I know how it feels to get stagnant in your practice. I’m a yoga instructor for goodness sake and I still only find that I get my best practice in when I go take a class with someone else. There’s just something about someone else telling you what to do that makes me push myself harder. When I take my practice home with me, I’m so gentle with myself and do mostly stretching and slow asana flows.

A regular yoga practice can easily feel stagnant. 

I was teaching a client today and I started to realize that if we do the same practice day after day our muscles get bored and we stop growing. We also start to lose connection with our body because it becomes second nature and we can go through the motions without giving it much thought. So, I started to give cues for more fine tuned alignment, and all of a sudden the same poses felt so different.

There are small tweaks you can make in your regular poses to get more out of your practice. 

So I wanted to share some really easy ways to kick up your yoga practice a notch, without adding any more challenging poses. Maybe you’re not ready for headstands, or inversions freak you out. Well this is for you! Do these three things next time you take a yoga class or do your home practice, and you’ll be amazed how different a familiar practice becomes.

Here are 3 simple ways to spice up your yoga practice

1. Hug Midline– This means that when you are in a standing pose you squeeze your legs in toward one another. Now this won’t mean that they touch. Keep your feet firmly planted directly below your hips, but engage in the muscles of the inner thighs by pulling the legs toward the midline. This simple action will transform seemingly simple or passive poses like mountain pose, forward fold, warrior 1/2, and downward dog. Hold these poses even longer while hugging midline, and you’ll feel so sore the next day! This can also be done in poses where you have weight on your arms such as table top, downward dog, and forearm stand.
2. Lift Your Toes- This will challenge your balance. First start small my trying it in non balance poses like mountain pose, lunge, or warrior. Not only will it improve your balance, but it will also require you to use more muscles to stabilize, eating you get more bang for your buck in a simple practice. You’re feet and ankles don’t always get strengthened so this is a great way to give some attention to your foundation. Once you are more comfortable try it in balance poses like tree pose!
3. Close your eyes– Not only will this bring your awareness inside and limit the external distractions, but it will also force you to rely on your own body awareness for balance and movement. We often know how we are moving only because we can see ourselves, but try moving from a place of feeling. This will challenge your balance and also force you to use more muscles and really explore your body in a new way.

I challenge you! The next time you do your practice try out these three actions. Suddenly forward fold and downward dog feel like a whole new experience.

Namaste,