When you practice in your own home, be it the small and humble space of a guest bedroom, office or studio, it becomes a portal to an entire universe. Having a designated space in your home for ritual and contemplation has a long history in India serving to connect domestic life to the realm of the gods. The real benefit of home practice comes from installing peace, mindfulness and energy directly into your own home. In the space where you raise your family, live as a married couple, and take your meals, bring in the qualities of clarity, commitment, joy and loving kindness. By practicing at home, our role as householder becomes more enlightened as we stand right at the intersection of the mundane and the sacred. The architecture of the home space functions like the muladhara chakra providing stability and safety. Consider that the home is the root of all you do, the foundation of who you are. When beginning the day with practice in your own home, the thread of spirit gets woven into your daily life.
In home practice, see all around you as part of the One Body. Let your books, pets, furniture, pictures on the wall, the light coming through the window, all be an extension of your practice. In one or two silent hours each day, enter a time that has no past, present or future. In timeless time, your temporal self and eternal self merge. The paradox is that while you may practice solo at home, you feel far from alone. The movements, the prayer, the device of the mantra guide you toward a wider, more inclusive sense of communion.
Like Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, you must have a place free of clutter and distraction. In the sanctuary of your own space, hold lightly your wounds, your illness, your loss. It is then that your broken self and your whole self unite and you enter into your own power. And when you roll out your mat– on the porch, in the guest quarters, in the study or studio, take refuge in the one corner of your heart dedicated always to your own deepest calling.
