Personal Practice: For Happiness and Well-Being

Nov 8, 2016 | Yoga practices | 2 comments

silhouette of Eve in yoga practice doing triangle pose

I have that omniscient ability, like Santa Claus, where I know whether you’ve been bad or good. That is, I can tell whether you are doing any yoga practice outside of class times. I can sometimes even tell how many practices a week you do.

What is it that gives you away? Well for one thing, your poses will be improving. How quickly they evolve is, in the main, in direct relationship to how much personal practice you do.

Another give away is that you’ll be paying a lot more attention to what you’re doing in class. From up in front of the room, I can see the students’ minds ticking over. They are mentally filing away individual poses to try on later. Or, perhaps attempting to remember the whole sequence of the class.

Your regular class is the perfect place to find motivation and for practising on your own.

When I attended classes at the Iyengar Institute in Poona, I paid for and did 6 sessions a week over a month’s period. Then, as a bonus, there was the option of paying a little more to do an extracurricular practice each day. This session was for serious, veteran practitioners the Iyengar family, teachers and others. I appreciated the level of commitment of this community of yogis and wanted to emulate them.

Those sessions were the beginning of regular practice for me. It’s been a positive habit that has amply rewarded me over the years.

If your memory isn’t great, don’t try to remember the whole class program. Mentally record the poses that intrigue you because they are challenging or new to you.

The expression ‘practice makes perfect’ doesn’t totally fit with yoga philosophy. Rather than being a perfectionist, do a ‘soul practice’. Do it to heighten your level of enjoyment and interest. This is usually the way that you get truly hooked on regular personal practice!

Then, you’ll be practising not just to be a ‘good’ person, or because you’re supposed to, or for your teacher. You’ll do yoga because it makes you happy and healthy.

If you feel like you need more inspiration and tools for practising, consider purchasing our YogaAnywhere cards. 

Two packs of personal practice cards for yoga

These practice cards and packs provide an intelligent, simple way to make practising yoga enjoyable. One of the packs is for beginners. The other is for specials needs such as fatigue, menopause, or jet lag. The packs feature:

  • Informative text
  • Clear images
  • Helpful tips
  • Portability (more efficient to use than books or dvds)
  • Durability
  • and are beautiful to look at and a pleasure to hold

We have a small stock of these cards remaining, so we’ve discounted the price to $20 plus postage (Australia only). If you would like to purchase them, contact me: eve.grzybowski@me.com

(YogaAnywhere cards also make beautiful gifts for yoga enthusiasts of all levels of experience.)

2 Comments

  1. I’m wondering if you still have any of these left I bought the first Basic set awhile a go and I still use them. I really would love the 2nd set.

    Reply
    • Hi Nicole,
      I can send you a pack of practice cards.
      Would you like the Basics cards? They are now 25.00 including postage in Australia. You can dd to my account and I’ll need your postal address.
      Kindly
      Eve

      Reply

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