10 day yoga challenge

SUIT YOUR NEEDS
Developing a home practice can sometimes feel a bit daunting to yogis at any level of experience. You may feel overwhelmed by what pose to do next, how long to hold a pose or how long to practice for. This series of mini sequences will guide you through a simple practice and give you a taste of the many benefits you can get from a manageable 10 minute daily practice. With an added promise that your home practice will become your best friend and your most important supportive routine for staying physically and mentally, in your own space, in your own time.

Home practice gives you the freedom, in the safety of your own home, to step on your mat when it suits you and practice exactly what you need, as often as you like. Putting aside some time for yourself and developing a home practice gives you the tools to take ownership of your wellness through yoga. Building a relationship with your practice, and getting to know your strengths, your limitations, your favourite asana, helps you tailor your practice to suit your needs.

KEEP IT SIMPLE
Most days my home practice is 10 minutes of a very simple sequence. I give myself plenty of time with warm ups lying on my back and move slowly through some Sun Salutations. In your home practice you can flow at your own pace and listen carefully to how your muscles are feeling. Your body reacts differently to the practice from day to day, and from hour to hour. If you choose the practice in the morning you feel the benefits for the day ahead, if you choose to practice in the evening it will help you unwind from the day and relax after a busy day. Take time to slow down, move with your breath, and stay in the poses a little longer to explore where you feel the stretching and strengthening actions.

GET STARTED
All you need is a yoga mat and enough space to roll it out! Bricks and blocks can be handy props but they’re not essential to get started. You can do these short sequences at any time of the day. The Sun Salutation is a great place to start – it has an array of movements that strengthen and stretch all the major muscle groups. The repetition is very calming and helps to link your breath with the movement.

Sequences are often built of mini flows where you step from one pose straight to the next. You will see these in the 10 sequences above as 2-5 poses enclosed by two arrowed lines. You flow through these connected poses on the right side first (right foot forward) and then take those poses on the left side (left foot forward). Downward Dog or simply Tadasana are often used as the transitional pose between mini flows.

The breath is one of the most important elements of stress relief in yoga. As you move try not to get caught up too much on whether it should be an inhale or an exhale, just don’t forget to keep breathing! At the end of your practice remember to always take Savasana for a minute or two to assimilate your practice and re-enter your day gently.

10 TIPS FOR YOUR HOME PRACTICE
Tip 1 - Little and often is better than doing one hour once a week. These mini sequences will help you establish a short 10 minute yoga routine into your day.

Tip 2 - Try to commit to a 10 day run but if you don’t make it onto the mat don’t beat yourself up. It can sometimes take a bit of time to train your brain into this new healthy habit.

Tip 3 - You don’t need a sacred space to practice. Anywhere your mat fits is perfect – end of your bed, kitchen floor, sitting room.

Tip 4 - Try incorporating your home practice into your morning routine. I find getting on my mat before I start into anything else works best for me. With the best will in the world life can often take over and prevent you from getting onto your mat later in the day.

Tip 5 - If you are getting into the swing of it, repeat that day's mini sequence or add in a few more Sun Salutations. Stay within what feels comfortable to you to establish your mat as a supportive space to come back.

Tip 6 - Move slowly through your practice and enjoy being the boss. Get close to your breath, and take extra breaths in poses you are enjoying. Keep your transitions simple and when in doubt link pose through a Downward Dog or come back to Tadasana at the top of your mat and step back into your next pose.

Tip 7 - When you find a pose that really nourishes you, spend a bit more time in it or add it in throughout your practice even if it is not in that day's flow.

Tip 8 - You can repeat the sequences if there are ones that suit you better. It is more important to try to build a routine than to do something new everyday.

Tip 9 - From the get go embed Savasana into your practice. It is all too tempting to jump up and roll your mat away but I really believe no matter how short it is Savasana is where all you have done on your mat will translate into the benefits.

Tip 10 - Explore other ‘off the mat’ yoga lifestyle choices like mindfulness, conscious living, an eco challenge – embedding the concept of yoga into your whole life.

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

How to build a home practice

PRACTICE ON
Now, more than ever before, your yoga practice is a complete support system for all your physical and mental needs. In all this uncertainty your home practice will give you back a sense of empowerment again. We are all feeling varying degrees of anxiety and fear. Yoga, the breath and a meditation practice will help you get through this unprecedented and challenging period. Cultivating a safe space at home and building a calm environment will not only benefit you, it will also benefit worried kids, family or whoever you may be sharing a space with. To help you get started with these mini flows visit my YouTube where you will find a series of tutorials to accompany these sequences.

THERE TO SUPPORT YOU
We are going through some tough emotional times. Learning to listen to what you need when you step on your mat, and having no expectations of your strength or flexibility, will help to stay calm and well. Be guided by how the practice sits with you, everyday you will feel differently. Some days you might be feeling quite anxious and haven't slept very well. Your practice for that day might be a restorative pose to help you dissolve all your worries away. Other days you might be feeling more energetic and ready to move. Try to get onto your mat each day, even if it is just for a few minutes to mobilise all your joints (ankles, knees, hips, spine & shoulders) to move and sit with more ease for the rest of your day. Home practice will help you to process all that is going on in the world and give you the strength to see this tough period through to the other side.

GETTING STARTED
There are three home sequences to get you started above. The warm ups and cool downs are the same throughout to keep it simple and let you concentrate your energies on the standing sequences. Before you start with the five rounds of cat/cow, lie on your back, place your hands on your belly and take five deep breaths. Then spend a few moments waking up all the joints. Hug your knees to your chest and roll around on your lower back. Keep the left knee hugging and stretch your right leg up and slowly circle the ankle, bend and straighten the leg a few times. Drop your left leg down, hold onto your right knee and circle the knee to warm up the hip joint. Repeat on the left side and you're ready to get started. I have focused on the most common poses in yoga to make sure you can follow the asana illustrations. If there is a pose that you’re not sure of you can find all 108 poses in my asana section. You can narrow down your search by clicking into the asana families in the bar on the right.

When you’re ready to move on you will find lots more in the sequences section. As you become more in tune with what your body needs, delve into the asana section and pick some poses that you’d like to explore. Start with poses that are familiar to you before you get more adventurous. Remember to always take Savasana at the end of your practice to assimilate the time you have invested in your wellness. But most of all, own your practice and enjoy it!

SUN SALUTATIONS
Traditionally practised in the morning as a salute to the rising sun, the Surynamaskaras or Sun Salutations are multifunctional and can be practised at any time of the day. They are the perfect way to start building a home practice. The three versions strengthen and stretch all the main muscle groups, build stamina and prepare you for more challenging poses. They also build heat and increase circulation throughout the whole body.

They include standing poses, forward bends, backbends and inversions. Each asana correlates to either an ‘inhale’ or an ‘exhale’. This makes it a good start to your practice to establish the link between breath and movement. The repetitive quality of the movements relaxes the mind and reduces stress and anxiety.

TRANSITIONS
Bringing your attention to transitions and moving consciously from pose to pose threads the practice together like a string of pearls and cultivates a meditative flow. Slow your practice down and savour the in between moments just as much as the poses themselves.

Sequences are often built of mini flows where you step from one pose straight to the next. You will see these in your four home practice sequences as a selection of 2-5 poses enclosed by two arrowed lines. You flow through these connected poses on the right side first (right foot forward) and then take those poses on the left side (left foot forward). Downward Dog or simply Tadasana are often used as the transitional pose between mini flows.

The breath is one of the most important elements of stress relief in yoga. As you move try not to get caught up too much on whether it should be an inhale or an exhale, just don’t forget to keep breathing!

If you have any questions or are struggling with knowing where to start please feel free to email me at ruth@yogaru.ie. In the face of adversity communities knitting together to help each other is what will see us through this.

Stay safe.

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

Immune system mini flows

THE BENEFITS OF YOGA
We know that the immune system works best when the body is in a state of homeostasis or put simply in balance. Balance is a word strongly connected to the many benefits of yoga. Regardless of the different reasons that bring us to yoga we inherently move towards balance physically and mentally when we practice. Yoga, and its many benefits, is one of the best supports in your toolkit for a strong immune system which helps you stay healthy and balanced. These benefits have been recorded for thousands of years and are only being scientifically proven in more recent years. Below are some answers to the question ‘how does yoga build a strong immune system?’. Along with some easy to access flows with poses that are particularly good at helping to boost your immune system.

YOGA & THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Yoga stimulates several systems in the body which work hand in hand with strong immunity – the nervous, the digestive, the respiratory, the circulatory, the endocrine & the lymphatic systems. Stress related illness, ranging from the common cold, obesity, heart disease and depression, are on the rise. Stress causes inflammation in the body and weakens the immune system. Yoga is known to reduce physical and emotional stress in the body by tapping into the parasympathetic nervous system (rest, digest & restore response) when we use breath awareness; slow mindful movement; and repetitive flows. Yoga also promotes good gut health by stretching and compressing the whole digestive system and encouraging peristalsis (waves of muscular contractions) to remove unwanted waste and toxins from the body. The practice of yoga also brings our attention to the breath. Lengthening and slowing our breath is both very calming for the mind and helps the lungs fight off chest infections. The movement of yoga promotes good circulation which in turn increases the function of the lymphatic (white blood cells and toxin removal) and endocrine (hormone production) system to keep them working more efficiently and in harmony with wellness. For the immune system to work at its best all these systems need to be working in symmetry. Yoga is one of the few disciplines that benefits all these systems with an added bonus of giving you the ‘feel good factor’ too. Although all yoga will help keep these systems in balance, twists, backbends and inversions are the most powerful poses to practice when working with the immune system.

THE BENEFITS OF TWISTS, BACKBENDS & INVERSIONS
In yoga philosophy texts it is said that twists ‘destroy disease’. When we twist we temporarily constrict blood flow and when we release the twist a surge of fresh oxygenated blood rushes back. This twist and release action massages and stimulates the organs and helps the digestive system with maximum nutrition absorption; the respiratory system to build strong lungs; the liver and kidneys to remove toxins; and the lymph system to support white blood cell production. The same principle applies to backbends which stretch the front of the body and stimulate the organs of the abdominal and chest cavity. Backbends are particularly good for expanding lung capacity and opening the chest region. The higher the lung capacity the better our ability to feed all the cells of the body with fresh oxygen.

A healthy gut also has a strong link to our moods and emotional well-being. Stress leads to gut issues and similarly gut issues lead to stress. 95% of serotonin (the happy hormone) is produced in the bowel, stimulating the gut through twists and backbends release these happy hormones into the system and relieve stress, tension and anxiety and allow the body to concentrate on other jobs like building its defences.

Inversions boost circulation and increase blood and lymph flow which helps clear bacteria and toxins from the body and plays a vital role in building a strong immune system. Inversions are hidden everywhere in the practice. They are any pose where the heart is above the head. Along with the obvious poses like handstand and headstand there are lots of opportunities to take inversions in standing forward bends, downward dog, bridge and restorative poses like Viparita Kiranai.

EXPLORING IMMUNE SYSTEM FLOWS IN YOUR PRACTICE
Above are three mini flows, each sequence includes lots of twists, backbends and inversions to your practice to help keep your immune system strong. These three families of poses are all very invigorating and energising poses. For this reason these sequences are best practiced in the morning rather than in the evening. Each pose has a variety of different benefits so it is always good to mix it up as much as possible and alternate between the three sequences when you practice.

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru