Detox Series

Excuse Me While I Yogini

Mountain Pose

Many health-minded people detox and cleanse by eating pure foods, juices, and smoothies. I have done some juice feasting and smoothies cleanses the past few years, and I have always thought of detoxing as a result of my eating habits until my yoga training. My teacher led a detox yoga series. This blew my mind!

I can use asanas, breath work, my own body to detox itself? Amazing! After how refreshed I felt in Puerto Rico and doing a detox asana series specifically, I decided to incorporate it into my sadhana. Whenever I feel the need to cleanse, release negativity, renew my mind, I get on my mat and practice a detox series. It is so much more than a physical detox. Yoga brings together mind and body, spirit and heart. I often practice a detox asana series because I am feeling emotionally cluttered, and at the end of the practice I do feel the physical benefits as well even when a physical cleanse was not my main focus. And that is the beauty of yoga! So many reasons to love getting on my yoga mat!!!

The detox series can be altered and adjusted for your needs; I often do different poses each time I practice a yoga detox. There are three main stages to the detox yoga series: stimulate toxins, wring toxins out, and release toxins. Within these three stages are 5 or 6 types of asanas.

Stimulate Toxins:

1. Standing Poses

2. Hip Openers

3. Back Bends

(optional: inversion before twists)

Wring Toxins Out:

4. Twists

Release Toxins:

5. Forward Bends

During the hour and ten minute class that I have shared we go through the three stages of the detox series with the five asana categories. You can of course add an inversion before the twists, thus creating six categories within the three stages.

I hope that you enjoy this class. It is a very integrated yoga practice and can be mentally and physically challenging, as our egos do not always wish to cleanse everything. Do not push through physical pain during your yoga practice. Feel motivated though to push past any mental blocks the ego is putting up for you.

To detox, we make room for more light as we release the darkness from within. Knowing what our shadow is can bring up a lot of fear. Recognizing what our darkness is though does not mean we are our darkness. If you can see it and be aware of it then it is not you!

Breathe. Listen. Be You!

Here are the poses that we will practice in the detox yoga series I am sharing:

• Standing Poses:

Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)

Reverse Warrior (Viparita Virabhadrasana)

Side Angle (Utthita Parsvakonasana)

• Hip Openers:

Half Chair Pose (Ardha Utkatasana)

• Back Bends:

Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)

Locust Pose-with feet still on the mat (Salabhasana)

Bow Pose (Dhanurasana)

• Twists:

Easy Pose with twist (Sukhasana)

One Legged Staff Pose with twist (Dandasana)

• Forward Bends:

Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)

Cobbler Pose (Baddha Konasana)

https://excusemewhileiyogini.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/podcast-6-detox-series.m4a