Yoga is an art of making yourself closer to your body and mind. You practice yoga to reduce your extra muscles or strengthen your body parts but, in the summer, you can practice different yoga poses that can keep you cool even without the bite of cool watermelon or a chilled beer! You can make these exercises a habit in your daily routine to calm yourself when you are in stress or suffering from body heat problems. Let’s cool down then!
Sitali Breath
In Sanskrit, “sitali” means “cooling,” This yoga form is a breathing technique that has an incredible cooling effect on the body.
Process of sitali breath:
You have to sit down in a comfortable position or cross-legged and make your shoulders relaxed, the spine is straight, belly is soft, and the chin is in a parallel plane with the floor. Before you start the Sitali Breath, take two or three deep air inside and out through your nose. Slowly sip air by rolling your tongue in a tube form (you can even purse your lips in an “O” shape if you cannot turn your tongue) and see that the tongue is a holding the shape against the backside of the bottom of your teeth or by resting your tongue on the upper area of the mouth. Now, take air through the tube formed by your tongue and fill your lungs and belly with air. For exhaling the air do not exhale from your tube tongue but close your mouth and exhale slowly through your nose. Practice this particular breathing five to ten times for the cooling effect.
You can also practice yoga after a sweaty Zumba class or rigorous exercise, for it brings your body heat to be normal, and you can have your own air-condition feeling.
Standing Wide-Legged Forward Bend
When you practice any yoga pose that requires you to bend forward, it helps you reflect inward. You can refresh your mind and let go of the dark cloud that clutters your brain on this hot, humid day
with this yoga pose.
Process of Standing wide-legged forward bend:
In a mountain pose, stretch your legs with a distance between your feet from 3-4 inches, depending on your height. Bring your hands to your hips and rest them. Be sure that the inner feet are parallel to each other and then inhale and lift your chest.
While you exhale, maintain the front torso’s length and lean the body from the hip joints. Continuing this, press your fingertips onto the floor directly below your shoulders. Move your spine into the back torso, and bring your head up, looking upward towards the ceiling.
Take breaths while you practice this posture, and you can even rest the crown of your head on the floor. Keep your arms at the same parallel distance to each other and broaden your shoulders, keep shoulders away from your ears.
Hold the posture to a limit of 30 seconds to 1 minute and slowly bring the hands back to the floor. While you inhale, rest the hands on your hips and then back to the mountain position.
Child’s Pose
Child’s pose or in Sanskrit name Balasana encourages you to relax, restore, and melt by you, allowing you to cool down from the summer heat.
Process of doing child’s pose:
Kneel on the floor and sit on your heels touching your big toes, then separate your knees wide as your hips. Eventually, lay your hands on the floor and bring your shoulders towards the floor. Exhale while you sit between your thighs. Lengthen tailbone away from the back of the pelvis by lifting the head’s base away from the end of your neck. Hold this pose for 30 seconds or 1 minute and come to the normal place by slowly inhaling the air.
Child’s pose has different benefits other than cooling you down like it stretches the hips, thighs, and ankles; calms the brain by relieving stress and fatigue; normalizes back and neck pain.
Tree Pose
Tree pose encourages balance, both mentally and physically, while helping you divert your mind in the direction of calmness and focus when it feels like you can sense every bead of sweat dripping down your body.
Supine Spinal Twist
Supine spinal twist is a reclined pose that helps calm the mind, especially when your brain gets filled with thoughts of refreshing going for a trip to a cold station, chilled ice-creams, or relaxing in the swimming pools.
Process:
Sit down and lie down on your back, bend your knees with knees pointed up towards the ceiling. Then, lift your hips and move them towards your right. While you exhale and draw your right knee towards your chest, extend the left leg on the floor in a flat position and inhale while holding the position. Crossing your right knee, exhale on the left side of your body. Now, open up your right hand in line with your shoulders and rest your left hand in a T shape. Turn the head to the right side and hold the pose for five to ten breaths.
Single-Nostril Breathing
This yoga is an effective breathing technique because it activates the subtle channel by focusing on breathing only through the left nostril. Single-nostril breathing helps you reconnect you with the center of the earth; this pose is a process that helps in the body’s cooling channel, soothes, and grounds.
Sit in a comfortable position while you breathe out with your left nostril and inhale air through your right nose. Repeat the pose by closing the right and exhale through the left nostril. Continue in this manner by inhaling through the right nozzle and exhaling left for 1 to 3 minutes.
Fish Pose
This pose stretches the abdominal muscles and creates space in the intercostals (muscles between the ribs), hence alleviating respiratory issues and bringing calming oxygen into the system.
Benefits of Fish Pose
Help to mobilize and strengthen the upper back and neck; it enhances the quadriceps; opens the shoulders in extension; stretches the chest.
Not only limited to these but, there is a lot of yoga poses that are helpful to cool down your body temperature like the half split, downward-facing dog pose.
See Also: Anulom Vilom: A Yoga technique for Balance
See Also: Importance of Spine in Yoga and Meditation
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