Namaste at Home: Creating Your Perfect Yoga Haven

Yoga is a fun and easy form of exercise you can do right from your home.

The multitude of benefits range from physical to mental health. It can even recenter you in your body before or after a long day.

According to Harvard Health, yoga can help with migraine relief, prevent osteoporosis, correct mobility issues, offer relief from IBS, fibromyalgia, arthritis, and more.

Yoga can also help you relax, sleep better, feel more energized, help with ADHD symptoms, and can create a sense of community for better mental health and self-care practices, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Setting up your space

Yoga is all about a relaxing and calming ambiance, so the lighting and the scent of the room where you plan to set up your studio should be a consideration.

Lighting candles, incense, or spraying some calming lavender mist around the room can bring it all together and make the experience feel more authentic.

Feeling good in your clothes is another important consideration. Make sure to wear something comfortable, sweat friendly, and that offers a wide range of movement.

Bonus if you choose a cute outfit, because feeling confident in your clothes can make a huge difference in how much energy you want to give to the workout.

Now it’s time to choose the room where you want to set up your personal yoga studio. Your studio can be located anywhere you have enough space to move around, but there are some benefits to various rooms in your home.

The living room is a popular option because it usually offers the most amount of space. Also, if you’re tech savvy, you can connect an online yoga class to your TV and follow along.

This room also tends to offer a lot of natural light, which can help you feel refreshed during an early morning yoga session.

If you’re really looking for an abundance of sunlight, setting up outside in the backyard or on a balcony/patio offers fresh air and vitamin D to make you feel good in your skin.

Vitamin D is essential for a healthy body and mind. Vitamin D can strengthen bones and prevent fractures in older adults. It helps with the process of remodeling bones, as reported by the Ontario Ministry of Health.

Check out our article on the link between vitamin D and cancer prevention.

For the yogi’s out there, you can even set up a room solely dedicated to yoga. With this there is less preparation to get started. It’s ready to go whenever inspiration or motivation strikes.

Keeping your phone on silent or do not disturb can help you stay present in the moment. It reduces the risk of accidentally cutting your session short to check your notifications.

Getting started

YouTube offers hundreds of yoga classes you can take ranging from yoga for various skill levels, for weight loss, for mobility, for sleep, for kids, and more.

Yoga with Adriene is a very popular at home yoga option and she offers many different classes to choose from. Her classes can be found either on her website or YouTube channel.

With so many free classes available on YouTube, you can experiment with different instructors and find one that you connect with.

Gyms may also offer online classes that you can take from the comfort of your home on Zoom or other video conference platforms.

Other online resources include take lessons, Udemy, and Facebook groups.

Joining a Facebook group can offer a sense of community the other options may not, because you can chat with the other members and keep each other on track with your workouts.

Staying active

Starting slow with workouts scheduled two or three times a week is the best way to keep you on track and keep you from getting overtired or overwhelmed.

Reassess as you go and you can start adding more days to your schedule as it becomes a part of your routine.

Even if you’re very fit, yoga is a different form of exercise than others and starting with beginner classes can keep you from getting discouraged.

You can stack multiple classes if you feel like you didn’t get enough of a workout in. In subsequent workouts try the next difficulty level until you get to a class that is challenging but achievable.

Marking down a specific time in your day for your yoga practice is another important aspect of staying on track. With a dedicated time, you lessen the risk of forgetting or over committing yourself to other activities.

The great part of working out at home is that you can increase your circle of joy and sense of community by including your family or roommates without the extra gym bill. This also offers a sense of accountability to keep you active in the long-term.

Products to get you started

1/2-Inch Extra Thick Exercise Mat with Carrying Strap

Picking a yoga mat is essential to your success. This mat is thick enough to keep your knees, elbows, wrists, and ankles off the floor and padded for your comfort. The floor is hard and can be damaging to your limbs.