When you talk about making progress in Yoga, what do you mean? Whether it's gaining more flexibility or being able to do advanced postures? It's none of that. Progress in Yoga means how well you can need the resistance that arises in your practice both physically and mentally.

Progress will mean how you can learn how to take a deep breath and make space to observe and feel what is happening in the body and mind. Doing that since very easy but in practice it can be very difficult for many people because this is not how we operate on a day-to-day basis. This is something that we need to know and apply when we have so many distractions in this world which are vying for our attention all the time.

Become an observer

Instead of becoming a reactor, you need to become an observer. You can start to notice what comes up for you when you practising the postures. Are you focusing on the breath? You will need to pay close attention to what feelings, for you, whatever sensation you feel and what type of thoughts come in and out of your head. All you have to do is observe but you don't have to react to your thoughts, sensation of feelings.

You have to be curious about the practice and that curiosity will drive you forward to learn and progress your practice and you will be able to do things that you never thought possible.

Meditate

You will need to tune in and turn in. If you learn to sit with yourself and meditate, it will help you to move forward and make lots of progress. You will need to learn to sit with yourself, clear your mind and slow down the chatter and then you will be able to use these techniques to your physical asana practice.

Once you are able to meditate without any problem, that will flow into your practice and it will help you to become more intense in whatever you are practising.

Private lessons

When you are learning yoga a group, it is okay to learn the basic things but if you want to progress, you will need to take private lessons where the teacher can focus on you and help you to do the practice in the right way. More focus on you will help you to find out what mistakes you are making, learn those postures better and advance faster. Hiring a teacher for private lesson also shows that you are serious about advancing in your practice. You need a knowledgeable teacher will be able to teach you what to do and how to do it because that will help you to grow. You need guidance during this growth period and a good teacher is invaluable as your future practice, perfectness and progress will depend a lot on your teacher as well.

A private lesson is also important for you to ensure that you are not forming any bad habits. If you're doing some asanas wrong, then correcting it at a later stage can be very difficult for you. It is always better to learn and practice it correctly from the beginning.

References

1. Progressive Yoga From The “world’s Smartest Workout” Coach
2. Yoga: In Depth
3. Yoga for health