Why Home Practice Wins

On the Solstices, the good modern American yogi is supposed to do 108 sun salutations.  I had done it before, but always as part of a group.  This past Friday, I didn't want to invest three hours to knock them out with the only Bucks County studio I found that was observing the Winter Solstice, so I decided to do my 108 by myself.

I doubt I'll ever do them with a group again.

A study that made the rounds a few months ago claimed that a home yoga practice provides greater health benefits than group classes.  Even though I love classes and will probably always attend them, I believe this study, and my 108 experience reminded me why.

Doing the 108 by myself, in a room with nothing but fading natural light, there was nothing but me and my breath.  20-30 salutations in, my breath became a frickin metronome.  The nice thing about a home practice is that one can let his or her breath dictate everything.  If I'm tight, my muscles will tell my breath, my breath will tell me, and I will need to back off in order to get that wonderful ujjayi breath back.  And when I get that breath locked in, the effect it has on my body-mind is unbelievable.  Friday, it was the equivalent of an hour and a half of perfect meditation.


There's so much going on in a contemporary yoga class.  At a lot of studios, there's contemporary music and an instructor who's straining to be heard over top of it.  Even the best studios can only minimize the distractions, not eliminate them.  There's always someone else, some stray movement that can distract you from what is important, which is the breath and only the breath.

Someone should point out that the ultimate goal is to be able to take this deep calm into the world and to have it in spite of (because?) of the world's "distractions."  I agree, but I also know I'm not there yet.  I lose that feeling in the broader world.  Yoga classes help me get it back, but not as well as a good home practice.