The Air in My Lungs. The Beat of My Heart

“The Prerequisite to true freedom is to decide that you do not want to suffer anymore. You must decide that you want to enjoy your life and that there is no reason for stress, inner pain, or fear. Every day we bear a burden that we should not be bearing. We fear that we are not good enough, strong enough, or that we will fail. We experience insecurity. anxiety, and self consciousness. We fear that people will turn on us, take advantage of us or stop loving us. As we try to succeed and express ourselves, there is an inner weight that we carry. This weight is the fear of experiencing pain, anguish, grief or sorrow. Every day we are either feeling it, or we are protecting ourselves from feeling it. It is such a core influence that we don’t even realize how prevalent it is.”

— Michael A. Singer

One of my favorite ways to ground is by focusing on the air in my lungs, the beat of my heart. I find a place, whether it is my yoga mat, on my bed or on the couch, and I lay down placing one hand on my heart and one on my belly. I close my eyes, and I draw my attention to my breathing. You can feel the rise and fall of your belly as you breath, the beat of your heart in your chest. This is something I often incorporate into my yoga practice or when I am teaching and I highly recommend doing this at the start of this sequence.

As you sit here, stand here, lay here…know that there is air in your lungs for a reason.
You are here for a reason.
Your heart beats in your chest right now, along with through all the pain and sorrow, all the good times and the bad, even through the night while you sleep.
You are infinitely beautiful and you are utterly irreplaceable.
And sometimes we forget, so here is a practice that can hopefully remind you of just how capable, strong, and special you really are. Even when everything else feels heavy and exhausting.
Always remember, The Air in My Lungs. The Beat of My Heart.

Yin Yoga for the Lungs, the Heart & the Pericardium

If you stand with your arms by your sides and your palms facing forwards, the heart, pericardium and lung meridian run down the front of each arm in three roughly parallel lines.

• The lung meridian runs down the outer line of the front of the arm

• The heart meridian runs down the inner line (closest to the body)

• The pericardium runs between the other two meridians

First off, what is Yin Yoga? Yin Yoga incorporates principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine, with asanas aka postures that are held between 3-10 minutes. It is a slow-paced style of yoga that is accessible to anyone—regardless of their range of motion or flexibility. The shapes woven together to create sequences aim to apply moderate stress to our deeper tissues, like your connective tissues, tendons, ligaments & joints. The result is an increase in your overall range of motion, quicker recovery from workouts, better sleep, ease of stress and tension and a deeper element of connecting with your inner mind.

The sequences are meant to stimulate the channels of the subtle body known as meridians. This is a more meditative approach to yoga and a major component is the awareness of inner silence, the stillness and how you respond in that space. I can do an entire blog post dedicated to this specifically, but todays practice was created for stimulating our Lungs and our Heart.

The Lung Meridian controls breath and Energy. It is paired with the Large Intestine Meridian. Together with the Heart Meridian it assists with circulation of the blood. The lungs are associated with clear thinking and communication forming a bridge between body and mind.

The variety of shapes I will guide you through today are here to help you release tension in areas of the heart and the lungs—helping you breathe deeper and release any ‘armor’ you have not been able to shake off.

When we guard and block off our hearts, we start to disconnect ourselves with the world around us, ultimately closing doors and weakening our immune system.

The heart is called the 'King' of the organs and it commands all of the organs and viscera, houses the spirit, and controls the emotions. In Chinese, the word for 'heart' (hsin) is also used to denote 'mind'.  When the heart is strong and steady, it controls the emotions; when it is weak and wavering, the emotions rebel and prey upon the heart-mind, which then loses its command over the body.

Physiologically, the heart controls the circulation and distribution of blood, and therefore all the other organs depend upon it for sustenance.  Thoughts and emotions influence the function of various organs via pulse and blood pressure, which are controlled by the heart, where emotions arise.  Internally, the heart is functionally associated with the thymus gland, which is located in the same cavity and forms a mainstay of the immune system.  Extreme emotions such as grief and anger have an immediate suppressive effect on the immune system by inhibiting thymus function, a phenomenon that has long been observed but little understood in Western medicine.

Full Sequence
Heart bench 10 minutes
Tricep Stretch with **shoelace legs
**To make this pose into a hip stretch as well, feel free to take shoelace legs.
Caterpillar
Tricep Stretch with **shoelace legs
Release, allow yourself to melt towards the ground.
Be still.
Full body stretch.
Come onto your belly
Sphinx/inner groin stretch
Seal/inner groin stretch
Lower down and thread R arm
Release and come back to center.
Be still.
Full body stretch
Sphinx/inner groin stretch
Seal/inner groin stretch
Lower down and thread L arm
Release and come back to center.
Childs pose
Puppy
Slowly walk hands in, come to sit up
Lie back
Savasana

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