Practice and Study More Yoga in 2014!

I have been practicing yoga now for 20 years.   That's a significant portion of my life!  Obviously I wouldn't have stuck with it for this long if I felt it hasn't been amazingly beneficial for me.

I signed up for my first yoga class in January, 1993, at the Ann Arbor YMCA as a part of a New Year's Resolution to do something good for myself.   I like to tell people that it was one of the few New Year's Resolutions that I've actually kept. 

(BTW, my first yoga teacher was Laura Roberts, who I am now honored to have as a student in one of my Gentle Yoga classes!)

Does your New Year's Resolution for 2014 include practicing more yoga?

 Develop Your Own Home Yoga Practice

A great way to bring more yoga into your life is to cultivate your own home practice along with taking a regular class with a well-trained teacher.

If you want some guidelines on what to practice, you can print off these Sequences for Practice on the IYNAUS (Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States) website.    There are four Level 1 sequences and four Level 2 sequences available.

Those of you who've been taking classes from me for awhile have probably already seen these practice sheets, but you can check it out again if you don't have copies of these sequences already printed out.

Learn More By Reading and Studying

The yoga classes I teach mostly cover asanas, or yoga poses.  But the practice of yoga is so much more than that! 

There are a number of excellent Iyengar Yoga books available that will give you a more in-depth look at the full practice of yoga.    Some books will focus mostly on the asanas (postures) with some discussion of the other aspects of yoga.  Other books focus more on the philosophy of yoga as a whole.

A post that I wrote a few months ago gives a quick review of four books that I especially recommend:
Iyengar Yoga Books - My Recommendations

Also read 10 Best Iyengar Yoga Books for more ideas.

Take More Yoga Classes

People who take regular classes progress more quickly than people who take an occasional class.  And people who take more than one yoga class a week show even more progress of course.   If you have time in your life to take more than one class / week, I highly recommend it. 

Those of you who take classes with me have seen that you get a nice discount on fees if you take more than one class a week.   (see Harmony Yoga classes and fees)