How to Teach Yourself Yoga

(even if you don’t know anything about yoga)

Start in a meditative, relaxing or standing posture.  Close your eyes and create some grounding.  Begin to shift your focus away from the external world and into your breath.  Notice what it sounds like, what it feels like, how long it is, how deep it is, where does the inhale start and the exhale end?  Questions like this will keep you in the present moment.  The breath is your anchor into the present moment, so breathe deeply, smoothly and audibly.  Stay with it.  Open your eyes and begin to flow.  Move from one posture to the next while synchronizing your breath with the movements.  Who cares what the movements are, just explore putting your body in different positions – sitting, standing, squatting, on one foot, on both hands, twisting, balancing, shifting perspective.  Make stuff up, but keep moving and breathing…rest when you need to, stay longer in certain poses.  When you feel like you’ve gotten some heat and some space going in your body, come onto your back, close your eyes and play like a corpse.  Let go of what you just did, let go of your definition of Self; the doer.  As your body relaxes and sinks into the earth, the mind slowly begins to expand.  For a few moments we might experience collective oneness, or meditation.  After about ten minutes in corpse pose, come up to seated keeping your eyes closed.  Feel the gratitude of being alive.  Namaste.