7 Ways to Enhance Your Yoga Practice
A consistent yoga practice is one of the most important things you can do daily for overall physical and emotional well-being. More than a workout, yoga is a practice, a meditation, a tribute to your mind, body, and soul connection.
It’s important. And getting the most out of your yoga practice is simple with a few tricks that are easy to implement. These 7 ways to enhance your yoga practice will get you feeling like a pro.
Music
Music makes all the difference in your ability to relax and flow with the movements. Calm, nature-based, binaural beat tracks will help your brain sync with your physical movements, creating a state of serenity. It also makes the practice fun by enhancing your senses. Add it and see how your mind and body respond.
Lighting
Similarly, lighting also touches the senses. Many of us spend all day under harsh fluorescent lights, which causes headaches, eye strain and fatigue. By adding a different light scheme to your yoga practice, you will immediately be transformed to a more relaxed state.
Mood lighting, soft light and colored light are great ways to stimulate your sight sense, helping your mind better reflect and respond to what your body is doing.
Natural Sound
Similar to music, adding natural sound to your surroundings enhances your relaxation state, giving your brain a much-needed break from text pings, phone calls, traffic and voices, which are all higher frequencies.
Try a tabletop waterfall feature near where you practice. Other natural sound features include rainfall, flowing streams, birds chirping and ocean waves crashing. These are easily found on YouTube or a myriad of sound healing apps.
Decor
Flowing into room design here for a quick evaluation of your practice space. The most important aspect is how the space makes you feel. Is it welcoming, open and bright?
Consider a colored acoustic wall panel in soothing blue or green. Add plants to your space, especially those with soft, rounded edges. Remove clutter. Light a candle. Set your intention.
Your Mat
Using an AshtaLuxe mat is an important improvement to enhance your practice. You are using materials chosen for comfort and stability. By using materials mindfully chosen that truly minimize carbon footprints and preserve tropical forests, you are mirroring what you’re practicing -- a more universal mindset and oneness with the natural world. AshtaLuxe develops its own materials. Our mat is like no other ever offered to yogis.
Mat Accessories
Mat accessories like AshtaLuxe’s Patella Pad are excellent ways to enhance the functionality and comfort of your practice while also ensuring your safety. Patella Pads are thinner than typical knee pads and provide much improved protection for joints and sit bones. The high-density, closed-cell foam, at 3/8”+, helps aid against injury and assist you in challenging yourself with poses where you may need extra padding and support. when properly used, it is built to last for many, many years.
Consistency
Consistency enhances your yoga practice because it is, in fact, a practice. For many of us, it takes months to improve balance and strength enough to move forward with more advanced asanas.
Take your time, be patient and consistent, and watch your practice thrive.
Namaste.