Guest Blog by Lisa Rosenthal
It’s Valentines Day. It’s Valentine’s Day week. It’s a time that’s about love. Maybe you think that’s about someone else loving you; have you considered that it could start closer to home? How about loving yourself?
Kristen Darcy asked me, even gently challenged me with the following: is there a yoga pose or poses that can do all of the following: enhance fertility, be safe while in fertility treatment, be self loving and maybe even be fun? That‘s a challenge easily met.
There are literally dozens of yoga poses that can accomplish all those things.
In the six years since I created Fertile Yoga, I’ve created many sequences and discovered many asanas (poses) that can work with your goals of becoming and staying in a healthy pregnancy.
For Valentines Day, here are a few that can do all those things and create and support a loving environment for you to practice yoga and self care at the very same time.
Two of my very all time favorite poses, regardless of where you are in your reproductive cycle, are Cat (Marajari) and cow (Bitilasana) which can be done on hands and knees, sitting cross legged or even in a chair. I’ve even done this pose driving my car! The premise of the pose is simple; the undulation of the spine, creating openness and energy flow. Begin by coming to a neutral back, crown extended, tail bone extended. While you inhale, your belly drops (if on hands and knees), your pelvic bowl tilts, your heart/chest extends and your chin rises. This is cow. As you begin your exhale; your pelvic bowl curls so that your tailbone presses towards the earth, your sacrum/lower back presses up to the sky, your shoulders come towards your ears and your chin comes to rest towards or on your chest. This is cat (think of a Halloween cat, arching its back, hissing).
This pose can afford considerable emotional release and relief as well. Closing your eyes while moving through your breath and movement is relaxing and restorative. Do each pose between ten and twenty times. An extra added benefit is that it’s thought to strengthen the pelvic floor.
These asanas are a way to love yourself with short term, medium term and long term benefits. Short term, your body will enjoy the simple, basic goodness that you are offering while you’re doing it. Medium term, you can experience extra comfort and the release of previously collected stress throughout the day you’ve practiced them. Long term, you will stay healthier and more supple, in your spine, your breath, your heart and your emotions.
I wish you love and peace.
