I have never worn a Yoga mala or used incense while practicing. I am doing pretty good without it. My yoga practice starts in morning. My priority is to successfully tip-toe in the living room and make sure no one gets disturb and I can follow my full practice. The idea of lightning an incense never came to my mind. I love the fragrance of incense and I believe at times, it can definitely improve the mood.
If you are practicing alone go ahead and use it. However make sure you have already tried the incense earlier. People who are sensitive to smell will feel inconvenience because of it. For them, it is better not to use it. Also, always go for a mild fragrance incense; no matter how much tolerant you are. In yoga our breath plays a very important task. While performing asanas we concentrate on the breath. During pranayamas the stress is given on deep inhalation and exhalation. I prefer to inhale a clean free air without any other fragrance. One should hence go for mild fragrance. Also, it makes sense to use burn one incense at a time.
For me, a practice can be completed without it. The only prerequisite is to have a ventilated room. One has to learn to concentrate on the body movement and breaths.
Yoga mala is generally used for mantra mediation to keep a track of the mantra numbers. Generally a mala has 108 beads. 108 is considered as a sacred number in Hindu religion. The beads help one to focus on the mantra’s number. It is a good way to keep your monkey mind occupy. Over the years, my mediation practice is more on concentration on the breath than anything else. My mind still wanders and there are days when I feel very unsatisfied after the meditation. Well, the greatest challenge for anyone is to conquer oneself and I witness this almost every day during meditation practice.
To be honest, you can do without incense and mala. In my future blog post, I will share the various things I have learned, unlearned and still learning.
