Confession: I’ve never taken a true-live-in-person-pay-for-it-yoga course. I learned the basics in high school when it was my gym period and went on from there to home practice years later. Especially now, I look at my budget and ask important questions such as “Would I like to eat today, put gas in the car or take a yoga class?” You can see why the latter option has never been taken. In our area, the best you can do of the some 20 yoga studios in the area is $12 a class or some three-digit-number for a monthly pass.
For those who can afford it, I get the appeal of going to a physical yoga course. There are people, someone to help you through and keep you motivated, someone to push you and much more. But for me, I can’t get past the cost hurdle. I recently read “Poser” by Claire Dederer and she mentioned how when she tried home practice, the same sequence of poses from class were boring. I’ll never see how for my life. I love the freedom home practice brings. I can do whatever poses I want, in whatever order (kind of…), focusing on whatever areas I’d like. If today feels like a “balance pose” day, it can be. Likewise, if my sciatica is killing me today, I can focus on poses to help it. I’ve also found the YogAmazing podcasts to be phenomenal and a great help when I don’t want to think.
How do you practice yoga? What leads you to that path of practice?
