Quick, raise your hand if you practiced at home today. Hm, we don’t see many. Chances are you love yoga, you go to class, maybe even several times a week, but your at-home practice remains an elusive elephant in the room. There are plenty of reasons for this ranging from too many distractions, to not enough time, to not knowing where to start. But being a homebody is really where it’s at! If you don’t have a home practice, once you start, you’ll realize what you’ve been missing. This book is to help you take the plunge, to re-inspire or to breathe new life into your homebody practice.
WIN: We are giving away 2 copies of “HomeBody Yoga: 28 Days To Bring You Home To Your Body & To A Life Led With Purpose” courtesy of Jay Fields, herself. You can choose to participate in Jay’s 28-day online course or go ahead and use the book on your own.
TO ENTER: Home is a relative term. There are ways to feel “at home” without being in the physical structure of a house. Are there certain yoga poses that help you feel at home? Let us know in the comments! Or you can leave a comment on the YD facebook page or on Twitter – be sure to tag @yogadork and @jaygraceandgrit and use #homebodyyoga.
Giveaway will stay open until 11:59pm Sunday, June 22nd. Two winners will be chosen at random and announced soon after. Good luck!
UPDATE: We have our two winners who will received copies of Jay’s book. And they are…Cindy (via twitter) and Mandi! Congrats! Thanks to everyone for entering and sharing your inspiring homebody pose. Keep on keepin’ on.
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Earlier…
Jay Fields’ work has brought me back to my mat, at home, time and again. For me, I am most at home in pigeon.
Twists make me feel at home, as I do them often to relieve tension.
A wall dog, or downward facing dog, on the floor with my kids, brings me back to my body & breath, back home.
I find child pose very centering.
Tree pose grounds me, no matter where I am. When I stand in tree, I feel centered and relaxed, as though I were at home. When I have super stressful moments at work, I take a second to “plant” myself.
Two:
Shoulder stand – because I loved doing this as a kid and freaking out my parents.
Child’s pose – because when I can’t see the other people in class, that means they can’t see my giant butt, right?
Hand raised…some yoga postures I almost always include in home practice: siddhasana, gomukhasana, revolved triangle, pincha mayurasana, mayurasana.
Child’s pose. Or really any pose with my head on the mat.
There is something about camel and rabbit that ALWAYS bring me back to my center….I absolutely love both of them!
I have worked for about five years now to develop a consistent home practice, and finally in the last three months I have found a rhythm, and am on my mat nearly everyday. I have made it my goal to make it to the mat everyday, even if only for five minutes, and every time it reminds me how important that time is, whether it is a few moments to connect with my breath and tune in to myself, or for an hour of dedicated practice. I am reminded on my mat that I am a whole person: not just a mind, or a body, or a heart, but a whole person. I work, am a mom and wife, and a full-time student, so sometimes that time on my mat is the most peaceful part of my day (and other times my four year old sits down underneath me while I’m in downward facing dog, so there’s that). Recently I have felt most at home in Tree, because for a long time, I simply couldn’t do it. Tight hips, challenged balance, and lack of focus kept me from holding Tree for even a breath, and now I come to it daily as a reminder of how my daily practice has changed me, and continued to challenge me. Tree helps me to check in with all of myself: my mental clarity, my ability to ground, my focus, and the areas of my body where I hold the most tension from long days.
Adho mukha svanasana … can’t be holding that one more than 5 breaths at a time (contraindications) … I sure have to do a lot of them, then … and I do … Can’t get that preferential treatment in a live CLASS~!
Backbends!
siddhāsana
Just the beginning and ending of my practice, sitting quietly to get in the zone, is what feels most homey to me.
Ardha Chandrasana
I’d have to say cobra – there is something about this heart-rising position that invites both life and breath in nearly every time. Thanks for the opportunity!
it’s Matsyasana for me. It opens up everything!
I love reading these comments! Every time I think I have my own answer chosen, someone mentions another pose & I think, oh, but wait, THAT one!
I think I’d have to say tree pose, though — it was the first pose that I felt really centered & grounded & super-comfortable in.
Viparita Karani. Working night shift means that some days the only yoga I can muster is to put my legs up the wall for 5 minutes. And man does it feel gooooood.
Legs up the wall!
headstands!
It’s got to be Savasana!
Sirsasana. It took me years to upend myself, and I still get a thrill every time I do it: I’m 64 and I can stand on my head!
Interesting thing about that pose, sirsasana… it seems to be a rite of passage of sorts … even amongst the old-timers like myself. I’m not going there, literally or figuratively. At one point, I’d gotten as far (on my own–studios screwed that issue up for me, too) as teddy bear headstand, so far so good, then mostly downshifted in my next few dozen practices to crow; For no good reason I could think of, one time I’d just fell splat on the floor out of kakasana. Next thing I knew, I’d had to give up sirsasana and not hold adho mukha svanasana too long … from then had an ischemic issue going on there in my entire body …
sun salutations make me feel at home. they are the best to center me no matter what nonsense is swirling around in my head.
Something about fire log pose just makes me feel so good!
Swastikasana for me. Old injuries make padmasana beyond my potential, but swastikasana is still within my reach at 62 years age. I also agree with Tiffany. There’s nothing like a camel/rabbit flow for several cycles followed by a few slow breaths in each pose before sitting in swastikasana.
Sometimes just rolling my mat out is enough to get me in the zone and stop procrastinating/avoiding/makin excuses to not practice. If I can just get sat on my mat, the rest is easy. I find adho mukha virasana – child’s pose with the arms stretching forward and head down – this definitely helps me to take the mind inward, with the head down it allows the ego to be quiet and
I can connect with the breathing in my body, my legs are rested. This I love to do at the start of every practice, it’s very centering, like a humble offering to something that is greater than me, my gurus, teachers people who have made it possible to practice yoga. If I dedicate my practice as an offering to those that are greater I find my practice is more focused and easier to come back to again and again. Although don’t get me wrong, it is often hard to get to this point, so I just have to roll out my may and see where it takes me, each day is different.
I find myself feeling at home during down dog. I even do it at work to center myself.
Tree pose…while brushing my teeth!
Vajrasana
Tree pose always makes me feel at home.
Corpse pose is always home base for me.
Here’s all you need to know about this “book.” In the words of the author:
“But it’s up to you, really. No one can do the work of you coming home to yourself for you. I can support you through daily writings of practice tips and suggestions, personal stories and words of encouragement, but unless you choose to engage, very little will happen.”
As Jenny says, just roll out your mat and wait for the movement to happen. You already have all you need to engage. Anything else is simply avoidance behavior.
Triangle makes me feel like I’m flying, and Revolving Triangle brings be back down to earth. I need both to feel at home.
Anahatasana is my home.
I feel most at home in tree pose — it makes me feel centered, balanced and strong.
Trikonasana always makes me feel free and at home in my body even though it can be tough to really master. Loved Jay’s article on home practices. I have amazing teachers at the studio where I practice but I still love to try out or even try to perfect certain poses at home where I have time to be. I love to start my morning off with a handful of poses. So yay to home practices.
Siddhasana is the home of my seated practice, Savasana is a home and a practice in and of itself each and every time, Adho Mukha Svanasana is the home I can always return to in a sequence.
Headstand – I was always too nervous to try this in class but one day I set myself up against the wall in my room, kicked my legs up and to my surprise I was there! I love doing headstand at the end of the day, whatever has been going on, it always helps me to see things from a calmer perspective.
I love an assisted plow in my home. It forces me to release into the ground, wherever i am and it relieves daily stresses. I wished i practiced at home more often!
supta baddha konasana. it’s my go-to, couldn’t live without it!
Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana. Really, I feel grounded by any pose that tucks my foot up under my ribs.
Halasana and Balasana bring me down to earth quite well.
Home is where I am physically but also where my love for others or even things is. Might be I can have more than one home at a time.
Any inversion puts me at ease
I feel at home when going into crow, the moment it just clicks and I know I’m going to be able to hold it today.
child pose
Home is where the heart is, standing in tadasana with my hands in anjali mudra at my heart and I am completely present and am home.
I love all these answers! Such a good reminder of how different all of our needs and desires are when it comes to yoga, and how as a teacher it’s nearly impossible to meet that for our students. So amen to home practices! Thanks to everyone for your comments. 🙂
As for me, I’m most at home in shoulderstand these days. I love the feeling I get when I ever so slowly roll out and I get a good adjustment in my sacrum, a warmth spread across my shoulders and a rush of energy go through my spine to my head. Aaaaahhhh…
I have mild scoliosis. Twists make my back feel comfortable. If I skip doing yoga for a few days, I seem to stand and walk crooked. With a regular yoga practice that includes a few twists I have no pain and no back problems.
Without a doubt, wide legged child’s pose.
I am most at home in seated forward bend.
Always Ardha Chandrasana. It is powerful, energizing, and brings me back to myself.
Without a doubt – savasana.
Hard to pick just one! Half lotus in meditation.
Standing forward fold is the asana I go to when I need reminding to breathe and to look inside. My home practice is sometimes not as physically challenging as the studio courses I go to (I feel better when someone watches me go up into Wheel pose, for example) but it is my favourite part of being a yogi.
Downdog always brings me home. It’s the first pose I do when I step on my mat.
Child’s pose
Downward Facing Dog brings me home to myself. Down Dog calms and energizes me at the same time. It’s my strengthening, stretching, inward drawing, inversion. If I only do one pose today, this is it.
Legs up on the wall…
Triangle pose!
I feel most “at home” when I take a class with a teacher who knows exactly how to guide me to a safe place where I can center myself. My favorite is Sonia at Baker Street Yoga in New Jersey. But when I practice at my own home, I feel most “at home” in pigeon. My hips feel like they are part of my body again after that pose!
I feel safest and most at home in any studio where the body is respected and not pummeled. I like to kick my own butt more vigorously at home — even now, when I’ve no choice but keep it physically accessible. Nobody has to “know” how infrequently I do yoga now, because yoga does not serve my condition.
Child’s pose. There’s something resting with my forehead on the mat while releasing the tension in my low back that is safe and comfortable feeling – like home.
Downdog, Balasana and Backbends.
Child’s Pose. I could do it anywhere and think I’m still at home.
Home is not a place but a feeling that is deep within. It is a feeling that we can come back to when we become lost or in need of reassurance. It is a voice that reminds us that where we are on our path is exactly where we need to be. Home is a smile, a laugh and a drawn out hug. It does not judge or care how long we leave it for. It will always be there when we are ready to return.