Hi,
I'm Jen and this is Yoga for Digestion.
This will be a short practice that you can do in the comfort of your bed or couch or on your floor or yoga mat.
So join me for just a few minutes to hopefully get some relief in your belly.
Start by lying down on your back.
And pull your right knee into your chest.
You can extend your left leg long or you can have it bent if that feels better.
And just explore pulling your right knee in different directions toward your right shoulder or your left shoulder.
This posture is also known as wind relieving pose.
So right away we know that this is a great posture for digestion that brings a little bit of compression into the abdomen.
And throughout all of these poses today,
The more you can focus on big,
Deep belly breaths,
The better.
You can think about your breath as being a massage from the inside out of all of your digestive organs.
And let's go ahead and switch legs.
Release your right leg,
Pull your left knee to your chest and do the same thing on this side.
Gently pulling your knee.
In different directions.
Think about expanding your torso in 360 degrees as you breathe.
Breathing deeply.
Not just into your chest and your belly,
But even into your lower back.
Then bring both knees into your chest together and again you can move side to side.
It might also feel nice just to hug your knees in and hold in stillness.
And then let's try happy baby pose.
Separate your knees.
You can either just hold behind your knees or you can reach all the way for your feet.
Again,
Movement,
Massaging side to side might feel nice on your back.
Maybe you want to bring your feet together and hold here in more of a relaxed diamond shape in your legs.
Happy baby rounds out your back which brings some compression into your abdomen.
Of these poses.
Externally massage your belly and then your breath does that internal work.
And then send your left leg long,
Right knee back to your chest one more time.
And this time we'll take it into a twist.
Stack your right hip over your left.
Your knee might be in line with your hip,
Or you could bring your knee up closer toward your chest.
That will bring more compression into your belly.
If that doesn't feel good,
You could take the gentler option.
And just breathe.
And release your right leg long.
Other side,
Pull your left knee to your chest.
And take it to your supine twist.
Rotate your hips so your left is over your right.
And then what feels good on this side?
Do you keep your knee in line with your hip?
Do you want to pull it up toward your chest?
And let's go ahead and come back to center.
Bring both knees to your chest one more time.
And create circles this time.
So I like to hold the tops of my knees,
Circle the knees towards my chest.
Rotate them away.
Every time your thighs come toward your belly,
Create that compression.
And circled.
The other direction.
Course you can stay here longer if you need.
You can repeat any of these.
You can repeat the whole sequence once or twice since it is short,
Maybe even three times.
And then come into tabletop pose.
Onto your hands and knees.
We'll take cats and cows.
Inhale,
Drop your belly,
Look forward.
We'll hang out here for a moment.
Really let your belly relax.
That fall down towards the floor,
The bed.
And just focus on breathing so fully that you get a little stretch through your abdominals as you inhale.
Sometimes I even like to come down to my forearms because Something about being on forearms allows me to really relax my belly even more.
Maybe you even drop your head.
And from this position,
Add a little sway,
Like a dog wagging its tail.
If you're on your forearms,
Come back to your hands,
Back to that cow pose one more time.
Deep breath in.
Exhale to cat,
Tuck your chin.
Inhale to cow,
Lower your belly.
Exhale to cat,
Pull up through your navel.
Do that a few more times with your own breath.
Remember that breath is an internal massage,
So use it.
Drag your breath out so it matches the length of your breath.
Of each posture.
Three more times.
And back to tabletop.
We'll take another twist.
Twists are great for digestion because they do compress the belly.
Inhale,
Reach your right arm high,
Look up toward your hands.
Exhale thread it underneath do that again reach up look up Exhale,
Stretch your hand underneath you as far as you can.
One more time,
Reach.
And twist.
And back to table for the other side.
Lift your left hand,
Look up,
Breathe in.
Exhale,
Twist underneath you.
Inhale,
Reach up,
Look up.
Exhale twist.
One more time.
And back to tabletop.
A couple more cats and cows.
And now for barrel rolls.
In barrel rolls,
You're going to think about moving your entire abdomen in a circle.
So reaching toward the right.
Up toward the ceiling.
To the left.
And down toward the ground.
You can think about barrel rolls as being a combination of cat and cow with side bending as well.
Let's take it the other direction.
And back to tabletop.
Good,
And now just take a seat,
Any comfortable seated position.
Maybe you even lay back down now.
Bring your hands to your belly for some awareness of your breath.
Inhale through your nose,
Feel your belly,
Lift and expand.
And let it go.
Two more times,
Deep breath in through your nose.
Out through your nose.
One more big breath in.
And let it go.
Thank you for joining me today.
I hope this has brought you some relief and remember you can practice this two or three times.
You might also go take a 10 minute walk and then come back and try it again and hopefully you're feeling a little bit better.
Thank you for joining me today.
Take care.
