Summer Yoga Practice Tips

Summer Yoga Practice Tips

Each season offers an opportunity to align our inner environment with the natural rhythms and cycles of nature. Find harmony within yourself by changing your personal yoga practice, to balance the qualities brought about by the season. The summer months bring heat, excess activity, indigestion and burning eyes. When you practice specific postures, pranayama (breathing exercises), meditation and visualization techniques, you can reduce excess heat on a physical, mental and emotional level.

Practice yoga this summer with more ease and calm, slowing the flow of your being to create a refreshing and restorative practice of your own. An extremely good way to do this is to subscribe to Milena Goleva's online yoga studio here. The practices are tailored to each moment and the energy situation of each season so that you can return to a state of balance after each yoga and meditation practice.

And on the studio page, you can try the free yoga practices by Milena Goleva HERE.

And here's some additional information on summer-appropriate practices

Posy

The poses below send a calming wave through the nervous system and support the body's attempts to self-regulate and find balance. Poses that are closer to the ground are helpful in warm weather, as the ground provides coolness, stability, and a sense of grounding. Most importantly, don't take yourself or the pose too seriously. Encourage the softening of force and tension to cultivate more fluidity and enjoyment of body, breath and movement.

Forward folds

Forward bends cool the body, reduce stress and anxiety, stimulate the liver and kidneys, improve and aid digestion, and revitalize the mind. Examples include child's pose or any wide-legged forward fold that releases heat from the inner thighs.

Spinal twists

Gluteal and lying backbends massage the internal organs and the digestive and excretory system, removing excess heat and tension from the torso, abdomen, intestines and liver.

Inverted postures supported

Assisted inversions, such as raised legs against the wall, calm the mind and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, creating a sense of calm, balance and ease.

Gentle curves of the spine backwards

such as Cobra or gentle Pisces pose, support healthy thyroid function, which is responsible for internal temperature regulation and metabolism.

Pranayama

During your yoga practice, focus on a smooth, flowing breath with a full exhalation to calm the body and mind. Exhaling longer brings out the body's natural response to relaxation, calms and restores the nervous system. Strong, active pranayama practices tend to overheat the body and are not suitable for the summer season. Try these cooling pranayama techniques instead.

Sheetali's breathing

Extend your tongue and roll it up like a tube. Inhale slowly through the curled tongue. Close your mouth and lightly touch the tip of your tongue to the tip of your mouth. Exhale through the nose. This breath is said to cool the brain, reduce inflammation and fever, and purify the blood.

Sitkari breath

If you can't roll the tongue, you can get all the benefits of Sheetali by making Sitkari. To practice Sitkari, simply let the tongue float in the mouth while the teeth lightly touch. Inhale through an open mouth with clenched teeth. Exhale through the nose while touching the tip of the tongue to the tip of the mouth.

Visualization

Invite cooling visualizations into your practice. For example, in tree pose, imagine a cool breeze blowing through and waving the branches. During shavasana (reclining pose), imagine refreshing water flowing through your body from head to toe.

Meditation

Consider mantra meditation, the silent repetition of words or phrases. "So hum" translates to "I am this". This practice uses breath and mantra to lull the mind. Breathe in saying "ooooooooh" and then slowly breathe out saying "hmmmm". An even better option is to immerse yourself in the abundant author's meditations of Milena Goleva - make your choice here:

We recommend the guided meditations by Milena Goleva. SEE HERE.

Shavasana

Try lying on your back in Shavasana at the end of your practice, allowing your core to connect with the ground. The cooling, grounding qualities of the earth relax the mind and body and relieve tension in the abdomen. Stay in the pose a little longer to give the mind and body time to relax, settle and completely cool down.