Breath Awareness Exercise
We believe as yogis that we have a finite number of breaths on this earth, so treasure each one! Bringing life and prana life force energy into the body to help support you through your practice, reduce stress and calm your nervous system.
Sitting in a cross-legged position (sitting on a block if you need to make it a little more comfortable) keeping the spine long, gently close the eyes, and begin by noticing the breath, feel the flow of your breath in your body, breathing slowly In and out of the nose.
Observe your inhalations and your exhalations; try not to change the breath, just noticing your natural rhythm of breath.
Begin to deepen and lengthen the breath, practicing with a deep, slow, smooth breath, filling the lungs with air on every inhale, while releasing all the stale breath and exhaling fully on your exhales.
Try not to force the breath in, just allow your lungs to fill with air like a balloon.
Breathe deeply here so you feel the belly, ribcage and chest expanding as you breathe in.
Practice this for 5-10 minutes and try to use this breath the whole way through your practice.
If you find yourself returning to your natural shallow breathing, or holding your breath through your practice, then slowly begin to deepen the breath again.
Warrior III: Virabhadrasana III
A powerful pose, warrior three is perfect for building strength, flexibility and importantly balance. Balance translates directly to surfing, whatever level of surfing you’re at, balance plays a vital role in staying standing up on an unstable surface.
Benefits
- Strengthens your core muscles, abdomen, pelvic floor, legs, arms, chest, shoulders and the back
- Stretches your hamstrings and outer thighs
- Improves your balance and focus
- Energises the body
- Calms your mind and nervous system
Getting into Posture:
- Stand at the top of the mat in Tadasana feet hip width apart at the top of the mat. Root the weight into your right foot, grounding down into the floor,
- Bringing your hands onto your hips, with hips squared forwards, engage your core muscles, and on your next exhale, bend into your left leg and slowly extend the leg back while hinging from the hips and leaning your body forwards, gazing at a point ahead of you
- Keep the right knee soft trying not to lock at the knees, bringing your left leg parallel to the floor while keeping both hips in line with each other keeping the spine and legs long
- Still gazing at a point ahead of you, you can keep the hands in prayer over the heart centre, or you can extend the arms ahead of you, palms in while relaxing the shoulders.
- Stay here for 5/10 breaths breathing deeply
- To come out of this slowly step your left leg back to the top of the mat. Repeat on the other side.
