After practising Sivananda Yoga for a while, I begin to appreciate our Teacher, Swami Visnudevananda's wisdom in designing this form of yoga. The systematic approach to the 12 poses is extremely helpful in developing a discipline home practise.
I often encourage my students to try home practise as much as they can, even when they attend class regularly with me. This is the only way for us to keep our yoga practise as stable and grounded as possible.
When we practise by ourselves, we are not only a student, we will also become a teacher for ourselves. There is a tendency for us to look more inward when there isn't an external voice giving you instructions. Self practise also allows a bigger room for modification to your own physical needs. For example, if you know you have a tight harm string, you can stay in sitting forward bend or standing forward bend longer than other poses. You will have the opportunity to stretch out those stubborn muscles at your own pace.
It took me a long time to appreciate and stay in my own practise. I can certainly understand the difficulties of it. Below are some pointers that can help you in your self practise :
1. Understand the logic of the sequence
Sivananda Yoga's 12 poses have the logic of starting from head, to the body and proceeding to leg. Each pose usually have a logic of countering the other pose. For example, in headstand, we tend to strain the neck, therefore we practise shoulderstand to counter the strained by stretching the back of the neck. Another example is : we will always practise inclined plane after a forward bending. This allow us to stretch out the lower back and upper back after folding forward.
Try to study each pose logic when you practise with a book as a guide. Slowly, you will realize that you no longer need to "remember" as it make sense to proceed from one pose to the other.
In my class, I give students a small tiny little booklet for reference.
Sivananda Yoga headquarters have published a very good guide for serious practitioner.
You may purchase the book online if you are really keen in studying the pose in details.
2. Be flexible with the duration of each practise
City life is highly stressful with tones of work, to-do list, appointments etc that take us away from the opportunity to do home practise.
We don't have to think about a home yoga practise as the same duration in a class room. We can break down practise into smaller segments to fit our schedule. For example, if we are really running short of time, we can merely practise pranayama or sun salutation in the morning. Spend 15mins for the practise will do. When we return in the evening or over the weekend when time is more available, we can do a fuller practise.
In the above guide book, there is a section on recommended sequences for 20mins, 40mins and 60mins practise for beginner, intermediate and advance level.
3. Always begin and end the class with mindfulness
The habit of learning how to centre our mind before practise with good Savasana and end the practise with another good Savasana (or final relaxation) or simply sitting quietly is utmost important. When we begin the class with a steadied mind, chances are our practise will be focus and fulfilling. When we end the class with a relax mind and body, it will motivate us to try again for the next practise. When we jump in and out of practise without enough mindfulness, you will find continuous practise become tedious.
Hope these few points will help you to gain strength in your own practise when we break for class.
Om. Om.