5 Tips For Starting A Home Yoga Practice (And Sticking To It!)

By now, everyone is well aware of the physical and mental health benefits of yoga.

Whenever I meet someone outside the yoga scene and tell them I’m a yoga teacher, I get one of two responses. Either someone says, “Oh! I love yoga!” or they say, “I really need to practice yoga.” Unfortunately, I hear the second response mostly from the folks who could use yoga the most. 

So, if everyone knows they could benefit from yoga, then why aren’t more people practicing? What I hear from the ones who know they should practice (their words) but don’t is that they often don’t feel comfortable in yoga studios, that it’s too expensive, or that they don’t have time in their busy schedule to make it to classes. 

I get it. Yoga studios can be intimidating spaces, especially if you’re not a young, athletic or flexible woman. Look, I don’t want to get down on yoga studios. They provide a real service to our communities and practicing with other people can be great, but the time-tested and best way to get the most benefit from yoga is to practice it at home.

Once I learned how to do my own practice, it changed everything for me.
—

Once I learned how to do my own practice, it changed everything for me. While group classes offered me a glimpse of the benefits of yoga, it wasn’t until I started doing my own practice that I realized its full healing potential. Best of all, it’s free, I can do it whenever I want and it’s my practice — designed to give me what I need to feel my best.

So, that’s my sales pitch. Sound good? Here are my top 5 tips for starting a home yoga practice and (this is the hardest part) sticking to it!

01. Make the Time and Space 

One of the biggest excuses I hear from people who are struggling with starting a home practice is that they don’t have the room. Sorry, but I’m not buying it! I’ve practiced in airports, motel rooms, campgrounds and on the deck of a ferry. You can always find the space to practice — you just might have to move some furniture around.

The second biggest excuse I hear is “I don’t have the time!”. I’m not buying that one either. If you think you’re going to “find the time” for a yoga practice, it’ll never happen.

If you think you’re going to “find the time” for a yoga practice, it’ll never happen.
—

Trust me. You need to make the time. If you live with others, especially kids, you will need their understanding and support to make it work. So, let everyone know that this is your time and that it’s something important to you. 

If you have trouble justifying making the time for your practice, think of how much your kids, spouse and work will benefit from you being more healthy, calm and clear-headed. If you’ve got kids, make it a fun time for them too. Set them up with a video to watch while you practice, or give them a coloring book and set a timer for 20 minutes.

When my wife saw how much better of a mood I was in after I’d had my morning practice, she had no problem giving me the space I needed. I used to joke with her that I should make a t-shirt that reads, Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my yoga! 

02. Keep it Simple

One of the biggest pitfalls people fall into when starting a home practice is taking on too much all at once. It’s just not realistic to expect that you’ll find an extra hour in your schedule on a consistent basis. Something more important or urgent always seems to come up, and the initial momentum and enthusiasm you started out with will be lost. I see it all the time. If you set up an “all or nothing” scenario with unrealistic expectations, more often than not “nothing” is going to win. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

If it’s well designed, a 15- or 20-minute practice can give you everything you need.
—

Studio classes have conditioned many folks to think that a yoga practice needs to be 60-90 minutes to be a “real” practice, which just isn’t true. If it’s well designed, a 15- or 20-minute practice can give you everything you need. And, it’ll be much easier to fit into your routine. 

Once the rhythm of a daily practice is established and it’s a regular part of your day, you can always add to it when you want to do more. Or, you can make a commitment to practice for at least 15 minutes a day, and on days when you have more time, give yourself a longer practice as a special treat.

For the first year or so of my home practice, I got up every morning and followed along with Rodney Yee’s AM Yoga For Beginners DVD, which was 22 minutes long. After that, I graduated to Nicky Doane’s Ashtanga For Beginners DVD which was about an hour.

These days, my practice ranges from 30-90 minutes depending on the day. When starting out, I suggest lowering your expectations of what you can realistically take on, and trust that a little bit of practice every day is better than none!

03. Keep it Consistent

Especially in the beginning, it’s really helpful to pick a consistent time for practice and stick to it. It will require some discipline, but once you start to feel the benefits it will become what I call “a joyful discipline” — not something that you have to do, but something that you want to do — because you know how much better you feel when you do it! Feeling good is a great motivator. 

Once you start to feel the benefits your practice will become a joyful discipline.
—

Remember when you were a kid and your parents had to force you to take a bath? I do. I hated it, and I’m sure you did too. Now? I bet you don’t go a day without taking a shower. Consider that a typical shower takes at least 10 minutes (if it takes less than that, we need to talk). If you put as much importance on how you feel, as you do on how you look (and smell), you’ll find at least as much time to practice as it takes for you to get ready in the morning.

When I started my home practice I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning to fit it into my day. During the cold, dark winter in Canada it wasn’t easy. I tell people that my practice started the moment my second foot hit the bedroom floor, because after that, there was no going back to bed.

I can’t tell you how many times I sat there with one foot on the floor, trying to convince myself that I should just crawl back into bed and snuggle with my wife and dog. It wasn’t always easy, but I always felt better after practicing. Over time I came to love getting up early and having some quiet time to myself before the world wakes up.

04. Make it Enjoyable

Look, if you don’t enjoy your practice, you’re never going to keep it up. We’re pleasure-seeking animals, so you need to make your practice time enjoyable (unless you’re a masochist, which isn’t as uncommon in the yoga world as you might think). 

If you don’t enjoy your practice, you’re never going to keep it up.
—

I recommend setting the mood for your practice. Play some soft music, light some candles, burn some incense. It will help if you have a dedicated space for practice, but not everyone has that luxury. 

When I’m traveling I always bring along some stuff to make a portable altar that helps me get in the mood. I’ll set up a cloth on whatever table or stool is handy, light a small candle and burn some incense. At home I keep an altar that has pictures of loved ones, items that remind me of special times, and sometimes little notes and affirmations I write to myself. 

A big part of making yoga enjoyable is finding a practice that works for you, not one that makes you work for it. That brings us to my last tip.

05. Find What Feels Good

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to over the years (mostly guys) who say, “I know I should practice yoga, but I’m not flexible enough!” The problem is that most studio yoga classes are taught by young, flexible women, who often have a background in gymnastics or dance and not a lot of experience teaching older or less flexible folks. It’s not their fault. When you’re in your 20s or early 30s, you have no idea what’s in store for you in your 40s, 50s and beyond. 

The thing is, yoga was never that complicated, and it was never meant to be a workout.
—

It can be hard to find a studio yoga class that works for the general population, so many people resign themselves to a yoga style that doesn’t require much physical effort (like yin yoga), or they struggle to keep up with classes that are beyond their capabilities. Or, they simply give up on yoga altogether.

Often, younger teachers think they have to dazzle people with their creative sequencing, which leaves many folks too busy trying to keep up with all the complicated alignment cues that they can’t focus on what really matters — slowing down their breath and noticing how their body feels. It gives them the impression that yoga is complicated or “hard”, and they can’t imagine trying to do it at home without someone leading them through a class. 

The thing is, yoga was never that complicated, and it was never meant to be taught in big groups. And, it was never meant to be a “workout”. The postures, breathing and meditation are meant to help you release tension, calm your nervous system and focus your mind. And when you make that the goal, the simpler the practice is, the better.

Getting Started

Using online videos is a great way to start your home practice, but if you want to go deeper — if you want your practice to really work for you — the best thing you can do is hire a teacher who will design a practice specifically for you and your needs. I know it may seem expensive or luxurious, but think how much you spend on yoga classes already. For the price of 3 or 4 classes you could pay a teacher to work with you to develop an efficient, effective and enjoyable practice that you can truly call your own.

Free Resources

If you want to get started today, I invite you to a look at some of these videos I’ve created specifically to teach you the fundamentals of a life-enriching, life-enhancing yoga practice:

The Root Practice teaches the principles of breathing and moving (vinyasa) and puts them into a good general practice that takes about 15 minutes.

This video (below) will teach you the fundamentals of breathwork (pranayama) that promotes health, calm and clarity.

If you want to explore more, check out my YouTube channel or my shop which has videos you can download and watch on your laptop, phone or tablet — whenever and wherever you want.

And if you are ready to develop your own personal practice and realize the real healing power of yoga, contact me or book a free consultation.