day. It's not easy but it shows commitment, love and support.

Then, after swapping sides, lie down on your mat and notice and enjoy the feeling of your muscles relaxing and the tingle of connection and attention you have just given yourself.

* Jessica Hatchett teaches yoga in West Cork.

For more info on her classes and events go to www.yogawestcork.com.

Photography by www.luluash.co.uk