What tips can you share with the community that make doing yoga from home more enjoyable?

You’re here because you love doing yoga from the comfort, safety, and convenience of your own home.

For new community members who might be new to doing yoga in their own space, how do you make your practice more fun?

Do you have home-made prop hacks to share? What about music - favourite playlists or artists? Do you cast to a big screen? Do you amplify sound through a speaker?

How do you create a sacred yoga sanctuary? How do you claim space and time from the rest of your household?

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I highly recommend if you have cats, do yoga with them. My cats give me reminders throughout the day not to forget to meet them on the mat. It just s out special time.

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I try to select a good playlist of meditation music, normally. I prefer instrumentals over music with lyrics during my yoga practice. I use my Amazon Echo for my playlists.

My wonderful golden retriever Scarlett is always in the room napping when I’m doing yoga! She knows when I am getting ready to do yoga when my mat gets rolled out, and she settles down for a nap. It’s relaxing for me to know she’s there.

I also like to light a candle occasionally during my practice or I have my aromatherapy diffuser going. I always carve out time to do my practice at home. My oldest son lives with me while he is completing college, so I always make sure he knows when I’m getting ready to devote time to my yoga practice.

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I have really struggled with doing yoga at home for many years. During lockdown, my back started to hurt a lot from lack of yoga, so I knew I had to figure out how to make it more enjoyable. A thick pad under my yoga mat was a game changer. I have all hardwood floors and they are somehow more uncomfortable than the studio flooring. I also made myself a bolster out of an old mat and towel. This site has helped tremendously. I didn’t care for my studio’s zoom classes and some of the popular online teachers aren’t my cup of tea. I like the instructors here and the ability to search for the type of class that I need.

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Like many of the videos, I do yoga mostly outdoors, on my roof terrace. It’s great to hear the birds, the wind in the trees, notice the changing light… With the video and it’s sound quietly in the background, just enough to hear the instructions and if necessary see the details of the pose. The pleasure of doing the kriyas like this is enough in itself as motivation to keep going!

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Hiya, I think find a place that you feel comfortable and away from work distractions if possible.

If I’m inside, I often cast DYWM to my tv screen, and play the sound through a speaker. It’s especially lovely when the classes are filmed outside in wonderful scenery - it can bring a bit of summer into a winter room.

If I really want to push the boat out, I also diffuse some essential oil in the room.

Sometimes i invite a friend and then make it an occasion with a relaxed lunch afterwards - but this works best when there is no-one else at home to interrupt.

If I’m outside I play the sound through a speaker - this is wonderful too, but quite rare for me as I live in a city and it’s quite noisy out there!

Thank you for such wonderful classes.

Alison x

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A key thing for my practice has been having a dedicated space where all I need to do is roll out my mat, fire up my iPad, pick a class and go. Not having to move furniture and then dig my mat out of a closet in another room makes it much easier for me to defeat any resistance to practicing. So anything one can do to minimize obstacles is super helpful (but I will bet most of us already knew that).

We are about to start a light renovation of the room where I practice, and I have the opportunity to choose new flooring for the room (although doing poses on a mat on top of 70’s shag carpet has been, uh, fun). I am curious if anyone has suggestions for yoga flooring. I do miss the nice old wood floor at the Y where I practiced pre-Covid but many of the options I have looked at seem like they might be super hard.

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I installed cork flooring in my home office/yoga studio. I love that it is warm to the touch, and a little more forgiving on the knees!

Ooooooh! I love the idea of cork and would love to know a little more about the type you went with (I am seeing options even including “engineered cork planks”). I don’t want to take this overall topic off on too much of a tangent, but if you were willing to share a little more detail, I would be most appreciative.

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I live in Canada, and I ordered my flooring from https://torlys.com/. I went for the plank version so that it looked a little more like the hardwood that runs throughout my condo. :slight_smile:

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