Doing pregnancy yoga online is a great way of prioritising your personal health and wellbeing. Pregnant women from all over Australia have joined our virtual yoga classes because of the Coronavirus. Many have found yoga lessons online are actually MORE convenient because it saves travel time.One of the most common objections though to online yoga streaming is not having enough space.
Here are 4 practical things you can do to set up a space at home for your prenatal yoga practice:
Tip 1: Find or create space.
You don’t actually need a lot of space to do yoga lessons online. You simply need somewhere you can stand with your arms outstretched at shoulder height, which is also long enough to roll out a mat, plus a space to put your laptop or ipad. This might be your living room or beside your bed. Or can you CREATE some space, by easily moving some furniture? For instance, can your coffee table slide out of the way? Or can you clear away some toys?
Tip 2: Make that space private
Most of us don’t have the luxury of a spare room we can turn into a home yoga studio, so any private room will do. But if you don’t have any private space you can use, get the buy-in from your other family members. Schedule in the time and let them know that you don’t want to be disturbed. Maybe they can take a walk during your class? Or your partner can entertain the kids for 45 minutes. And remember to put your phone on silent and turn off any notifications on your laptop or ipad.
Tip 3: Make it special
Light a candle and put on some music, so it feels immediately like you’ve ‘arrived’ for your practice, just like you would in a yoga studio. If possible, store your mat or other props nearby to make it quick and easy to set up. While yoga is an internal practice, the external environment can help to set the mood so put in some effort to create a relaxing space for your virtual yoga class.
Tip 4: Allow yourself time
Prepare intentionally by giving yourself at least 10 minutes to set up the space, get changed, log into the class and put on your music. You’ve saved yourself the travel time to and from the studio so use this time to arrive mentally in your space ready for your practice, rather than rushing straight from checking your emails.
One of the most interesting and useful questions you can ask yourself is why are you feeling resistance to finding room in your own home? Often the blocks we put in place are mental ones rather than about physical space. Remember that internal resistance to change is part of being human. We all have these inner monologues which justify why we don’t have the time or space or energy. And yet, after just a few minutes on the mat we feel so much better, so much happier, and we wonder why we don’t do our yoga practice more often! The irony is that we KNOW this, yet we still have these internal debates.Finding space is really about opening up the heart and mind. Try the practical steps above and just get started. Yoga helps you to melt away resistance.
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