How to manifest the best benefits of your practice:

*Practice every day if possible…even if it is just 10-15 minutes. You will see physical benefits become evident the more you practice. If you make the time, (notice I didn’t say have the time) your body and mind will thank you.

*Master the practice of how to properly breathe. Breathe through the nose only for it filters and warms the air before it hits your lungs. Inhale so that your abdomen rises and exhale so that it falls. Observe your breathing as you practice and you will eventually make this a new habit after you leave your mat. The increase of air that fills your lungs to the bottom provides more oxygen to circulate in your body. It also strengthens your lungs by increasing their capacity to inhale more. The exhalation is equally important. Exhale completely in order to release all the toxins (or, stale air) out of your body.

*Never worry about how far you can reach, stretch or how long you can hold a pose. Instead, focus on slowly lengthening your muscles and increasing your awareness of what you are feeling with each pose. As you observe what is being physically felt with each movement, you take your mindset off results and become more in tune with what your body can do at the moment. It will change with each practice.

*Always reach for your personal “edge” each time. In other words, when you get into a pose, extend what part of your body you are working to that delicate line between slight discomfort and pain. Do not cross the line to pain; instead, take it to slight discomfort and let your body adjust to it. By pursuing your “edge”, you slowly open up yourself wider cell by cell. The deep inhalations and exhalations  can get into these spaces you open up.

*Don’t blow off Savasana. This is that delicious few minutes when you lie down and simply close your eyes, resume your natural breathing and enjoy the merging of the physical benefits with the mental and ultimately, the spiritual. This part also takes practice because the mind is often more inflexible than the body. If left unchecked, your mind would run rampant with miscellaneous thoughts about what needs to be done, didn’t get done, or whatever else it can think of to stress you out. By training your mind to be quiet when you want it to be, you become the master of your mind.