During the David Williams Ashtanga yoga Workshop last weekend he talked about developing a daily practice and how important it is. He has been doing a daily practice for the past 37 years. He plans on continuing this daily practice until he is at least 80 years old. When he asked for a show of hands of those people that also planned on practicing yoga when they were 80 years old or older there was a large number of people that raised their hands. He pointed out that their were not a lot of 80 year old people that were practicing Ashtanga yoga. Then he shared with us how it is possible to have a daily Ashtanga yoga practice no matter how old you are.
The Importance of a Daily Practice
A daily practice is important keep the body flexible and the mind calm and focused. David said that if you do not maintain a daily practice then your body will start to rust and stiffen up. A daily practice also helps to keep your spine flexible. It is important to have 24 vertebrae rather than a single backbone. A backbone has no flexibility and a spine of 24 vertebrae is flexible.
Daily does not mean every day of the week
No practice on Saturday
In the Ashtanga tradition there is no practice on Saturdays. This means that a daily practice is only six days a week and not seven. The body needs a day to rest each week and this break is built into your daily practice. This rest day gives the body a chance to consolidate the gains and improvements that have happened over the past week.
From a practice point of view Saturday does not necessarily occur on Saturday each week. If circumstances require that you miss your practice on Thursday then you can declare that day to be “Saturday” and do your normal practice on Saturday. This will keep you daily practice schedule intact.
The key is that you have a day of rest each week.
No practice on Moon days
No practice on Full moon and New moon days. Every two weeks there is an additional day off due to the moon days.
Lady holidays
During a ladies period there is no practice. Some women find that practicing yoga during this time improves their well being and outlook on life while other women finds it
What to practice each day
Full practice
You can do the Primary series , Intermediate series, or half primary and half intermediate. This practice will take you about 60 to 90 minutes to complete.
Minimum practice
If you are pressed for time or the mind is resisting a full practice for that day then you can take an alternative approach. There is a recommended minimum practice that will only take about 10 -12 minutes to complete.
The minimum practice consists of
- 3 Sun Salute A,
- 3 Sun Salute B
- The last 3 closing postures and
- Savasana
Once you start the minimum practice you can give yourself permission to add on some standing postures if the mind and body are willing. After completing the standing postures and you feel like adding on some seated postures then go ahead. Sometimes you may end up doing an entire full practice when you only intended to do the minimum practice. And sometimes you will only do the minimum. The important point is that you managed to do a practice that day. You were able to once again gain the benefits of your yoga practice for another day.
You too can do a daily practice
Using the above you two can develop a daily practice. Make a commitment to do a daily practice for a month. After the month have a look at how you did and make a commitment to either maintain or improve your daily practice for the next month.
Let me know how you make out.
