Practicing at Home? How to Set Up Your At-Home Yoga Sanctuary.
With 2020’s new social distancing considerations, most of us are still working out, meditating, schooling our children, and hanging with our significant others from the safety (confines?) of our home.
With all that going on around us, it’s not always easy to carve out a space just for ourselves to reconnect with our inner voice and experience the life-changing effects yoga has to offer. Here’s how to create your yoga sanctuary with whatever space you have available.
Find Your Spot
First, you’ll want to find a spot you can practice in consistently. Sometimes we have to roam to different rooms depending on how they’re being utilized throughout the day, which is fine! Then let that be the case.
However, if there is a consistent place where you can do your yoga practice, you’ll be much better served. You will save mental space and stress not having to come up with a new place every time—you’ll know where to go and what you need to do to prepare the room because you’ll have done it before.
A good space has at least a 2’x7’ area where you can roll out your mat and lay with your arms stretched out over your head. Ideally, you’ll be able to make a star shape with your body out to the sides as well. This will ensure that you can move in any direction necessary during your asana practice.
What room you choose is up to you. Whether you have a stellar living room space, a green house (in which case, can I come over?), or if your best bet is the middle of your bathroom or alongside your bed, the main thing you’ll want is to feel like you can breathe easy in this space.
Create the Environment
Now that you have your practice space, you can add some calming or motivational elements that help you feel at peace and stay committed to your practice. This may include adding houseplants, laying some pretty crystals along the top of your mat, lighting candles or incense, or hanging a lovely piece of art in front of you to gaze at to help you concentrate on your internal environment in yoga practice.
Although this step isn’t mandatory to creating your yoga sanctuary, I highly recommend it. Our environments play a hand in shaping our mental acuity. Being purposeful about what we bring into our external awareness can often enhance what’s going on internally.
Whatever looks, smells, or feels right for you will do. Just make sure it instills the type of inspiration you want—whether it’s a sense of calm, a reminder of what you’re working towards, or motivation to reach a certain goal.
Set the Mood
Next is the most fun—choose your music! Although music is not inherent to yoga practice, and some schools of yoga prefer to practice in silence, most of us in the West are still conditioned to enjoy moving our bodies and focusing our minds with some background noise.
Music has the power to keep us going when we might otherwise quit early. It can make your practice more fun, help you get into a groove when moving from asana to asana, and help focus your mind by being the underlying “white noise” to our thought patterns.
Depending on what style of online yoga you choose to practice with, your teacher may not be able to play music and teach simultaneously. Many are opting to teach in a quiet environment and allow their students to cue up a fun playlist at home to accompany their practice. This is a great adaptation because now students are allowed to choose a vibe that suits how they feel that day, rather than leaving it up to the teacher to choose for them.
With that said, your music selection should not be a show stopper. Music with too many lyrics can be distracting and make it difficult for you to hear your teacher’s voice. Try choosing playlists that are calming, or instrumental versions of your favorite upbeat songs. If looking for pre-made playlists online, use search terms such as pranayama, yoga flow, savasana, meditation, or binaural beats as a jumping off point.
Turn up the Heat
Our bodies move better when they’re warm. That’s why we warm up before most types of physical exercise. Having warm muscle tissue and facia allows the other systems and mechanisms of the body more space to heal themselves. If you’ve ever wondered what the craze about Hot Yoga is all about, it’s usually not because people like to feel panicky in a hot room. It’s most often because when you add heat to your environment, your body can move more smoothly and loosen up more easily, adding to the likelihood of experiencing therapeutic benefits in your yoga practice.
If possible, turn up the thermostat a few degrees 30 minutes before your practice, or use a space heater. To keep the heat from venting into other parts of your home, you can lay a towel at the bottom of your door or even hang a sheet over the window to keep the outside air from cooling the room. Always follow safety protocols outlined by your equipment manufacturer. For instance, don’t place a space heater right in front of any type of cloth or flammable material.
One more word of caution: sometimes heating our bodies can lead us to stretch, pull, or push too much into a pose. This can cause long-term injury or misalignments in the body. Be aware of this factor, and remember it is important that we are aware of our bodies at all times throughout yoga practice. You are always responsible for listening to the intuitive cues of your own body over whatever your yoga instructor is guiding you to do.
Go With the Flow
The last step is the most important. That is, whatever comes into your practice, allow it to be.
It was hard enough staying focused when we were all attending in-person classes. When you’re at home, it’s that much easier to turn off your computer and step away from your mat. There are kids, pets, significant others, devices, and our own thoughts all vying for our attention.
First, it’s good to set a verbal boundary with others in the house. Let them know that while you’re on your yoga mat, you are indistractable. Ask them to do their best not to disturb you until you’re finished.
Of course, life rarely goes quite how we planned. As noises (or actual physical bodies) filter into our yoga sanctuary, don’t try to shush them or push them out. Allow them to be part of your yoga practice. If your cat crawls on your back in a Down Dog, or your pup tries to lick your face, or your child runs in crying, just go with it. Bring them into the practice and move around them.
The benefit of this mindset is bigger than all the other details combined. You’re teaching yourself to not let anything steal your peace. Best of all, you’re teaching yourself to be responsive to life, rather than reactive. This is the true power of yoga, and I believe it’s the personal responsibility of each of us to train ourselves to be a responsive and active participant in our own lives.
Find Your Breath, Find Your Peace
With these tips, you should now be set up for the best environment possible. Congratulate yourself for taking the time to investigate and set up your yoga space. The act of creating spaces for ourselves is an act of self-love and self-care.
Have any thoughts on the article above? Want to share some of your own At-Home Yoga Sanctuary? Email me to reply to this post! I’d love to hear from you.
