Tricks of the trade #3:Ease your rage

Part of the ‘How to do yoga when you don’t have time to do yoga’ series

www.newnessdance.org.uk

I’m not happy to confess it but

I felt like this today.

And I drove to work looking like this.

Rage grew inside me. It didn’t feel nice and it didn’t look pretty.

Sometimes rage is all consuming but sometimes…

it can be tamed (just a little).

Pranayama: Yogic breathing techniques that can be used

to calm the mind and cool the heat.

An effective calming pranayama is called Shitali.

(This is an easy name to remember because you do it to help you stop

feeling like shit)

First, make the tongue like a taco*

* Cats can do this too

Next, breathe in through your tongue – like it’s a straw. Make the breath slow and

deep.

Then take the tongue back inside the mouth, close the mouth and exhale

smoothly through the nose.

If you can’t curl your tongue, close your teeth and breathe in through the sides of your mouth.

Exhale through the nose.

This calming pranayama brings you more into your parasympathetic nervous

system.

When you’re stressed, dwelling in the sympathetic nervous system then your body releases cortisol.

Too much of this cortisol ain’t good for you.

So be pro-active for the sake of your health…breathe.

Shitali.

www.newnessdance.org.uk for more in this series