Building Confidence in Home Practice – A Summer Glow Reflection

As the Summer Glow Series came to a close, I felt a strong pull to change direction. What started as a plan to guide my students through a final, easy-to-remember flow suddenly felt… incomplete.

The original intention was to send them into the summer with a sequence they could repeat at home. A solid plan. But one morning, as I walked through the fields near my home, the birds singing and the sun rising, I had a different idea.

So much of what we learn in yoga, and in life, is through doing, not copying. And in studio classes, it's all too easy for students to fall into the habit of simply mimicking what they see. But what happens when the teacher isn’t there? What happens when there’s no one to follow?

For our final class, I reframed everything.

I handed the reins over to my students. We started simply: I asked them to shout out warm-up poses they enjoyed. I wrote them on slips of paper, placed them in a bowl, and picked two. That became our warm-up.

We moved on to stronger, more active poses, standing shapes, flows, balances. Again, they chose. And I helped weave them into something cohesive. One by one, we built our own flow. One we created together.

Toward the end, I asked them to name a pose they found challenging. And they did. With laughter, courage, and curiosity.

There was no pressure to get it perfect. Most didn’t remember pose names and that was fine. The key wasn’t perfect alignment. It was freedom. Creativity. Ownership.

Because a home practice doesn’t need to be 60 minutes long. It doesn’t need candles, a playlist, or a fancy mat. It can be as simple as three poses you enjoy, linked with breath, grounded in intention, and guided by how you feel.

And this is what I hoped they’d take with them into the summer.

The belief that they know more than they think.
That their bodies remember. That yoga is already within them.

One warm-up. One standing pose. One little challenge.
A practice made from pieces of themselves.
And that’s more than enough.