Occasions like Valentine's Day last week and the upcoming holidays of Easter and Passover prompt many of us to buy special gifts, decorations, cards, and more to celebrate with our loved ones. And, such celebrations can be beautiful and life-affirming.
Yet, I agree with author Alexandra Stoddard who states that too many of us save up our efforts to do something special only for the holidays that in effect occupy only about 5 percent of her time. But, life is to be lived each day, day by day (I used to love that song in the musical GodSpell) and I find Ms. Stoddard's philosophy about making our "ordinary" daily life activities "extraordinary" through rituals to be most pwoerful.
She further says that "Special events should be exclamation marks in our lives, but ordinary days need to be celebrations too, as meaningful and beautiful as the big events." This philosophy holds true for your daily yoga practice! Create beautiful rituals so you don"t let your daily yoga regime slip into a stale routine that you do because you are "supposed to." Nothing is more threatening to the consistency and potential power of your home practice!
The solution involves creating lovely, fun, and and yet simple rituals to begin, execute, and complete your yoga practice so that you always look forward to it and do not consider blowing it off!
As Ms. Stoddard says in her book, Living a Beautiful Life, "Personal rituals make you a poet-and they can help you feel good about yourself and others. They reinforce the significance of the simple acts we perform repeatedly. While you are fulfilling basic needs, you can make the ordinary quite extraordinary. When you make your everyday rituals-simple things such as bathing, sleeping and eating (and I would add yoga!)-meaningful and attracive, they nourish other areas of your life."
In previous blog posts, I have mentioned ways to enrich your practice such as lighting candles (and using electric candles), smiling,visualiing yourself moving into a pose easily and effortlessly, touching your heart before and after each pose, playing your favorite CD in the background, donning a special yoga workout outfit, and more.
Such actions can truly make your practice feel special even if you are doing more or less the same poses every time you roll out your mat! Some instructors do this as well to enhance their classes.
(I took a yoga class at work years ago and the instructor used to sprinkle a wonderful lavander fragrance at the end of each class which added a soothing, delightful touch).
And, of course, when you are in the privacy and comfort of your own home, you can choose whatever rituals please you. Experiment and see what stimulates and motivates you to savor and make your home yoga practice extraordinary and most important, fulfilling and fun!
Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginner's Yoga at Home Coach
Awaken the Wisdom Within Communications, LLCTM
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