FIERCE Gift Idea: Take these tips and include them in a Mother's Day card along with a gift certificate from Keylime Athletic Wear in Sherwood Park and now in City Centre Mall, too! Give the Gift of SANITY!
By Danielle Mika Nagel
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| picture via Exercise.com |
Multitasking can easily become overwhelming. Try this simple posture for a few minutes to ground your thoughts and slow your heart rate down.
• Sit in a comfortable position, either on the floor or a chair.
• Rest your palms on your thighs or place your dominant hand on top of your non-dominant hand.
• Close your eyes.
• Take a couple of minutes to let go of what has happened prior to this moment and what is going to happen after this moment.
• Relax your entire body, including your jaw, neck and shoulders.
• Start to take a deeper inhalation through your nostrils as you constrict the throat muscles slightly. This will be an audible breath.
• Exhale completely through your nostrils as you constrict your throat muscles again.
• Keep your awareness at your breath as you continue to take these long, slow deep breaths through your nostrils.
• Keep it gentle, relaxed and maintain the intention of letting go, each time you exhale.
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| illustration via Abs Exercise Advice |
Carrying your children, groceries, laptop, diaper bag, yoga bag, etc. can start to wear you down. Take a few of these gentle backbends to counteract the heavy lifting and back rounding we do each day.
• Start lying down on your belly with your legs extended back, tops of the feet on the mat.
• Root through the tops of the feet and legs and spider your fingertips off the mat onto the floor.
• Lengthen your tailbone down towards the earth, inhale and slowly start to peel your chest off the floor.
• Unclench your buttocks and your teeth and lift your heart.
• Roll the shoulders back and down, keeping the shoulder blades hugging in towards one another.
• Keep the back of your neck and forehead relaxed.
• Exhale and slowly lower back down towards the earth.
• Repeat 5 times.
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| picture via Skinny Secret |
Let gravity support you as you lengthen out the backside of your body. Enjoy the benefits of an inversion with increased circulation and oxygen to the brain.
• Stand with your feet about hip-bone distance and somewhat parallel apart.
• Lift all your toes and fan them out.
• Release your toes back down to the earth with space in between each toe. (make a mental note to yourself to make time to take care of your feet)
• Root through all four corners of your feet.
• Inhale and reach your arms overhead.
• Exhale to forward fold, hinging at your hip crease, keeping the abdominals drawn in and your knees bent.
• Bring your fingertips down to the earth. (bent knees are fine and good for supporting your lower back)
• Let go of your head, neck and shoulders and keep your jaw relaxed.
• Hold here for a few deep breaths, keeping the abdominals engaged to support the low back.
• Put a slight bend in your knees, if you haven’t done so already, and slowly roll yourself up to standing, one vertebra at a time.
• Engage your core center to lift you all the way back up.
• Take a couple breaths in a standing position before moving back into activity.
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| picture via Ace Fitness |
Spinal twists promote flexibility in the spine while improving digestion. As mothers, we are always concerned about feeding our kids healthy snacks but we often forget about feeding ourselves!
• Start laying down on the floor with your legs extended.
• Take a moment to just relax and do nothing.
• Hug your right knee in towards your chest and take your leg towards the left.
• Keep your shoulder blades on the floor and extend your arms out into a “t” shape, palms up.
• Gaze towards the right hand and close your eyes.
• Take a few breaths here to lengthen out the right side of your waist and nourish the ascending colon.
• Inhale to come back to center, using your abdominals and release the right leg down.
• Take a moment to notice the difference between the right and left sides of your body.
• Repeat on the other side.
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| picture via Epic Self |
Try this restorative posture, especially if you have been on your feet all day. Use a block, bolster or pillow for support. This pose is a passive variation of Shoulderstand. (avoid during menstruation)
• Start by laying down on the floor with your legs bent, feet on the floor.
• Take your prop and place it underneath your sacrum. (make sure that it is comfortable there. If not, remove the prop and continue without it)
• Hug one knee in towards your chest and then the other.
• Extend your legs up towards the sky without engaging your abdominals, legs or toes.
• Keep the back of your neck relaxed and avoid turning your neck.
• Keep the gaze towards your toes and breath.
• Stay for about 5 minutes.
• Come out slowly by bending one leg, then the other and placing the feet back down to the earth.
• Lift your hips and remove the prop.
For all these postures, make sure that they are comfortable and relaxing. They are here to support your busy life as a mommy!
About: Danielle Mika Nagel, is the studio director for the world’s first Chopra Yoga Center in Vancouver, BC. She is a certified yoga teacher with more than a decade of teaching experience and a proud mom of two. For more information join the conversation on twitter.com/choprayoga or facebook/choprayogacenter.
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