12 Tips for a Home Yoga Practice That Helps Reduce Stress

Yoga is personal. Enhance your daily yoga practice by following a few of the simple tips for setting up a home yoga practice. These are general tips that help you set up for morning or evening practice. Talk with your yoga teacher or a yoga therapist to help you build a home practice that helps you on the path towards your specific goals.

1. Get a good night’s rest 

2. Practice on an empty stomach 

3. Drink water throughout the day 

4. Practice in a calm environment 

5. Keep your mat clean 

6. Set an intention at the beginning 

7. Allow time for integration at the end 

8. Use the complete breath or ujjayi breath 

9. Stop if you feel pain 

10. Turn off the cell phone during practice 

11. Practice at the same time each day 

12. Meditate before or after your practice 

Sometimes you are just too busy to practice in the morning. Don’t become frustrated about it. Take time to consider what your yoga practice really means to you. If you have the intention to make your practice part of your day, you can do it in stages. Starting with just preparing the area where you plan to practice. And leave it setup (if possible) so that you see it as part of your environment. Sit down on your mat for ten to fifteen minutes as time permits and just close your eyes and breathe. In those precious moments on your mat you may come to realize your intention and fully commit to sitting again tomorrow.

We know that all stress is not all bad. We can learn through yoga to balance the stress response within the body. One aspect of yoga that helps with this is called listening to the body. We usually get signals from the body when stress levels are about to rise. And with regular yoga practice we learn not to ignore these signals.

One of our most powerful tools for responding to stress is the breath. The breath usually signals the onset of stress when it becomes shallow inside the upper chest. This can be countered with a deeper breath that extends into the lower abdomen. Longer exhales also enable the body to signal the relaxation response. In most yoga practices the breathing techniques are as important as the asana (postures). And learning to use the breath to offset stress is one of the many benefits to a regular yoga practice. The time you spend on your mat at home taking calming deeper breaths is time well spent to help you release stress from the body.

Making yoga part of your daily life is a process that takes practice. But with time, commitment and action before you know it your yoga practice becomes something you look forward to each day.