International Yoga Day: Here are yoga poses for deeper cleansing of body and mind

Yoga, along with diet and herbs like Tulsi, can help with the body’s natural detoxification process.

Calming and grounding Yoga poses are best. For example, Tree Pose (Vrksasana) and Mountain Pose (Tadasana) root your feet into the ground, calming the nervous system and reducing stress. Warrior I and II are also beneficial, helping to ground while building strength.

• Tree Pose (Vrkasana)
• Mountain Pose (Tadasana) Palms can also be facing out
• Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I) Arms can also reach towards the sky
• Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)

Poses that compress the pelvis, including all forward bends (standing or sitting) are also very healing.

Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)

15-20 minutes of asana practice in the morning before 10am is best, and it is important to practice with an empty stomach which means 30 minutes after drinking liquids and 2-3 hours after eating anything.

Practicing 30 minutes after ingesting your Panchakarma ghee in the morning and before breakfast is the best time, because your body has had the opportunity to clean itself out as you sleep, and your digestive tract is empty and at rest. If you can’t practice in the morning, practice when you can!

End your practice with a long, deep corpse pose (Savasana) for an additional 10–20 minutes. As you perform Savasana, pay close attention to each part of your body and imagine your breath releasing any tension or pain that you find.

Corpse Pose (Savasana)

Paying close attention to the transitions between poses is important, as is performing them with conscious awareness by breathing deeply using the Ujjayi (pronounced oo-jai) breathing technique, also called “Darth Vader Breathing.” Ujjayi balances the cardio-respiratory system and the nervous system, eases stress, and induces a deeper state of meditation as you move through your yoga postures.

How to perform Ujjayi breathing:

Inhale your breath slightly more deeply than normal. With your mouth closed, exhale through your nose while constricting your throat muscles. If you are doing this correctly, it should sound like Darth Vader’s breathing from the movie Star Wars.

Another way to get the hang of this practice is to try exhaling the sound “haaaaah” with your mouth open. Next make that sound with your mouth closed, feeling the flow of air out of your nasal passages. Once you have mastered this outflow, use the same method for the inflow breath, gently constricting your throat while you inhale.

(The article has been authored by Organic India.)