Yoga Tips for Beginners

Jul 8

6 min read

To begin this topic, here is a quick outline of the eight tips we’ll be exploring in Yoga Tips for Beginners. Feel free to read them in order or just jump 🕺🏻 right to any that appeal to you, in particular. The eight tips we’ll be covering are:

~keep an open mind 🔘

~be playful 💃

~show compassion💗

~breathe 💨

~pay attention 🧐

~relax 💆‍♀️

~release 🧘‍♀️

~surrender 🧎‍♀️

Let’s dive right into these!

1. Keep An Open Mind

First up on the list 📜 of eight yoga tips for beginners is: be sure to start with a beginner’s mind—a mind open to possibilities and unexpected surprises 💝.

~Don’t assume anything.

~Don’t expect anything.

~Go in with a mind completely open to whatever your experience delivers.

Closed Minded Approaches to Avoid

A common ‘excuse’ for not doing yoga that I hear all the time, is ‘Oh, I can’t do yoga. I’m not flexible.’ Simply by making that blanket statement, you are closing your mind 🧠 to the potential for increasing the very flexibility you claim not to have. Maybe because you’re not physically flexible, you would be a great candidate for yoga! Don’t limit yourself before you even begin! Besides, there are so many more benefits to yoga than just flexibility.

I’ve noticed that Type A personalities (you know…the go-getters who never slow down) are the most resistant to yoga because they see it as being too slow 🐢 and boring for them. However, they actually stand to benefit the most from the calming aspects of yoga! My advice here is, don’t discount it before trying it a few times. And try different styles. It’s like kids and vegetables. Most kids don’t like them (or won’t even try them) but they’re so good for the body 👤. So, while a kid might ‘blech’ at spinach, they might discover that they love broccoli 🥦! Yoga is like that, too! You might find you dislike one style and really benefit from another. Yoga is truly a practice accessible to anyone and everyone. So, go try all the types until you find one you like.

Takeaway: No limiting beliefs allowed! 🙅‍♀️

2. Be Playful

Second tip: Don’t think yoga has to be all serious mudras (hand positions) and chants of ‘ooommmmmm’. Did you know there’s such a thing as laughter 😂 yoga? And goat 🐐 yoga. And aerial yoga and all kinds of other fun styles of yoga! If you want your yoga practice to be calm and serene 🧘, there are yoga classes for that, too, but don’t think that it has to be all spa music 🎶 and candles 🕯️ in order to be considered yoga.

And no matter which type of class you try, feel free to play around with different poses 🙃 to find out what feels best in your body. Yoga is a very personal experience, and only you can ultimately determine what is right for your unique anatomy. Everyone’s body develops differently depending on multiple factors like genetics and repetitive activities that you perform in your developmental years. The fullest expression of any pose will look different on everyone and that’s totally normal.

Takeaway: It’s not a competition. 🏁

3. Show Compassion

Along with approaching your yoga practice with a playful 😋 attitude, be sure to show yourself a little compassion 💗, too. If everyone around you is touching their noses 👃🏼 to their knees in a forward fold and you can barely lean over, don’t force your body into something it’s not ready to do. And don’t shame yourself for ‘failing’ either. As mentioned earlier, yoga is a very personal experience and the way it ‘looks’ doesn’t really matter. What matters is how it feels in your body.

It’s important to know that everyone is in a different place on their yoga journeys, and you ONLY benefit from yoga when you are honest with yourself about where you are on yours. So be compassionate 💝 with yourself with each pose, gracefully accepting 🤲🏽wherever you find yourself. Never push yourself to a place of discomfort just to try to ‘fit in’ or compete with others. You’ll never progress that way.

Bonus Tip

This is one of the beautiful aspects of yoga: You advance not by trying harder but by letting go. And that lesson can be applied to many areas of our lives. It’s a humbling, yet very liberating, lesson.

I once read 📖 a beautiful statement regarding the difference between holding on and letting go that is very applicable here. Unfortunately, I don’t recall who stated it in order to give proper credit. However, it essentially stated that you keep more sand in an open hand than in a closed fist. Sand, of course, being a metaphor for whatever you value.

Takeaway: There is no such thing as pass or fail in yoga. 📝

4. Breathe

Breathing 🫁 is not only vital for life, but it is also an essential component of yoga. You will learn various breathing techniques 🌬️ throughout your yoga experience, and they will all serve varying purposes. Some breathing techniques are meant to cool 🧊 the body, others to heat ♨️ the body, while still others create balance ⚖️. The most important thing to remember about breath and yoga is to link your movements with the breath and never hold a pose so intensely that you feel like you also have to hold your breath in order to maintain the position.

In modern times, most people breathe very shallowly, limiting the amount of oxygen the body receives. Deep, yogic breathing reverses that, filling the lungs 🫁 , flooding the body with more oxygen, energizing 💫 and giving the body the grace to move out of chronic stress and into relaxation. Deep breathing has so many health 🌿benefits for the body such as regulating hormones, improving digestion and reducing stress. And these breathing techniques can be utilized whenever you need them outside of yoga class, too.

Takeaway: Inhale, exhale, repeat…🔄

5. Pay Attention

This tip can also be applied to the previous tips of being playful, showing compassion 💗and engaging in breathwork. So, when you’re in tree 🌲 pose, for example, pay attention to where your center of balance is, what your breath is doing and how you’re feeling. Play around with your positioning, laugh 😆 if you wobble and allow your breath to center and ground you. If you’re just blindly following the yoga instructor’s cues and ignoring your body’s messages, you will not benefit very much from the yoga experience. Yoga teaches 👨🏽‍🏫 us to explore the deep connection we have with ourselves, a relationship that gets richer each time we step on the mat. But only if we show up, pay attention and are truly present with ourselves.

Takeaway: Listen to your body. 👀

6. Relax

One of the major benefits of yoga, especially in modern times, is the permission it gives us to fully relax 😌. In a society that values nonstop productivity, this can be challenging. But know that sometimes taking the time to relax is the most productive thing you can do!

You know how when your computer is misbehaving and you can’t figure out how to ‘fix’ it, so you turn it off, 🔌 wait a moment and restart it and suddenly it ‘magically’ works? Taking breaks for yourself can work like that, too. Switch yourself off 📴 once in a while and watch how you magically start working more efficiently again once you restart. Yoga gives you that opportunity to turn yourself off for a while as you move in and out of poses, deepening them with each breath, then relaxing fully at the end of the class.

Takeaway: Rest is productive. 📊

7. Release

Once you’re able to relax into a pose, you can start the process of releasing: tension, emotions, stress. We tend to hold onto so much unnecessary energy that weighs 🏋️ us down. When teachers say, ‘let go of all that no longer serves you.’ (and believe me…you’ll hear that exact phrase at some point!), this is what they mean. They mean release all that stored negative energy 💫 that is weighing you down and preventing you from living the life you dream for yourself. Practicing yoga commands that we ground ourselves in the present moment, practice mindfulness, and release any past emotions or future worries that tend to interfere with the present moment.

Takeaway: Let it go. 👐

8. Surrender

Once you’ve fully relaxed 🪻 your body and released everything excessive that you’re carrying around, you’ll be ready to fully surrender everything as you enter into your final pose, savasana. It can be tempting to want to skip this pose in favor of getting on with your day, especially if you’re doing yoga alone, but do yourself a favor and avoid skipping this step. This is truly where all the magic 🪄 happens. Once you’ve gone on this yoga journey with your body and mind, you need time to absorb 🧽 all that you’ve experienced, physically, mentally and emotionally. Savasana is that time. So, don’t skip it. Gift 💝 your body the time to reap the benefits of the entire experience by allowing yourself to surrender completely to it.