Ever find yourself asking yourself “Am I doing this yoga pose right?”
Does your inner critic get the better of you? You are not the only one who questions your ability and yoga shapes.
You may be completely new to yoga, or simply feel the pull to go deeper into the intricacies of your practice. Perhaps you’re navigating your movements with injury or limitation, physical or otherwise. You could be working towards a particular pose, one that is challenging for you, but that with the right eye and instruction could be much closer than you think!
A private yoga session will offer you both the knowledge and confidence to refine your existing practice at the studio, or a thorough introduction if embarking on your yoga journey for the first time. And the benefits of a private yoga session, one on one, are immeasurable.
Here are our top 7 tips on improving your yoga practice:
1. Gain a foundational understanding of the yoga practice, including the most common poses and how they should feel in your body. With hands on adjustments you’ll be able to really feel what it means to “lengthen your tailbone,” “square your hips” or “relax your shoulder blades.”
2. Perhaps the most valuable benefit of a private session is correcting any misalignment in our body to prevent injuries occurring. Our yoga practice should never be painful and certainly, never injure us, but the reality is that if we perform a pose over and over again without the correct alignment, that’s a likely possibility. Private sessions are so important for picking up on the movement patterns in your body that need to be improving or strengthening, which you either aren’t aware of or are simply used to.
3. Feeling comfortable and confident in a group class is crucial to deepening and enjoying your yoga practice. Group classes can be intimidating when we first begin – there’s a lot to know! Between understanding the yogi terminology, learning pose names and variations, maintaining focus and concentration, breathing smoothly, building strength and creating flexibility, it’s easy to get a little bit flustered and overwhelmed. In a private session you can focus on the area you find most challenging and start to put the pieces of your practice puzzle together.
4. Crafting a practice that supports how you move off the mat is really important. Not all of us are devout devotees of yoga, and also love to run, swim, or even just working out in the gym. Maybe you play a sport or are preparing for a big physical challenge like a hike or marathon. This will all determine how you should practice, and a private session will help you to understand which poses will enhance, and which could possibly hinder, your performance outside the studio.
5. Many of us come to yoga to recover from injuries, and the answer isn’t always stretch, stretch, and stretch some more. It is usually a combination of lengthening one part of the body and strengthening another, and a tailored practice is invaluable if you are in the process of healing.
6. Some of us are on the mat as medicine for a chronic health condition. In this case, our practice needs to be more therapeutic and energetically supportive than physically challenging, with an awareness of the subtler workings of each pose. Yoga has been documented to successfully treat chronic pain, fatigue, mental health issues like anxiety and depression, hormonal imbalances, and of course stress (the cause of most of our dis-ease).
7. Being in proper physical alignment can help us to cultivate a deeper, more meditative yoga practice. When there is discipline, we have freedom. If we are not worried about this foot going here and that foot going there, or whether our tailbone is lengthened under or thighs are properly toned, suddenly we free up more mental space for introspection. We can notice our inner dialogue and repetitive thoughts, and even feel more deeply into the emotional tone of our body. This is often where true healing happens in yoga, when we are not distracted by our body, but rather connected to our breath and able to dive into our inner world, whether that be comfortable or uncomfortable.
You may have heard your teachers say that there is no right or wrong in yoga, and this is true. However, there is certainly always room to make our practice stronger and safer, more conducive to our body’s unique needs, more supportive to our breath, or more aligned to our state of health.
These shifts can be the result of the tiniest correction, and more often than not it takes the careful eye of an experienced and knowledgeable teacher to do some detective work and find the perfect medicine to remedy your practice.
One-on-one Private Sessions are $125
If you like the sound of a private, one on one session and a practice as unique as you, send us an email and we’ll be in touch shortly to discuss your needs, goals, and personal history.
