10 reasons to build a home practice

MEETING YOUR NEEDS ON YOUR MAT
Home practice gives you the freedom, in the safety of your own home, to step on your mat when it suits you and practice exactly what you need, as often as you like. Putting aside some time for yourself and developing a home practice gives you the tools to take ownership of your wellness through yoga. Building a relationship with your practice, and getting to know your strengths, your limitations, your favourite asana, helps you tailor your practice to suit your needs.

HOW CAN MY HOME PRACTICE HELP ME TODAY?
Learning to listen to what you need each time you practice and having no expectations of yourself, is an important part of home practice. Each time you turn up to your mat is a new experience and is best treated with fresh curiosity and self inquiry. When you step on your mat take a few moments to work out how your practice can help you today. Ask yourself these questions:

You may not have the answer to all the questions but it will help remind you if you have an injury you are minding, if you need to go easy because you have a full day ahead or if you are dealing with something else in life that might require you to be extra kind to yourself. Using the benefits list below and the answer to your questions you can start to build a practice unique to you and your needs.

10 REASONS TO BUILD A HOME PRACTICE
1. Covid friendly! - Yes, my number one reason to build your home practice is to build resilience in a world that is in complete turmoil. Covid, and all the anxieties of uncertainty that come with it, will be with us for some time to come. Your wellness is in your hands, it is your responsibility. Investing in your home practice will help you feel stronger physically, mentally and emotionally. You will feel more able to deal with this unprecedented and challenging period in time. It is also a sole practice, an added Covid bonus!

2. Your home practice is there to support you, when it suits you, as often as you like - now that lots of us are working from home it is the perfect time to build a home practice into your day. We all know that building good routines is an important part of wellness. A morning home practice will get you up at a set time, start your day off the best way possible and you will feel the benefits for the rest of the day. Alternatively an evening home practice will set an end time to your home working day and help you wind down for the evening. You can also take bite sized movement breaks of a few seated or standing poses during your working day without inquisitive eyes on you! You choose, you are the boss of your practice.

3. You can create a practice relevant to your needs - your home practice is all about you! You have the freedom to practice exactly what you want each time you practice. This can be as simple as reading your energy levels and practising accordingly, or going into more depth and working out which poses will support your specific needs using the benefits list and the self inquiry questions above.

4. You get the most out of your time on your mat - in your home practice you can get straight to the point and address your needs in a shorter practice to make the most of your time on your mat. Your morning practice can be as simple as a 10 minute mobilisation of your whole body to sit more comfortably if you are working from home.

5. You can play around with your favorite poses - you can practice at your level and not feel you need to sit out poses that don’t suit you the way you might have to in a class scenario. You can also spend more time breaking down and playing around with poses that you find more challenging or poses that you just love.

6. You get the ‘feel good factor’ at your fingertips - for many reasons yoga has the ‘feel good factor’. We all need as much feel good factor as we can get at the moment. Developing a home practice means that you have this fabulous benefit available at arms reach. Yoga doesn’t take up much room and doesn’t require expensive equipment. Fancy yoga gear is optional, all you really need is a yoga mat and you are ready to go.

7. You can practice in private - with the best will in the world we are naturally curious to see what everyone else is doing in a yoga class and comparing ourselves to them. In your home practice you are less inclined to get stuck in self judgement and are more able to practice what is right for you in the privacy of your own home.

8. You build a relationship with your practice - taking ownership of your practice deepens your self awareness. When you build a relationship with your practice it gets easier to notice what feels good v’s what doesn’t, and what feels like enough v’s what feels like too much. In a class setting we are very subservient and are inclined to do as we see or as we are told, even if the poses don’t suit our level of experience or our anatomy.

9. You can support other hobbies and sports - whether you are a cyclist, runner, golfer, hiker – yoga can support you. In your home practice you can incorporate poses that specifically target areas that need strengthening or stretching to support and help you excel at other sporting interests.

10. It is free! - need I say more. With the cloud of uncertainty looming over many of us, free and ready when you need it self care is music to our ears.

JUST GET STARTED
My mission is to help you evolve and develop your home practice. On my website you will find every tool you could ever need to get you started. Have a read of How to build a home practice for a step to step guide to get you started, with YouTube videos to guide you through each of the Home Flows. You’ll also find tips on building good practice routines in 10 Tips to develop a home practice. There are over 100 FREE downloadable sequences in my Sequences section with pose breakdown, pose prep and pose versions too.

My 108 Asana sequencing cards and posters are also the perfect tool to give you alignment cues on each of the poses and a simple method for building sequences tailored to your needs. The best thing about your home practice is that each time you step on your mat you are moving in a way that will support and nourish your unique needs.

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

Salabhasana - Locust

BACK BODY STRENGTH
Salabhasana/Locust is by far my favourite backbend. I slot it into my vinyasas instead of Bhujangasana/Cobra to strengthen my whole back body, not just the muscles of my spine. ‘The posterior chain’ refers to the whole back body. It runs from the back of the heels up through the calves, hamstrings, glutes, lower back (lumbar spine), upper back (thoracic spine), neck (cervical spine) and ends just under the back curve of the skull (occipital curve). This chain of muscles are designed to hold us upright. If they are weak they become fatigued more easily and cause an overcurve of the upper spine and shoulders, resulting in a flattening of the lower spine as the body tries to compensate for the forward sway of the upper back and head. The posterior chain becomes weakened from lack of use or from long periods of sitting. A strong posterior chain protects the back and encourages good posture. In Salabhasana/Locust we are lifting the weight of the whole body against gravity which makes it a very strengthening pose for the posterior chain and the back of the arms. It also stretches the front of the shoulders, the chest, the belly and the front of the thighs. Although Salabhasana/Locust is quite a challenging pose to hold for more than a few breaths it is very accessible for beginners and is the perfect pose to prepare for deeper backbends.

THE BENEFITS OF SALABHASANA/LOCUST
The backbend family stimulates the nervous system, aids digestion, boosts circulation, boosts the immune system, and ease stress, tension, anxiety and mental fatigue. They also expand lung capacity and ease symptoms of asthma and sleep apnea. Backends that place pressure on your abdomen, like Salabhasana/Locust, have the added bonus of stimulating the organs of the body and aiding digestion by encouraging peristalsis in the muscles of the colon which help to push waste food along detoxing the body of food waste.

EXPLORING SALABHASANA/LOCUST IN YOUR PRACTICE
This sequence will give you plenty of opportunities to explore Salabhasana/Locust. Instead of linking your standing mini flows with a standard vinyasa you will come down to the ground and spend some time in a series of Salabhasana/Locust and Salabhasana versions. When you are moving through these poses use your public bone as your grounding anchor and see if you lightly draw your navel towards your spine. There is a temptation to puff the belly to fill the lungs and get higher but this will bypass the muscle activity of the back body. Stay lower and feel for the strength of the muscles all along the back body rather than striving for as much height as you can get.

ALIGNMENT CUES
There are two Salabhasana mini flows. You will take the Mini flow A as a warm up at the end of the first row and you will take the full Mini Flow B after each standing flow indicated by ‘+ MINI FLOW B’. Take your time in this section of your practice and remember this is the essence of this sequence.

Have a read of the tips below and either print out the sequence or save it onto your device:

• Lie on your front, arms by your sides, palms facing your body, forehead resting on the ground.

• Inhale, press into your pubic bone, lift your head, upper torso, arms and legs, lift with the whole back. Reach your chest forward and up.

• Extend your arms towards your feet, lift your legs up and press through the balls of your feet, roll your inner thighs up.

• Broaden through the collarbones, firm your shoulder blades onto your back, back of the neck long, gaze slightly forward.

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Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

Yoga for self care

PRIORITISING SELF CARE
We wear busyness like a badge of honour and looking after ourselves is often at the end of our ‘to do’ list. When I’m busy, self care is the first thing that gets dropped from my day, even though I know it is when I need it the most. Sometimes we need reminding how important self care and making a point of prioritising it is. If we put self care at the top of the list all the other jobs would be much easier – we would feel restored, cared for, content and ready for the rest of the day. Self care not only benefits us, it also benefits everyone we encounter throughout the day. Andrea Ferretti, host of the Yogaland Podcast defines self care as “the conscious act of taking care of your needs so that you can best serve your purpose in the world’. Life without self care is all outward energy without receiving anything back in return.

Do you have a self care routine? What does your self care routine look like for you? Write down a list of your go to self care tools. When you are like a hamster stuck in a wheel you will find it hard to remember what will help you. Work out what your obstacles to self care are to help you recognise them. You need a written message to your future self to remind you that you know exactly how to help yourself find balance again.

THE ROLE OF YOGA IN SELF CARE
Yoga is at the top of my list. It is the ultimate expression of self care, it helps you pause to check in with yourself and allows you to move in a way that will support you in your life off the mat. On the days I practice I notice my energy is better, my moods are more balanced, I am more focused and productive throughout the day and I sleep better. I look after myself and probably look after others better too! Yoga helps you sprinkle self care throughout your day, it reminds you that looking after yourself is an essential part of life, not a luxury.

HOW TO WORK OUT WHAT YOU NEED
Your yoga practice can help you take ownership of your wellness. Personal practice is where the magic happens. In your personal practice you are addressing your unique needs and tailoring to what you specifically need. When you step on your mat take a few moments to work out how your practice can help you today. Ask yourself these questions:

• What do I need physically?

• What do I need mentally?

• What are my energy levels?

• What is my mood today?

• What are my limitations or injuries?

• What is the rest of my day like?

• Where do I need mobility?

• Where do I need stability?

You may not have the answer to all the questions but it will help remind you if you have an injury you are minding, if you need to go easy because you have a full day ahead, or if you are dealing with something else in life that might require you to be extra kind to yourself.

When I practice I use one if my ready made sequences, or I go through the 108 Asana and either pick a peak pose that I’m curious to try and build a sequence, or pick a selection of poses at my level of experience.

EXPLORING YOGA FOR SELF CARE IN YOUR PRACTICE
Yoga works best when it is approached with a commitment to consistently getting on your mat, even if it is just for 10 minutes. You need to invest some time to get the wealth of benefits yoga gives in return. Everyone has different favourite poses and poses that suit them better than others. Consider this sequence is a starting point for building your self care flow. It is a gentle sequence full of nourishing poses that you can hold for a little bit longer and explore what your reactions to them are. Notice which poses you are enjoying and which challenge you physically and mentally. Start to build a picture of what your yoga practice looks like. Keep a note of poses that give you instant yoga good vibes.

ALIGNMENT CUES
Along the bottom of the sequence are a selection of ‘extra poses’ that you can slot in or substitute with other poses, so you can start to create your own unique flow tailored to your needs. You can also use these poses to create variety in your practice and continue to use this sequence for several practices.

Have a read of the tips below and either print out the sequence or save it onto your device:

• Before you start to move, place one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly and take three gentle breaths to help you settle.

• Remember to take time in each pose to notice your reaction to it and use a slow calm breath to find your stamina.

• Consider adding Salabhasana/Locust at the end of each mini flow as a lovely way to strengthen and reset your spine.

• If you are adding poses you can come into Downward Facing Dog/Adho Mukha Svanasana and then get ready to take your pose, or add them into their appropriate section ie Trikonasana into the end of one of the standing mini flows, Salamba Sarvangasana/Shoulderstand towards the end of the seated section.

• Incorporate at least 2 minutes for Savasana at the end of your practice using a standard Savasana or the supported version in the extra poses section.

Subscribe to my newsletter & get a FREE YOGA BENEFITS INFOGRAPHIC as a thank you!

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru