YOGA DO'S

 1. Start where you are.
 2. Make space.
 3. Use what you've got.
 4. Commit to it.
 5. Do what you can.
 6. Be present without judgement.
 7. Sense the quality and clarity of the movement.
 8. Feel moment by moment through the movement.
 9. Add nothing unnecessary to the movement.
10. Constantly return and realign.
11. Act without expectation.
12. Be curious.
13. Experiment.
14. Listen to your body.
15. Have fun.
16. Be soft.
17. Remember the one thing that is constant is change and what worked for you once may not right  now or ever again.

Meditation and movement is not a constant state. Things change and shift, reverse and skip steps, your job is to constantly return, reassess and realign. Be your own student and teacher. Educate yourself about what works best for you...no-one else can do it for you!

Practice

"You should not be practicing to have a “good” practice, but instead to keep steadiness within yourself. Practice happily regardless of whether it is “good” or not. Sometimes some postures will not be possible, but when you accept the good and the bad and everything becomes equal for you, that is yoga."

 -- R. Sharath Jois

Home practice can be a challenging thing to get started with, but once you get going it is well worth the effort. You get to learn, explore and play at your own pace, to suit your own energy needs and (most importantly) you learn to listen to your own intuition. 

There's is no template for a perfect home practice and it certainly doesn't need to be complicated. All you need is yourself so lets go over a few of the things you do not need... 

1. You do not need a dedicated yoga space, you don't even need a mat. you just need enough space to move and breath. simple. 

2. You do not need to practice for a set or extended period of time. Sometimes I only have time for 5mins sometimes 2 hours. It all counts. 

3. You do not need to find a space where you will be uninterrupted. There will interruptions, invited or not. Can you remain in your body, gather your focus, and start again?

4. You do not have to be a yoga teacher to come up with sequences. Go to class to learn the basic rules (I gravitate to teachers that teach to make themselves redundant) and then come home and play with those rules...maybe even break them...I do what feels good for me in the moment, it's fun!

5. You don not need to achieve anything. It's not a competition and there is not final goal and that's the beauty of it all.

Now go, be free and PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.

(photo of me and my dirty feet...more Yoga Do's)