General Guidelines for Practitioners of Yoga

1. Keep a separate room for your yoga sessions.  The room should be clean and well ventilated with fresh air.   If you can’t have a separate room, you can allocate a portion of a room to your practice.
2. Wear clothing that is comfortable and that does not restrict your breathing or movements. If doing kundalini yoga, it is advised that shoulders and spine be kept covered.
3. Kundalini yoga should be practiced bare feet.
4. Avoid consuming any food ~ 3 hours prior to yoga practice. A cup of light tea, milk is acceptable 30 minutes before practice.
5. Do yoga preferably in the morning when your mind is relatively calmer and the energy levels are higher in contrast to the evening, when you are mentally and
   physically fatigued. Yoga for fitness can be done in the evening.
6. Don’t practice when you are sick or aren’t feeling well.
7. Yoga should be done with full awareness. The key is to constantly remind ourselves to be aware of the poses and breathing and to bring our wandering mind back to focus on the moment.
8. Do not strain yourself or push yourself beyond your capacity.
9. Begin the yoga session with some warm up asans/poses.  Taking a warm shower prior to practice helps improve flexibility.
10. Do not forget to breathe while practicing poses as breathing is an important part of yoga.
11. The diet recommended for serious yoga practitioners, is a saatvic diet.  Avoid consuming greasy, spicy , oily foods or foods that cause you to feel sluggish and dull. Also avoid eating foods that are too temperature hot or cold. (Read : Recommended Yogic Diet)
12. Be consistent in your practice. Make it your goal not to
    miss a single day, unless you are sick.
13. Following the conclusion of your yoga practice, wait for ~15-20 minutes before you consume any food and drink.This allows your body enough time to assimilate all the positive energies  that have been awakened from the practice
14. Abstain from excessive and loud talking.  Avoid strong emotions of anger, jealousy, sadness etc. This prevents hemorrhaging of all the positive energy you awakened from the practice and an unnecessary build up of toxic emotions.
15. Drink plenty of water to help in the elimination of toxins from the body that have been released as a result of the practice session.