Start a Home Yoga Practice Today – 7 Proven Hacks From A Yoga Teacher

Start a Home Yoga Practice Today – 7 Proven Hacks From A Yoga Teacher

From couch to lotus: Kickstart your home yoga practice today with 7 game-changing tips from a yoga teacher and seasoned practitioner. Unleash your inner power – it has been yours all along!

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Key takeouts

• A regular home yoga practice brings countless benefits: the convenience and flexibility to fit it into your daily schedule, cost-effectiveness, enhanced consistency, a practice tailored to your needs, and the comfort of practising yoga in your own space.
• On top of that, yoga is incredibly accessible, and you don’t need much equipment to get started at home.
• The formula for success is a clear focus, commitment to yourself and consistency.
• Kickstart your home yoga practice today with these 7 ultimate tips from a yoga teacher and seasoned practitioner. In this blog post, you will find everything you need to set yourself up for success including free online yoga videos and access to a 3-Day Yoga Challenge to get you going right away. The power is in your hands!

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These days, the benefits of yoga such as improved mental health, increased self-esteem, better posture, better sleep quality, stress relief, etc. are well-known, but also scientifically proven. Hence the number of yoga practitioners worldwide keeps increasing and if you are looking to join this movement, welcome!

I established a home yoga practice right from the beginning of my yoga journey. Back then I was working a very demanding job with crazy hours and the schedule of the yoga studio I was going to didn’t match my daily schedule except for the weekends.

However, I did not want to compromise on my yoga practice during the week, so I decided to start a self-yoga practice.

I know many of you can relate to this, and whatever your reasons for starting a yoga practice at home, these 7 tips and tricks will set you up for long-term success and consistency.

Whether you are a complete beginner or an advanced practitioner, these strategies will support you every step of the way and you can rest assured that you will have all the tools you need to get started and stay motivated along the way.

I am ready when you are!

Benefits to starting a yoga practice at home

As you can imagine, starting a yoga practice at home comes with many benefits, above all the freedom to jump on your mat whenever it suits best in your schedule.

But let’s take a closer look at all the benefits below:

• Convenience and flexibility – you can practice yoga whenever it fits best your daily schedule and you also eliminate the commute to the yoga studio
• Increased consistency – having the option to integrate your yoga practice into your daily routine leads to more consistency over time
• Cost-effective – a home yoga practice can save you money on memberships or class fees making it more affordable overall
• Personalized practice – you can tailor your yoga practice to your specific needs and requirements focusing on the yoga poses that benefit you the most
• Comfortable environment – a home yoga practice allows you to practice yoga in the comfort of your own home free from any distractions or pressures you might feel in a public class

Yes, all these benefits speak for themselves and if you have a busy schedule like most of us do, it simply gives you this additional freedom and peace of mind, but of course, you have to make it happen and stick with it.

And let’s be honest, this is usually the most difficult part. But you got this, my friends!

7 proven hacks to practice yoga at home for beginners or advanced practitioners

First things first, I have to tell you that taking a rain check is way easier when you have a home yoga practice, but I guess you knew this already.

With the 7 steps below starting a yoga practice at home will be absolutely possible, but first and foremost it needs your commitment and motivation to make it happen.

If you are ready to commit to yourself and pave the way for better well-being and a more balanced life in general, keep reading my friends and let’s make it happen together.

1. Set a time and duration for your yoga practice

This is the first step to building a consistent and rewarding routine.

Check your weekly schedule and set a time for your home yoga practice.

How much time you spend on your yoga practice, is totally up to you. This can be 10 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, etc. It all depends on your schedule and how much time you would like to allow for your yoga practice.

There is no judgement, you do what is right for you and I can assure you that already 10 minutes of yoga in the morning or evening can make a huge difference.

Once a week already counts as a regular practice, but if you would like to dedicate two or even more time slots per week, feel free to adjust to your liking.

Tip: When it comes to defining the length of your yoga practice, be honest with yourself and consider starting small. You can always add to your practice later on. Most importantly define how much time you can make without feeling stressed about fitting your yoga practice into your weekly schedule.

2. Build consistency

We, humans, are creatures of habit. Use consistency to your advantage when starting a yoga practice at home.

Meaning, that if you, for example, pick Tuesdays, 7:30 am – 8:00 am for your home yoga practice, stick to the same day and the same time every week moving forward.

If you do things consistently, over time, they become more and more ingrained into your routines and at some point you don’t even think about them anymore, you just do them. At this point, your action has successfully turned into a habit.

3. Know your ‘why’

Knowing and understanding ‘why’ you do something or want something will help you to consistently show up for yourself.

Think about your ‘why’ as your personal, emotional motivation.

Ask yourself:

• Why do you want to start a regular home yoga practice?
• What is your biggest motivation for starting a yoga practice at home?
• What is your goal with this self yoga practice?
• What are you hoping to change by starting a regular yoga practice?
• What would change in your life moving forward?
• What do you think will be your biggest challenge along the way?
• What must you do to overcome these challenges?

Feel free to contemplate these questions while having a cup of coffee or use them as journal prompts. Your choice.

Examples of your ‘why’ could be that you are looking to increase your fitness levels, improve your physical health, reduce stress levels, feel more confident within your skin, or maybe you are looking to strengthen your body to release physical pain, etc.

Knowing your ‘why’ will be the reason why you will keep showing up for yourself.

4. Find a space in your home

Having a separate yoga room is great, but it is certainly not a must-have.

A pop-up yoga space is just as good. I have been working with pop-up yoga spaces since the beginning of my home yoga practice.

The only thing I recommend is that you stick to this space every time you show up on your mat. Remember, consistency creates a habit. Apart from that it is one less thing to think about when you know where you practice, you can simply unroll your mat and get started.

Consider the following for your home yoga space:

• find a quiet space with minimal distractions
• make sure you have enough space around you to move freely
• the flooring should be stable and non-slippery; hardwood floors are ideal, but if you have carpet, ensure it’s firm enough to support your balance and stability during your home yoga practice
• keep the space clean, this will help limit distractions

Recommended resources: Yoga Room Design Ideas: 6 Simple Steps To Harmony And Bliss.

5. Find what flows for you

There are a few different ways how you can approach this. You can for example pick certain yoga postures you would like to practice and improve on.

If you are a more advanced yogi, you might wanna have fun with your practice and create your own feel-good flow.

If you practice yoga at home for beginners, consider online yoga flows that you can follow. There are many free resources out there and I even dropped one of my free online on-demand yoga flows into this blog post for you later on. Stay with me, my friends!

To keep your home yoga practice efficient and effective:

• pick a yoga teacher and a yoga style that resonates with you
• always come prepared to your yoga mat and pick the yoga video ahead of your yoga practice
• create a list of your favourite yoga flows so that you always have a fallback option

Tip: No need to have a different yoga flow every time you come to your mat. It can be really fun to practice the same flow a few times. This way you will see that your body is different every time you come to the mat and you will also notice your progress over time.

6. Challenge yourself

First and foremost: whenever you are on the yoga mat, keep your yoga practice safe and listen to your body.

However, at the same time, challenge yourself from time to time. For example, try an intermediate or advanced yoga flow, try a different teacher or different yoga style, consider setting a focus for the month such as building core strength, etc. There are many ways you can push yourself outside of your comfort zone in a healthy way.

Challenge leads to growth and growth leads to confidence which helps to build resilience at the same time.

7. Make yourself a priority

This is coming back to the very first point I made before we started to look at the 7 hacks to help you start a yoga practice at home:

Commit to yourself and your personal well-being and make yourself a priority.

How to start a home yoga practice FAQ

What you need to get started with yoga at home

Whether you are a yoga beginner or have an advanced yoga practice I recommend a yoga mat and a couple of yoga blocks to keep your home yoga practice safe.

Over time you can consider adding other yoga props to help support your home yoga practice such as a yoga strap, a bolster, maybe a yoga blanket, etc.

Recommended resources: 5 Must-Have Yoga Props for Your Home Yoga Practice – Recommendations From A Yoga Teacher.

How should a beginner start yoga?

If you are completely new to yoga, I recommend you to do both: taking a regular beginner’s class at a yoga studio near you and establishing a home yoga practice in parallel.

Especially as a yoga beginner, I think it is important to learn the correct alignment in each yoga pose, and the best way to learn this is in the studio with a yoga teacher.

This will give you safety and allow you to build a strong foundation for your yoga practice moving forward.

How do I get into a daily yoga practice?

If you are looking to establish a daily yoga practice, I highly recommend incorporating your daily yoga practice into your daily routines.

If you for example have a morning or evening routine, work out how much time you are looking to dedicate to your daily home yoga practice and include this time into your morning or evening routine.

This way you are tagging a new healthy habit to an already existing healthy habit making how to start a home yoga practice so much easier for yourself.

How to stay motivated to do yoga every day?

As we said earlier, taking a rain check is SO much easier when you have a home yoga practice.

Below are three tips to help keep your motivation strong:

• remind yourself about your ‘why’ – whenever you feel like skipping practice, remind yourself of your ‘why’
• focus on the benefits – after each practice, focus on how your body feels, your internal state, the changes you notice in your body and well-being over time, etc.
• allow your practice to be fun – rather than making your daily yoga practice another item on your to-do list, let your yoga practice be fun, keep it interesting and inspiring at the same time

Let Your Shadow Shine Yoga

I am a certified yoga teacher and a few years ago I started to collaborate with YOGATX. I love this collaboration and together we bring yoga to you on demand and for free.

Below is one of my favourite yoga flows these days. I filmed it during my last trip to Mexico. If you are ready to get going, join me for a quick morning flow that will help energize your body and support you to start your day off right.

This morning yoga flow is suitable for yoga beginners as well as advanced practitioners.

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If you enjoyed this video, let’s keep flowing together. You can find more free online on-demand yoga flows with me on YouTube YOGATX.

Whether you are starting a yoga practice at home as an advanced yoga student or you are going to practice yoga at home for beginners, I hope you feel all set and ready to get going.

I already dropped a few additional resources that will support you along your journey, but there is one more resource that I would like to share with you and I am pretty sure you will like this one, especially if you are looking to start a daily yoga practice.

If you are looking to start a daily yoga practice, I highly recommend taking my 3-Day Yoga Challenge. It is completely free and you can start at any time. If you do join the 3-Day Yoga Challenge, please leave me a comment and let me know how you are getting on. I would love to hear from you.

All right, my friends, we are coming to an end…as always thank you for your space and time, very much appreciated.

If you have not already signed up for my newsletter, make sure to join our online community today and get the latest yoga tips and tricks for your home yoga practice directly in your inbox.

Stay wild,

Nicolle

Featured image Photo by Ginny Rose Stewart on Unsplash