KayaYogini

When you practice yoga at home, do you sometimes take breaks? Or is your focus steady throughout the whole practice? I know I am guilty of getting distracted. Practicing at home is something completely different from practicing in a group class. When you practice in a group class, you focus on the teacher. Of course we turn our focus inwards as much as possible, but we still need to be open to hear and see what the teacher is instructing. Practicing at home is something completely different. There’s no teacher. Only our own will, devotion and determination to practice. You have to intentionally put your focus on something in order not to get distracted. And then you have to use your willpower in order to keep that focus. It is not that easy. It takes practice. 

There’s a lot of different styles of yoga. In the one that I am taught in, we flow from position to position. There is a lot of focus on the transitions between the positions. In other styles, you practice each position and get out of the position back to standing or lying down. Personally, finding the flow in my practice, where the body is moving, the gaze is steady, the mind gets concentrated is where I feel my body, mind and energy open up. Taking breaks disrupts the flow. There are many benefits to a flow yoga practice, whether that is Ashtanga or Vinyasa yoga or any other type of flow based practice. Here are some of them:

1. Willpower. There are three types of willpower. When you avoid taking breaks you train your “I won’t” power, which you use not to get tempted to do some specific thing. Eating too much candy, smoking etc. 
2. You get more resilient. Flow practices are heavy. But when we keep going we train ourselves that we are strong and that we can do it. 
3. Your mind calms down. Keeping the focus steady is calming for the nervous system. 
4. You move the energy in your body. Energy is healing. Moving the energy around in the body stimulates the cells and is cleansing. I am not sure if this is proved by science, but science is catching up more and more to “alternative” information. Anyways, if you are sensitive, it is easy to feel the difference between when your energy is stagnant versus flowing. 
5. You delay instant gratification. It’s just healthy to not check the phone as often. Don’t you agree? We don’t need that reward (or sometimes disappointment) every five minutes. 
6. Stress management. When the pulse goes up, we breathe faster. Keeping the breath slow, slows down the pulse. If you take breaks so that the pulse doesn’t get the chance to increase, then you don’t get the chance to slow it down either. Slowing down the pulse when we practice heavy transitions and positions teaches the body and mind to stay calm amidst the storm. It is a way to teach the body how to handle stress. 

There you go, six reasons to flow. Enjoy your practice ❤