Yoga is a beautiful and wonderful practice that everybody can incorporate into their lives. There are many many many benefits that one can receive from adapting a daily yoga practice. Yoga tends to be something that many people see as an intimidating, daunting, time consuming, and seemingly impossible practice to integrate into their lives. I am going to talk through a few of the common misconceptions that have formed around yoga and how you can navigate those issues so that a yoga practice fits better into your life.
1. Yoga must be an hour or longer
Many people associate yoga with going to an hour or longer class at a studio. You don’t have to carve out an hour of your day to obtain the benefits of yoga. Maybe you have 10 minutes at lunch to spare or 15 minutes after putting the kids to bed before you go to bed yourself. A shorter yoga session will still offer you the benefits of a longer session if you have the correct components. In my next blog post I will be going into what components should be in every yoga practice no matter how long or short the session may be.
2. Yoga must be done at a studio
Yoga studios are very popular and for some they may be too expensive or not in a good location. You can do your yoga practice wherever you have a comfortable space that you feel safe doing yoga. You can do yoga in your house, outside, or even in your office if that works for you. There are many free or low cost resources for you to use on the internet to get started with a non-studio yoga practice. Youtube is a great free resource with many different length and level yoga practices. With this in mind I will provide future blog posts containing yoga flows that you can utilize in your yoga space.
3. Yoga must be done on the floor on a yoga mat
In the same way many assume that yoga must also be performed on a yoga mat. However you can practice yoga in a chair if getting on the floor is not an option for you. Likewise if your only time to fit in your yoga practice is at work you can use your office chair. As I mentioned that I will be providing yoga flows in future posts I will mix in chair yoga flows as well.
4. You must be flexible to practice yoga
Despite that you may see many photos and videos of people doing yoga and getting into crazy positions you do not need to be flexible to practice yoga. In general there are some crazy yoga poses out there that do require a higher level of flexibility. However there are many modifications and props that you can use to get into a particular yoga pose. Generally there are many accessible yoga poses available to you no matter what your level of flexibility is. Later in other posts I will be diving into the specifics of individual poses and what modifications or variations there are for you to make them accessible.
Make yoga work for you
In summary I want you to remember that yoga is for you! Regardless of if you have done yoga for years in the past or have never done it do not let it intimidate you. Now that being said there are many different ways you can make yoga work for you. Even if you have multiple barriers to yoga I want you to remember what I stated above and decide how you can start a yoga practice. Most important I want you to take away from this that everyone can have a yoga practice even if it may look different than someone else’s. Make sure you subscribe so that you can receive my latest blog posts to your inbox.
I recommend that you consult your physician regarding the applicability of any recommendations and follow all safety instructions before beginning any exercise program. When participating in any exercise or exercise program, there is the possibility of physical injury. If you engage in this exercise or exercise program, you agree that you do so at your own risk, are voluntarily participating in these activities, assume all risk of injury to yourself.