Yoga for Thyroid Health

Namaste, welcome to Yoga & You, I'm Rasika. Today we're going to be doing a practice to help balance our hormones. Now what exactly is hormone imbalance? Now we have this endocrine system in our body and the endocrine system is a complex network of various glands and organs which produces hormones, and it uses hormones for different vital functions in the body including metabolism, your energy levels, proper thyroid functioning, your reproduction. All of this and a lot more. So all of this is governed by these hormones. So the endocrine system itself is made of many different things, your hypothalamus, you have your thyroid and parathyroid. There is your pineal glands, pituitary glands, you have your thymus, adrenal glands and you have your pancreas.

So when there is an imbalance or when there is an improper functioning of any of these glands or organs, we face hormonal imbalance. So how that can be shown in the body is you could probably be suffering from PCOS, polycystic ovary syndrome. There could be issues in your menstrual cycle, maybe delayed periods, irregular periods, cramping, intense cramping and pain during your menstrual cycles, fertility issues. There could be unexplained weight gain or weight loss, there could be hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism that you are suffering from, and it can also play havoc with your mental health. So chronic depression, anxiety, intense fatigue. All of these are symptoms of hormonal imbalance in your body.

How yoga helps tackle hormonal imbalance is by working on the endocrine system, on all these different glands of the endocrine system, through various postures and practices. While most yoga practices have a positive impact on the endocrine system, today we are going to be looking at some asana practices which will help target these areas. However, if you do suffer from any serious condition, please take the advice of a medical practitioner before we get started. I will see you on your mat.

We will start our practice in child's pose, sit on your heels, extend your hands forward, drop the hips towards your heels and extend your spine forward, drop the forehead on the mat. Let's stop everything before we start our practice, just taking a moment here in child's pose to bring yourself to the present, acknowledging this time that you have taken for yourself to practice and bringing your awareness to your breath. Let's take one more breath here. Good, slowly let's come up and come to standing at the top of your mat.

We will start with about three rounds of Surya Namaskar A, just follow along with my cueing. Feet together, roll the shoulders back and down, draw the navel in towards your spine. If you are comfortable with Ujjayi breathing, you can employ your Ujjayi breath, constricting the muscles in the back of your throat. Inhale, sweep your arms up, gaze up. Exhale, dive it down, Uttanasana forward fold. Inhale to a flat back, lengthen your spine. Exhale, step or hop back. You can drop your knees, chest and chin down to start with. Inhale, Bhujangasana or cobra. Exhale, downward dog, Adho Mukha Svanasana. Gaze in between your feet, drive the heels down towards the mat, lift the sitting bones up high, drawing the navel in. Let's take another four breaths here, one, two, three, four.

Inhale to step forward, find a flat back position. Exhale, forward fold Uttanasana. Inhale, arms up, gaze up. Exhale, Samasthiti, hands by your side. Round two, inhale, arms up, gaze up. Exhale, forward fold Uttanasana. Inhale to a flat back. Exhale, step back through plank. You can drop your knees, chest and chin down. Inhale, cobra, Bhujangasana. Exhale, Adho Mukha, downward dog. Breathe here, one, two, three, four, five. Inhale and step the legs to the front of your mat, lengthen your spine, flat back. Exhale, fold. Inhale, arms up, gaze up. Exhale, Samasthiti, hands by your side.

Last round, inhale, arms up, gaze up. Exhale, fold down Uttanasana. Inhale, Ardha Uttanasana, flat back. Exhale, step or hop back. If you're comfortable with Chaturanga Dandasana, take that. Otherwise, continue with knees, chest, chin position. Inhale, either cobra or Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, upward dog. Exhale, downward facing dog, Adho Mukha. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale to step the legs to the front of your mat, flat back position. Exhale, fold Uttanasana. Inhale, arms up, gaze up. Exhale, Samasthiti, hands by your side.

Next, we move on to Padangusthasana, which is a forward fold, standing forward fold. So, you can come to the center of your mat. Take your feet apart about hips width, feet parallel to each other, hands on your hips. Inhale to lengthen your spine. Exhale, hinge from your hips as you fold forward. Grab your big toes with your peace sign fingers. Inhale and concave your back as you lengthen the spine forward. As you exhale, slowly fold the navel in towards your spine and fold, bringing your forehead beyond your knees. Five breaths here, one, two, three, four, five. Inhale to a flat back, concave your spine again. Exhale, hands on your hips. Inhale, rise all the way up to standing. Exhale to Samasthiti, you can come to the starting of your mat.

Moving on, inhale, spread your legs apart, the long side of your mat, hands wide apart. We're going to come into Parsvakonasana. Turn the left foot in about 30 degrees and the right foot completely out 90 degrees. Exhale, bend that right knee. Now you have three variations. You can either place your right hand on top of your right thigh and your left hand goes straight up. This is for complete beginners. Level two is you can take your right hand to the inside of your right leg and again gaze up at your left hand. And level three, if your hips are nice and open, take your right hand to the outside of your right leg and rotate your shoulder and point your left fingers diagonally. Look at your left fingers and stay wherever you apply. Four, three, two, one. Inhale and come back up. Switching sides, right foot in, left foot out. Exhale, bend the left knee, take whatever variation you did on the other side. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale, slowly come back up.

Parivrtta Parsvakonasana now. Turn the left foot in, right foot out. Turn to face the right leg. Now I like to come to the ball of my left foot for this. It makes it a little more accessible. Bend the right knee, bring your hands to your heart and twist. You want to try to bring the outside of your left hand to the outside of your right knee. Try to bring it all the way up to your shoulder but you can also stay with the elbow. Depending on how deep your twist is. Do this on the exhale. Bring your palms together and gaze up if you can. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale, slowly come back up.

Let's switch sides, left foot out, right foot in. Turn to face the left leg. Exhale, bend the left knee and take your right shoulder towards the outside of your left knee. One, two, three, four, five. Good. Inhale, slowly come back up. Exhale, Samasthiti, come to the top of your mat. Take a breath here.

Moving on, Prasarita Padottanasana. Inhale, spread your legs out by again, hands wide. Keep your feet parallel to each other and on the exhale, bring your hands to your hips and fold forward, hinging from the hips. Bring your hands down ideally in between your feet but if that's too much, you can bring it under your shoulders. Inhale, concave your back as you look forward. Exhale, bring the crown of the head down towards the mat. Stay for five, four, three, keep extending the spine forward, two or rather downward, I should say. One, inhale, lengthen your spine. From here, you can take a little twist. Place your right hand under your face and lift the left hand up. Gaze up at your left fingers twisting your upper body. Three, two, one. Exhale and bring the left hand under your face. Inhale, lift the right hand up. Gaze up at your right fingers. Four, three, two, one. Exhale, bring the left hand down again. Inhale, find a flat back, concave your back. Exhale, hands to your hips. Inhale, rise all the way up to standing. Exhale, Samasthiti, feet together, hands by your side.

Lovely. Now we're going to take a vinyasa. If you're comfortable with a vinyasa, you can do the vinyasa that you are used to. Otherwise, just follow on with my cueing and we're going to come to our belly finally, okay? So, from the top of your mat, inhale, arms up. Gaze up. Exhale, fold. Inhale to a flat back. Exhale, you can step your legs back. Find your plank, inhale, and exhale, come all the way down to your belly. Roll the toes out, bring your forehead on the mat.

Bhujangasana without using your hands. Now you're going to take both your hands behind your lower back. Interlock your fingers. Press down into the tops of your feet. Engage your thighs. Engage your glutes. And as you inhale, roll the shoulders back and lift the head and chest up. One, two, three, four, five. Exhale, release the head now. Release your hands. Bring your hands behind your head. Interlock your fingers there. And let's lift up again. Inhale, lift head and chest up. One, two, feel the strength in your spine. Three, four, five. Good, slowly release.

Bhujangasana is very beneficial for your adrenal glands and it also supplies oxygen, fresh oxygenated blood to your reproductive organs. Bring your hands by the side of your chest. Inhale, find either cobra or upward facing dog. Exhale, downward facing dog, Adho Mukha Svanasana.

Good, now from here we're going to step through and come to a seated position, okay? So for this, you can take your hands out a little wider. Bring your right, the top of your right foot forward. Cross it with the left. Sit down and extend both your legs forward.

Our first seated position is Dandasana. Dandasana is really, really beneficial for your adrenal glands system, especially for the thyroid glands. Okay, so you're going to place your hands by the side of your hips. Press down so the spine lengthens. Draw the navel in and push the chin back towards your collarbone. So the chin will rest in between your collarbones. So what you don't want to do is bend the head down. It's not like this. You're moving the chest back and in towards the collarbones. So you're activating the thyroid glands which are located right there, okay? Stay here and breathe one, two, three, four, five. Release that chin lock.

Inhale, sweep your arms up. Find the nice tall spine. As you exhale, lengthen the spine forward and try to grab your big toes. Now if it's too much for your hamstrings to grab your big toes with a straight knee, you can bend your knees. No problem. But reach for your big toes, however it is. Hold your big toes like you're holding an ice cream cone. Inhale to lengthen the spine and exhale. You can fold forward. Really draw the belly in so you can fold deeper. One, two, three, four, five.

Inhale, lengthen your spine. Lift both your hands up. Exhale, take both your hands. One full arm distance behind you. Fingers pointing forward. Point your toes. We're going to counter our Paschimottanasana by getting into Purvottanasana, okay? Point your toes and on the inhale, lift the hips up. Send the head back. One, two, three, four, five. Exhale and release all the way down. Now if that was difficult for you to straighten your legs and lift all the way up, you can always get into a reverse table top by bending the knees and lifting the hips up and doing the same thing, okay? All right.

Now from here, let's take it into a vinyasa before we move to the next seated sequence. So you're going to cross your ankles. Bring the legs close to your chest. Place your hands down. Lift the hips up and then step the legs back. You can either take knees chest in or you can get into your chaturanga. Inhale, cobra or up dog. Exhale, down dog.

Let's move on to the next seated position. Again, you can step the legs forward, sit down, extend both your legs all to the mat. Other than the Paschimottanasana, you're going to take your right leg into a Padmasana position. For those of you who are suffering from knee issues, if you have knee pain, if you've had any knee surgeries, you can avoid this posture and take a figure of four instead with the ankle crossed over the knee, okay? If you're fine with Padmasana, take your right leg bringing the right heel towards the left lower abdomen. Okay? Good. Now from here, you want to try and drive that right knee down as far as possible.

For those of you who are comfortable with taking a bind, you can take your right hand behind you and hold on to the right foot or the right ankle, toes, whatever is accessible. Don't force the bind. If you cannot take the bind, just lift both your hands up. Otherwise, lift your left hand up, inhale and exhale to fold over your left leg. Pull the farthest part of your left leg with your left hand and breathe one, two, three, four, five. Inhale, head up, lift your hands up, exhale, release the bind, release your hands, release the right leg.

Switching sides, left leg into Padmasana. If you did the bind, do it on the side as well. Otherwise, lift both your hands up, inhale, exhale, fold. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale, head up, lift, exhale, release everything. Cross your ankles, cross your shins and add them, lift the hips up, place the hands forward and step your legs back. Let's take a vinyasa of your choice. Meet me in downward facing dog.

Good, from here, again, step, step. You can interchange the legs every time you step forward. Extend your legs out in front of you. We're going to come to Triangamukha on the right side. So bring your right leg into a Triangamukha, like a half virasana position. Now we're going to come into something called Bharadvajasana, which is a twist. So with your left leg, I want you to come into your Padmasana position. Again, if you have knee issues, I will show you an alternative for this pose on the next side. Okay?

So bring your left leg into Padmasana, bring your right leg into virasana and from here, you're going to take your, if you have the bind in your practice, you will bind with your left hand behind you holding the left foot. If you don't have the bind, just place your left hand behind you, like so. Take your right hand under, I'm going to turn over so you can see it a little more clearly. So your left hand binds or is placed back with your right hand, take the front of your palm under your left knee like this and twist your body over your left shoulder. One, two, three, four, five, slowly release. Now I'll stay over here so I can show you what we're going to do next.

Okay? Now, you're going to continue to have your right leg in this Triangamukha position. You will hold on to the left leg with your left hand, lift it up. It's okay if your knees bent and turn the left leg out to the left side, like opening a door. Gently release and place the left leg down. Don't come down in a third. Please be careful. Okay? So your left leg is out like so, right leg continues to be in Triangamukha position. We're going to take a side stretch here. You're going to bring your left shoulder towards the left knee. You can hold on to the right leg for support. Lift your right hand up and take it over towards your left toes. Make sure to not collapse the shoulder. Stay here, twist the body open and breathe. One, two, three, four, five, inhale and slowly come back up.

I'm going to turn back here so that I can repeat on the other side. Extend the right leg out in front of you. Repeat Bharadvajasana on the other side. Take your left leg into Triangamukha position, right leg into Padmasana. Now I said I'll show you a variation for this if you have knee issues. In which case you can continue to extend the left leg forward, cross your right leg over the left and take a twist like this. Ardha Matsyendrasana. That's a variation. Okay? If your knee is fine, Bharadvajasana is a great twist to do. If you've taken the bind, take your right hand from behind. Left hand goes under your right knee and twist over your right shoulder. One, two, three, four, feel the abdominal organs getting a nice twist here. And finally, gently release.

Continue to have the left leg in your Triangamukha position. I'm going to turn to face you again. Lift that right leg up using your right hand and open it out like you're opening the door. Gently release the right leg down. Bring your right shoulder towards the right knee. Lift the left hand up and over your ear. Over towards the right toes. If you find a hold, it can be the outside of your feet. It can be your shin towards your knee, wherever it's accessible for you. And open and twist. It's like you're opening your chest up to the sky. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale and slowly come back up.

You're going to exhale, release everything. Release both your legs out. We'll cross and take it into another vinyasa. If you're too tired with vinyasas, you can move straight to downward dog. Otherwise, cross your shins. Lift, step back. Chaturanga. Inhale, up dog. Exhale, Adho Mukha, downward dog.

Now from here, we're getting into a hip opener here. Inhale and step the right shin forward. So your left, sorry, your right ankle is towards the left side of the mat and your right knee is towards the outside edge of your mat on the right side. Drop the hips. Drop the shin. Eka Pada Rajakapotasana, pigeon pose. Stay upright here. Lengthen the spine. So you can place your hands forward. For beginners, if you have a stiff back, you might not be able to place your hands behind and really bring the spine upright. But you want to finally move there. So make sure you're not collapsing or you're not shrugging your shoulders up towards your ears. Keep the shoulders relaxed and try to place your hands as far back towards your hips as you can and lengthen up. Feel the stretch in your hips. This is also really great for your endocrine system. Your adrenal glands. Four. Five.

Good. Slowly bring both your hands forward. Lift up and take your right leg back into a boom occur. And let's switch sides. Left leg forward. Bring the shin down. Slide that right leg back. Drop the hips down. If you find it difficult for both the hips to find the mat, you can slide a cushion or a blanket under your left hip. Again find an upright spine. One. Two. Breathe into your left hip. Three. Four. Five. Lovely.

Now you're going to just shift the weight onto your left hip and swing that right leg all the way around and we'll come into Baddha Konasana. Butterfly. Bring the soles of your feet together. Opening them out like the pages of a book. Keep your heels as close to your groin as is comfortable. Ideally around two-fist gap between the groin and the heels is recommended. If there is too much for you, you can take it slightly wider. Hold on to your feet and stay upright. Now try. If you find your knees lifted very high up, you want to spend some time just flapping. Just to loosen up into the inner thighs, into the groin, into the hips. Okay. But if you're sufficiently open, then let's pull forward. Inhale to lengthen the spine. So you can use your hands to kind of pull the feet towards you energetically. As you do that, your chest will lift forward and your sacrum will go back. Exhale to fold down, leading some of your chin. One, two, three, four, five. Slowly inhale and come back up. Exhale, bring your knees together and very gently lie down on your back.

Now we get into a bridge pose and subsequently we come into shoulder stand. Very, very good for your thyroid. So we'll start with Setu Bandhasana bridge pose. Bring your feet about hips width apart, parallel to each other. Hands by your side, palms facing down. On the inhale, lift the hips up. One vertebra at a time. Slide the shoulder blades under so you can lift up higher. Feel the compression in the throat, the front of your throat and stay five. Four, three, squeeze the glutes. Two, one, good. Exhale, slowly come back now.

Now if you're not comfortable with shoulder stand, you can continue doing this bridge pose. But I would suggest everybody learn shoulder stand. So Sarvangasana is such a beneficial posture, especially for hormonal balance. So for Sarvangasana you can lift your legs up, lift the hips up, support your lower back and start to lift, lift, lift, lift, bringing your pelvis closer to your face and lifting the legs straight up. The chin is pressed into your chest. Stimulating your thyroid. Three, two, one.

We'll slowly take it into Halasana, plow pose, slowly bringing the legs all the way back behind you. If you cannot bring the feet all the way back, you can use something. You can use a chair, a wall, you can use a bed couch, whatever is available. Release your hands if your feet touches firm ground. One, two, three, four, five. Release your hands and use them as brakes to come down. One vertebra at a time without plonking yourself down. Release the legs slowly all the way down.

We'll finish with Matsyasana fish pose. Bring your hands under your body. Extend both your legs. Use your elbows to lift up, head and chest up and then drop just the crown of your head down towards them. Extending the front of your throat, counters the compression that we did with Sarvangasana, bridge pose, Halasana. Three, four, five. Inhale, bring the chin to your chest. Exhale to release head down, spine down. Release your hands and completely relax in Savasana.

Focus on decreasing the rate of your respiration. That will happen automatically by observing the breath. Stay here completely relax for as long as it serves you. Thank you so much for joining me today. As with any worthwhile practice, you need to practice consistently and make necessary lifestyle changes in order to see a lasting and effective change in your body. I wish you all the best.