If you feel like you need to start taking care of your body and mind, you may want to practice yoga at home. We give you 3 keys to get started in this discipline and turn this practice into a habit that can be transformative.
When the body asks to be more agile, dynamic, strong and vital, it is time to start taking care of yourself, to leave behind a more sedentary lifestyle and choose what type of exercise to adopt as a routine. Also often, the body and mind ask for calmer, to remove stress, to live more connected with oneself, to eliminate blockages and to love oneself more.
In these cases, practicing yoga at home is an excellent option to achieve a healthier body and mind. And it is that this discipline provides a complete exercise that helps to activate in the morning, to relax in the afternoon, to feel stronger, to live with more connection and awareness.
Yoga, literally, means ‘union’, and is a path of self-knowledge to reach fulfillment as a being through the fusion of body, mind and spirit.
The ultimate goal of yoga is to know the nature of existence and to achieve a stable mind in a healthy body.
Yoga – which has its origin more than 15,000 years ago in the Vedas, ancient sages of India – goes far beyond the simple fact of practicing postures. The first yoga texts found, those of Patanjali, show the philosophy of yoga through 8 branches or paths towards self-realization.
Yoga is a lifestyle, it is an intention to be a better person, to know ourselves, to know the reality that surrounds us, to act in an aligned way with our heart and to feel full and happy. How to get started? We show you 3 keys to get started in this discipline.
1. START WITH ONLINE YOGA CLASSES
For yoga to be effective, it is essential to practice it well, performing the postures correctly. If you do not know where to start, we propose the online course of initiation to yoga that Eva Roca offers through the Cuerpomente School.
This course is a complete and rigorous guide to get started in yoga without leaving home, whatever your age and your physical form. Its objective is to integrate the practice of yoga into the habit of your daily life and bring you all its benefits. If you want to try the course, you can access the first class for free here. This course can be practiced whenever and wherever you want, allowing you to explore the benefits of yoga at every moment of the day:
- Find your moment. The ideal is to practice in the morning, after getting up, fasting or in the afternoon on an empty stomach, having done digestion. Yes, you can drink water before practice half an hour before.
- Observe the effects of yoga. You will notice that in the morning your body is stiff and not as flexible as in the afternoon. Instead, the mind is lighter and more serene. In the afternoon your body is more agile and flexible, although the mind is noisier.
Allow yourself to combine and practice in the morning and afternoon.
- Open yourself to change. Create an intention to excel in postures and explore new corners of your body.
To start practicing yoga you will only need a mat (choose a non-slip and made of biodegradable materials). You’ll also need a block (you can also use an empty box or a thick book inside a cloth bag, for example), a ribbon, a blanket, and a cushion.
2. PRACTICE BREATHING DAILY (PRANAYAMA)
Undoubtedly, the breath is the path that leads us to the deepest and most subtle states of our being. Breathing with awareness will bring us into the present moment and calm our mind. It prepares us for our inner journey.
Pranayama is the control of breathing and is key in the practice of yoga. Prana is life, vital energy and yama means ‘discipline’, ‘control’. Pranayama provides energy and strength to our body through energy channels, balances the mind and creates the panic or energetic conditions to establish the union body, mind and spirit.
If you want to know more about pranayama, you can check this article and start breathing well.
3. MAKE IT A HEALTHY HABIT
Practicing only one day a week brings hardly any visible benefit, since everything you have managed to stretch and tone that day you lose in the next 6 days, and then the practice requires a lot of effort again.
The ideal and transformative practice of yoga is 6 days a week. To make it a habit, start with a practice of 3 days a week, and increase it by 1 day every 6 months until you reach 6 days.