Home Practice - keep moving to keep well
Home Practice
Keep moving to keep well
During uncertain and somewhat confusing times, I’d like to share with you a guide line for a basic practice that you can do at home every day.
We all know the basic principles of keeping ourselves and our loved ones healthy and well so I'm not talking here about handwashing and sanitising and safe distances etc. But I would like to remind you of the benefits to your health and your immune system of doing mindful movement and breathing practices. By engaging in calming breathing techniques we activate the systems in the body which control digestion and immune function, therefore enabling the body to efficiently absorb the nutrients it needs to stay healthy and to use those nutrients in an effective way to keep the body functioning and self-healing. And when these systems are in place you will also be developing neural connections that release hormones that inspire calmness and inhibit hormones that induce stress and anxiety. When we add mindful exercise to conscious breathing we develop our Variable Heart Rate which, when healthy, signals healthy function of respiratory, cardiovascular and immune systems across the body. So keep on breathing and moving!
If, for whatever reason, you would like to get some advice about home practice or would like to set up an online video class then please do let me know. I will be giving special discounted rates for online video sessions whilst we're all surfing this wave together. (Discounted rates = pay what you can!)
Here's an example of a useful home practice:
1) Sit and breathe
Try to clear your mind but don’t worry if it keeps jumping around. If your mind is running then aim to focus on something that makes you smile, something that warms your heart or something for which you are grateful.
Find an even breath, slow and steady, but not at all strained or tense. Try counting from 1 to 4 in your head as you breath in and count again from 1 to 4 as you breath out. Soothing or calming music may help - something with no words and an even rhythm that you can count along to.
Try 5-10 or even 20 minutes.
2) Move
Mobilise - move your joints through comfortable ranges of motion.
Stabilise - challenge your body with strength work but do so with kindness and mindfulness.
Here's an aide memoire for your daily morning Salutes to the Sun.
Surya Namaskar (Surya = Sun, Namaskar = devotional greeting) is a combination of positions that flow together to make a revitalising and energising sequence that will give you the opportunity to mobilise the whole body, move with your breath and check in with what status quo is like right now.
I would suggest that you do 5 or 12 or if you're feeling really ready to honour the Sun God and find a deep meditative flow, 108!
Breathe into the abdomen and breathe through the nose with a slow and even rhythm the whole time if you can.
Consider setting a single intention before you begin. For example:
to concentrate more on the breath than the intricacies of the positions
to work with full power and strength
to honour or send love to some one
to find the space between the limbs through out the flow
to feel the heart space open and soften throughout
