Personal Therapeutic Practice
STHIRA SUKHAM ASANAM PTYS 46
स्थिरसुखमासनम् ॥४६॥
Practicing yoga with strength and in a relaxed manner gives rise to harmony with the physical body (asana). sthira = (nom. sg. m.) strong; steady; stable; motionlesssukham = (acc. from sukha) comfortable; ease filled; happy; light; relaxedāsanam = (acc. sg. n./nom. sg. n. from āsana) asana; posture; seated position; physical practice
Intention
Take a moment before you begin to tune in and to set an intention for your practice. Here’s a great start: http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/1631
Pranayama
Instructions :Simply inhale to a count of 5-6Exhale to a count of 6-7Do this for 3 minutes (I have an app called Zen timer on my phone which is wonderful!) Therapeutic Benefits:
- Stimulates the vagus nerve
- enacts the rest & digest response of the parasympathetic nervous system
- lowers blood pressure
- decreases stress, worry and anxiety
Asana: Instructions form Yogajournal.com
Bitilasana – Cow Pose
Instructions:
Start on your hands and knees in a “tabletop” position. Make sure your knees are set directly below your hips and your wrists, elbows and shoulders are in line and perpendicular to the floor. Center your head in a neutral position, eyes looking at the floor. As you inhale, lift your sitting bones and chest toward the ceiling, allowing your belly to sink toward the floor. Lift your head to look straight forward.
Therapeutic Benefits:
- Stretches the front of the torso and neck
- Provides a gentle massage to the spine and belly organs
Marjaryasana – Cat Pose
Instructions:Start on your hands and knees in a “tabletop” position. Make sure your knees are set directly below your hips and your wrists, elbows and shoulders are in line and perpendicular to the floor. Center your head in a neutral position, eyes looking at the floor. As you exhale, round your spine toward the ceiling, making sure to keep your shoulders and knees in position. Release your head toward the floor, but don’t force your chin to your chest.Therapeutic Benefits:
- Stretches the back torso and neck
- Provides a gentle massage to the spine and belly organs
Dolphin Plank Pose
Instructions:Align your shoulders directly over the elbows and your torso is parallel to the floor. Press your inner forearms and elbows firmly against the floor. Firm your shoulder blades against your back and spread them away from the spine. Similarly spread your collarbones away from the sternum. Press your front thighs toward the ceiling, but resist your tailbone toward the floor as you lengthen it toward the heels. Lift the base of your skull away from the back of the neck and look straight down at the floor, keeping the throat and eyes soft. Stay anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. Breathe fully as you feel the body expand and contract. Then, release your knees to the floor with an exhale.Therapeutic Benefits:
- Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
- Stretches the shoulders, hamstrings, calves, and arches
- Strengthens the arms and legs, and core
- Helps prevent osteoporosis
Adho Mukha Svanasana – Downward Facing Dog
Instructions:From Tabletop – Spread your palms, index fingers parallel or slightly turned out, and turn your toes under. Exhale and lift your knees away from the floor. At first keep the knees slightly bent and the heels lifted away from the floor. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of your pelvis and press it lightly toward the pubis. Against this resistance, lift the sitting bones toward the ceiling, and from your inner ankles draw the inner legs up into the groins. Then with an exhalation, push your top thighs back and stretch your heels onto or down toward the floor. Straighten your knees but be sure not to lock them. Firm the outer thighs and roll the upper thighs inward slightly. Narrow the front of the pelvis. Firm the outer arms and press the bases of the index fingers actively into the floor. From these two points lift along your inner arms from the wrists to the tops of the shoulders. Firm your shoulder blades against your back, then widen them and draw them toward the tailbone. Keep the head between the upper arms; don’t let it hang. Adho Mukha Svanasana is one of the poses in the traditional Sun Salutation sequence. It’s also an excellent yoga asana all on its own. Stay in this pose anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes. Then bend your knees to the floor with an exhalation and rest in child’s pose.Therapeutic Benefits:
- Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
- Energizes the body
- Stretches the shoulders, hamstrings, calves, arches, and hands
- Strengthens the arms and legs
- Helps prevent osteoporosis
- Improves digestion
- Relieves headache, insomnia, back pain, and fatigue
- Therapeutic for high blood pressure, asthma, flat feet, sciatica, sinusitis
Utthita Trikonasana – Triangle
Instructions:With an exhalation, step or lightly jump your feet 3 1/2 to 4 feet apart. Raise your arms parallel to the floor and reach them actively out to the sides, shoulder blades wide, palms down. Turn your left foot in slightly to the right and your right foot out to the right 90 degrees. Align the right heel with the left heel. Firm your thighs and turn your right thigh outward, so that the center of the right knee cap is in line with the center of the right ankle. Exhale and extend your torso to the right directly over the plane of the right leg, bending from the hip joint, not the waist. Anchor this movement by strengthening the left leg and pressing the outer heel firmly to the floor. Rotate the torso to the left, keeping the two sides equally long. Let the left hip come slightly forward and lengthen the tailbone toward the back heel. Rest your right hand on your shin, ankle, or the floor outside your right foot, whatever is possible without distorting the sides of the torso. Stretch your left arm toward the ceiling, in line with the tops of your shoulders. Keep your head in a neutral position or turn it to the left, eyes gazing softly at the left thumb. Stay in this pose for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Inhale to come up, strongly pressing the back heel into the floor and reaching the top arm toward the ceiling. Reverse the feet and repeat for the same length of time to the left.Therapeutic Benefits:
- Stretches and strengthens the thighs, knees, and ankles
- Stretches the hips, groins, hamstrings, and calves; shoulders, chest, and spine
- Stimulates the abdominal organs
- Helps relieve stress
- Improves digestion
- Relieves backache
- Therapeutic for anxiety, flat feet, infertility, neck pain, osteoporosis, and sciatica
Utthita Parsvakonasana – Extended Side Angle Pose
Instructions:
Therapeutic Benefits:
- Strengthens and stretches the legs, knees, and ankles
- Stretches the groins, spine, waist, chest and lungs, and shoulders
- Stimulates abdominal organs
- Increases stamina
Anjaneyasana – Low Lunge/ Crescent Lunge
Instructions:From downward facing dog, exhale and step your right foot forward between your hands, aligning the right knee over the heel. Then lower your left knee to the floor and, keeping the right knee fixed in place, slide the left back until you feel a comfortable stretch in the left front thigh and groin. Turn the top of your left foot to the floor. Inhale and lift your torso to upright. As you do, sweep your arms out to the sides and up, perpendicular to the floor. Draw the tailbone down toward the floor and lift your pubic bone toward your navel. Lift your chest from the firmness of your shoulder blades against the back torso. Take your head back and look up, being careful not to jam the back of your neck. Interlace your fingers and press your palms into your thigh. Lift the low belly off of the thigh and extend the spine. Hold for a minute, exhale your torso back to the right thigh and your hands to the floor, and turn your back toes under. With another exhale, lift your left knee off the floor and step back to Adho Mukha Svanasana. Repeat with the left foot forward for the same length of time. Therapeutic Benefits:
- Strengthens the muscles of the spine, buttocks, and low belly
- Stretches the psoas
- Improves posture
- Stimulates abdominal organs
- Relieves sciatica
Fire Breathing Dragon
Instructions:From downward facing dog, step one foot between the hands. Walk the front foot forward until the knee is right above the heel. Slide the back knee backward as far as you can. Keep the hands on the inside of the front foot. Lower down to the forearms if possible. Therapeutic Benefits:
- Deep hip and groin opener that gets right into the joint
- Stretches the back leg’s hip flexors and quadriceps
- Many variations to help work deeply into hip socket
- Can help with sciatic
Ardha Navasana – Half Boat Pose
- Strengthens the abdomen, hip flexors, and spine
- Stimulates the kidneys, thyroid and prostate glands, and intestines
- Helps relieve stress
- Improves digestion
Salahbasana – Locust Pose
Instructions:
Lie on your belly with your arms along the sides of your torso, palms up, forehead resting on the floor. Turn your big toes toward each other to inwardly rotate your thighs, and firm your buttocks so your coccyx presses toward your pubis. Exhale and lift your head, upper torso, arms, and legs away from the floor. You’ll be resting on your lower ribs, belly, and front pelvis. Firm your buttocks and reach strongly through your legs, first through the heels to lengthen the back legs, then through the bases of the big toes. Keep the big toes turned toward each other. Raise your arms parallel to the floor and stretch back actively through your fingertips. Imagine there’s a weight pressing down on the backs of the upper arms, and push up toward the ceiling against this resistance. Press your scapulas firmly into your back. Gaze forward or slightly upward, being careful not to jut your chin forward and crunch the back of your neck. Keep the base of the skull lifted and the back of the neck long. Take long deep breaths as you focus on the expansion and contraction of the body. Hold and repeat as desired.
Therapeutic Benefits:
- Strengthens the muscles of the spine, buttocks, and backs of the arms and legs
- Stretches the shoulders, chest, belly, and thighs
- Improves posture
- Stimulates abdominal organs
- Helps relieve stress
Ardha Matsyandrasana – Half Lord of the Fishes/ Seated Twist
Instructions:
Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you, buttocks supported on a folded blanket. Bend your knees, put your feet on the floor, then slide your left foot under your right leg to the outside of your right hip. Lay the outside of the left leg on the floor. Step the right foot over the left leg and stand it on the floor outside your left hip. The right knee will point directly up at the ceiling. Exhale and twist toward the inside of the right thigh. Press the right hand against the floor just behind your right buttock, and set your left upper arm on the outside of your right thigh near the knee. Pull your front torso and inner right thigh snugly together. Press the inner right foot very actively into the floor, release the right groin, and lengthen the front torso. Lean the upper torso back slightly, against the shoulder blades, and continue to lengthen the tailbone into the floor. You can turn your head in one of two directions: Continue the twist of the torso by turning it to the right; or counter the twist of the torso by turning it left and looking over the left shoulder at the right foot. With every inhalation lift a little more through the sternum, pushing the fingers against the floor to help. Twist a little more with every exhalation. Be sure to distribute the twist evenly throughout the entire length of the spine; don’t concentrate it in the lower back. Stay for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then release with an exhalation, return to the starting position, and repeat to the left for the same length of time.
Therapeutic Benefits:
- Stimulates the liver and kidneys
- Stretches the shoulders, hips, and neck
- Energizes the spine
- Stimulates the digestive fire in the belly
- Relieves fatigue, sciatica, and backache
Balasana – Child’s Pose
- Stretches the chest, neck, and spine
- Calms the brain and helps alleviate stress and mild depression
- Stimulates abdominal organs, lungs, and thyroid
- Rejuvenates tired legs
- Improves digestion
- Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
- Reduces anxiety, fatigue, backache, headache, and insomnia
- Therapeutic for asthma, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and sinusitis
Bridge Pose
Therapeutic Benefits:
- Stretches the chest, neck, and spine
- Calms the brain and helps alleviate stress and mild depression
- Stimulates abdominal organs, lungs, and thyroid
- Rejuvenates tired legs
- Improves digestion
- Reduces anxiety, fatigue, backache, headache, and insomnia
- Therapeutic for asthma, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and sinusitis
Setu Bandha Sarvangasana – Shoulderstand
- Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
- Stimulates the thyroid and prostate glands and abdominal organs
- Stretches the shoulders and neck
- Tones the legs and buttocks
- Improves digestion
- Reduces fatigue and alleviates insomnia
- Therapeutic for asthma, infertility, and sinusitis
Savasana – Final Resting Pose
- Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
- Relaxes the body
- Reduces headache, fatigue, and insomnia
- Helps to lower blood pressure