How To Bounce Back Into Your Yoga Practice
Maybe you’re the minority and still going strong with your yogic New Year resolution, congratulations, you’re a badass. Perhaps you’re like the rest of us and noticing a flux in prioritizing practice. Or you might have simply found yourself hardly practicing yoga for the past several months and you’re treading water on search for grounding it back into your life. No matter who you are along this yoga practice journey, the fact you are recognizing yoga can continue to serve you is the common ground we all stand on. In this article, we will break down accessible ways to bounce back into your yoga practice for when you need a little extra umph.
How To Get Started Practicing Yoga Again
As you can imagine, re-introducing yoga into your life is going to vary significantly depending on who you are as a person. It is important to remember the world we live in is not black and white, it’s a spectrum of color - this also applies to one’s yoga practice. The following techniques, tips, and tricks are not intended to serve in any order, feel free to explore these options as they resonate with you.
Take a Deep Breath and Don’t Overthink It
Pranayama, one of the eight limbs of yoga, the practice of breathing techniques, involves controlling your breath in different styles and lengths. Now you may be familiar with box breathing, kapalbhati, nadi shodhana, or a variety of other techniques - for the sake of bouncing back into your yoga practice, throw these frameworks out the window until you’re comfortable again with simple deep breaths.
You can start practicing simple deep breaths as a five-minute morning practice, penciled into your lunch break, or when you find your mind overwhelmed. There is no right or wrong way to do this and this exercise alone can constitute your practice, there is no shame in starting simply to lay the foundation to grow.
How To Practice Deep Breathing:
Find a comfortable seat
Relax the shoulders and lengthen the spine by reaching the crown toward the ceiling
Close your eyes and tune inward
Empty the lung’s capacity and slowly inhale through the nose, filling the lung’s capacity
Pause at the top of the inhale (1-7 seconds)
Slowly release the exhale to empty the lungs
Pause at the bottom of the exhale (1-7 seconds)
Continue for 3-5 rounds, five minutes, or for however long it feels right to you
Focus on the Light, Salute the Sun
Chances are if you’re reading this, you have some familiarity with the infamous sun salutation, whether that be surya namaskar A, B, or another variety. Sun salutations offer us connection to our breath through repetitive movements, bringing together mind and body. When in doubt, you can always flow it out.
How To Practice a Sun Salutation:
Begin standing at the top of your mat, hands in prayer at heart center, inhale reach for the sky, maybe a baby backbend
Exhale forward fold
Inhale halfway lift
Exhale fold
Inhale and step back into a high plank
Exhale into a low plank
Inhale into cobra or upward-facing dog
Exhale into downward-facing dog (take a few breaths here)
Step to the front of your space
Inhale back to standing, reach for the sky, and exhale hands back to heart center
Repeat these sun salutations as you see fit. Maybe you start with one and call it a day or try a few in times you feel you need them. When the mind is busy, remember you can always stop, drop, and flow.
Slow It Down, Our Evolution Is Not the Same Speed As Algorithms
As much as we want to be multi-taskers, the human brain isn’t cut out for it. One way to soothe a racing mind is to grapple with it through restorative yoga asana. Now as simple as these postures may be, this practice can be incredibly challenging. Holding 1-5 poses over the course of 15 minutes to an hour is a great way to dip your toes in this deeply nurturing practice.
Here Is a List of Some Restorative Asana To Get You Started:
Legs up the wall - IYKYK
Seated forward fold
Reclined butterfly
Pigeon pose or reclined pigeon
Savasana
This can look as simple as holding one pose for 5-15 minutes or carving out an hour of slow exploration on your mat. You do you and don’t be afraid to leave your phone in another room, turn up the music, light a candle, and chill.
Make Your Practice Your Own
Yoga is not a competition and one’s personal practice can be vastly fluid over a lifetime. Some may notice they gravitate toward high intensity yoga when getting started and ease into a restorative practice, while others may taste several yogic flavors regularly in order maintain a connection to their practice. No matter if your practice is a moment in your day or a rigid ritual, that’s perfectly okay, beautiful, and sacred to you.
You don’t need a New Year resolution to get back on the mat, just an open heart and an open mind, you’ve got this! We hope in sharing the techniques above that you find some inspiration to bounce back into your yoga practice or shake things up (even if that’s your mindset). Stay tuned for upcoming offerings from Pinecone Yoga Institute and subscribe to our email list below!
