Letting Go of the Cold

As winter eases up it's bone-chilling, death grip on Saskatchewan, practicing forward bends this week is a useful way to help shake off and let go of the deep chill.

Here is a warming and peaceful forward-bending practice to try out at home:

Opening Postures:
*Sukhasana (content pose)
*Forward bending sukhasana with head resting on a block/bolster (be sure to change the cross of your legs and forward bend twice)
*Sukhasana (content pose) focus on feeling and paying close attention to your breath for a few minutes, feel grounded through your sitting bones and sides of your legs/ankles
*Adho Mukha Virasana (forward bending hero pose, knees wide arms stretching out)
*Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward facing dog) stay up on your tippy toes at first, then reach your heels to the ground while lifting your sitting bones, be gentle
*Child's pose, practice completely letting go around the shoulders and neck
*Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward facing dog)
*Child's pose, let go completely
*Forearm prep, clasp hands together, keep elbows shoulder-width apart,and place forearms on the ground, grounding from wrists to elbows, press into your arms and into your tippy toes and lift your sitting bones similar to in downward facing dog, allow for space around your neck
*Child's pose, let go completely, rest into the floor
*Come to standing

Standing Postures:
*Tadasana (mountain pose) pay attention to your breath
*Virabhadrasana II (warrior 2), ground evenly into your feet, lift out of your pelvis and strength of your legs
*Tadasana, be still for a few moments
*Parsvakonasana (side-angle stretch), ground evenly, use a block to keep your torso higher from the ground if you feel compression or discomfort in your hip joints, spine, side body or neck
*Tadasana, breathe
*Trikonasana (triangle pose), ground evenly, keep both sides of your body long, do not lock your knees (front knee in particular) to avoid hyper-extension.
*Tadasana, breathe
*Parsvottanasana (intense side-body stretch), use a chair or a couple of blocks to rest your hands onto if your lower back feels nervous in this posture, reach forward with a long spine, sternum lifting, find a place in the posture to feel long and supported (hands on chair, floor or blocks)
*Tadasana, breath
*return to sitting on the floor

Seated Forward Bends:
*Dandasana (staff pose), feel the grounding of your sitting bones and legs extending on the ground, lift out of your pelvis, bring a slight 'dog' tilt into your pelvis (similar to downward dog pelvis, reaching your sitting bones back, but not going completely slack in your lower abdomen).
*Parsvatasana Dandasana (hands up staff pose), reach your arms up, feel the heat rising
*Forward bending Dandasana, reach forward with your sternum, keeping your pelvis tilting forward and keeping integrity in your lower abdomen, once you've extended as far as you can, release into the posture and feel supported (head on bolster, hands on floor, hands on shins or thighs)
*Janu Sirsasana (head to knee pose), bend one knee, bringing bent knee ankle near the buttocks of the same leg, do not allow bent knee to stray, keep it close to the knee of the extended leg, keeping spine and pelvis similar to in Forward bending Dandasana, reach your sternum forward, bending forward until you start to round your spine, keep actively reaching your spine and crown of your head forward and then release into the posture, finding support (head on bolster, hands on floor, head resting on seat of chair, hands on shins or thighs)

Restorative Inversion:
*Viparita Karani (legs up the wall with bolster under pelvis), stay in this posture and breathe for as long as feels good and comfortable, push off of the support and lay flat on the ground for a few breaths

Last but not Least:
*Savasana (corpse pose) enjoy the peace you've created, breathe and practice stillness (without hardness or a gripping intention) let peace be you

Namaste