Personal Practice of Yoga #Winter 2025

Sarvangasana - Ignite the fire ~ Agni

If you haven't started your yoga practice yet, either in a studio or individually, perhaps now that the weather is starting to cool down, the time has come!

It is time to turn our attention inwards, to where the body and spirit reside. This leads us to meditation, which is the ultimate goal of everything we do. However, there's no need to set explicit goals. Meditative movement or meditative stillness offers great benefits, yet another post to emphasize that.

The essence on this post is to tell you that when we turn our attention inwards, we touch parts of ourselves that we have either not noticed or not developed. Approaching such unexplored paths makes us happier (no one can scientifically explain why this happens... it is the experience that teaches us).

The mystic and poet Kabir has written:

“Don't go outside your house to see the flowers.

My friend, don't bother with that excursion.

Inside your body there are flowers.

One flower, has 1000 petals. There, you can rest.

Sitting there, you will have a glipmse of beauty inside the body and outside of it, before gardens and after gardens ...”

Hints for a personal practice:

Small tips for personal practice continued from Personal Practice of Yoga #Autumn 2025

1. Creating a personal Space ~~~ Set up a small space in your house, just enough to unroll your mat, where you feel supported in your practice. It should be warm, clean, pleasing to your senses, and away from anything that distracts you (screens, strong smells, etc.). However, don't get carried away trying to create the ideal environment. Practice will inevitably have distractions, just like our lives. We do the best we can, one turn at a time, with very small touches that might be helpful (e.g., a candle or an incense stick).

2. Listen to Your Body ~~~ Try to "listen" to your body and whatever it tells you during the practice; it needs care and attention; do you feel that your tissue inside are 'screaming'? Rather than react to it, soften and restart. Awareness is very important —only by cultivating awareness can the practice become more intense (in many ways).

3. The Gauge ~~~ For awareness, attention and active participation in our practice, we have the best gauge: the Breath! The "listening" to the body begins with "listening" to the breath. From the quality of your breath, you understand where you are each time. That is, whether the body, mind, and soul are synchronized in the exercise, or if you have exceeded your capabilities.

4. Challenge Yourself with Awareness ~~~ Do you want to work beyond your capabilities? Do you want to challenge yourself? Perfect! You have the safest practice on your agenda for this purpose. "Listening" and awareness will give you all the skills to step outside the surrounding comfort zone and strengthen the "whole" without injury. A tip: We don't like sharp and sudden pain.

5. Quality VS Quantity (Patience) ~~~ Give time to your practice. Yoga is one of the few practices where as time goes by, you do less, not more. It requires patience, no rush to do as many postures as possible. Those who practice Yoga for many years have understood that what is considered evolution/progress in this context is moving slowly and consciously. Over time, the poses you do in a session decrease—they do not increase.

It no longer makes sense to start on Monday. Start as soon as possible!!

Hope to meet you online or in person on the mat!!