Gentle yoga & meditation practices for spring
I love to offer seasonal practices. Here in southern Tasmania, winters are cold with very short days, and spring is often our rainiest, stormiest season. It’s a good time for nurturing self care practices that keep us feeing warmed, centered and bright.
Here are 6 simple ways of practising to ease the transition through spring for your body and mind…
1. Breathing & meditation practices that leave us feeling light-hearted after the damp and dark of winter. For example, imagine your inhalations starting with your belly expanding and then floating up into the sides of your chest to fill your heart centre with light and energy. Imagine your exhalations floating out to the distant horizon. Practice this breath mindfulness for a few minutes and then notice how you feel. Try this Stable Centre, Radiant Heart guided relaxation, recorded live from our Gentle Yoga class
2. Restorative resting poses that open up our sides and chest to encourage spacious, full breathing. Try this side opening restorative pose or the Pranayama Fold pose.
3. Slow, smooth ankle circles while resting your legs up in a chair to get lymph flowing
4. Slow hip circles to help synovial hydration - just like oiling up your hip joints! You can do these lying on your back with a support behind your head. Mobile hips help your lower back to stay more resilient too. Alternatively, try my 12 minute Lighten Up sequence which includes ankle and hip mobility along with some balancing for grounding, moving through a whole-body gentle wake up.
5. Flowing, meditative upper body movements to relieve stiffness in your neck & shoulders and nourish your heart ventricles. Try my 18 minutes of gentle movement to release your neck & shoulders video.
6. Here in the Huon Valley, spring means really strong winds which can leave us feeling unsettled. When the big winds and big weather changes arrive, it’s good to enjoy grounding or centering practices for steadiness and calm. Try this 5 minute meditation to feel calm & grounded. One of my favourite practices is to imagine I’m breathing out down through my feet, into the earth. The standing Warrior poses are also wonderful for feeling grounded, centered and stable.
I hope you find these tips useful! If you’d like to delve deeper into seasonal practices, and gentle, effective ways of unwinding tension, breathing easier and nurturing your body and mind, I invite you to join my newsletter for complimentary resources.
