Time to relax.

It’s amazing that sometimes in a yoga class we are so focussed on what the body is doing from the neck down, we forget to release stress in the face. Test yourself now. If you are holding your jaw together, teeth touching, you are holding tension in the face. Are you pushing the eyebrows together, causing a crease on the forehead? Try and hold your facial position and look in a mirror. Are you holding tension? If so, then here is a remedy for you, you’ll feel fresher and you’ll look younger – no surgery or expensive creams necessary and if you have a young baby, toddler or older child they will find you incredibly amusing and probably join in!

Yoga for the Face & Neck: A 5 mintue workout!

1.       Close the eyes and take 3 deep breaths. Be aware of relaxing the forehead and jaw.

2.       Drop the chin towards the chest. Lower the shoulders and take another 3 breaths.

3.       Slowly lift the chin. Place your hands behind your head, supporting/cradling it and look up.

4.       Turn the head gently to one side then the other.

5.       Slowly drop one ear towards one shoulder and change sides.

6.       Open your mouth and eyes wide.

7.       Screw up your face as much as you can, making the features as small as you can.

8.       Push your mouth towards an ear, then repeat to the other side.

9.       Lift your eyebrows high.

10.   Imagine chewing a really chewy toffee, moving your mouth around your face.

11.   Lift your shoulders up toward your ears and gently relax. Repeat.

12.   Give your face a little massage with your fingers, making small circles all over the face (avoid the area under the eyes)

13.   Finish with Lion Pose for the face. Stick you head forwards, look up, stick out your tongue and go ‘raaaaar!’

See, now don’t you feel better.

Namaste.

If you are a new mother then you know what it is like to be tired! A new baby usually comes hand in hand with a disrupted sleep pattern. You may find yourself unable to get back to sleep after a night feed or feel so tired in the day that you just have to nap when your baby is napping. Yoga can help with both areas as there are poses that you can do to either help you get back into a relaxed state to make sleep a lot easier and also you can use these same poses when you are tired but do not have the chance to sleep, just to give the body some relaxation time to get you back on track for the day. Half Lotus Pose is a great asana to use to deepen the breathing and provide quiet relaxation. All you need to do is sit cross legged on the floor and cross one leg over the other as in the photograph .

If you are a brand new mom make sure you are well recovered from the birth and engage the pelvic floor muscles. You can change legs half way through your time in the pose. Tree Pose is another pose you can use if you are feeling tired yet do not wish to sleep. Standing up, find a good centre of balance and lift one leg, placing it on the inner thigh (or below the knee if more comfortable). Lift the torso yet keep the shoulders relaxed. Focussing on a spot infront of you and deepening the breathing allows time for the body and mind to refocus and you will feel refreshed yet relaxed at the same time.

For those times when you need to sleep but the mind is racing try Fish Pose . This pose opens the chest, stretches out the shoulders and releases and muscle tension in the back.

Follow this with a lying leg lift relaxing the shoulders to the floor and breathing deeply into the stretch.

Roll over onto your stomach and take a locust leg lift.

Finish by sitting up for a shoulder stretch and then lie in Savasana, on your back with arms by the sides palms facing up and feet and legs relaxed.

Be aware of the breath and breathe in, hold for a moment and then exhale. Chances are you will fall asleep right here!

A common mistake in yoga is to keep tension in the shoulders in a lot of the poses. Whilst the focus is elsewhere it can be difficult to remember the shoulders but it is essential if you want to eliminate any stiffness and to combat the aches that come as a knock on effect from shoulder tension, such as a stiff neck and discomfort in the upper back and even facial tension.

A good way to think about the shoulders are to keep them rolling down, away from the ears, especially in poses such as cobra and open leg forward bend. Yet even in poses such as Warrior II and Tadasana (Moutnain Pose) be aware of the shoulders as chances are you will not be relaxing them! In poses where the arms are extended overhead, feel the lift coming through the torso as opposed to through the hands and don’t forget that if you have any shoulder problems the you do not need to go to full extension, keep a bend in the arms. You can also try adding in neck and shoulder rolls at the end of your practice to eliminate any remaining tightness.

This year has gone so quickly! We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and New Year! We will be filming a Christmas Yoga Baby soon and will rejoin you again in the New Year with a new set-up! I am looking forward to getting into the studio and we are even going to change the title sequence to include Heidi who is now a big part of the show too! Only yesterday when Matthew and I were sitting looking at some paperwork, we looked up and the two rascals were playing together on the rug in the lounge. Miller was in Down Dog, waving through his legs at us with one hand and Heidi was perfecting her Dancer. What have I started?…. Namaste!

Suitable for new mothers (see second variation shown above until ready to progress) and a great pose for everyone!

Lying face down, begin by placing the hands under the shoulders, palm down on the floor or mat. Keep the elbows close in to the body and push down into the hands to gently lift the head and upper body away from the floor.

Keep long in the spine by not just lifting up but also reaching forwards with the spine. Take the shoulders away from the ears and back a touch.

To begin with either keep the elbows on the floor of lift just a little, especially if like in the second picture, your little one is on your back! When you feel ready push up to lift the elbows up. Keep the feet and the legs firmly on the floor.

REASONS TO DO COBRA/BHUJANGASANA:

Strengthens the spine, opens the chest and shoulders, tones the abdominals and massages the internal organs, works the buttock muscles and can be an energising stretch after a busy day!

If you watch babies and toddlers you will see they have flexible bodies and a fluidity of movement. They carry their weight forwards and sit in a variety of positions, always moving from one position to another. They naturally fall into yoga asanas which is why it is wonderful to practice with them, it is ourselves who find the moves more unnatural, to them it is second nature. Yet if fluidity of movement and flexibility come naturally, why teach yoga to little people?

There are many benefits of yoga practice with your children and not just that is is so much fun and that mummy gets a lot out of it too. For children it is a time when they can both move yet also come to a moment or two of stillness, to allow their bodies to stretch, help their digestion and help their bodies and minds relax which is sometimes truly difficult for an excitable child!

When a baby or toddler has tummy ache you can encourage them to join you (or just assist them) into a gentle knees to chest pose (often called ‘wind removing pose’), tummy positions such as cobra (lying tummy down, hands under shoulders and lifting head and shoulders), half plank (holding the start position of a press-up) and downward dog (from plank pose lift the hips into an inverted V shape) all aid strength for crawling, getting down from places they have climbed upto (!) and exploring. As with other poses which you will be doing during the shows, as your little one begins to join you, there are a variety of poses which will help them with sitting and standing. Even if they do not do the yoga, as you do it they will enjoy your movements, especially when you are low to the floor and will likely use you as an aid to sitting, standing and walking!

The best thing to do is have a rough idea of the poses that you can do together, like you in savasana (corpse pose, lying face up on the floor) with your baby in the same pose ontop of you, lying on the floor in happy baby pose or knees to chest pose (and helping your baby follow suit), playing peek a boo in cobra pose and taking bridge position (lying on back, bring knees in towards the sitting bones and lift hips) lying next to each other or with your baby enjoying the ride (if you are strong enough) as you have them sitting or lying with you. After this, just enjoy and adapt. I am sure your child will find some new, unheard of positions that might be fun to try with them as long as you are careful (!) and combined this should make for a loving, fun and extremely beneficial experience for everyone involved.

Suitable for mothers with babies over 6 months as an extended opening pose.

Sit with the spine tall and shoulders down and relaxed. Bend both kness and pull them in towards the body. Place the soles of the feet together (or as close together as you can as you drop the knees out to the sides. Hold the feet. Inhale and lift the body upwards, rolling a little forwards on the sitting bones. Try and keep the back straight as you lean forwards a little, keeping the neck in line with the spine so eyes gaze down a little. Pull in the tummy muscles and keep the shoulders relaxed. You can tighten the pelvic floor muscles here too. If you like and the inner thighs feel flexible, you can apply a gentle pressure with the forearms on the legs. Do not push down with the hands as this can force the legs into over-extension.

REASONS TO DO BUTTERFLY/PURNA TITALO ASANA:

A relief for the body from standing, walking and conventional sitting. Opens the hips and pelvis. Gives greater flexibility to the inner thighs. A good pose to prepare for other hip opening asanas.

Easy version is suitable for new mothers but wait at least six months before taking the hands to the feet as it takes the uterus time to return to it’s pre-pregnancy position.

Easy / Beginners version. Sit on the knees as shown, keep the knees and feet hip distance apart. Place the hands on the lower back and gently move the hips forwards a little. Then move the shoulders backwards whilst trying to keep the hips where they are. Lift the chin and open the chest.

Full Version. When you have improved with the back bending poses and feel strong and flexible enough, lower one hand at a time to the ankles as shown in the picture. It is important to keep the hips forwards so if you cannot do this without folding the hips down towards the feet, you must stay with the first version of the pose. If the hands can hold the ankles, drop the head back and try and maximise the back bend. *Note, make sure you are warmed up for this position, never take it first in a routine. It will also help your flexibility if you take a forward bend following this asana.

REASONS TO DO CAMEL POSE / USTRASANA:

Opens the chest (great for nursing mothers) and greatly improves flexibilty of the spine. Another fantastic reason to do Camel pose is it feels fantastic!

Suitable for new mothers. Take the shoulder stretch whilst comfortably sitting cross legged with a straight back or sitting on the knees.

Inhale and raise one arm above the head. Exhale and let the shoulder relax whilst the arm stays lifted. Inhale again and raise the arm and shoulder whilst looking up towards the hand. As you exhale again, let the elbow bend. The hand will slowly lower behind the head as the elbow remains high. Keep your breathing slow and under your conscious control as you take and hold the stretch as follows: Move the other arm so that the hand is holding the lifted elbow. Try and walk the fingers down the back a little to maximise the stretch. Note the placement of the head. It is likely that you will have tilted the head forwards or sideways. Try as best as you can to bring the head back to the centre without too much strain on the neck. If you can move the supporting hand and the hand stays in place lighting touching the back, lower the support arm, bend it and move it behind the back, reaching up with the hand to try and reach the hand that is touching the upper back (see picture). Your hands will probably not meet to begin with and it is important not to overstretch, just allow the body time to open and with practice you will get closer and finally together. Watch the breathing, without conscious control you may hold the breath here. If you prefer, you can use a yoga strap (or belt or tie…) to place between the hands but don’t force anything. Hold the stretch as long as you feel is comfortable. When you release, inhale and separate the hands away from each other, the lower hand comes back to its starting point and the upper arms lifts straight up. As you exhale, lower the extended arm. Take a breath and repeat on the other side.

REASONS TO DO SHOULDER STRETCH:

Opens the chest, straightens and strenthens the spine, moves the shoulders back to allow more flexibility and counteract the stoop we often acquire. A great release movement if you have aches from carrying a baby (especially if you wear a sling or baby carrier) and relief from any nursing related discomfort..

Suitable for mothers of babies over 6 weeks (just a tiny leg lift with tight pelvic floor muscles) if not recovering from an episiotomy, if this is the case please allow for a full recovery before adding this asana to your practice.

Lie face down on your yoga mat. Place both hands under the hips/upper thighs In the early stages of this pose have the hands palm up, resting on the upper legs. As you get used to the position roll the hands over the thunbs so that they are palm down. Place your forehead or chin on the floor (whichever is most comfortable for you). Push one leg into the ground by allowing it to feel heavy. Gently lift the other leg, trying to keep it straight. If your hands are palm down on the floor, push down with the hands to give more lift to the leg. When you are sure of half locust you can progress to the next stage, lifting both legs simultaneously.

REASONS TO DO HALF LOCUST/ARDHA SHLALBHASANA:

Tones the buttocks and thighs and strengthens the lower back. Also helps to bring the uterus back into its pre-pregnancy position.