Designing your Home Practice

What is your why?

When you go to a yoga class and the routine is already prepared for you, you don’t have to consider how and why you are practicing. When it’s up to you to design your own home practice, showing up on your mat without a clear intention can lead to an aimless and disjointed attempt. Joining this five month course is a substantial commitment and to get the most of it, I want you to get clear about the essence of WHY you are here. This is going to be rooted beyond just wanting to lose weight or tone your body, for that you could have just taken the plethora of online yoga classes available. Throughout this course, I want to help you design your sadhana (home practice) based on on a subtler energetic level. For this we need to go deep within to answer the heart’s call. I’d like you to get out a journal and pen.

First reread this quote I shared to start this module:

“True yoga is not about the shape of your body, but the shape of your life. Yoga is not to be performed; yoga is to be lived. Yoga doesn’t care about what you have been; yoga cares about the person you are becoming. Yoga is designed for a vast and profound purpose, and for it to be truly called yoga, its essence must be embodied.” — Aadil Palkhivala, Fire of Love

Now prepare to tap into your why, your heart’s deepest longing.

Breathe in and out deeply in a gentle, slow ujjayi breath.

Notice any tension inside. Truth cannot flow through tension. Stay present. In each inhale, notice any tension. In each exhale, forgive the tension, and let it go.

Visualize a pure bright light right above the crown of your head. Breathe in and take that light down through your crown into your heart. As you breathe out, let that light permeate your entire body.

Repeat this breath and visualization until all tension melts and you feel a sense of warmth and peace from the inside.

Now pick up your pen and respond to these questions in your journal:

  • What is my heart’s deepest longing?

  • How can my daily sadhana facilitate my heart’s deepest longing?

  • What obstacles keep me from attending to my heart’s deepest longing?

  • What are your concrete goals for your daily sadhana?

  • Now imagine that you are already achieving what you long for. Observe how you feel.

  • Now choose ONE WORD. How will you feel when you are truly embodying practices that answer your heart’s deepest longing?

  • SHARE something about what came up for you during this excercize on the FB group page.