Q: I would like to see some videos by Baxter on how he starts a Yoga class. Standing? Seated? Supine? I like to mix it up with different approaches, but I feel I'm in a rut...it would be helpful to see a few different ways to begin a practice!
A: It is quite common for both teachers putting together classes each week and yoga practitioners in their home practice to get stuck in the rut of doing the same practice , or at least the start of a practice, over and over. I have certainly gone through phases of being in that rut myself over the years. Today, I will make some general observations about and recommendations for how to vary the start of your practice. In later posts, I will get to specific starting sequences and video examples.
Here are some questions to consider as you plan how to start your practice.
Where Are You Starting From?
Regardless of how I might start my asana practice or begin to design a class, I find it quite helpful to begin with a seated grounding meditation for 5-10 minutes at the start of any session. This serves several purposes. First, it helps to quiet my mind enough to tune into what my body might need today or this week. This gives me a clearer sense of my overall energy level. If I am tired, I will likely want to start on my back for practice and if I am fully rested and feeling energetic, I may want to begin standing and launch right into more active standing poses. Then, meditating to begin gets me to get into a more creative mind space so that I can think a bit outside the box of what I normally might do to begin a practice.
Are You Working on a Theme?
Although it’s not necessary to have a theme for every practice or class, if you do have one, this can be helpful for deciding how to start the practice (though not necessary. Lately, I have been starting each class with a new hand gesture or mudra. Often these mudras are associated with some aspect of yoga other than asana. For example, for the last month, the mudras I have been sharing have been related to the niyamas, which included contentment (santosha) and discipline (tapas). The first concept seemed to call out for a gentle start to practice, reclined or seated warm up poses, and the second one suggested beginning in the standing position. These kinds of inspiration could apply to home practice as well.
What Did You Do Last?
I always consider what I did last time I came to the mat to practice or when deciding what to do next what I taught last week in my classes. In my teaching, I typically teach a similar sequence in all my classes in a given week, modifying it a bit depending on the group of students who show up. Lately, I have been actually writing out my sequences at the start of the week (used to do this early in my teaching, got out of the habit for some time, and have found it useful to do it again in the last several months!). So with my teaching, I can quickly look over last week’s practice and vary the new week’s practice, including how I start the practice off, be it reclined, on hands and knees, sitting, standing or even in a supported inversion of some sort. And a good reason to vary the start of your home practice (and the rest of your sequence as well!) if you are practicing almost every day is to avoid doing exactly the same practice, which increases the chances of a overuse injury.
What Are Your Longer Term Goals?
If you have a long-term goal that you’re working on, this can give you a clue about how to start your practice. For example, if you are working on one of the four essential physical skills (strength, flexibility, balance, and agility) for yourself or your students, you could select a poses or poses that focus on the area that you want to concentrate on. As an illustration of this, if I am working on balance, although I can do some balance work sitting (Boat pose) or on hands and knees (Hunting Dog pose), I really want to feel more balanced when I am on my feet, so starting in the standing position would be my preference in this case. If I am working on recovery from an illness or injury, or leading a more therapeutic class, I might start in a more supported position, possibly reclined, sitting on a blanket, or even in a chair.
Are There Special Circumstances?
Nina has recommended asking yourself two additional questions that could help figure out how to start your practice. The first is, what is your current mood or emotional state? If you’re going through a particularly difficult time, that’s something you should take into account.
She says that if you’re feeling very stressed or anxious, maybe you need to start with some more active poses before you can lie down comfortably. However, if you’re so depleted from stress that you feel completely exhausted, you might need to start with some relaxation. She says that if you’re feeling depressed, you need to consider starting with a pose that feels accessible but that will also perk you up a bit (such as a passive backbend or moving with your breath in Cat-Cow pose).
The second question to ask yourself is, what is the weather and the temperature in the practice space like? Although it might not always be relevant, many of us have at times found ourselves practicing in spaces that were poorly heated or overheated in cold weather or not air conditioned during hot weather. So Nina says that if it’s cold in the yoga space, you might want to consider starting a standing position or seated position with some movement rather than than lying down and gently stretching. The opposite is true if the yoga space is very hot. In this case, consider choosing opening poses that help you slowly ease into practice.
Next time, we will look at my favorite way to start practice, lying on the back.
—Baxter
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