5 Ideas for Setting Up Your Home Yoga Space

There are so many real obstacles on the path. Don’t let a perceived lack of space keep you from practicing! In this video, we drop into the home of our friends Ted, Erika, and Devon to help give us ideas on how to set up the home for yoga practice. Ted and Erika have been practicing at home with the help of online videos since 2009.

You don’t need a lot of space

For the practice of most yoga asana, you will want to have a little more than the length of your mat long (or yourself supine) long and about as wide as arms outstretched from your shoulders. Can you imagine the space between two queen size beds in a hotel? That’s about all you really need.

You can make space

If there is a room you want to practice in, but furniture that you can move is in the way, then move it! A simple push of a table to the side, a shove of a chair back from the table, or clearing of toys can reveal a wide open landscape. Sometimes to create an open wall space, we need to remove art. You can always hang it back up.

Mark your space

Setting up an altar with objects and photos close to your heart helps make the space sacred. Storing your yoga and meditation props in the place you practice reduces the illusion of inconvenience. When the practice space gets baked in with care, attention, and time, it eventually starts to help hold us when we roll out our mat.

Find some private space

While you might want to be in the hustle and bustle of your family life as you bend, stretch, and breathe, many find that closing a door or pulling a curtain helps immensely. Maybe you have an office, guest room, or even a biggish closet that will serve as a practice container. Erich Schiffmann tells the story of clearing out his closet when he was 15 so he could meditate.

You don’t need any space

Here on Yoga Anytime, we have a range of talks and practices that don’t require any special amount of space. You can listen while you drive, make dinner, fold the laundry, and travel on a plane. Simultaneously, the practice of yoga is way more than the skillful execution of postures; it’s an alignment with your whole life. For this, no physical space is necessary, only an open heart, mind, and hands.