Why it is important for yoga students to practice yoga at home

My son has been getting tutoring in Spanish for almost two years now. He gets two weekly half-hour lessons with a tutor and then does nothing else for the rest of the week. As you can imagine, he knows some words and can understand some texts, but he is far from confident or fluent.

This applies to any skill we want to master or any lasting change we want to initiate. This also applies to our yoga practice. According to the essential yogic text, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, “The speed of your progress on the path of change is in direct proportion to your faith and the effort you put into it” (Sutra 1-22). If you are only mildly interested in transformation and attend to it occasionally, it will take you a lo-o-ong time to get there. You will progress faster if your interest is strong and your practice is consistent. And, of course, if you are completely committed to your goal and practice your yoga on and off the mat all the time, the transformation will be rapid.

Ongoing, consistent effort can be hard to cultivate, particularly in our home yoga practice. But at least we, as yoga teachers, understand how important the home yoga practice is; what about our students?

Many of our students can only see us privately or in a class once or twice per week. Is this enough to produce a lasting change? It might be if they are not in a hurry and have all the time in the world. However, if they are dealing with a particularly pressing issue, whether physical, physiological, or mental-emotional, more consistent and frequent yoga practice is usually recommended. Most people don’t have enough time and/or resources to attend multiple private yoga sessions or yoga classes every week, but most people can do a short home yoga practice. Supporting our students in building a habit of consistent home yoga practice is one of the best gifts we can give them.

Imagine how much progress your students would make if they integrated yoga into their daily routines. Would their aches disappear sooner? Would their stress be more manageable? Would their outlook on life improve? You can help them make it happen if you give them the tools and confidence to practice yoga at home.

And, possibly, the greatest benefit that your students can get from a home yoga practice is a sense of empowerment. Our students become empowered when they realize that they can facilitate a positive change in their lives through their own actions. Giving them a yoga practice to do at home will help them take ownership of their practice and develop a deeper understanding of their body, energy levels, mental patterns, and habitual reactions. This type of inner realization grows over time and is nurtured by a regular home yoga practice. And when you see your students for your regular classes and sessions, you will be able to move beyond the basics and explore the depth and breadth of the yoga tradition with them. Encouraging home yoga practice also shows your students that you care, that you are invested in their success, and you will guide them until they learn to fly on their own. Once they do, they will keep coming back for inspiration and deeper knowledge.

To make the process of developing a home yoga practice as smooth as possible, it helps to offer your students some visual aids to help them remember what to do and how. Those visual aids can take different forms; you can record a video for them, write or draw the practice, or use an online yoga sequence builder to make it. What fits better into your process? Is it convenient for you to record a video of every practice you give to your student? Are you OK with drawing the practice and then redrawing it every time it changes? Or would it be easier to make a yoga sequence online that includes images and instructions?

Sequence Wiz yoga sequence builder provides all the tools you need to support your students’ learning processes (and your own!)

The sequence builder helps you design yoga practices using fully customizable stick figure images. With Sequence Wiz, you can:

• Select and modify any sequence form a large library of quality predesigned yoga practices
• Edit any pose with the built-in pose editor or add your own poses
• Add preloaded vinyasas, breathing techniques, and mudras to your sequence
• Choose a body area and pick the poses you want from the list of suggested options
• Swap between different versions of each pose with the click of a button

You can easily design, change, and share your sequences, and they are easy to understand and follow for your students. Check out this quick video to see how it works.

Once you design your sequences, you can use them in many different ways to help your students and grow your practice. You can use them for yourself, your students, your marketing, or your yoga school.

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