Stress & Hormones

Hi everyone, welcome to Yoga & You, I'm Sanjana Prasad. Today is day 3 of the 7-day series for Diabetes Management. If you haven't checked out day 1 and 2, please check out the link in the description. Day 1 is about activation, day 2 is all about twists. You must practice those two and then hop onto this one. Let's get on with today's practice.

In today's practice, we're going to be focusing on a lot of seated forward folds and hip openers. So it will be helpful to have a pair of blocks and a strap. If you don't have blocks, you can use a book, and instead of a strap, you can use a dupatta or a towel that is long enough and it's comfortable for you.

So start off with Baddha Konasana. A great preparation for Baddha Konasana is Titaliasana. So you're going to start by bringing the soles of the feet together. Now here itself, if you feel like you're stuck, you're not able to go beyond this, this is where your block comes in handy. So I want you to sit on the block, just at the edge of the block. You'll notice once you sit on the block, you'll actually be able to settle into it a little better, because your pelvis will start tilting forward. And from here, what we can do, we're just going to flap the thighs up and down. For those of you who are quite comfortable with Titaliasana, you don't require the block. You can remove the block, just focus on the flapping.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. You're going to take your right palm, place it beside you. Use your left hand to press the left thigh down. So if you work on the legs one at a time, it also gives you an idea of which side is tighter. Sometimes there are these tiny imbalances in the body, and doing this practice in an asymmetrical way will help you understand that as well.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Let's switch. You're going to place your left palm down, press the right thigh into the floor. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Now working on single leg one at a time would have opened up your inner thighs a little bit. If you're still feeling tight, I would recommend you keep practicing the Titaliasana and single leg pressing down. Over a period of time, your hips will start to open up and you will be ready to go in for the forward fold.

Now for Baddha Konasana, we're going to practice two variations. The first one is Baddha Konasana A, where we're going to lengthen forward, think about reaching the chin towards the mat. So you're going to find a comfortable grip. I like to hold the toes. You can also interlock the fingers this way or separate your feet like a book. So find a grip that is comfortable for you.

Take a deep breath in, inhale. As you exhale, you're going to start lengthening forward from the lower back. You notice my gaze is not dropping down, I'm looking ahead, and once my elbows reach my thighs, I start pressing down into the thighs. So I'm making space for my chest to go closer and closer to my feet and my chin to go towards the mat. As you reach your maximum, stay there and breathe for one, two, three, four, five. Inhale and slowly come back up.

Now we'll go for Baddha Konasana B, which is a rounded back variation. So here there is a lot of spinal flexion where we're intentionally rounding the back. So grip the feet again, as you exhale round your back, and this time we're going to bring the forehead down towards the feet. Exhale and round and go down. Start pressing the thighs down. Stay. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Inhale and slowly come back up.

The next hip-opening forward fold that we're going to practice is Upavistha Konasana. So it's a wide legged forward fold. In all of these seated forward folds, the block comes in handy to give you that elevation and that slight forward tilt of the pelvis, which helps you go deeper into the forward fold. Once your hamstrings start opening up, the lower back is stretched out, you will no longer require the block.

So here also, once you open the legs, if you feel like you're stuck here, you're not even able to sit tall, please use a prop. Props will help your practice and there's no harm in using them. If you're able to sit tall and you're comfortable here, what we can do to aid this practice is also to start with a bent knee variation. So keep the knee slightly bent, inhale here, place the hands in between your legs. As you exhale, little by little, start walking the hands forward. Maybe at some point you're able to rest the elbows on the floor. You can stay here; you can notice that there's a micro bend in my knees.

Once you get here, if you're still very comfortable, hamstrings are feeling okay, lower back feels fine, see if you can start sliding your heels forward little by little and settle into the posture here. Toes lifted up, stay there and breathe. Now from here, your goal every exhalation is to start walking the fingertips forward. Forward, forward, forward, till you're able to kind of slide the chest down to the floor, chin down, and continue reaching forward with the fingertips. Once you've reached there, you stay there for about five breaths. Very gently, as you inhale, you're going to walk your palms back up.

Another way of practicing Upavistha Konasana, you can still do the bent knee variation, and you can do this by gripping the big toes or the outer edges of the feet or the top of the feet. You can take a deep inhale here; here you have a little bit of support from the grip. Exhale and start leaning forward. Now this is the maximum I can go here. From here, I'm going to start straightening out my legs. Little by little, don't forcefully slide out. Still comfortable, take a deep inhale in. Exhale and get the chest towards the mat. Stay for about five breaths. Inhale and lift the chest up. Exhale and release the grip and come back to neutral spine. So that was your seated wide leg forward fold, or Upavistha Konasana.

The next posture we're going to practice is Janu Sirsasana. Extremely beneficial — if you notice, all of these forward folds, there is a little bit of compression in the abdomen along with your hip opening. So you are stimulating the abdominal organs, which is important and very beneficial in addition to all the other support that you're taking to manage your diabetes. So this is a very complimentary practice to that.

What we're going to practice next is Janu Sirsasana. Janu is knee, Sirsa is head, so head to knee pose. We start with the right side. I'm going to bend my right knee and get the heel close to my groin, not underneath, but just touching the groin. The sole of my right foot is touching the left inner thigh. Extended leg is always active, don't leave it loose. Now here, if you feel again rounding your back, please sit on a block.

We're going to reach forward towards the foot. For some of us, while reaching forward, it might look like really straining from the shoulder to grab your foot, and you don't want that kind of a discomfort. So this is where your dupatta or your strap comes in handy. You're going to take this dupatta or the strap, loop it around your foot. Sit tall, and as you exhale, you start walking your hands down little by little on the strap. Maybe you're here today, you can just stay here and breathe. If you're very, very comfortable, you can let go, grab the foot.

Take a nice deep inhalation here. As you exhale, see if you can fold forward, breathe. One, your drishti's on the big toe. Two, three, four, five. Inhale, arms forward and come up. Exhale, release your arms.

Let's switch to the other side. Extend the right leg forward, left heel towards the groin. Sole of the foot touching the inner thigh. Now we have a tendency to turn the body, I want you to avoid this. Your hips are squared and your leg is in line with the hip joint. Take a deep breath in, lengthen. You can also do this with a strap. Exhale and fold forward. Stay there and breathe. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale, arms forward and come up. Exhale and release your arms.

Super. Our last posture for today, extremely beneficial for hip opening, for digestion. I recommend — a lot of teachers and doctors sometimes recommend you start your day with this posture — is Malasana. Sitting in Malasana, having some hot water first thing in the morning daily, stimulates the entire system and activates your digestion.

So for Malasana, we're going to start in a deep squat. Initially, for some of us, maybe the heels will lift off. If this is happening, I recommend you take two blocks, slide it underneath the heels, simply because you feel a little bit more stable and balanced with the heels being supported by the blocks. As you keep practicing Malasana, you will be able to eventually place the heels down and settle the hips down.

From here, you can just stay here and breathe. Keep lifting your chest up. What I also like to do is to use my palms at the heart center and push the knees out with my elbows, so I get a little bit more hip opening. We can close the eyes here, breathe. This is great for your ankles, your mobility, opens up your hips, stimulates the digestion. One, two, three, four, and five.

Slowly place your hands down. See if with control you can round your back and reach forward as much as you can. I have my toes turned out slightly because of my ankle mobility. If you feel like you can keep the toes pointing forward and still do this, I would recommend you do that. Lean, lean, lean, lean, lean forward. Stay there and breathe. One, keep reaching forward, two, three, four, and five. Lift the chest up, very gently with control. Drop the hips to the mat and extend your legs forward. Scooch forward, lie down on your back, relax in your Shavasana.

So that was day three of our Diabetes Management series. I hope you get to practice day one, day two, day three, and also follow up on the rest of the series, so it gives you a really holistic, well-rounded practice. Day four will be up soon, be sure to follow and practice that as well. Stay tuned.