Kathy Carroll: So John, how important is a home practice? What are its benefits?

John Friend: Home Practice is really the foundation of how we grow and improve in our yoga. You can take classes and workshops and they can give a lot of benefit. They provide the details and techniques. They can give a great experience of being in a group with others, which can really inspire us to grow to deeper levels. However, when we are by ourselves we are able to get in synch with our own rhythms and apply the types of actions and the poses that we need for our own individual benefit. So home practice is really what will help us grow the most. It’s the foundation of our practice that we want to keep coming back to time and time again. And, for teachers, through our own practice we get the deeper understanding of the principles that we are working with. Then we can teach and express these ideas from our own experience.