Yoga for Acidity & GERD

Namaste, welcome to Yoga & You. I am Rasika Sampath. Today we are going to be practicing yoga for GERD. Now if you've faced acidity, heartburn or digestive discomfort then this practice is designed for you. GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease, is often linked to stress, to digestive issues, as well as so many other factors that could lead to GERD. So today what we will do is we will focus on moving slowly, mindfully, mindfully breathing as well as keeping the chest lifted and the digestive system supported. So today's practice will help you release tension from the abdominal region and from the diaphragm, as well as it will help support your nervous system by calming it down, and it will also help to aid better digestion.

Let's get started. So we will start in a comfortable seated position. It can be anything, Sukhasana, Vajrasana, whatever you are comfortable with. Make sure your spine is tall. If you need to slide a cushion or something under your sitting bones so you are a little elevated and your spine can sit upright. Make sure your sitting bones are rooting down and the crown of your head is lifting up towards the sky.

We are going to start off with a breath work called Dirga Swasam or Yogic breathing. It is also called three part breathing because we are feeling the breath in three areas in our body here. Namely the belly, the chest that is the mid chest, and the upper chest which is the clavicular area. So I want you to bring one hand over your belly, one hand over your chest, and we will do one breath together, and after that you can do it at your own pace.

So as you inhale you will feel the belly puffing up into your hand followed by the chest, and you will feel the breath ending at the collarbone region. As you exhale feel the collarbones first, then you feel the chest going in, followed by the belly. So this type of breathing utilizes the diaphragm fully and it also helps to calm the nervous system down, so it is really really good for your GERD issues. So we will practice five breaths like this. You can do it at your own pace. Just make sure that you are feeling the breath in these three parts. Initially when you practice this, if this is the first time you are trying this kind of breath work, it may feel a little forced, but with practice it will get a lot more easier. So let's go on with it. Five breaths at our own pace.

Once you are done with five breaths of your own, we will come into a table top position on the mat. So finding your table top here, wrists under your shoulders, knees under your hips. We will start with my favorite, cat and cow. Helps to mobilize the spine a little bit. Inhale, arch your back, push the chest down, lift the sitting bones up, lift the chin up. Exhale, rounding the back, tuck the tailbone, draw the chin to your chest. Inhale, arch your back. Exhale and round the back. We will do five of this. Inhale and arch. Exhale round. Last one. Inhale and arch. Exhale and round.

Inhale, find a neutral spine. From here start to extend your hands forward and bring your chest and chin down into puppy pose. This posture not only helps to stretch out the chest and the shoulders but also helps to elongate the upper abdominal region. Breathe here, two, three. This also promotes deep upper breathing, this posture. Four, five. Exhale, slowly lower and come all the way down onto your belly. Lie here on the mat, hands by the side of your chest.

Let's come up into cobra. Pressing down into the tops of your feet, squeeze the inner thighs, squeeze the glutes. Let's go up, roll the shoulders back and down. Feel the shoulder blades sliding down your back as you inhale, begin to lift the head up. Chest up, press a little bit into your hands and lift up into Bhujangasana. Stay and breathe. Exhale and come into downward dog, Adho Mukha Svanasana. Keep the head relaxed, keep the face relaxed. Take a nice big breath in. Big breath out.

Now slowly begin to walk your legs to the front of your mat. You can take as many steps as it takes to come to the front of your mat. Inhale, find a flat back position, hands on your shin. Exhale and forward fold all the way down. Put a slight bend in your knees and inhale, come all the way up. Lift your arms up, bring your palms together, exhale, hands to your heart.

Now you're going to step your right leg, or any leg for that matter, out wide. Hands wide. We're going to practice a couple of standing postures. We're going to take your right leg out 90 degrees, left leg in 30 degrees. So we'll first do this on the right side and then repeat on the left side. We're going to come into warrior 2, Virabhadrasana B. So on the exhale, start to bend the right knee. Gaze forward beyond your right fingers. Keep the navel drawn in. Keep the tailbone tucked under and keep the chest nicely lifted. So this is a really strong posture but at the same time it keeps your chest lifted, so it avoids any reflux pressure. Stay for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Now slowly straighten that right leg. We're going to come into Trikonasana, triangle pose. So extend forward through the right hand. Push that right hip back. And exhale, bring your right hand to your right ankle. Left hand goes up. Now it's very important here that your shoulders are not kind of falling, collapsing down. Okay, this is not what we want. We want the chest to be lifted. So your entire body is facing the left side of the room and you should be able to easily look up at your left hand. So if it is not possible with your right hand on your ankle, you can lift that right hand further up your leg, no problem. But don't let the alignment go out. Gaze up. Engage that right thigh and breathe one, two. What this does is it stretches the side body, and at the same time it helps to elongate the digestive organs. Four and five. Good.

Slowly inhale and come up. Turn the right foot in 30 degrees, left foot out 90 degrees. So we'll repeat the same on the other side. Exhale as we bend the left knee and come into warrior two. Gaze past your left fingers again. Make sure you're drawing the navel in. Keep the tailbone tucked under. Nice strong warrior. Four. Three. Two. One. Slowly straighten that left leg. Inhale. Lean forward and exhale as you come down. Left hand to your left ankle. Right hand up. Breathe. One. Feel like you're taking the crown of your head forward. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Inhale, slowly come up. Turn to face the front of the mat, and exhale, bring your legs together into samasthiti. Notice how you feel. Move slowly, mindfully. Breathe as you move. The breath here is, I would say, even more important than the posture itself. Okay. Especially when people suffer from GERD issues, it is very important to experience full deep breaths and be mindful of your breathing rather than just jump around from posture to posture. That might only aggravate it. Okay.

Now let's come down to seated. Sit with your legs extended. We're going to do a modified version of Ardha Matsyendrasana, which is a twist. Now why we're doing this modified version is so that there is not too much pressure on the abdomen. At the same time your spine is still getting a twist. Bend your right knee. Cross the right leg over the left. And then from here you're going to hug that right knee with your left hand. Take your right hand behind your back. Lift and straighten the spine as you exhale, twist and look over your right shoulder. Breathe here for five, four, three, two, one. Look forward. Untwist. Release the right leg.

Same thing on the other side. Left leg. Cross it. Take your left hand behind you. Hug your left knee close to your chest using your right hand. And as you exhale look back. Twist. One, two, three, four, five, six. Slowly come back. Untwist. Release the left leg.

And now from here you're going to lie down on your back. Come all the way down. Bend both your knees. We're going to come to Setu Bandhasana, bridge pose. Hands by your side, palms pressing down. Keep the chin slightly tucked in towards the chest. So what you don't want is to extend and strain the neck. You want the back to be long. And from here, inhale, start to lift the hips up. Slide your shoulder blades under your body. And if possible you can even interlock your fingers under your body and use the glutes to lift further up. Stay here and breathe. This again keeps the chest nice and lifted while also helping you strengthen the glutes, the thighs, legs, the spine, all of that. Stay for another three, two and one. Release the hands and come down one vertebra at a time from your upper back to lower back. Very good.

Now bring the soles of your feet together and open the knees out wide into Supta Baddha Konasana, or reclined butterfly. Now the same breath work that we practiced in the beginning of the class, we're going to do the same thing here as well, Dirga Swasam. So bring one hand over your belly, one hand over your chest. And feel for the breath as you inhale, feel the belly pushing into your hands, followed by the chest, ending at the collarbones. As you exhale, collarbones first, chest going down, belly going down. Stay like this and practice this kind of Dirga Swasam for at least about two minutes, even longer if you have the time.

And when you're done with it, if you want you can relax in Shavasana by extending the legs out, placing the hands by your side. Stay for a while in Shavasana before you move on with your day.

Now that was a short flow with a few postures which will really help people who are suffering from GERD. If you have more time on your hands, I would request you to stay in each of these postures for longer. You can practice them for one minute each. It will really benefit you. Try and practice this daily and see how you feel. Thank you so much for practicing with me.