Top tips for new yogis

The current lockdown may be presenting plenty of challenges when it comes to home and family life, but it also provides the opportunity to enrich ourselves like never before. With fewer distractions, you can finally dedicate more of your time to discovering what you really enjoy doing.

Yoga is a great activity to get into during lockdown. As well as giving you the grounding for better health and wellbeing long after lockdown has come to end, practising yoga unlocks a long list of health benefits right now.

The connection between yoga and mental health is well worth exploring as you adjust to your new normal. You can stay safe and sane, even when times are tough at home, by introducing yoga into your everyday routine.

Here we share our top tips for new yogis so you can make the most of your new hobby.

Start with the best resources

Lockdown may stop you from venturing out and attending a yoga class to learn the basics, but the next best resources can be accessed from home. There are tons of yoga video tutorials run by experienced and qualified teachers available online.

You can also download yoga apps to your smartphone for easy access to yoga and meditation classes from your home or garden. Yoga Studio by Gaiam is one of the best and will guide you through your entire yoga journey, here Verywell Fit explains how:

“Yoga Studio offers users a lot of ways to put together home yoga sessions. You can use their Collections, which vary in length from 10 to 60 minutes. These include sequences for a beginner, intermediate, and advanced level students with themes like balance, flexibility, and strength. There are also sun salutations, poses for back pain, and yoga for runners.”

Our simple, 10-minute anxiety reducing yoga flow is also a great sequence for looking after your mental health during lockdown.

Get to know your own body

Yoga is all about working with your body, not against it. This makes getting to know your body and respecting its limitations particularly important.

As a beginner, you should take the time to familiarise yourself with your body. With this knowledge, you can adapt yoga workouts to your needs and avoid pushing yourself into anything that your body isn’t comfortable with.

Adjust your workout to suit your fitness level and current circumstances. For instance, some poses are not suitable for people with certain injuries, in the early stages of pregnancy or during menstruation.

Yoga is suitable for individuals from all walks of life and of all fitness levels. You don’t even have to be flexible to practise yoga. Whatever your circumstances, go easy on yourself. Yoga is all about the journey, be sure to relax, and enjoy every pose.

Don’t forget to breathe

As well as familiarising yourself with the basic moves every yogi should know, working on your breathing technique is a vital part of practising yoga safely, skilfully and successfully. Breathing connects the body and mind to ensure a deeper, healthier harmony between the two.

Use your breath to calm your mind, increase body awareness, and perfect those poses. It will work wonders for your at-home yoga sessions.

Eat, drink and live yoga

Yoga isn’t just a workout, it’s a lifestyle choice. By embracing yoga, you’re embracing a better, healthier and happier you. As a result, yogic principles should influence every area of your life.

Use sister science Ayurvedic medicine to influence what you eat and drink – here’s a handy guide to eating Ayurveda for further information. Honour your yogic lifestyle with the right beauty products too by shopping our range of yoga skin essentials.