Your body houses the secrets to a beautiful, fresh looking, radiant skin like that of a movie star. Today we let you in on the secrets!
Most of our skin problems come from poor blood circulation or presence of toxins in our system – unless you have been exposing your skin to sun and dust too much. Regular practice of Yoga asanas followed up by a deep restful meditation, a healthy nutritious vegetarian diet, use of purely herbal applications as beauty products for your skin such as herbal cleansers, moisturizers, serums and masks that come from nature – can all give you the dreamy flawless skin that has evaded you for years.
In this second part of our Yoga guide we continue to prepare you for the bounty of compliments coming your way, for a flawless naturally blossoming skin. Let’s get on the mat already!
After the breathing exercises, let’s get down to a few Yoga asanas that work on your blood circulation and helps purge your body of the toxins that have been giving you skin problems.
A) How to practice Palm Tree Pose or Tadasana?
-Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
-Stand straight and then as you breathe in,
-lift your hands up, make a Namaste pose with the hands.
-And then slowly stretch the body and raise the arms keeping the palms together for 5-6 long deep breaths. As you exhale slowly relax the posture.
-Repeat this cycle 5 times
B) From the tree pose move into Standing Forward Bend or Hastapadasana
-Move the hips backward, and slowly start bending forward from your back.
-As you bend forward, breathe out completely and then you can draw in your tummy.
C) How to do the Triangle Pose or Trikonasana?
-Spread the legs about 3 feet apart
-Turn the right ankle 90 degrees toward the outside and the left ankle remains straight toward the front.
-Pelvis and chest are facing forwards.
-As you breathe in, take both hands up by the sides parallel to the floor in alignment with the shoulders
-and in this position, slowly bend to the right side.
-Try to touch your right ankle with your right hand and
-left hand is 90 degrees from the floor up in the air.
-Twist your neck to the left side and look at your left hand.
-Stay in this posture for 5-10 long deep breaths.
-Slowly come up as you breathe in and relax your hands.
-Now switch the orientation of the feet and repeat to the other side
D) Steps to practice Chair pose or Utkatasana
-Lift both the hands up from the front and arrive at a 45-degree angle midway between parallel to the floor and straight over your head.
-Slowly as you breathe out, bend your knees and your body will descend, push your hips all the way back, keep the entire spinal cord straight.
-Your hands are up, biceps touching the ears. Look in front and stay there for 5-7 long breaths.
E) Move into Sitting Forward Bend or Paschimottanasana
-Sit with legs together and stretched out in front of you.
-As you breathe in, lift your head up and look up. Raise your arms over your head.
-As you breathe out, squeeze your belly in and slowly bend forward.
Important: Bend from your lower back. Do not bend from the middle of the spine. Bend all the way from the hip joint.
-Stay there and continue breathing for 3-5 long breaths. Every time you breathe out, draw in your navel and take your mind to the abdomen region.
F) Wind-relieving pose or Pawan Muktasana
As you are lying on your back, breathe in and bend your knees.-Hold them with your hands.
-Interlace your fingers around folded knees and
-as you breathe out lift your head up.
-Try to touch your knees to the chest and nose.
-Stay there for 3-4 deep breaths.
-Relax your head back and slowly relax your fingers and knees in that order.
G) Yoga Nidra or Yogic sleep
Having felt the stretch in all other parts of the body, now it is time to rest and let the body cells relax. It is very important that after doing asanas, we either finish the session with a soothing guided meditation or with Yoga Nidra (Yogic sleep). Without proper rest after the asanas, you miss out on the most important experience of Yoga which is a deep spiritual rest that your body gets after having exhausted the Rajasic energy in the body through focused activity.(With inputs from With inputs from Jai Desai, a Sri Sri Yoga corporate trainer for over a decade
Disclaimer: This article is only for informative purposes. It is strongly recommended that we learn and practice these asanas under the guidance and supervision of a trained and certified Sri Sri Yoga faculty member.
