My Pocket Yoga: Anytime Exercises That Refresh, Refocus, and Restore

Introduction

Looking for an easy, portable collection of your favorite yoga poses? Look no further. Whether you’re new to the study of yoga or have been practicing for years, My Pocket Yoga will help you enjoy the mindfulness and stress-relief of yoga throughout the day. The poses, mantra, breathing techniques, and sequences you’ll find in this guide will help you feel more balanced, centered, and refreshed in minutes.

You’ve no doubt heard about friends, colleagues, and celebrities who swear by yoga. What is all the fuss about? Yoga can help you look and feel great, open and strengthen your body, quiet and focus your mind, relieve tension, increase your self-knowledge and awareness, improve your quality of life, and change how you see the world. It has a profound and lasting effect on how you treat yourself and others. Time spent doing yoga is an opportunity to reconnect intimately with yourself on many levels and to give yourself your complete attention. When was the last time you did that?

By practicing yoga you can rejuvenate, care for, and nurture yourself at the deepest levels, resulting in greater reservoirs of compassion and tolerance for other people and a positive impact on your relationships. Most importantly, you will develop a better relationship with yourself. You will experience longer periods of calm and clarity. All those minor daily annoyances, emotional ups and downs, and responsibilities will be brought into a broader perspective, which allows them to come and go without becoming overly attached to you. You will begin to understand what is most life-affirming, beneficial, lasting, and important to you.

This book will help you become centered, calm, rejuvenated, and better able to face life’s challenges, big and small. Let’s get started.

Part 1

Breathing and Visualization

Before you attempt poses, it’s important to have a full understanding of your breathing patterns because yoga links the breath to the body. The breath is the bridge between mind and matter, between body and spirit. During inhalation, you are receiving life. Upon exhaling, you return what you don’t need and rid the body-mind of impurities.

Yogic Breathing

When you begin practicing yoga, your respiration may be shallow, with small, fairly rapid breaths. The average person breathes sixteen to eighteen breaths per minute. As you continue your yoga practice, your rate of breath will become slower, and each inhalation and exhalation will become longer and fuller. Deeper breaths allow the energy to reach every cell.

The yoga postures open the body to receive the breath, resulting in increased elasticity of the lungs and intercostal muscles (located between the ribs). Forward bends stretch the back of the body and fill the back of the lungs; backbends open the front of the body and the front of the lungs; and lateral bends lengthen the sides of the body and the space between the lungs (the intercostal muscles). Inversions bring greater oxygen and blood flow to the brain.

In yoga, the body is considered to be a container for the life force. The nervous system is the electrical circuitry, which conducts the energy of the body. The spinal column, called sushumna, is the central pathway. Two other main pathways are the pingala, to the right of the sushumna, and the ida, on the left side. Balance between the ida and pingala increases the energy flow to the sushumna. The ida channel cools the body and corresponds to the parasympathetic nervous system, while the pingala heats up the body and is the sympathetic nervous system. These main channels correspond to the central nervous system and are called nadis. There are thousands of smaller nadis comprising the peripheral nervous system. When the energy in the body increases significantly, it is said that the kundalini (serpent power) energy rises up the spine (the sushumna), opening the various energy centers in the body and causing spiritual evolution within the individual.

Yogic breathing is almost always done through the nostrils. The nose is a complex and extremely efficient filtering system of foreign particles. As the breath enters the nostrils, it is moistened and warmed to body temperature. Breathing through the nose allows for deeper, fuller, and more controllable breathing.

Mouth breathing is for those times of athletic competition, such as sprint running, when the body is in oxygen deprivation because of the excessive demands being placed upon it. Then mouth breathing becomes the last resort. For these reasons, it is considered a waste of energy to breathe through the mouth.

Breathing Exercises

Breathing is an important part of yoga. Observe your breath during the day. Check in with your breath every hour at a specified time. Slow down and tune into the quality and length of the inhalation, the exhalation, and the pauses in between. Notice if the breath is smooth or ragged, shallow or deep. Take several breaths through your nostrils and then through your mouth, observing the differences. Was the length of the inhalation and exhalation the same? Does your mouth feel dry as a result of breathing through the mouth? Which style feels more comfortable? Try the following breathing exercises as a part of your yoga practice.

Complete Breath

Lie down with bent knees, and begin breathing through your nostrils and observing your breath. Become aware of the natural length of your inhalation and exhalation, and the pauses in between. Remain relaxed without changing or forcing the breath. Let the breath flow smoothly and evenly. Relax your facial muscles and jaw.

Now place your hands on your lower abdomen, allowing them to rest there lightly. As you breathe in, feel your hands fill with your breath as your belly gently expands. On exhalation, notice how your belly contracts, moving away from your hands and receding into your body. Spend ten to twelve breaths observing the movement of the breath in your belly.

Next, lightly place your palms on your lower front floating ribs. Let your wrists relax down to your body. Again, let the breath come into your hands upon inhalation and feel your ribs contracting on exhalation. Do this for another ten to twelve breaths.

Lastly, place your hands on the collarbone and observe the breath filling the area under your hands on the inhalation. Notice how your top chest recedes with the exhalation. Practice this for ten to twelve breaths. Then allow your arms to come back to your sides, palms facing up.

Continue to watch your breath, feeling the three-part breathing pattern. You may find that the breath comes in more easily to one area than it does to another. With practice, you will be able to breathe more fully and deeply, filling your entire body with the breath.

Raising the Arms with the Breath

Stand with your feet directly under your hips. Plant your feet firmly on the floor and stand tall to lengthen your legs and spine. Have your arms at your sides, palms facing forward. Begin normal, relaxed breathing through the nostrils.

As you inhale, raise your arms slowly, feeling your belly fill up, then feeling your ribs expand and the top of your chest broaden with the breath. Let your expanding belly, chest, and ribs help you reach your arms up. At the top of the inhalation, the arms will be over your head, palms out.

When exhalation naturally starts, lower your palms as you watch the breath leave the top chest, and squeeze out of the lungs and the belly. Allow the lowering of your palms to help push the breath out of your body. Practice coordinating the lifting and lowering of the arms with the flow of the breath.

Do at least five breaths this way. Be aware of how you feel after this experience. Do you feel more grounded and internally connected? Are you calmer and more focused?

This breathing exercise is a wonderful way to learn about your breath and is also excellent for opening and warming up the body. Don’t worry if your inhalation is finished before the breath reaches the top chest. With practice, your exhalation will become longer and this will positively affect the length of the inhalation.

Special Types of Yogic Breathing

The following are specific breathing exercises that will sharpen your breathing proficiency.

Pranayama

Pranayama is a powerful, ancient practice of directing energy in the body. Do this exercise on the go when you’re feeling a big draggy during the day.

Sit or lie down in a comfortable position, with your spine supported.

Close your eyes or fix your gaze softly on a still object.

Inhale, expanding the belly area in three dimensions. Envision the breath going deep into the belly. As you do this, imagine the lower part of your entire torso expanding in three dimensions—the side and back body as well as the front.

Keep inhaling, and imagine the torso expanding at the level of the rib cage.

Continue to inhale, expanding the chest in front and behind to the shoulder blades.

Finally, as you exhale, allow the chest, rib cage, then belly to soften.

Ki (Chi, Prana)

Ki is the life force or living energy that connects to all that there is and sustains our life breath. (The Chinese refer to it as chi, while the Hindus call it prana.) The following exercise helps to open up your ki passages.

Sit upright with your spine straight.

Open your mouth, relax your jaw,