If you have attended any type of yoga retreat or training away from home, you know that learning the curriculum is only half the battle.
In the beginning, it is difficult to feel arrived and settled into the routine of retreat - one's head is
still spinning from traveling and still occupied with all the home stuff. Just as you are finally starting to feel rooted and comfortable, the whole thing is over, and now you've got to travel back.
Attending your weekly yoga class is a microcosm of that experience: arriving, settling in, rooting down, becoming present. If the mind is preoccupied and busy, it is oh-so-easy to sail through the practice without ever landing in the body. But
then, of course, that's not a yoga practice...
Creating a ritual - a container - for your weekly yoga class can help you to get the most of your class. More than that - your weekly ritual can actually help you stick with the practice when the going gets tough (that's of course when most of us tend to drop our self-care - right when we need it the most). Be sure to check out the next week's blog post - it is all about arriving and settling:)
Here are some ideas:
~ Arrive few minutes early so there's a buffer zone between your day activities and yoga practice.
~ Roll out with the balls, move, stretch. Many of
arrive to the yoga mat from a few hours of immobility. Often, the most exercise we did the whole day is moving our fingers. Whole body movement can help to discharge accumulated stress static; rolling out before you settle down on your mat can make the beginning of the class so much more comfortable.
~ Once you are ready, settle onto your mat. Give yourself - body and mind - a chance to be still and quiet - take a few mindful breaths before
the class begins.
Now you are ready!*
Here is a handy check list that can help you hone in on your ritual even further:
