Enhancing your yoga practice

This post on Enhancing your yoga practice is sponsored by Natural Scents Chakra Essential oils and may contain affiliate links.

For many people when they begin a yoga practice it’s either at a gym, or watching a video at home. That’s how we get you hooked! It’s like Fight Club, except everybody is talking about it. However it’s easy to get complacent and plateau with your yoga. Today I’m sharing 7 tips for enhancing your yoga practice. Whether you’re looking for physical, psychological or spiritual benefits these tips will help you deepen your practice.

Be Consistent

Being consistent with your physical practice is probably the most beneficial thing you can do. Whether you play sports, or just want to improve your everyday movement. When I began making yoga something I did daily I noticed significant improvement in the flexibility and stability of my body.
Ensure you are mindful with each session and remember that every time you get on your yoga mat you are dealing with a different body to the previous time. Consistency has benefits on and off the mat, as the more often you practice, the more you reap the health benefits of yoga.

Prop yourself up!

Use props! When I first began yoga I practiced with just a mat. I was under the illusion that props were there to make my practice easier and I wanted a harder vinyasa flow. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Props can modify poses or enable you to go deeper into a pose. They are also essential for restorative yoga which, in my opinion, everybody should be doing at least once a week. Even if you just practice at a gym I recommend at least getting your own high quality yoga mat. It’s more sanitary, and you’ll see the wear of consistency in your practice.

Educate Yourself

One hour a week on your mat can only teach you so much. If you are really interested in keeping your practice I suggest looking for a workshop, conference, event or retreat to fully immerse yourself and deepen your practice. Not only will you learn more about yoga, but you get to socialize with like minded people. Creating a community is one of the great things about yoga, and one of the reason I absolutely adore working at the Yoga Nook.

Private Sessions

While group sessions are great, and events/retreat can be fun there is only a limited amount of personal interaction to be had. For a deep dive into how your body is aligned I highly recommend a private session or two. This is particularly important if you have an physical limitations or issues. Maybe you’re recovering from surgery, or working through an injury, or just finding a part of your practice challenging. Nothing can compare to a one-on-one session with an experienced yoga teacher! If you’re local, I have some limited availability.

Live your Yoga

Do you have an asana practice or a yoga practice? Yoga is much more than the postures we flow through on our mats. Are you working in the other 7 aspects of a yoga path? Incorporating meditation and pranayama into your life is a great way of enhancing your yoga practice. You could start small with a concentration focus (coloring is meditative), or go big attending a 10 day silent vipassana meditation retreat. In a future post I’ll share some recommended books on how to incorporate yoga as a lifestyle not just a workout.

Do the work, on yourself

Physical practice, meditation, pranayama etc are all ways to work on yourself but I highly recommend working through emotional and psychological trauma with a professional. If you are suffering from trauma, patterns of negative behavior, addiction or simply want to talk to someone I HIGHLY recommend seeking out a counsellor to help. Whether that’s working with a professional, joining a group (like AA), or creating a spiritual study group. Working on yourself and the reasons WHY you do/say/think the things you do is invaluable. Honestly it’s one the biggest things you can do for your yoga practice. Asking for help and support is not weakness. It’s a sign of strength. It means you are strong enough to move forward, work on healing, and attaining a better version of yourself.

Unblock your chakras

Initially when I learned about chakras in my yoga teacher training I was skeptical. While I could see the relationship between the chakras and the physical location of the body many plexus, the esoterical aspect wasn’t something I was connecting with. However, that changed the day I challenged myself to create a class to unblock the heart chakra. Working from the root chakra up, the heat in the room began to build quickly. This was not a hot yoga class, but kundalini was rising! Post class comments were astounding, and I became convinced that there was definitely something to the chakras.

Using essential oils to unblock the chakras

Unblocking the chakras takes time. It’s not something that can be done in one day and not something that can be done out of sequence. I liken it to a matryoshka doll. You can’t just take the 4th one out. You have to open them in succession. You can unblock chakras with movement, chanting, meditation but there are also other ways, like using essential oils. I’ve used
chakra incense, so I was eager to try the Natural Scents Chakra essential oils. I especially loved that I got all 7 in the one set!

The chakra essential oils are a great to use in all aspects of your life. You can add them into a bath or shower. Use in a carrier oil as a body massage lotion. I like to add a few drops to a small flannel cloth and place it on the front of my yoga mat so I get the scent as I practice. If in meditation, pranayama or extended savasana I highly recommend an oil burner. Works great as an air freshener too! One hour on your mat doesn’t cut it , and there are so many ways to incorporate these into your life!

• Have you used essential oils?
• What ways do you practice mindfulness?
• Do you believe in the chakras