Come into Bow Pose: lying on your stomach, reach back and grab your ankles and arch your body up like a bow.
“Pull the muscles of the thigh to a corrective point that they can react with the body”
After 2 minutes stick your tongue out as far as possible and breathe heavily through your mouth. (This is Singha Praanayam, the “breath of the lion.” The taste of the tongue will change after a few seconds.)
Continue for 1 1/2 minutes.
TOTAL TIME: 3 1/2 minutes
—Yogis believe that pain in the thigh muscles during these exercises indicates that the levels of potassium and magnesium are off and that the mental health is not in good shape.
Camel Pose: from a sitting position on your heels, rise up onto your knees. Tuck your tailbone under to keep your pelvic bone stable and aligned over your knees. Lift your heart up and lengthen your spine. Reach back to grab your ankles or your heels. Allow your head to drop backwards. Stick out your tongue as far as possible and begin the “Breath of the Lion.”
TIME: 1 1/2 Minutes.
Frog Pose: squat down, balancing on the balls of your feet, your heels are off the ground but touching each other. Place your fingertips on the ground between the feet. Your head faces forward. Inhale and straighten your legs, raising the buttocks high while keeping your heels off the ground. (The head moves toward knees while the fingertips stay on the ground.) On the exhale return to the squatting position.
Continue for a total of 108 Frogs. In class, the students counted aloud from 1 to 108.
—“This exercise straightens out the mind in a couple of minutes.”
Relax in Easy Pose for up to 11 Minutes.
Yogi Bhajan said that by regularly practicing exercises 1 and 2 for 3 minutes each and then doing 108 Frog Poses you can achieve physical and mental health. (For this purpose, all three exercises are to be done with the tongue extended and “the breath of the lion.” He noted that he did not teach exercise #3 with Breath of the Lion in class because the class was not vet ready for it.)
Celibate Pose Variation: from a sitting position on your heels move your heels out to the sides so that your buttocks are resting on the floor. Spread your knees as far apart as possible. Clasp your hands behind your back. From this position lower your torso forward to the floor and rise back up, moving your shoulders from side to side weaving “like a snake.” Continue this up-and-down-torso and side-to-side-shoulder movements for 3 Minutes. Dance your spine.
TIME: 3 minutes
Lie on your back, bring your knees to your chest and lock your arms around your knees. While holding yourself in this position, bounce your body up and down on the floor. Keep the arms locked tight. “Keep the hand lock perfect…and try to free yourself.” (When you have a sexual imbalance, your mood is always off and you act crazy or depressed, yogis advise that three minutes of this exercise can bring you back to normal.)
TIME: 7 Minutes
“Nar Narayan Kriya.” Sit up like a yogi in Easy Pose with your spine straight and your hands resting on your knees. Inhale and powerfully exhale the breath in one stroke so that the sound of the breath leaving the nostrils sounds like “Har.” (Exhale one “Har” per second.) Pump the navel so that the exhalation goes from the navel to the nostrils. Create the sound “Har” with the tip of the nostrils. The rib cage will lift with the power of the breath.
TIME: 3 to 5 Minutes.
—“Stimulate the Ida and Pingala at the tip of the nose. Build the divine breath, the praanic breath, the basic breath.”
Relax on your back and nap.
8 Minutes.
(Yogi Bhajan played the gong.)
TO END: move around, still on your back, wiggling like a fish. Move all of your muscles Dance while lying down.
4 Minutes.
(In class Yogi Bhajan played Dhan Dhan Ram Das Guru by Sangeet Kaur)
Gives a mental balance and clarity.
