Lean into the ‘why’
Have you ever thought about why you’re doing yoga? It can be useful to use the space before you start your practice to focus on what you’d like to get out of it. By setting a clear intention, you can make better choices about what to do and the way to do it. The same is true for most things in life.
What quality would you like to cultivate?
Your intention could be deep and spiritual or it could be simple and basic. It might change every time you come to your mat. Or you might decide to practice consistently with one core intention over and over again.
"Since yoga is a mind-body connection, setting an intention can bring your practice to a deeper level. By setting an intention you are making a connection between what you work through on your mat, and what you continue to focus on as you step off your mat and resume your daily schedule." ~ Andy Vantrease, Truly Yoga
Here are a few ideas to get you started.
My intention is to -
Practice in my own personal range of comfort and ease
Even in a class, you are in charge of your own yoga practice. So, if a posture doesn’t feel appropriate for you, choose another one that gives you a similar benefit. It could be a posture with the same spinal movement as the one you’re replacing – side stretch, forward bend, back bend, twist or a sense of length. The feeling of being upside-down makes cat or pose of a child a good alternative for down facing dog or shoulderstand. If you enjoy the feeling of lengthening your spine and legs in down dog, then a forward bend would be a good option. Remember – I can help you with suggestions. Ask me in class or drop me an email
Uplift and energise
Move through your postures a little quicker. Choose backbends and twists. Keep your eyes softly open instead of closing them. Focus on standing and balancing postures. Choose energising breathing like kapalabhati or breathing to lengthen your inhale.
Relax and soothe away stress
Close your eyes as your practice. Take postures slower and add more space between movements where you pause to rest with awareness. Aim to keep your breath slow and smooth. Relax your face and shoulders. Forward bending – particularly when you’re supported by a chair, cushion or window ledge – is associated with relaxing in yoga. Choose soothing breathing practices like ujaii, humming bee breath or bubble breathing to extend your exhale. Focus on sitting and lying down postures.
Unwind tension
As you move, breathe and relax, bring your awareness to anywhere that feels like you’re holding on. Notice places that ‘join in’ a movement that don’t need to. For example, you might be clenching your jaw or frowning when you’re balancing. Often forgotten tension is unconscious and it takes slow, mindful practice to bring it to your awareness. You’ll have your own personal holding patterns to uncover, but typical places to focus on are jaw, eyes, shoulders, hands and buttocks. Lion breath targets those tension hotspots. People usually laugh when they practice it, which is a great way to produce uplifting feel-good chemicals! Shaking your hands, arms, feet and legs is a surprisingly good way to soften away tension.
Improve mobility. Move with ease, grace and freedom.
Aim to make the movement into and out of each posture as light and smooth as possible. You’ll probably need to slow down. You may discover you make postures smaller too. In standing, imagine planting your feet for stability, so the rest of your body can almost float above this steady, stable base. Earth sequence and sun salutations can be useful to zone into a flowing feeling. Adapt to suit your own range of movement.
Grow stronger. Build resolve, resilience and stamina
Simply showing up on your mat regularly is a powerful way to build resolve and resilience. Hold postures for longer – but still with a focus on keeping your breathing smooth and steady. Imagine layers of tension falling away from you as you breathe out. Respect and understand your own boundaries or ‘edges’ in a pose. It’s important to know when to leave the posture. Step away as soon as your breath becomes uneven or when the posture feels tense and tight. Set a timer (the insight timer app has a good one) and practice a meditation following your breath in silence for a specific time. A minute may be enough to start with. Or, practice mindful counted breathing (count five exhales, then start again at one) with kindness.
Develop gratitude and sense of joy
Pause throughout your practice to acknowledge everything your body (and mind) is doing for you to keep you safe and balanced. Your body is adapting your breath in every moment to each new position. Your whole system is monitoring your external and your internal environment and making millions of tiny adjustments to every part of your being from your circulation, to your muscles, to your chemistry through your hormones. In yoga, back bending like warrior I or cobra is associated with making space around your heart and feelings of joy. Focus on the places, beings and events that bring you joy as you practice. Practice a gratitude or loving kindness meditation. Imagine the space softening around your heart as you breathe.
Build stability and balance
This doesn’t need to be all about standing on one leg. You can practice ‘grounding’ in every posture. Grounding is a deep awareness of being anchored to the earth. It helps you to feel stable, confident and relaxes your nervous system. During your practice, imagine you have roots that extend into the earth, supporting you from underneath. Picture that the earth is holding you.
Settle my breath and my nervous system
Move slowly through your practice. Inhale and slowly exhale before you move. Cultivating a sense of grounding (above) is useful to help you settle physically, mentally and emotionally. Choose a moving practice like the energy blending breath and aim to slow it down with each round you practice.
Detach from the outcome
This is an interesting one for those of us (especially me!) who measure achievement against objectives. Your journey may go around in circles or feel somehow like you’re moving backwards. It’s not important. Set your intention. Practice without judgement. Remember all practice is good practice.
Take your intention off the mat and into the world!
Yoga doesn’t just happen on a length of foam in a special, quiet space. Take your new awareness for a spin in the real world. When you roll up your mat, be mindful about how your practice helps you to navigate your day-to-day experiences. Use the grounding, mindfulness, softening, gratitude, strength, awareness and resilience you’ve developed to support your journey though life.
What intention will you set for your next yoga practice?
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