How to Create a Home Yoga Practice on the Cheap

With some yoga studios charging $25 per class, creating an inexpensive home yoga practice is starting to look better every day. Practicing yoga at home gives you freedom to create your own practice at your own pace, and most importantly, on your own time. One of the best things about a home practice is all the money you save by staying in.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Yoga mat
• Two blocks
• One strap
• Yoga DVDs or podcasts
• Book of yoga poses
• Eye pillow
• Blanket

1. First, your equipment can stay low-tech. A good yoga mat, blocks, and a strap are really all you need. Even the cheap versions of these will last for years; you don’t need to buy the designer yoga stuff to have a good home practice.

2. If you need to see someone on video to help you create your practice, you can do this for free. Your local library will have DVDs on yoga you can check out from the world’s top yoga teachers. There are also free yoga video podcasts available on iTunes. A simple search online for “yoga podcasts” will bring up audio and video. Video sharing sites are also filled with yoga for you to watch.

3. Invest in a book that shows all the yoga poses and gives a thorough explanation of each. These books are many and you can easily found a good one for cheap through a used bookstore.

4. Invest in some ambience. The great thing about practicing yoga at home is that you can create the mood with sounds and smells you love. Invest in a scented candle and some great music to play while you practice. Nurture your spiritual practice by keeping a copy of the Bhagavad Gita nearby.

5. Take the time to meditate before your yoga practice. You can control how long you practice meditation during a home yoga practice, which is great for a beginner.

6. Afterwards, you can stay in savasana, or corpse pose, as long as you’d like. Drape a blanket over yourself and use an eye pillow for deep relaxation.Put on some relaxing music and let the tensions of the day melt away.

Tips & Warnings

• Find a quiet place at home in which to practice, preferably when no one else is around to interrupt you.
• Play around with what times of the day work best for your yoga practice. If you know you’ll get busy during the day and will put off your practice, do it first thing every morning so you know you’ll do it.