3 Ways to Personalise Your Yoga Practice

Most dynamic yoga practices involve you trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and calling it correct alignment. The concept of correct alignment is just a more polite way of saying 'only by fitting your body into THIS specific position will you be doing yoga the right way.’

This is problematic for 2 reasons:

1. Whoever created this correctly aligned position never ever considered you and your individual needs. So how do they know what is correct for you?

2. You end up forcing yourself to get into positions that aren't of any value for you because you think that the only way to benefit and 'do yoga properly' is with one specific type of alignment.

Both of these problems lead into an even further, LARGER matter which is:

You become disconnected from the process of exploring what your body truly needs and are ultimately DISEMPOWERED.

Now, I don't know about you but I don't practice yoga to become disempowered. It's quite the opposite really. I want to be empowered to develop a deeper inward gaze as I tune in to my personal needs. You can't do that if you are constantly relying on some universal or idyllic way of positioning your body and allowing that to override what is actually going to serve you.

Don't get me wrong here. There ARE markers, guidelines and general rules that can be used to give you a frame of reference in your yoga practice, but the reality is that there is no correct alignment for any pose that UNIVERSALLY suits all bodies. 

In downward dog for example, a teacher can recommend that you position your hands 'shoulder width apart' and feet 'hip width apart' but the reality is that there are MANY people who prefer a more narrow or wider placement. Does it mean that those people are getting less benefit than those who feel that hip width and shoulder width works for them? Not at all! Both are benefitting when they are positioning their bodies in a way that WORKS for them. These markers are just a frame of reference to bring awareness to where your body is but should be taken with the freedom to explore and find what is right for you.

So what do you do? Here are 3 ways to personalise your yoga practice:

1. Let go of whatever you think correct alignment is

2. Experiment and explore testing out various positions for your body

3. Remember that right and wrong only exist within the context of what you want to achieve and sometimes you might choose to use specific alignment to achieve a certain outcome

By doing these three things, you'll start practicing with the intention of achieving VALUABLE ALIGNMENT and as a result will become more connected to your needs and empowered to do what is best for you every single time you step on your mat.