Find your own home yoga practice

Connecting and tuning in is powerful and can be a practice in itself.

Take the time to settle into your practice.

This quiz goes over some of the material we have explored so far.

Have fun with it.

Namaste.

Lubricate your joints. See if you can move the ankles and wrists in the same direction, in opposite directions. Once you are confident play around coordinating opposite hand and foot....you can really see your strength and the balance in your body with these poses.

Enjoy.

These practices require a significant amount of effort and can be quite demanding on the lower back muscles. It is advisable to ensure there is adequate padding under the body. For those with back ailments and weak abdominal muscles, use variations and modifications to protect and support the core.

For those wanting more of a challenge, experiment with the poses, perhaps raise the passive leg/s from the floor.

As with all yoga practices, listen to your body and honor it’s needs.

Enjoy.

When you are in the all 4's position, ensure to stack the joints so that the wrists are under the shoulders and the knees are under the hips.

If your wrists are sore, make fists with the hands and support the arms with the knuckles.

Be careful to extend to just a reasonable position for your body.

Remeber the more we listen to our body, the more we hear!

Standing poses activate and engage the core muscles. When our core is strong, correct posture and proper body alignment can be maintained. The follow on effect is that, when we are elongated through the spine and open in the chest, oxygenation and lung capacity increases.

Generally, right-handed people find these poses most easily learned by practicing to the right side first. To counterbalance the effect of habitual behaviour patterns, you may like to practice leading with the left side. For left-handed people, practice with the right leading. This improves balance, coordination and connection between the two sides of the body and two hemisphere of the brain, thus producing union – yoga.

Once familiarized with the physical postures and breathing technique, you can deepen the practice by focusing on different aspects and make it become like a moving meditation.

Surya Namaskara can be paced briskly to generate heat and charge the entire system, or at a more moderate speed to induce a deeper spiritual awareness and create a moving meditation.

Inverted asanas are very powerful practices and must be performed correctly with utmost care. It’s important to have a firm padded surface away from furniture or anything that might impede a free fall to the floor and to practice on an empty stomach.

It’s also advised to hold the poses for a few seconds initially, building the duration over time and practice. Always listen to your body, honour it’s needs and practice safely.

It is not advisable to practice inversions if one has heart conditions, high blood pressure, a history of stroke or heart disease; diabetes; pregnancy beyond the first trimester; glaucoma or other eye disorders; spinal problems or chronic neck pain; excess weight; dizziness, head injuries, or inner ear problems; hernia; or osteoporosis.

Keep the body still for the whole practice and consciously let go.

If the neck is uncomfortable with the head resting on the floor, place a thin pillow underneath the head and if there is tenderness in the lower back, place a pillow under the knees to relieve pressure in the lower back.

Once familiar with the practice you can really tune into how you feel, deciding for yourself how quickly or slowly to move through the poses and how many rounds of each sequence to do.

Remember to listen to your body and always honor it's individual needs.

Enjoy.