Yoga Cures: Simple Routines to Conquer Over 50 Common Ailments and Live Pain-Free (38 page)

Plank Push-Up

Bend your elbows straight back and lower your body halfway down in one straight line until your upper arms are parallel to the ground. If a half push-up is too intense you can either lower your knees so they’re touching the ground, and then bend your elbows to lower halfway, or slowly lower all the way down to your belly by bending

your elbows straight back.

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Up Dog

Lower your knees gently to the ground. Roll your shoulders down your back and lift your chest through your arms with a big inhale. Straighten your arms as much as feels comfortable, keeping your shoulders down back. If you straighten your arms and your back feels pinched, bend the elbows and continue to lift your chest through your arms until you feel good. Sway your torso a little from side to side if that feels good. Keep your body easy, never forced or tense.

Child’s Pose

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Gently come onto all fours. Relax your hips and sit back on your heels. Rest your forehead on the ground and

breathe deeply into your back. Stay here for five long, deep breaths.

Down Dog

When you are ready, spread your fingers wide, lift your hips, tuck your toes, and press back into down dog. Reach your heels down toward the ground, relax your shoulders toward the ground, and relax your neck. Gently sway from side to side. Experiment on your own with easy movements to match your easy breath, to help open up the body and calm the mind. Stay in down dog for five long, deep breaths.

Then slowly walk your feet up to your hands, back to your standing forward bend. Keeping your head and neck

heavy roll up to standing, one vertebra at a time. Once you reach the top, inhale your arms out and up, filling up all the space with all of you, and you’ll be back where we started. Repeat five times or more to create some heat in the body and ease of mind.

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Plank

Get on all fours. Make sure your wrists are under your shoulders and your knees are under your hips. Spread your fingers wide, tuck your toes under, and straighten your legs and arms, bringing your body into a straight line from the top of your head through the bottoms of your heels. Keep your stomach nice and strong and lift the front of your thighs up. If this is too intense feel free to gently lower your knees to the floor. Always make sure you can breathe easily during this pose.

We’re going to stay here for a while. This simple pose can teach us that we are strong enough to hold our own

bodies up. Our mind may try to tell us otherwise. If your mind starts to tense, remember that your arms will not fall off and your body will be energized when this is finished, and come back to your breath. Stay in your plank pose for ten long, deep breaths. Find the ease in the effort. Allowing your body to stay in plank this way will ease anxiety that is related to all sorts of things, including anxious eating. It will also strengthen the body from the inside out, toning your shoulders, thighs, and your entire abdominal region. The most important benefit is learning how to be easy during challenging circumstances. If you need a break, rest in child’s pose, but come back into the plank. And do it every day too! It gets way easier with practice. I promise!

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Side Plank

From your plank, lift your hips, press down with your right hand, roll to the outside edge of your right foot. Stack the left foot on top of the right. Open your entire body to your left side. Keep the hips lifted, expand through the chest, extend your left arm and fingers straight up and turn your gaze toward your left fingers. You can either stay here, or lower the right knee down to the ground. When your breathing moves away from long and deep toward

short and fast, it’s a good idea to back off the pose. Forcing and pushing your body only leads to tension and injury.

Stay here for three long, deep breaths, roll through your plank pose, and try the other side.

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Up Dog

Lower your knees gently to the ground. Roll your shoulders away from your ears and lift your chest through your arms with a big inhale. Straighten your arms as much as feels comfortable keeping your shoulders down and back. If your back feels okay (no pain at all), press down through the tops of your feet and straighten your knees. Stay here for two long, deep inhales and exhales.

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Down Dog

On an exhale tuck your toes reach your hips back and up and your heels down toward the ground, and press back

into your down dog. Stay here for five long, deep breaths.

You can repeat this routine from down dog by rolling into plank, moving into side plank on one side, and then the other, sinking through up dog, and lifting back to down dog. Practicing with the eyes closed really draws the

attention inward, and also challenges your body awareness and balance, which is fun!

Party Pooper

Yoga reminds us that we can be fun, even if we’ve forgotten, or even lost that part of ourselves along

the way by being serious in life. Yoga has a way of bringing the joy back to you. Feel it overflow as

you go from party pooper to life of the party. When in life do we get a chance to actually fall down and

have it be not only all right, but encouraged?

Most of us have gotten caught up in our self image, at least at some point, if not all the time. “I am a

serious person. I do serious work. I think serious things and have serious things to say.” It’s useful if