You’ve just arrived at the Five-Minute Yoga blog, a place where you can learn to build a home yoga practice, five minutes at a time.

Check out the video. It’s only two minutes long, and I guarantee it will make you smile – and maybe even feel inspired.

(Curious to know who Shirley is?)

Why is five minutes enough?

Do you think five minutes is a ridiculously small amount of time?

We all have five minutes to spend, sometime in the day. And unless you’re running to catch a bus, the way you spend your five minutes won’t make a difference in the way your day unfolds.

But five minutes a day, every day, devoted to a yoga practice, is long enough to change your life. I found this out more than 20 years ago, when I first wanted to make yoga part of my life. I took the one stretch my teacher told me was most important for my body, found a time of day to do it, and for the first time in my life, I had a yoga practice.

In time, my practice grew.

I’m now a certified Iyengar yoga teacher. I’ve been to India, twice, to study. I teach classes and continue to take them. And I love my practice for everything it adds to my life.
But without that first step – taking a small amount of time to do just one pose – I wouldn’t be practicing and teaching today.

What is My Five-Minute Yoga Practice™?

If you want the strength, flexibility, balance and inner peace that yoga brings, but you haven’t been able to start or stick with a home practice, My Five-Minute Yoga Practice™ can become your best friend.

Pick a practice. Find a place in your day to plug it in:

• while the kettle boils
• as soon as you’ve brushed your teeth
• when you take your first coffee break
• when the baby goes down for a nap
• when you come in the door after work
• just before you go to bed

Gradually, five minutes at a time, yoga will become part of your life.

Make a commitment to five minutes a day, and you’ll gradually find 15, and then half an hour.

My Five-Minute Yoga Practice contains 11 five-minute modules. Each one comes with detailed photos and written instructions, and a five-minute mp3 file, in which I talk you through the practice.

Why not video?

For one thing, we all spend too much of our time looking at screens.
But more important, you gaze should be directed inward. Once you’ve looked at the photos, so you have a good idea what we’ll be doing, you can just listen and follow, without having to crank your neck to see what I’m doing.

In time, you’ll know the routines well enough that you won’t need to play the MP3 files. At that point, the practice is yours. You can return to it to listen, of course, when you’re tired, and just want to follow instructions.

You can play the Five-Minute Yoga sequences on your computer, or install the mp3 files on your music player. Take your shoulder stretches to work, or your whole practice on a business trip

What people have to say about it:

“Thank you for this. I am confused when it comes to practicing at home. This will help so much.”
– Barb Doran

“I love My Five-Minute Yoga Practice! You would not believe how easy it is to do while traveling.”
– Patti Kennedy

“I’m very pleased with the way you describe the poses, especially how to hold which muscles and which part of the body to feel the stretch. It’s really explained very well for a beginner and I appreciate that. I’m excited about making it a daily event!”
– Beverly Fox

“This is just great!! I love it. It’s intelligent and warm and makes sense. It has the ‘I can’t wait to start’ effect.”
– Beth McTavish

“What I love, first, is the clarity and directness of your voice, which is clean and neutral in a way that invites me, listening, to match as I practice. Also, the way you take me inside each piece where I don’t easily get by myself, to stretch here and press there.”
– Brenda Lea Brown

(Sorry, at this moment, MyFiveMinuteYogaPractice is no longer available. I’ll let you know if that changes.) 

Not in a Buying Mood?

Try the Free Stuff.

Start here if you want to work on stiff shoulders.   If you’re looking for yoga to loosen tight hips, you have lots to choose from. Is it short hamstrings that limit your practice?  You’ll find several five-minute yoga practices that can help. And if you’d like to see every Five-Minute Yoga Challenge so far, dive in.

Perhaps you’re curious about how to build a yoga practice, the psychology of practice, or yoga philosophy. 

To reach the blog, click here, or click in the navigation bar.

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