6 Simple Tips for Practicing Yoga at Home

Yoga Journal’s archives series is a curated collection of articles originally published in past issues beginning in 1975. This article about practicing yoga at home first appeared in the January-February 1994 issue of Yoga Journal.

Over the past four years, I’ve led perhaps 20 introductory yoga courses for more than 200 people. Whatever their reason for coming, these women and men all have one thing in common: They’re searching for something to make their lives feel better. Their first challenge in class is to shape themselves, both physically and mentally, into unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable positions. Their second challenge, once they head home, is to apply their newfound knowledge to their everyday lives.

Yogis emphasize the importance of experience gained through regular practice—and regular practice depends on commitment. Traditionally, this commitment was made when the carefully selected student was solemnly initiated into the discipline by his or her spiritual master or guru.

Nowadays, of course, yoga classes are available to everyone, and we can come and go as we please. Such freedom, though it opens wide the door to yoga, has a price: Most of us lack a trusted mentor to closely monitor our daily practice, and without this direct support on a day-to-day basis, it is often difficult to sustain the necessary effort.

Tips for Practicing Yoga at Home

The following are a few tips that have helped my students—and myself—establish and maintain a regular daily practice.

1. Keep It Simple

Keep the commitment simple and manageable at first. It’s better to practice consistently for 15 minutes each morning than to commit zealously to an hour, then stop practicing after a few days because you can’t drag yourself out of bed early enough. Start off modestly, resolving to practice 20 to 30 minutes a day—or whatever feels realistic—for a month or so. At the end of that period, reevaluate your commitment.

2. Pick a Time

Set aside a specific time and place for your daily practice, well away from TVs, telephones, and all non-yogis. There’s no “right” time to practice: What’s important is to be consistent. Soon, your body and mind will eagerly anticipate yoga at the accustomed time, as surely as your belly regularly reminds you that it’s meal-time.

3. Practice With a Friend

Try practicing with a partner or close circle of friends who can provide some humor and a balanced perspective on the inevitable ups and downs of your day-to-day exertions. Just be sure to keep chitchat to a minimum—you’re together to encourage each other in your commitment, not to socialize.

4. Learn More About Yoga

You might appreciate your practice more if you read something about the long and fascinating history and philosophy of yoga. The best source of information I know is Sacred Paths by Georg Feuerstein.

5. Choose a Focus

Go into each practice session with a particular focus or structure. The structure of the practice—what postures you include and in what order—can be infinitely varied. For now, ask your teacher to suggest some simple routines that would be appropriate for your level. If you have no teacher, consult a yoga book, video tape, or Yoga Journal for practice suggestions.

Also, a number of good books are widely available for informing your physical practice: The one I’m most familiar with and that I recommend to my beginners is The Runner’s Yoga Book by Jean Couch. A different but equally valuable approach is presented in Yoga for Body, Breath, and Mind by A.G. Mohan.

6. Don’t Forget Savasana

No practice is complete without a relaxation at the end, which is done in the aptly named Corpse Pose (Savasana). In Savasana, we give ourselves time to fully integrate what our body, mind, and spirit have experienced in our practice.

Ideally, you should spend a minimum of five minutes in Corpse for every 30 minutes of practice.

Keep In Mind

Yoga is often defined as “evenness” or balance, which is embodied in the two complementary aspects or “poles” of the practice. The active pole requires forcefulness and perseverance. Its receptive complement calls for dispassion or detachment—in the words of The Bhagavad-Gita, “looking upon success and failure with an equal eye.” In our practice, we should try to harmonize exertion, or doing, with acceptance, or being—and then strive to integrate both of those qualities into our lives once we step off the yoga mat.