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Yoga Sequence to Open the Throat and the Abdomen, Opening the Breath
Supine Pelvic Tilt – image/photo of pose
The Preparation:
Supine Pelvic Tilt: The Position for the Stretch: resting on your back on the floor, knees bent, feet on the floor, hip distance apart, arms extended to side palm up.
First lie down on the floor in a body-friendly position, called Supine Pelvic Tilt.
This pose is a good one from which to observe how you are at the moment in your body. You want to take this into your awareness, for when you are done with your program you will then be able to see and sense what has and has not changed. Assume the position as follows:
Technique:
Lie down on your back, knees bent, feet hip distance apart, head and neck supported if needed, arms stretched to the side at shoulder level, palms facing up.
In this position, examine how you are in your body: Are you comfortable? What muscles feel tight? How are you breathing? How do you feel – in your mind, in your emotions?
Tuck your feedback away as information, as how you are as you begin your program. Nothing about the body is fixed, as you will see.
Let us now work with ourselves, moving to stretch and to open the head and neck areas, which will in turn relax and open the throat.
Supine Pelvic Tilt – Relaxing the Head and Neck: Opening the Throat
Head Side to Side: Image
Technique: Slowly turn the head from side to side – several times, working with movement, with breath. After you have stretched like this for several repetitions, allow the head to remain to one side, holding for 3 breaths, before returning back to center.
Tips for Mind Body Power: When you make the movements, when you remain to the side, breathe into the muscles you are using. Soften them, release them. Observe what you see and sense as you work in relaxing them. Observe the throat. Let it be a passage for the breath not the controller. Bring your mind again, into your muscles, relaxing any tension, any tightness, down, out of the neck, out of the body. Give your body whatever detailed instructions you need. You know best how to talk to yourself.
In these motions, there is no sense of pushing – no forcing, no bulldozing through areas that are tight. Move, instead, to that point that only you know within yourself where you feel heightened resistance. Remain there and breathe. Listen to your body. Breathe into the resistance; watch to see if it eases. You did not get uptight in a day; be patient with yourself, work gently. You can and will change.
Nothing stays the same. Nothing! When it does, we have given ourselves the same negative feedback loop, in what we think, in what we expect, in what we feel. Speak to yourself in positive tones. The body will hear you. The body will listen.
You’re on a journey. Let the life force within you flow. Flexibility in thought and in emotion leads to flexibility in our bodies.
Life as a straight line would be boring, would it not? So use your yoga. Working with your body, you create your own path, become your own vessel. It’s fun when you see how life does not ride you. You ride life. Remember, it’s all from the inside out!
Head Side to Side-Acupressure Release – Image
Technique: Form the hands comfortably into fists, thumbs beside the folded fingers. Place the fists underneath the head, folded fingers/thumbs positioned on the bones that form the base of the skull. Turn the head slowly, from side to side, allowing the hands to massage the base of the skull. This feels wonderful. So much tension accumulates in this area and using the fists for a self massage to the base of the skull greatly releases the tight and heavy feeling there.
Use the same sequence of turns as in Head Side to Side for your technique: Turn your head in each direction, slowly, observing, releasing. Then turn to one side and hold, one fist is on the bone behind the ear, the other in the center of the base of the skull.
At no time does either hand place pressure on the cervical vertebrae. The pressure is all directed towards the base of the skull.
If you want a greater sense of pressure to the base of the skull, cradle your head on your fists to do the turn/hold/massage.
A Gem of Synergy/Truth:
Esoteric writing refers to the area at the base of the skull as “the mouth of God.” This space forms the junction in the human energy anatomy where the physical man meets the spiritual man. Meditation teaches us to bring our focus into our crown, directing our energy unto the base of the skull. Is there no wonder that the mouth of God should be the projector for our inner vision (our third eye)? I have long known this to be the case. There is a synthesis to this spiritual information. You cannot use one modality without truly using them all. Recognize the depth of the message here. Allow this concept to be a part of your sense of opening. The energy I want you to come to know is synergy: Science/Spirit. This is an intuitional science; do not restrict yourself with any one else’s ideas or technique. Spirit is science that is technique-less. Be open. Receive and know. The teacher is always the inner teacher. Where is the magic of healing? Easy, this is within you. Look in, not out. Spirit you are. You will find your way.
Knees Dropped to Side: Opening the Abdomen
After opening/relaxing the throat area, we turn to the abdomen. Opening here is also essential to having our bodies relax and having us able to breathe, more deeply, more easily.
Position: Supine Pelvic Tilt: Knees Dropped to Side Image
Technique:
With your upper body positioned in Supine Pelvic Tilt, (arms extended to side, shoulder level), move the bent knees and feet closer together to where they are touching or close to touching, the feet remain resting on the floor.
In this position, allow the joined knees to fall to one side, stretching to the side only as far as is comfortable to your body. Your hips, your back and your shoulders will tell you where to stop. Honoring what you sense to be your position of heightened resistance, enjoy the stretch.
Breathe.
Bring the knees back to center and move to the side in the opposite direction. Stay there; breathe.
Make these movements, knees to the side, feet turning as you do, back and forth several times.
Mind/Body Power: As you make these stretching movements, you will feel the opening you are looking for in your body. Not only do the solar plexus/abdominal areas move more easily so that your diaphragm moves more easily, but also there is a sense of ease and opening in the area of the upper chest.