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Yoga for Pregnancy - Five Key Asanas
noreply • Sep 04, 2018
Child's Pose or Balasana: This is a good pose for relaxation. With toes together, open the knees to the width of the mat (to allow space for your belly and baby), and fold over onto a bolster, several folded blankets, or a large pillow. Halfway through, change your head to the other side. Practice for 5-10 minutes.
Supported Butterfly Pose or Baddha Konasana: Bring the soles of your feet together, and support the knees using two blocks, or folded blankets. Your hands can rest on your thighs, or you can support yourself from behind as illustrated in this picture. This pose will help strengthen your inner thighs.
Squat or Malasana: To help strengthen the pelvic floor, it is recommended to practice squats as often as possible. Ideally, your feet will be flat on the floor, and you can squat against a wall for better balance. If your heels do not touch the floor, roll a blanket underneath to support the heels. With your hands in prayer, use the elbows to gently encourage the knees to open. Hold for 3-5 minutes.
Chair or Utkatasana: In the last trimester, squats may not be available to you. Instead, you can place yourself in a supported chair pose. With feet hips width apart, about a foot or half a metre from the wall, slide your back down the wall until you are sitting against the wall, and can feel your pelvic floor strengthening. Rest your hands on your thighs.
Hold for 3-5 minutes.
Happy Baby Pose (Ananda Balasana): Lying on your back, place a belt around your feet, then bend your knees so that the soles of your feet are facing the ceiling. Use the belt to gently open the hips, encouraging the knees towards the floor.
Hold for 3 to 5 minutes.
This posture is a good hip opener. It stretches the inner thighs and groin as well as the hamstrings. It releases the spine and sacrum, and is particularly beneficial in releasing or decompressing the sacroiliac joint.
It helps to build strength in the hips, legs, thighs, and arms, while opening up and building flexibility in the hips. Internally, it can also massage the stomach organs and stimulate the digestive system. Happy Baby Pose awakens your inner child to relieve stress, and reinvigorate your mind, body and soul.
Incorporating some yoga into your morning work-out can be very beneficial.
While I always knew that yoga is to prepare you for sitting in meditation, it wasn't until I started this daily practice - into my fourth month - that I realized that how it can transform your ability to sit for longer periods of time.
Chakra-themed PotluckChakra Readings with PendulumThroat Chakra - Lion’s Pose
Am very excited to be going to Costa Dulce, a beautiful little yoga and surfing eco-resort located on the beach of Playa Escameca.Costa Dulce
This Saturday I am offering my first workshop on Gabriola in the beautiful Net Loft - there has been a fantastic response and close to 20 participants have signed up. My good friend Fran will join us from Toronto via zoom to lead us in chakra sounding, while Paul and I will be playing the corresponding notes on singing and crystal bowls. The Net LoftNext, the group, who have been encouraged to come wearing their favourite chakra colours, will be encouraged to share some of their knowledge on the properties of the seven main chakras. Amy and I will lead a chakra yoga class including some partner yoga, with chair yoga variations for those who don't want to practise on the floor.We will enjoy a chakra-themed potluck luncheon, with eight different chakra teas and tonics for the first eight chakras, followed by a discussion of the higher five, less known chakras. The workshop will close with a meditation on the chakras.And all profits from this event will be donated to the Tibetan Nuns Project.More info
Well, today is day 50 of my daily yoga and meditation practice and I feel great!
We are thrilled to be putting together a series of yoga and art workshops for 2023. My good friend Rhonda and I have decided to offer Altar Talk, a joyful weekend workshop of altar creation, yoga, meditation, and scrumptious vegetarian food.About UsRhonda embraces many creative labels - mixed media artist, altar maker, assemblage artist, tea maker, storyteller, expressive arts facilitator, avid baker, and keeper and tender of creative flames at Casa Sanctuary Art House. Her work is often created from found, discarded, thrifted, or otherwise used up items that have lost their purpose. With vision, intention, and intuition, Rhonda creates new life from the old and gives birth to art with a whole new purpose. Jennie is a spiritual wanderlust, a yogini, meditation instructor, thai yoga massage practitioner, foodie, salsa loving, avid gardener and world traveller who lives on a beautiful little island on the west coast of Canada. She believes that yoga, meditation, dreamwork, and shamanic journeying can all enhance the creative process, to help you create your own reality.Our first workshop will be taking place in March 2023 at the Stillpoint Yoga Centre in beautiful Picton, Ontario. Our next two workshops will be offered in June 2023 on Gabriola Island, British Columbia.If we have fun with these retreats, we plan on offering week long Altar Talk retreats in beautiful tropical locations such as Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Belize in 2024.
1. 20 minutes of meditation2. Opening chantOMVande Gurunam CaranaravindeSandarsita Svatma Sukhava BodheNihsreyase Jangalika YamaneSamsara Halahala MohasantyaiAbahu PurusakaramSankhacakrasi DharinamSahara Sirasam SvetamPranamami PantanjalimOMEach asana is held for five minutes.3. Salamba balasana - supported child's pose, with blanket between legs4. Supta virasana - reclined hero sitting on meditation cushion and over bolster and blankets, gradually removing props5. Supta baddhakonasana reclining over Tejomaya's back support, tucking blankets undrer legs6. Urdhva Dhanurasana - wheel pose using a ball7. Salamba sarvangasana - shoulderstand using two blanketsAlso do half plow on each side and full plow, holding each for 5-10 breaths. End by sliding shoulders off blankets and rest for a few minutes.8. Sirsasana - headstand on one folded blanket9. Viparita karani10. Closing invocationMay we be happyMay we be wellMay we be healthy and strongMay we be safe and soundMay we be peacefulMay we be at easeMay there be love in our heartsMay there be abundance in our livesMay there be peace in our worldNamaste
Set an intention to do these poses gently and quietly, and let your breath be complete, smooth, and even.
Well, over two years has gone by since my last post. We have experienced the strangest of times, something that has impacted the whole world, and on a scale that I have never experienced in my lifetime.
