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I don’t know that there’s been a more critical moment in my lifetime that moms need all the help we can get. I share with you a really simple Yin Yoga sequence you can do in just minutes a day, and it’s specifically designed for moms, keeping in mind that you often hold your littles on your hips, etc. It’s a great sequence to start the day, but it can be done at any time of day, or the individual poses can be done by themselves throughout the day. Of course, it’s sweet to find some time to practice in a kid-free setting, but let’s be real, you probably won’t escape your kids right now, so you can do any of these poses with kids climbing all over you. (Have you seen any of my pop-up videos? If so, you know my practice is sometimes filled with my kids.)

I found a love for Yin Yoga after I had kids, and I found ways to hold my babies and even nurse them as I practiced. You can hold each of these poses for a few minutes at a time, and make space for whatever is present in your mind, in your body, and in your physical space – kids included! If you can make space for discomfort in your yoga practice, it makes it much easier to manage discomfort in your life off the mat.

Here’s a free printable of the sequence, and I encourage you to print and hang it somewhere as a daily self-care reminder. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you’re taking care, sweet mamas! I’d love to hear your feedback.

Morning Yoga Sequence Instructions

Hold poses for one to five minutes and rest a full minute after each pose; the resting period allows space for you to experience the flow of prana, or lifeforce energy. 

1. Sukhasana or Easy Pose

This is a simple cross-legged pose. If your knees are higher than your hips, you can prop your seat with a folded blanket or a pillow. Sit on the very edge so your knees drop down level with or lower than your hips. Close your eyes or take a soft gaze, and do a scan of your body and mind to acknowledge your present state. Notice what feels comfortable and what may feel uncomfortable, without judgement. Observe your breath. Breathe in and out of your nose, and focus on lengthening your breath. Sit here for at least a minute.

2. Twisted Roots Pose

This yin posture incorporates a spinal twist, hip stretch and heart opener. Twisting can stimulate your bowels, initiating the elimination process. Heart openers are energizing and a nice way to start the day. Stretch your arms in a T shape, or interlace your fingers and let your palms cup the base of your skull. Scoot your hips an inch or two to the right. Cross your right leg over left with the right hamstring touching the left quadricep, and drop your knees down to the left in a twist. If your knees are lifted, you can place a pillow or blanket under your legs to make the pose more comfortable. You can also use a pillow under your arm if your shoulder or elbow is lifted. Aim to hold for three minutes, and repeat on the other side. Rest for a full minute on your back after each side.

3. Bananasana

This is also a yin posture that stretches out the side body and hips, and opens the rib cage. Opening the rib cage stretches the intercostal muscles and allows you to breathe more deeply. It is also invigorating. The side-body stretch is awesome for moms who carry a little one on their hips. You may notice a different feeling in each side if you have a dominant carrying hip. Lie on your back and stretch your arms overhead. Sweep your arms to the right, then sweep your legs to the right, and you will find yourself in a banana or crescent shape. Keep both hips grounded. You might explore grabbing one wrist with the opposite hand or crossing one ankle over the other; it doesn’t matter which wrist or which ankle is on top. Aim to hold for three minutes, and repeat on the opposite side. Rest for a full minute after each side.

4. Legs Up the Chair Pose
This is a restorative pose that will provide effects of Viparita Karani, or inverting. Some yogis claim this pose as a cure-all that also reverses aging. While it doesn’t literally reverse aging, it’s a balancing pose that stimulates both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. This means that it basically provides what your nervous system needs, and it might reduce wrinkles caused from tension. This is a great pose for waking up if you’re feeling tired, as well as for calming if you’re feeling scattered or over-caffeinated. Find a chair or couch with space for you to lie in front, and place your legs on the chair with your knees touching the edge. You can place a folded blanket under your low back or head for extra comfort. You can also place a folded blanket over your hips for grounding, and use an eye pillow for extra relaxation. If you prefer to do your sequence in bed, flip your body around and do legs up the wall against the headboard. Aim to hold for three to five minutes.

5. Sukhasana

Finish out the sequence in the same pose where you started. Check back in with yourself, and notice how things might have shifted in mind and body. Observe your breath. Make space for whatever might be here, and know that some discomforts may still be present, and that’s OK. Your practice is a reflection of life, and life is not always comfortable. Finding peace within that and having compassion for all that exists will make it easier to manage the normal daily challenges we experience as mothers and humans.

These are tips I use to help me feel grounded and alive when I’m anxious and/or depressed. The practices will look different for each person, and they may not serve everyone. Experiment, and see what works for you. Know you are not alone in your discomfort, and we are all experiencing the vastness of humanity, including joy and sadness, comfort and discomfort.

1. Go outside. Connect with nature. Leave your phone or screen off or leave it inside. Take at least 5 to 10 minutes (longer is even better, but it doesn’t have to be long) to feel the air on your skin, notice the color of the grass and leaves on the trees. Listen to the birds and/or sounds of the city. Look at the sky. Notice the color and the clouds. Close your eyes and gaze toward the sun. Notice what it looks like on your inner eyelids.
2. Walk barefoot in the grass, dirt, or sand. Connecting your feet to the earth is literally grounding.
3. Pay attention to the moon. Notice the phases. Notice how things may shift according to the phases of the moon. Practice moon bathing in the full moonlight, and let the energy of the moon nourish you. Think about the fact that the moon looks the same across the world. Consider keeping a daily journal tracking this.
4. Nourish yourself. Take a moment to drink a glass of water or iced tea or lemonade (or a warm drink as the season may shift). You could also eat a simple snack. Don’t watch TV or look at your screen. Just sit and notice how it feels as you eat or drink. Notice how it feels in your hands.  Notice sensations in your mouth. Notice tastes on different parts of your tongue.
5. Breathe. Take a minute or more to pause and connect with your breath. Acknowledge that it is constant. If you’re experiencing anxiety, focus on the exhale, maybe making it longer than the inhale. Try exhaling with a sigh, or exhale through pursed lips, like you’re blowing through a straw. Let this be your release. Practice this for at least 12 rounds of breaths.
6. Acknowledge that uncomfortable feelings are human feelings. Have compassion for your discomfort. And know that you can experience joy and sadness or comfort and discomfort at the same time. To be human means we experience a range of emotions, and negative emotions do not outweigh positive emotions. You have a right to experience both. Anything you experience is impermanent.
7. Practice yoga. Find trauma-informed or healing-centered teachers. Yin and restorative classes are nourishing when you feel depleted. Hatha and flow style classes can be more empowering and challenging. A full practice is great, but it’s not necessary. One or two yin stretches can help you feel embodied. Balancing poses help with focus. Twisting and cross-body work help you be present in your body. Side stretches are energizing, but leave you feeling less vulnerable than a heart opener might.
8. Practice abhyanga. This is an ancient ayurvedic practice of oiling your skin. Give yourself a massage with oil all over your body before you take a shower or bath. This adds a protective layer for your skin and is especially helpful for people with heightened sensitivity. Oiling your nostrils with a q-tip is helpful in keeping allergens and viruses from entering your system, so practice this if you must go out in public or if your allergies are high. Almond oil, sesame oil, and coconut oil are different oils that work for different people (I use them all).
9. Immerse yourself in water. Go swimming (a natural-flowing body of water is especially good). Take a bath or shower. Water moves energy. It helps get you out of a funk. It can be energizing and relaxing. Practice gratitude for your access to water.
10. Meditate. Start with one minute a day, just focusing on your breath. Work up to three minutes or longer. Find a guided mediation app that works for you for longer periods, or a teacher who is offering it online. I love the Insight Timer, which is a free app.
11. Sing, hum, chant. Make sound with your body. Did you know that every cell in your body vibrates when you sing? Find space to sing in the car, in your shower. Sing with your kids. Find an online music class to join. Like water, sound gets energy moving and can help you shift your mindset.
12. Get creative. Cook, paint, sew, make music, build things. You can even create art out in nature, making mandala designs out of leaves, flowers, and rocks. Impermanent art can remind you that our present state is impermanent, which is especially helpful with states of discomfort.
13. Connect. Find space to connect with friends and family members outside of social media. Talk on the phone. Write letters. Talk to children or elderly people who may help you see the state of the world in a different perspective.
14. Ditch the electronics. Take a break from your screens. Try it for a day, a week, a month! See how much better you feel after not being fed by the constant cycle of negative news.
15. Take action. Acknowledging discomfort and practicing self-compassion are not always enough. Taking action will look different for everyone. Sometimes it involves the very basic building block of making space for self-care (see all the above suggestions), and sometimes it means getting out to vote, or protest, or volunteer with a charity helping others. It might also mean seeking help in the form of therapy or medication. Whatever it means for you is OK.

I’m offering a workshop next weekend and wrote a little bit about it for the Yoga Yoga blog: https://www.yogayoga.com/Healing-Vibrations 

Yin Yoga, Sound Therapy, and Energy Healing

I studied music for a big part of my life. Earlier this year I became certified as a Sound Therapist, and I was reminded how much music and sound contribute to my well-being. I admit that even I have been skeptical in the past of “energy workers,” or people who claim to work with the energy in your body to fix your stuff. What kind of woo-woo is that? And honestly, I haven’t been a huge fan of fixing things lately. From the guidance of my wise yoga teachers, I’ve worked more on learning and healing from all those things I might have previously tried to fix or ignore even. But I’ve found some magic recently in the form of Sound Therapy and Reiki, which is a form of energy work.

It isn’t just woo-woo or magic, though. There is science behind energy work. To quote Carl Sagan, “We are made of starstuff.” It’s basic physics. We move around through our lives, vibrating bodies of energy, our thoughts and motions sending waves rippling out into the world around us. We are, after all, made of atoms and molecules, which constantly vibrate. The frequency of our vibrations correlates to a pitch, so you could even say we’re all made of sound, or more poetically, our co-existence as vibrating human-beings in the universe is musical. Sometimes, our energy is low, or our vibrations are slow. Sometimes, the energy is not quite right – our frequency might be in dissonance with the frequency of others around us. Sometimes, we vibrate in harmony. This is usually when we feel our best.

When our energy is out of balance or our vibrations are off pitch, we may suffer ailments of illness, physical pain, or emotional distress. These vibrations ripple out around us and can affect the vibrations of other people, and on and on it goes. While there may be pain in the rest of the world, the healing really begins within each of us. Small energetic shifts can make big ripples out in to the world.

I invite you to come explore this with me on October 14th at Yoga Yoga North. My Reiki teacher, Heather Rider, and I are offering a group healing event where I’ll guide you through meditation and yin yoga, which will allow you space to explore your mind and body and all the comforts and discomforts within, a space that will allow you to feel and experience rather than fix or ignore. We’ll move energy with mantra and the sound of Himalayan singing bowls and the gong, while Heather works her Reiki magic throughout the space. Space is limited to 12, and there are only a few spots left! Click here to register.

I turned 40 in December of last year, and it didn’t feel terrible. It was honestly exciting and felt kind of like a rebirth. It coincided with my youngest child turning one, so I think there was also a bit of freedom that comes with the increased independence of a child. I decided 2018 would be a time for me to learn more about myself and also learn to love myself more. That includes learning what’s going on with my hormones and not being afraid of turning into some irrelevant shriveled up old lady, but instead, embracing my divine femininity for the rest of time. I want my daughters to love themselves and know that their power and wisdom and RELEVANCY will persist and flourish with age, so it is my job to set their example.

The moon called to me. I made it a priority to connect to the moon. As a self-professed heliophile, it felt a little odd embracing the darkness of night. But to embrace myself as a woman, I needed that connection with the feminine energy of the moon. I started keeping a moon journal, which tracks my menstrual cycle, how it coincides with the moon cycles, and includes daily notes on how I feel. I also work on acknowledging that every thing I feel is relevant, however uncomfortable or irritable I may be at times.

For the last seven years, I’ve been either pregnant and/or breastfeeding, so my cycles have not really been regular at all. I know it’s normal, but it leaves me feeling a bit scattered, so connecting to the cycles of the moon has been really soothing to me. I remember how much I loved having a skylight growing up and seeing the full moon rays from my bed. I try to go outside and look at the moon when I can now, and I also found a really cool face for my Apple Watch that shows the moon in current time. (It also gives you the option to see the earth and the planets.)

As animals, we are affected by the moon cycles. We all have a natural rhythm. It is easy to ignore those rhythms in our current world. But by ignoring them, we’re losing some of our wisdom, some of our connection, some of the energy that completes us. I may have an addiction to the sun, but the light of the moon helps me embrace the beauty in my lightness AND my darkness. It does complete me.

So go outside tonight. Set an intention. Write it down. Set it on fire in the moonlight. Make a commitment to pay attention to the natural rhythm that always is. Do some moonbathing in savasana. Feel the moonlight.  It will illuminate the beauty of your darkness.

If you feel inclined, join me at Ramsey Park tonight for a Full Moon Yoga class at 7:30 PM. It’s $20, and proceeds benefit UT Southwestern Medical Center to support brain tumor research by Dr. Elizabeth Maher.