Seasons, Summer, Traditional Chinese Medicine, yin yoga, Yoga

Cool & Ground with this Summer Yin Yoga Sequence

Yin Yoga embraces the essence of Taoist philosophy: living in harmony with nature. It’s a calm, restorative, healing approach that balances the Yang, active, and often aggressive nature of being that predominates our society. Try this summer yin yoga sequence to stay balanced this season.

According to Taoism and Chinese Medicine, humans are actually microcosms of nature. Summer is related to the element of fire and to the Heart and Small Intestine organs in the human body, as well as the Pericardium & Triple Burner (which do not exist as functional organs in Western anatomy). When the energetic channels that connect to these organs are out of balance, we could experience more heat in the body which may manifest as headaches, high fever, high blood pressure, mania, delirium, anger, constipation/dry stools, rashes, sleep disturbances, and more.

Through yin yoga, we can increase the flow through the Heart, Small Intestine, Pericardium, and Triple Burner channels. The slow, mindful approach is cooling in nature and is the perfect solution to the problems mentioned above. By cooling and grounding in the heat of summer, we can also maintain inner harmony. Try this Summer Yin Yoga sequence to stay cool & balanced!

Cool Down With Summer Yin Yoga

This Yin Yoga sequence dilates the Heart, Small Intestine, Pericardium, and Triple Burner energetic channels (in addition to all the others that reside in the upper body). Hold each posture for 2-5 minutes while releasing with gravity. As you let go in the muscles, the stretch will move deeper into the connective tissue, which is where the energetic channels reside. Stretching the connective tissue is perfectly safe as long as you’re not moving quickly in and out of the shape.

You’ll experience more space and freedom in the chest, arms, upper back, neck, and around the scapula in addition to finding equanimity in the heart and a wider perspective in the mind.

Eagle arms forward bend

Stand with your feet hip joint width apart or slightly wider. Reach your arms out in front and cross them over your chest at the upper arms. If you have the flexibility, continues winding around the forearms and joining up the palms. Let your knees bend as you fold forward at the hips. Allow your arms and head to be heavy to release around the scapula, upper back, and neck where the Small Intestine channels traverse. After holding for 1-2 minutes, unwind the arms, allowing them to hang. Repeat on the other side.

Prone Arm Cross

Lay on your belly and start with your arms out to the side. Sweep them forward as you lift your torso away from the ground and cross deeply at the upper arms. Reach the fingers away from each other. Once at your maximum stretch, relax your weight down onto the arms. When ready to exit, engage your core muscles to lift the torso and gently unwind the arms. Rest in neutral, prone, until ready to cross the arms the other way.

1/4 Downward Dog

From hands and knees, place one forearm to the ground under the shoulders perpendicular to the spine. Reach the other arm straight out in front. Relax your chest down and forearm down. You may want to stretch in cat pose before going to the other side.

Prone Twist

Come down onto your belly again for a deep chest/front shoulder stretch. Bring one arm out to the side with the elbow bent and palm down (this position creates a deeper stretch than with the arm straight and palm turned up). Use your other hand to tip your body over to the side. Place your legs in a position that helps you stay sideways for the appropriate amount of time. Rest on your belly in neutral, then go to the other side.

Fish in Reclined Bound Angle

Sit up with the soles of your feet together and your knees opening out to the sides from your hips. Place your hands under your buttocks. Lift your chest, reclining onto your forearms. If it feels safe, slowly bring your head to the ground.

Reclined Twist

Lay on your back with your feet on the ground, knees bent. Lift one leg, crossing it deeply at the upper thighs. Continue bringing the knees over into the direction of the cross. Open your chest to the other side, letting your arm move over head or out to the side to open the chest. Turn your head in the direction that feels best for your neck.

Be sure that you’re moving out of the Yin postures just as slowly as you’re moving into them. In between postures, give yourself some time in stillness to observe the energy circulating through your body into the places that need it. End in Savasana or a seated meditation.

Let me know what you think of this sequence after trying it! How does it make you feel?

Emotional health, Meditation, Personal Development, Women's health, Yoga

Yogic Approach to Stress Relief

We all know that managing stress is one of the greatest challenges of our modern age. Attending Yoga classes is often recommended to those who need relief. I’m here to tell you that Yoga will only work if you approach your practice the right way. I have outlined several steps below that will help you shed a few layers of tension for sure!

Is Your Yoga Class Creating More Stress in Your Life?

I’m wondering if you’ve had this experience:

You decide to go to a yoga class at your center or gym to help relieve long-held tension in your body. Halfway into class you realize that you’re actually becoming more tense. You’re trying to keep up the pace, to mimic everything your neighbor is doing, and to perform your 20th yoga pushup while your arms are shaking and teeth are clenching.

If this sounds familiar, you might be wondering why you’re not experiencing the bliss that was promised. I can explain why…

Yoga for stress relief is a great idea, but it’s not a guarantee. It depends on the style, the teacher, and more importantly on your approach to the practice.

The thing is, it’s not the postures that makes yoga so effective at releasing tension.

The Essence of Yoga

It’s our intention, the deep breathing and the basic understanding that yoga is an ancient therapeutic method (not just a fitness class) that sets up the conditions for peace and well-being.

This study from the International Journal of Yoga explains the essence of yoga well. I especially love this section:

“Four basic principles underlie the teachings and practices of yoga’s healing system. The first principle is the human body is a holistic entity comprised of various interrelated dimensions inseparable from one another and the health or illness of any one dimension affects the other dimensions. The second principle is individuals and their needs are unique and therefore must be approached in a way that acknowledges this individuality and their practice must be tailored accordingly. The third principle is yoga is self-empowering; the student is his or her own healer. Yoga engages the student in the healing process; by playing an active role in their journey toward health, the healing comes from within, instead of from an outside source and a greater sense of autonomy is achieved. The fourth principle is that the quality and state of an individuals mind is crucial to healing. When the individual has a positive mind-state healing happens more quickly, whereas if the mind-state is negative, healing may be prolonged.”

Why Yoga is Not Always Great for Stress Relief

We could be in a posture thinking that’s all we have to do and Yoga just happens. But if we’re approaching each pose in a very Type-A way, the yoga practice will not be a huge help in relieving stress.

You’ll want to avoid:

ignoring your breath and body signals
obsessing about your daily to-do list
reviewing the day in your head
complaining internally about the teacher, your neighbors, the yoga space…

These are all unhelpful ways the mind tries to diminish the beauty of simple, peaceful moments and creates more disharmony inside.

Instead of just showing you restorative postures, I’d like to teach you how to do your yoga practice to relieve stress. Many of the points below are easy to address if you’re doing your own home practice. But even in a live group class, you should feel free to try these out.

How to Practice Yoga for Stress Relief

1. Begin by centering your attention and making an intention

It’s helpful to begin your practice with a brief, honest look at where you’re beginning. Scan the body and consciously release any tension you find along the way as we did in this grounding meditation. Check in with your mood, your emotions, and your mental state.

Based on what you find in this centered place, you can make an intention for your practice; something you want to pay attention to that brings you toward balance. Maybe it’s to be mindful of tension in your neck and jaw in the hope that you can release it by the end of class. Maybe you want to soften your inner attitude. If nothing comes up, then simply remind yourself why you are doing yoga and what you hope to cultivate in the long run. Make sure this intention is coming from a place of deep love and respect for yourself, so phrase it in a positive way, such as…

“I want to listen well to my body’s cues so I remain strong, safe, and healthy”

NOT

“I want to work as hard as I can so I finally lose this baby weight and look like so-and-so over there”.

Can you feel the difference? You may miss opportunities to connect in deeply with yourself and let go of obsessive thoughts that may be causing tension, if your intention is coming from a place of self deprecation. Let’s focus on the positive! You will cultivate whatever you bring to mind!

2. Establish a deep, even breath that is never sacrificed

I’ve been in many yoga classes and several wonderful teachers like to count the breath for students. But just about every time it is WAY too fast for me. I’m giving you permission to stretch the breath out even longer. The teacher won’t know and you will have a more enjoyable, authentic experience if you’re moving with your own breath & timing.

3. Lengthen your exhalations

Tension is released with the out breath as we all know when we let out a deep sigh of annoyance. You can give yourself more time to release by making the exhalation longer than the inhalation.

4. Ground your energy with strong legs

With the legs working strongly in standing postures, tension will drip down from the upper body where it tends to accumulate most (see point below).

5. Spend extra time stretching your neck, chest, shoulders

Triangle is a great posture to get into all these areas. Feel free to rotate your head and your top arm to get into the neck and shoulders. Stretching the arm behind you will access the chest. Feel the legs rotating from the hips and send deep breaths into all the areas you’re opening. In any pose, whenever you feel a slight opening in an area that is tight, go ahead and explore through movement or deeper breathing.

6. Each asana (posture) should have an “aaaahhhh” feeling as you move into it, sustain it, and release it.

A therapeutic practice should be sensual. Yes, this is even true for chaturanga dandasana, the yoga pushup that everyone rushes through because it’s so difficult to hold. You are better off holding plank or modifying by bringing your knees down and descending slowly with the breath, building up your strength to the full pose with time. Otherwise, rushing this posture can ADD tension to the shoulders and neck and may actually DAMAGE your rotator cuff muscles if not done properly. You’ll know you have the strength for chaturanga when you can practice it with a smile and a long exhalation!

Yin yoga is the only example I can think of where you must endure some mild discomfort to release completely, but that’s because we’re working close to the ground and with the deeper connective tissues, not the muscles and superficial energy channels that are energized with dynamic asana styles.

7. Consider taking an evening class

Morning yoga classes are great for motivation and for setting a mindful mood for your day. But if you’re not able to carry this mindfulness throughout the day and stress accumulates to the point that you’re having a hard time going to sleep, you may want to do an evening practice instead. Or, at least do a short practice again before bed. Practicing at night is essential for me and I promise I’ll share my downtime routine in the near future.

8. End with restorative postures

Classically, Savasana (corpse pose) was practiced for at least 10 minutes at the end of a 90+ minute class and often Savasana punctuated many of the asana sequences in the middle of class as well. Today in our fast-paced (and therefore stressed-out) culture, yoga classes have been shortened to 60 minutes and Savasana is given a mere 3 minutes to explore.

Give yourself the full 10 minutes in Savasana if you need it. It’s okay to let the teacher know you’ll be starting to rest 15 minutes before the end of class. I would be thrilled if a student told me he/she valued rest and renewal that much, so I doubt you would offend the teacher.

9. Allow peace to come

You need to let the practice end and trust that you did enough. I often see at least one person in class trying to fit in inversions and other poses while we’re setting up to rest. Their minds are still telling them that there’s more to do, more to fix. Savasana is where peace emerges and you must be still and quiet to see it. The body and heart have a wisdom that the mind doesn’t understand and they will integrate everything you did in your practice. Trust that, and peace will be your experience.

Yoga is a personal practice. Sometimes we forget when we are in a group setting that we are in control of our experience. I hope that the information here helps you to overcome unhelpful habits in your Yoga practice and that you have a deeper experience in general! Please let me know how it works for you, in the comments!

Emotional health, Meditation, Personal Development

Grounding Meditation for Stressful Times

Are you holding onto stress? Try this recorded grounding meditation to help you release tension in your body, clear your mind of worries, and open your heart to the beauty of life.

Stress tends to build this time of year for many people who have difficulty aligning with nature’s cues to rest more, to let go, and to adopt an introspective mood. We fight against the natural flow of increasing receptive yin energy and as a result, we become sick with overwork and opportunistic pathogens. Or we might dread the holiday events that have filled our calendar when these should be relaxed, happy times connecting with others.

But now, we have a community that is amped-up and still reeling from the surprising (in CA) election results from over a week ago. This amount of stress, this time of year, is not good for anyone’s health.

Using Social Media For Stress Relief Is Not Effective

If your Facebook feed is like mine, then you’re probably seeing many people trying their best to process this stress. Normally, journaling is an effective means when you are writing about your feelings to yourself, engaging in an inner discourse that provides insight. But the engagement I’m seeing in the social media community does not seem to be effective and is just venting blame and fueling arguments. The stress has transformed into suffering because it’s tightly mingled with fear and anger and no one on Facebook can adequately ease your heart. This is an inside job.

Meditation for Stress Relief

Yoga and acupuncture are great ways to manage stress and we’ll be exploring their use in the next few weeks in this blog. But for the degree of stress we’re seeing right now, the best way to deal with it is through meditation and finding your spiritual root.

It requires time, dedication, and and a willingness to accept what is happening right now. You don’t have to like what is happening right now, but you do need to acknowledge what is happening in an objective manner in order process your feelings and relieve suffering.

Grounding Meditation

The meditation I’m offering here will help you feel grounded and secure, regardless of what is happening outside of yourself. It will help you see with a wider perspective. In time, it will help to keep your heart open and develop tolerance and empathy in general. And it will help you decide what to do next. If called to action, you can then act in a thoughtful, deliberate way.

This is an expanded version of the centering meditation I do before each yoga class, so many of you who know me personally through yoga will be familiar with it’s elements.

We visualize first to consciously let go of held tension in the body and then we’ll engage in a simple Vipassana (“clear seeing”) meditation. It’s the method that is keeping me grounded right now and I remain optimistic about my life and our collective future on this planet.