If you’re a beginner to yoga, these beginner yoga tips are for you. But first of all, you need to have a better understanding of what yoga really is.
What is Yoga?
Originated in India, Yoga is a balanced system of mental and physical practices that serves the purpose of helping each one us to attain our highest potential and to endure a good health and happiness. Yoga helps you to extend our health, productivity, creativity, and improve the quality of living. The yoga practice comprises of different postures meant to serve different purposes. For example, some yoga poses are good for weight loss, some for digestion, some for height growth and so on. You can practice the combinations of poses to revitalize your overall health.
10 Beginner Yoga Tips You Must Follow Before You Start
New to yoga? Well, you are definitely not alone. As a beginner, you might face a lot of confusions regarding which yoga poses you should try, what are the tips to get started, and what are the precautions you must take.
1. Set Your Intentions and Goals
Goals is something that motivates us to act. Same is the case with yoga. You must have an achievable goal and right intentions to get started with the whole practise. Achievable goals – because if you set unrealistic goals and become unable to make progress, you’ll probably end up not doing yoga. And intentions to make sure that you genuinely want to achieve your goals through Yoga. Both these things are essential to keep you on the track.
2. Get a Good Yoga Teacher
Though most of the people tend to start their yoga journey on their own, it is advised to hire a good yoga teacher to help you practice better. A yoga teacher knows exactly how to build your interest and make the whole practice more enjoyable and effective. An experienced and qualified yoga teacher can help you with all the details including subtle physical and mental aspects especially at the beginning. A living-breathing-teacher can actually see if you are doing it right and respond you in real-time. This will also boost your confidence and keep you motivated to practice yoga regularly.
3. Wear Comfortable Clothes
Keeping your body comfortable throughout the practice should be your topmost priority. You are going to do a lot of stretching in all the directions. So, make sure that you are wearing stretchable and loose clothes to avoid the restricted movements. Avoid wearing belts, jewellery, tight clothes, and the fabrics that might hurt your skin. And if you wear lose clothes, make sure that you wear substantial underwear to avoid exposing more than you wish to.
4. Choose a Good Spot
Choosing a good spot will keep you in good mood and provide you a happy environment where you can practice yoga peacefully. If you have joined a yoga class, make sure you choose a comfortable place where you can see and hear your yoga teacher properly.
5. Start with the Basic Postures
As a beginner, you are required to start your journey from the basic postures that do not require much strength and stamina. You are not supposed to jump directly to something like Power Yoga[1] or Intense Yoga Poses. Keep it basic in the beginning and start adding more challenging poses to your routine once you have become comfortable with the basic ones. Basic yoga poses are just like a warm-up before heavy exercise – they prepare you for bigger challenges.
6. Challenge Your Limits – One Challenge at a Time
You must practice yoga as comfortably as you can and then go slightly beyond your comfort zone to enhance your capabilities with time. But do not drag yourself into doing something rigorous unless you can handle it. Pushing yourself too much may result in muscle injury. You can take breathing as reference – when it’s light and deep, you’re probably doing it right; but if it’s jagged, then it means you are overdoing it. So, keep challenging yourself from time to time if you want to keep it interesting.
7. Be Consistent
Being regular and consistent with your practice is very important because if you start skipping, you lose touch. Although it’s is best if you choose to practice yoga early morning, any time would be still fine till you are consistent with your practice. Schedule the yoga practice as per your time table and make sure you totally follow up to your schedule. Don’t let any excuse stop you from becoming a better you!
8. Take Time to Relax
Don’t rush immediately to your daily chores and tasks after completing your yoga practice. I know that you have a lot of tasks lines up for the day, but its really a good idea to lie down for a while and cool yourself down so that you can consolidate the energy through your practice. It will also help you relax your mind and increase your productivity.
The Bottom Line
So, these are some of the best tips to get you through yoga practice as a beginner. Once you start practising yoga, you will be able to experience a sense of relaxation and many other deep and subtle benefits in due time. Just give yourself some time, love your body so that it can love you back. If you’re looking for some beginner yoga poses to start practicing yoga, these are some nice resources:
How Practicing Morning Yoga Transforms Your Life (+10 Beginners’ Poses) Yoga Poses For Beginners To Achieve A Detoxed And Healthy Body In 7 Days
Featured photo credit: Avrielle Suleiman via unsplash.com
