Practice Yoga

he fish is the counterpart of the plough and normally comes after it in Sivanada yoga. But as it was my preferred position back then I introduce it now. What I like about it is that I could breathe really freely, and it was inducing some sort of happiness in me. It was like I was getting drunk with oxygen in that position.

your back

1. Start as the Corpse Pose
2. Bring your feet together. With your arms straight by your sides, lay your palms on the floor, then tuck your hands in underneath your buttocks.
3. Press your elbows down on the floor, inhale, and arch your chest upward as far as you can. Having arched your spine, tilt your head so that your crown rests on the ground. Hold for 30 seconds. To come out of the Fish, slide your head back and then lower your chest. To finish, relax by lying in the Corpse.

I’m starting to feel the beneficial effects of the stretching effect on my legs – they don’t feel sore anymore and I feel some vigor there even if I feel my whole body is in atrophy from the fact that my boyfriend dumped me a few days ago. I did not practice yesterday. I find it much more difficult to do it when he’s around. Tomorrow will be m last day here. I hope I’ll continue my Yoga routine.

Today I’d like to read a bit more on Pranayama. Tomorrow I would probably introduce a new asana, but I feel it’s difficult to get deeper into practice without talking about proper breathing – and for me to start being aware of it.

When the Breath wanders, the mind is unsteady, but when the Breath is still, so is the mind still.” – Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Pranayama is used to control breath, but breath can be considered more than earth. Prana is, by extension, a life force, an energy from within, and pranayama is the control of this energy. And proper breathing increases the amount of this energy, making us feel better and preventing diseases.

There are several techniques for Pranayama. The first one I’d like to review is one I learned a long time ago and did not put in practice, Dirgha Pranayama. I think I should be doing 10 of these before starting my suggestion sequence for the final relaxation.

It’s very important to breathe through the nose.

Breathing takes places in three parts of the lungs.

The high breathing lies in the upper part, the clavicule. This is the one we naturally do a lot because of our lifestyle. As we breathe with a contracted belly or with a belt.

Low breathing usually involved pushing the diaphragm in the abdomen to fill the lower lungs. We naturally use low breathing when we are sleeping. It massages the inner organs by creating a pressure on them. It’s a gentle, repairing breathing.

Middle breathing is in-between! It is the breathing that takes place in the rib cage itself and is harder to describe.

Observe the natural inhalation and exhalation of your breath without changing anything.

Begin to inhale deeply through the nose. On each inhale, fill the belly up with your breath. Expand the belly with air like a balloon. (Low breathing) On each exhale, expel all the air out from the belly through your nose. Draw the navel back towards your spine to make sure that the belly is empty of air. Repeat for about five breaths.

On the next inhale, fill the belly up with air as described above. Then when the belly is full, draw in a little more breath and let that air expand into the rib cage causing the ribs to widen apart. (Middle breathing) On the exhale, let the air go first from the rib cage, letting the ribs slide closer together, and them from the belly, drawing the navel back towards the spine. Repeat this deep breathing into the belly and rib cage for about five breaths.

On the next inhale, fill the belly and rib cage up with air as described above. Then draw in just a little more air and let it fill the upper chest, all the way up to the collarbone, causing the area around the heart (which is called the heart center in yoga), expand and rise. (High breathing) On the exhale, let the breath go first from the upper chest, allowing the heart center sink back down, then from the rib cage, letting the ribs slide closer together. Finally, let the air go from the belly, drawing the navel back towards the spine. Continue for about 10 breaths.
(Adapted from http://yoga.about.com/od/breathing/a/threepartbreath.htm )

Start by sitting with legs stretched, together side-by-side, in front of you, toes pointing upwards. The body is in a L position, with the back straight. Breathe fluidly.

On an inhale: raise your arms straight by your ears. Stretch your back up. Look forward and lengthen your back.
On an exhale: slowly lean forward from your hips, and try to catch hold of your toes, bending only from the hips (keeping the lowerback as straight as possible). Don’t move or tilt your legs.

When you can’t bent any further, grab your legs, ankles or feet, and feel the stretching. Keep the shoulder down, breathe freely and hold for 30 seconds, relaxing in the position, bending slightly further on exhales.

Stretch out your arms forward, inhale and stretch upward again back to the original position. Repeat twice.

Counterpose: Inclined Plane

From the starting position, sitting with the hands flat on the floor behind the hips, with the fingers pointing back, let your head drop back. Next, inhale as you raise your hips. Hold the pose for about 10 seconds. Lower your body, then relax your hands by shaking your wrists.

How do I feel? Not fantastically concentrated, but I appreciate that I’m taking time before having my yoga in the morning. The tea in my stomach keeps me going till a more solid breakfast and helps me get a bowel movement, which makes practise more comfortable. I feel sore in my legs and neck (shoulders). I think it’s a good sign, though.

I don’t feel very strong right now because of some stress in my life so I’m not studying anything else, doing some reading but that’s about it. But at least I did it so I’m quite happy. Tomorrow I’ll introduce a new position (probably the forward bend – (Paschimothanasana) and study the Child’s pose too.

So haven’t practised while I was away. I’ll keep it simple today again.

I printed the book Karma Yoga by Swami Vivekananda, that’ll give me some reading before going to bed. :) I read it a long time ago…

I remember finding this posture quite funny, because I could really see where the names came from…

Neutral position

Instructions:

Start on all fours, bringing the wrists underneath the shoulders and the knees underneath the hips. Think of the spine as a straight line connecting the shoulders to the hips. Try visualizing the line extending forward through the crown of the head and backwards through the tail bone. Keep the neck the natural extension of the spine. Have your fingers fully spread with the middle fingers pointing straight ahead. Gaze at the floor.

Cow pose – Marjaryasana

1. Curl the toes under.
2. Drop the belly.
3. Take the gaze up toward the ceiling.
4. Let the movement in the spine start from the tailbone, so that that neck is the last part to move.

Cat pose – Bidalasana

On the next exhale:

1. Release the tops of the feet to the floor.
2. Round the spine.
3. Drop the head.
4. Take the gaze to the navel.

Repeat the Cat – Cow Stretch on each inhale and exhale, matching the movement to your own breath. Continue for 5-10 breaths, moving the whole spine. After your final exhale, come back to a neutral spine.

Adapted from About.com

I haven’t really practised yoga much, although I always fell that it would be good for me. I twice took a class and ended up attending about half of it (I’m really bad with classes), never really practised home (I’m really bad with practising home). So here I am, maybe 5 years since my last lesson of Sivananda yoga.

I am aware that practising without a teacher can be risky – I accept the risk because I want to make this happen, for once. I’ll take it slowly and just try to be regular. When I feel more able to practise, I might go to a drop-in class to get some postural corrections. Thing is, I now live in The Netherlands, and not in such a big city. It might be quite difficult for me to get a yoga school in English.

This said, I’m laying down my methodology, and I believe the benefits will only appear with regular practise. I also want to lose weight and will try to include 3-5 km soft jogging every two days, just to get my machinery oiled.

For yoga precisely, I think that each morning that I get up in my new home, I will come to the computer and write an entry. Sounds silly, but if I’m not first checking emails, doing my freelance work, etc – then I will at least do my yoga, and it might be enough to get me more concentration. So I will get up, clean my face and mouth, put some clothes on and come to my computer with a cup of tea. For the first weeks, I will allow 1 new posture every three days, but only the postures I once studied in Sivananda Yoga – I will refresh myself of my previous knowledge. So every three day I will study a new posture and add it to the routine, keeping my routine to 5 postures a day. Then I will start by some warming up stretching, do the routine and do nothing for about 10 minutes. Once I have reviewed most postures, I will get back to the Sun’s Salutation and focus on it in addition to my 5 daily postures (this should be in about 3 weeks).

I will try to keep both this routine and the jogging going. If I do it for 3 months (excluding holidays out of the house) then I consider this goal attained. I want it to be realizable but also a real challenge, step-by-step.

So today I will start by laying down a part of the stretching routine & final relaxation position: Savasana. I do not count it with the other poses, but will not start with other postures today, to avoid saturation.

Stretching Routine

Eye training: Look up, down, right, left, top right, bottom left, top left, botttom right, roll your eyes clockwise, then counterclockwise.

Neck

Shoulders: Lifts & Stretches

Back: Cat Pose (Bidalasana) – To be seen tomorrow, and roll

Legs: Stretch and fold them on the abdomen (as seen in class)

Savasana – Corpse Pose

1. Rotate your legs in and out, and then let them fall gently out to the sides.
2. Let your arms fall alongside your body, slightly separated from the body, palms facing upwards.
3. Rotate the spine by turning your head from side to side to center it.
4. Then start stretching yourself out, as though someone is pulling your head away from your feet, your shoulders down and away from your neck, your legs down and away from your pelvis.
5. Allow your whole body to become soft and heavy, letting it relax into the floor. As the body relaxes, feel the whole body rising and falling with each breath.
6. Scan the body from the toes to the fingers to the crown of the head, looking for tension, tightness and contracted muscles. Consciously release and relax any areas that you find. If you need to, rock or wiggle that part of your body from side to side. Breathe deeply and slowly from your abdomen.
7. Hold the pose for several minutes. Make your mind still and concentrate on your breath or the body.
8. After doing the pose, bend your knees. Using your legs, push yourself onto one side.
9. Push yourself in a sitting position.
   (adapted from http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/yogapractice/thecorpsepose.asp)

Enough for today. Oh, and I signed up for About’s Yoga Newsletter too, it’s supposed to be a 7-weeks course. Why not?

I’m off to stretching and 10 minutes of corpse pose!