Free Yoga for Grief Week 3: Schedule your Daily Yoga Practice at Home

Dur­ing the last two weeks you learned how to recon­nect with your phys­i­cal body as well as your breath. Now it is time to dive into a reg­u­lar yoga practice.

Why is a reg­u­lar yoga prac­tice impor­tant dur­ing grief?

You may feel as though your life has spun out of con­trol. A reg­u­lar yoga prac­tice dur­ing the acute phase of grief will help you begin to restore your daily rou­tine, plus the more often you prac­tice the sooner you will reduce phys­i­cal and emo­tional suffering.

Show­ing up is enough.

It may be dif­fi­cult at first, but you will find that over a period of time your body will begin to feel bet­ter, your mind will begin to set­tle and your mood will become lighter.

Pre­cau­tions: The first prin­ci­ple of yoga is ahimsa: non­vi­o­lence. Prac­tice non­vi­o­lence to your­self by not caus­ing your body any physcial pain dur­ing your prac­tice. If you are under med­ical super­vi­sion, check in with your prac­ti­tioner before embark­ing on a yoga practice.

Prepa­ra­tion: Find a quiet space in your home that is warm and free of clut­ter. Turn off the phone, and tell any­one in the house that you need to be undis­turbed dur­ing your prac­tice. You may also invite them to join you. If you like, put on some calm­ing music or use a record­ing of the ocean as background.

5 Steps to Cre­ate a Daily Yoga Prac­tice for Grief

Step 1: Set your inten­tion for practice.

Why do you want to prac­tice yoga for grief? Most peo­ple come to yoga dur­ing trou­bled times to relieve suf­fer­ing, ease phys­i­cal pain or to heal their spirit. Find your rea­son for prac­tice and write it down either in your cal­en­dar or in a place where you will see it often.

Step 2: Sched­ule thirty minute ses­sions on the mat five times over the next week.

Con­sider it a vic­tory even if all you do is sit on your mat and cry the whole time — just try to visit your yoga mat at the same time each day. Show­ing up is enough.

Step 3: Don’t worry about the pos­tures; focus on your breath and move naturally.

Begin by prac­tic­ing the body scan and breath-work from the first two weeks of Yoga for Grief. Spend a period of time mov­ing and stretch­ing your body in response to any ten­sion or tight­ness you discover.

Don’t worry about doing spe­cific yoga pos­tures this week unless you are already famil­iar with them. For now, sim­ply do what your body tells you to do, and allow your breath to be steady and regular.

If your breath becomes shal­low or stops, back off from what­ever you are doing. Your breath will let you know if your body can han­dle the stretch. Don’t push it, and be gen­tle with yourself.

Step 4: Receive your yoga practice.

Reserve the last 5 to 10 min­utes of your prac­tice to rest in savasana.

Savasana instruc­tion: Lay on your back. Place a rolled up blan­ket under your knees, let your arms rest on the floor beside you. Cover your­self with a blan­ket so you don’t get cold. Rock your head from side to side until you find that just-right rest­ing place. Come into still­ness. Soften your breath and body. Do noth­ing for at least 5 minutes.

When you are ready to come out, roll onto your side and gen­tly bring your­self up to sit­ting. Con­nect with your breath, and gen­tly open your eyes. Place your hands on your heart, and thank your­self for practicing.

Step 5: Check-in with a buddy.

Des­ig­nate a friend who you can check in with after your yoga prac­tice. This could be a friend who prac­tices yoga with you, or one of the peo­ple who offer to help you dur­ing your time of grief.

This help you com­mit to a reg­u­lar sched­ule, but it will also reground you if the emo­tions of prac­tice feel overwhelming.

Yoga can be relax­ing, but it can also bring emo­tions and mem­o­ries to the sur­face of your aware­ness. It is use­ful to face your feel­ings when they arise, but it is equally impor­tant to only take on what you can handle.

Reg­u­larly check­ing in with a lov­ing, com­pas­sion­ate friend after your yoga prac­tice will help you inte­grate your expe­ri­ence and help you con­nect with another human being, an impor­tant step on the road through grief.

Extra Credit

After your yoga prac­tice, write down your reflec­tions in a note­book or jour­nal. You can keep your yoga jour­nal pri­vate, or share it with your check-in buddy.