Illustration of Pose

Setting Up

While You Are In the Pose

Benefits

1. Supported Savasana

•Use 2-3 Single-fold blankets set up in a staircase. (Make the staircase more gradual if you have back problems.)

•Sit at one end with the blankets touching your sacrum.

•Lie down with your back on the blankets, your arms out to the sides, and your legs comfortably apart.

•Position your forehead higher than your chin as if looking into your heart. You may create an extra fold in the top blanket to prop up your head.

•An eyebag is optional.

•Direct your attention to your breath.

•Begin belly breathing.

•Try practicing the Centering Breath:

1. Take a long, slow gentle inhalation through your nose.

2. Follow the inhalation with a long, slow, gentle exhalation through your nose.

3. Take several normal cycles of breath through your nose until you feel refreshed.

•When you are ready to come up, gently roll to one side off the blankets and use your arms to come up.

•By focusing on your breath, you allow your mind to be still.

•You learn to be more in tune with your body.

•It lowers your blood pressure and heart rate. It releases muscular tension, reduces fatigue, improves sleep, enhances your immune system, and helps to manage chronic pain.

2. Supported Backbend

•You need two Long-roll blankets. One goes under your back just below your shoulder blades, and the other is rolled open so it just supports your neck and cushions your head. Put a Short-roll blanket under your knees.

•Your arms rest out to the side.

•Tuck your shoulder blades under.

•Let your body sink into the props.

•This helps reverse the effects of bad posture (rounding forward).

•It energizes the body.

3. Supported Bound-Angle

•Set up a staircase stack of blankets as in the first pose. Create an extra fold in the top blanket to support your neck/head.

•Sit at the end of the blankets and place the soles of your feet together.

•You need a strap with a buckle which you will loop around your lower back (your sacrum) and around your feet. Put the strap through the buckle.

•Support your knees with blocks, blankets, or pillows.

•Lie down on the staircase and let your arms rest out at the sides (you can also prop them on Double-fold blankets).

•Adjust the strap so your back feels supported and comfortable.

•Practice belly breathing and the centering breath.

•When you are ready to come out, use your hands to help your thighs come together so your knees are bent. Roll to one side and use your arms to press yourself up.

•This pose reduces high blood pressure.

•It helps people with breathing problems and women during menstruation and menopause.

4. Mountain Brook

•Put a Short-roll blanket under your knees.

•Sit in front of two Single-fold blankets in a stack and lie down, so they are just below your shoulder blades.

•Place a Long-roll blanket under your neck.

•Let your arms rest out to the sides between the stack and the roll.

•Your throat should feel open and relaxed with your head tilted slightly back.

•Breathe normally.

•Relax your body beginning with your face, jaw, and throat.

•Bring your attention to your heart and feel the openness.

•Relax your abdomen.

•To come out, use your hands to gently lift your head and move the stack and roll away from your upper body. Rest on the floor and then roll to one side before coming up.

•This pose counteracts the slumped posture of our body during the day.

•It opens the chest to help you breathe more freely.

•It improves digestion, reduces fatigue, and can lift your mood.

5. Supported Bridge

•Your head and shoulders rest on the floor in this pose.

•Place 2-3 Single-fold blankets in a stack that will support your torso.

•If you have enough blankets, you can set up another stack for your legs, otherwise they can rest on a block. Your legs and feet are even with your torso.

•Let your arms rest out to the side in a comfortable position.

•Do not jam your chin into your chest. You can use a small rolled towel to support the curve of your neck if needed.

•Bring your attention to your breathing. Feel the lateral expansion of your lungs.

•To come out, slide off the stack in the direction of your head. Rest on the floor and roll to one side when you are ready to come up.

•This pose drains the blood from your legs after long hours of standing and sitting. This reduces soreness in the leg and hip muscles.

•It reduces fatigue.

•It helps get rid of headaches.

6. Elevated Legs-Up-The-Wall

•Place a stack of two Double-fold blankets with the long side several inches away from the wall.

•Place a Single-fold blanket at a 90 degree angle to the middle of the stack.

•Sit on the stack with one of your shoulders against the wall. Roll back and swing your legs up the wall.

•Your body/head should be supported by the Single-fold blanket, and your arms should rest out to the side.

•Your tailbone should be off the stack and descending to the floor.

•Take slow and steady breaths.

•You will feel the blood draining from your legs.

•To come out, bend your knees and roll off your support. Press yourself up with your arms.

•It reduces the effects of stress.

•It quiets the mind.

•It refreshes the heart and lungs.

•It is good for people who retain water and whose legs swell easily.

•It helps people with varicose veins.

•It alleviates the effects of standing for long periods of time.

•It helps reduce the effects of jet lag.