Yoga for Beginners

Starting a beginners yoga routine? If you’re joining the more than 300 million worldwide yoga practitioners, I offer you a big hearty welcome to a very interesting and potent way of moving, way of seeing, and way of living. I’ve been a student since the mid-90s, and I’ve learned a few things along the way that I wish I knew from day one. To save you some angst…from my heart to yours:

20 minutes a day, 5 days a week, is better than three hours once a week. 

There was a period of time I’d take two really sweaty hard yoga classes back to back. It was during my “more is better phase,” for better or worse. Usually worse. That intensity isn’t sustainable and I wouldn’t have said I was practicing ahimsa, non-harming. I have yoga injuries still today from that period of time. What I learned from what is now decades of data and research on contemplative practices is that the lasting changes in our neurology happen with shorter bites but more often. When I took this approach everything changed from my strength to my reactivity, from my ability to sit in meditation to my desire to even get to the yoga mat.

Yoga for beginners classes need not be crazy complicated over hours and hours of practice…it just needs to be consistent. 

It can get awkward. 

It’s true. Anything new can be awkward at first. You’re getting to know your teacher and the words they use to describe new ways of moving your body, you’re being asked to breathe a certain way, you’re wondering if this is for you and wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into. Can you think back to when you first tried a sport? How weird it felt to try to get your body to do something it had never done before? Then over time with repetition things started to click? This is no different. Give your neurology a chance to do this. New pathways in the nervous system and brain take time. Remember, what we practice grows stronger, for better or worse. 

Yoga for beginners classes may feel weird/new/different/awkward. Let that pique your interest. Stay curious about what you might be capable of over time. Creating new healthy neural pathways as we age is so deeply important.  

 Yoga is not a religion.

You won’t find “Yoga” listed as one of the world’s recognized religions. However, there is no doubt that yoga is a philosophy of balance and self-regulation. Life ties us in knots. The ways yoga unties those knots in the body, focuses the mind, and helps find a deeper breath lends to a direct streamlined connection with G-d/energy/consciousness/nature. When we have clarity, connections are strengthened in all realms from personal to spiritual.

A beginners yoga routine will start to scratch the surface of the ways in which you can self-regulate and begin to find clarity. 

Nothing should hurt. 

This is not “no pain no gain.” This is, however, a practice of knowing your own edge. It’s a practice of pressurizing you slowly from the inside so you have the opportunity to use your tools of self-regulation to move through a challenging moment. For you, the edge might be sitting in meditation for 10 minutes. Or, it could be standing strength postures. Pain and discomfort are different. Pain…we back off and find a new way. Discomfort…we learn to move through. If you take a yoga for beginners video with me, I am always available over Zoom or phone call to hash out any pain you’re experiencing in your practice. 

A sacred space at home that beckons you is so helpful in getting to your practice.  

Yoga for beginners at home is a really sweet time. You can wear what you want, you don’t have to worry about who is watching, you don’t even need to brush your hair. You can pause and go back on any of the yoga for beginners app classes, and you can take the yoga for beginners video series over and over again without waiting until your local studio offers another one. You move at your pace which is the only pace that matters. 

Create a space that feels welcoming. Many new students set up in a corner of the bedroom or office. Clean and organize the space, put out fresh flowers or a meaningful photograph or a few stones. If you can, invest in some nice props. Really take care to make it a place you want to visit. Then, the science of habit suggests that you get on a schedule. If you visit your yoga space at 6 am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday…guess what gets really easy to do over time? Your yoga practice!

I encourage and I welcome you. Much love, and many thanks.