Welcome to this week's Friday Round-up.
In this week's follow up: yogic ways of dealing with seasonal plague, and opening the front of the body.
YOGIC WAYS OF DEALING WITH COLDS AND
FLU'S:
Looks like the second helping of seasonal bugs is moving through the land. Here are some yogic ways to protect yourself from their mischief:
~ Consider using the NETI POT: after you've been to bug-infested places, or at the first signs of impending doom. I have attached instructions for the neti pot - it's not as scary as you think!
~ Brew some
GINGER ELIXIR: this potent remedy prevents all sorts of bugs ( stomach and cold) from making themselves at home in your body.
~ Dedicate 5 minutes each day to relaxing and opening the upper body - neck, chest, shoulders, upper back. Tightness in these areas has a direct cause-effect relationship with sinus infections (lymph flow is heavily
dependent on muscular contractions; if the muscles are tight, lymph isn't moving well.)
Incorporate the simple tools we've used in class - such as a ball rolling, for example - into your morning or evening routine. We'll also be learning some crazy effective neck / shoulder release techniques in
BALL + YIN workshop that's scheduled for December 3 - don't miss out on that.
BACKBENDSÂ and OPENING THE FRONT OF THE BODY:
We started incorporating the front body opening sequences into
the classes.
In PAIN CARE CLASS we simply lay on our belly, possibly with the arms stretched forward;
in the BEGINNER class we talked about finding an even curve through the spine, rather then cranking the lumbar spine into a sharp angle;
in CORRECTIVE MOVEMENT class we worked on
the front-body opening sequence with a bolster;
and in YIN we took this a step further to a full backbend in Seal Pose.
We also used a spinal strap in some classes to create a sense of opening through the chest (it also works marvelously for releasing mid-back and shoulder tension.)
As you can see the range of variations and different
approaches to front body opening is almost infinite - we barely scratched the surface. Rather than discussing the specifics of each variation (there's class time for that!), I want to touch on why front body opening is so important.
If you think of your body as an interconnected system, it than makes sense to say that structurally speaking, the front and the back of your body complement and balance each other.
