Green Deva

On Starting Again

July has a quality all of its own. The year is past its halfway point, the long evenings invite a slower pace and there is something about summer light that makes space for a kind of quiet reset.

If you have drifted from your practice recently - missed a few classes, let the home practice slide, or simply lost the thread somewhere between May and now - this is as good a moment as any to come back.

Not with grand intentions. Not with a schedule or a target or a promise to yourself about how consistent you are going to be from here on in. Just a quiet decision to return.

Yoga is remarkably forgiving of absence. The body remembers more than you think it does. The first class back is almost never as difficult as the story you told yourself about it in the weeks leading up to it.

The practice does not care how long you have been away. It only asks that you return.

The mat will be there.

Patanjali, Yoga Sutras 2.46

Sthira sukham āsanam.

The posture should be steady and comfortable.

Age is something that really doesn’t matter unless you’re a cheese.

Get More from Your Yoga Practice This Summer

Take your mat outside and see how it changes the quality of your practice.

Go out early
Early morning is the sweet spot - cool air, low light, the garden still quiet. There's something about practising before the day has properly started that feels less like exercise and more like reclaiming something.

Let the ground do the teaching
Standing poses are where outdoor practice really earns its place. The moment you take a one-legged pose onto grass or uneven ground, the body has to work in a way a flat studio floor simply doesn't ask of it. The ankle makes small, constant adjustments. The hip stabilisers engage. The knee finds its alignment without being told to. That's proprioception - the body's quiet, continuous conversation with the ground beneath it - and it's one of the most valuable things we can maintain at any age. Not flexibility, not strength, but the simple ability to adjust, respond and stay upright. The wobble, in other words, is not the problem. The wobble is entirely the point.

Face the sun for your breathing practice
Sit facing the morning light, close your eyes, and spend five minutes with a slow extended exhale - longer out than in. The warmth on your face and the moving air make the breath land differently outside. It's a complete thing in itself.

Leave the timer inside
Outdoor practice has a way of naturally releasing the grip on time. No mirror, no clock on the wall, no sense of what you look like doing it. Just the body, the breath and whatever is happening in the garden around you.