Namaste and Reap the Benefits of Yoga for Your Mind, Body, and Soul

Yoga isn't only something that benefits you physically by making your body stronger, your posture better, increased flexibility, and benefits to your heart but it also helps your mind. It can help your mind to concentrate better, relieve stress and lift your mood. Close to 11 million Americans enjoy the benefits of practicing yoga. It is a way of life that is for those of all ages and can help with learning and memory which can benefit any age. Some research is also showing that it might help to slow the aging process.

Our bodies can experience overwhelming feelings with the changes of seasons. Here are some grounding yoga poses that can both strengthen your mind and body, but also, relieve the stress these seasonal changes can bring about.

Before you start, some of the key things to remember while doing yoga is to inhale through the mouth slowly and exhale through the nose. Also, it's important to stretch before you practice yoga. While doing yoga you may feel some stretching and strengthening sensations in your muscles, which is great, but you should not feel discomfort.

1. MOUNTAIN POSE: Stand straight and pull both your legs and feet together. Take your toes and raise them all up, let them flex out a little and set them down again as you allow your arches to rise up. Your big toes touch. You can pull your legs together to create a strong foundation for your mountain. Feel and literally allow your spine to grow tall. Your chin is parallel to the ground and your arms rest at your side, comfortably and still. Breathe into your chest, slow deep breaths. Gently move your abdomen, your uddiyana banda, towards your spine. Pull your shoulders first back and then down. Like many yoga poses you can create a simple, yet effective opening as you reach down with your arms and lift up through your spine, neck and head. Now, the fun part: allow energy to rise up through your body towards the top of your head.

Timing of pose: You can maintain pose for five to eight breaths.

2. POWERFUL POSE: From the Mountain Pose, inhale as you lift your arms up, keep your arms so you can see them through the sides of your eyes, and so you can keep the neck long and shoulders down. Exhale as you bend the knees as if you're about to sit down on a chair, bringing your thighs as close to parallel to the floor, as possible. Most of your body weight is in the front of the heels. Keep the knees in line with the toes, not beyond. Your back stays straight, but it leans forward over the thighs a bit, your looking to form a right angle between the thighs and the torso. Pull your abdomen slightly in and up, this helps to extend the lower back. Sitting bones point down. Slide your shoulder blades down along your spine and firm them in to the back.

Timing of pose: You can maintain pose for five to fifteen breaths.

3. STAFF POSE: Sit with your legs together and stretched out in front of you. If you find it hard to sit with a straight back, sit on a block or folded blanket. Place your hands next to the hips on the floor. Your feet are flexed, extending out through the heels. Pull your thighs up in your hips, the top of the thighbone (femur bone) descends to the floor. Actively press your sit bones into the floor and a little to the back, to help you sit straight, your spine lengthens, the lower back arches a little forward towards your belly. Open your chest by pulling your shoulders back and down along the spine. The bottoms of the shoulder blades curl in towards the chest. Keep your front ribs soft. Your neck is long. Check that your shoulders are over the hips and your ears in line with the shoulders. On an in-breath you can take your arms out and lift them overhead. If you feel your upper back rounding with your arms all the way up, lower your arms a bit so you can see them from the sides of your eyes, so you can maintain the length in the upper back.

Timing of pose: You can maintain pose for five to fifteen breaths.

4. HERO POSE: Step by step you can fold a blanket to pad your ankles, knees or legs if needed. You can either sit on your heels, for some people this is not an option. You might need padding under your ankles if the ankles are stiff, or place a pillow between the knees if the knees are stiff. Another way is to keep the knees together, bring the feet a little to the sides and sit between the feet. You could place a folded blanket underneath the buttocks, to raise the hips a little. Just sit and breathe, you can use this pose to meditate in or to do breathing exercises. In the pose keep the side body long, firm your shoulder blades into your back and keep your neck long. Build up the duration that you stay in this pose.

5. HALF LORD OF THE FISHES POSE: Sit with your legs outstretched in front of you. If you find it difficult to sit with a straight spine, sit on a block or pillow, something sturdy. Lift your right knee and place your right foot on the outside of your left leg, knee height. Bend your left leg and place the left foot on the outside of your right hip. Place your right arm behind you and with your left arm you hug the right knee into your chest. Or you hook your elbow behind the knee, lower arm and hand pointing up or arm down trying to hold on to the left knee or even right foot. First on the in-breath ground the sitting bones into the floor and lengthen through the spine. On the out-breath you begin to twist to your right, from belly button upwards, first ribcage than your chest, neck and head. Keep your shoulders level, keep spreading through the collar bones. Every in-breath you create length in the spine, every out-breath you feel if you can move deeper into the twist.

Time of pose: Five to eight breaths.

6. TREE POSE: Ground your left foot down into the floor, pull up your knee cap and thigh. Gaze at a point on eye level, to help you balance. Bend your right knee, reach down with your right hand and clasp your ankle. With help of the hand, place your right foot on the inside of the left leg, if it's available to you on the inner thigh, with your heel up high. Lengthen your tailbone toward the floor if that is not available to you; place the inside of the foot on the inside of the ankle or calf, not on the inside of the knee though. Turn the knee out to the side; press your foot against the inner thigh, and the inner thigh back into the foot. Bring your hands in front of your heart in prayer position, or you can lift your arms up to the ceiling. With arms lifted, lift from the back body.

Time of pose: Hold pose for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

7. TRIANGLE POSE: Stand with feet wide apart, about a legs length. Turn your right foot about 90 degrees to the right, and the turn the left foot in towards the right for about 45 degrees. Distribute weight evenly over the four corners of the feet, lift arches and ankles up. Legs straight, lift knee caps and draw top of thighs up and back, roll right thigh out so the right knee is in line with first two toes, press top of left thigh back. Elongate through four sides of the waist, inhale and lift your arms parallel to the floor, extend through fingertips as you exhale. Inhale and extend your body over your right leg, shift your hips towards the back of the mat and exhale as you bring your right arm down placing your hand there where it ends up, on the leg, left arm straight up to the ceiling, hand in line with your shoulder. Keep as much length in the left side waist as in the right, spiral your heart to the ceiling. Lengthen through sides of the neck, neck in line with spine, look straight in front of you, or look up toward your left hand. Keep your face relaxed and breathe gently as you keep extending through fingertips and lengthening through crown of the head. To come out press your feet into the floor, inhale and reach your left arm up to the ceiling as you come back to standing straight. Pivot over your heels so you reverse the orientation of your feet to the other side and repeat on the left.

8. LOCUST POSE: Lie on your stomach, arms by your side, palms facing your leg, your chin is on the floor, the part you can see when you look in the mirror. Fix your lower back on the floor by gently pressing your pubic bone into the floor, and by keeping your tailbone moving towards the pubic bone. Than exhale, pull your navel in towards the spine, inhale lift your head, chest and arms off the floor, firming your shoulder blades into your back, and so opening your heart. You can imagine someone holding your hands and pulling you back, to come up higher. In the first stage you can keep your legs on the floor. You could repeat this pose 3 times and the third time in the final pose, also raising your legs. You reach back through the balls of the feet, as much as reaching forward through the heart.

Time of pose: Hold for about 40 seconds and build up from there.

9. BRIDGE POSE: Lie on your back, arms next to the body palms down. Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor, close to the buttocks, hip width apart. With the feet parallel to each other, press the upper arms into the floor, press your feet into the floor, inside and outside equally and begin to lift the hips up to the ceiling, moving your breastbone to the chin, but not the chin to the breastbone. Firm your tailbone in towards the pubic bone and your pubic bone moves slightly towards the belly. Actively bring the knees out in front of you, to keep the lower back extended. Keep the knees over the ankles. Your buttocks are firm but not clasped. Your hips are lifted as high as is available to you with these principles in place. You can clasp your hands behind the back and firm the arms into the floor, shoulder blades are down along the spine. Make sure you keep your chin up a little to not flatten the back of the neck. You lift the breastbone up towards the chin as high as possible.

Time of pose: You can take between the 5 and 15 breaths in this pose.

10. BUTTERFLY POSE: Sit with your legs outstretched in front of you; you may want to sit on a blanket or pillow to raise your hips, so you can sit with a straight back. Pull in your feet and place the soles of the feet together, as close as possible to your pelvis, let the knees fall out to your sides. Release your groins, the head of the thigh bones, and allow the knees to relax down as well, don't push them. Hold your big toes with the first two fingers and your thumb, or hold the outsides of your feet. Keep your pelvis level, sit with a straight back. Firm your shoulder blades into your upper back, to help open your heart.

Time of pose: You can stay in this pose anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes.

After and even before doing these poses, it is important to also take in some mediation. This will help you stay relaxed and be open to the reality of the here and now the only place you can find true freedom from the stresses of life. Namaste!

SOURCES:
International Association of Yoga Therapists: "Health Benefits of Yoga."
American Council on Exercise: "ACE Yoga Study."
Sarley, D. and Sarley, I. The Essentials of Yoga, The Omega Institute and Dell Publishing, 1999.