As much as I love slipping away for a full hour of yoga by myself, sometimes I have to squeeze a little yoga practice in at home with the kids. These are the poses that any beginner can try, that kids can follow along with if they want, and for the most part, leaves your eyes and ears available to keep an eye on your little darlings wherever you are practicing. You can mix the sequence up, and start and stop again if you have to attend to a mom duty. I broke the sequence into small sections so if you have a few minutes to try it, you can do just that. Part 2 will be a few more poses that you can try later in the week!You can expect this whole sequence below to take about 20 minutes with some minor child distractions.
Spend as much time as you like in a particular pose, but shoot for three breaths and see how it feels. You know that great feeling you get when you wake up from a good night’s sleep and stretch in bed? That’s the terrific stretching feeling you are going for. Yoga should feel awesome.
For those who are unfamiliar with yoga, fear not. You don’t have to be flexible, strong, fit, or wearing yoga pants to get started. The idea is that as you are stretching and placing your body into these somewhat foreign positions, you try to focus on breathing (so you don’t forget to breathe!) and thus forget those three loads of laundry to fold. For me, yoga slows down the pace of motherhood and working womanhood significantly. There are oodles of research that all say the same thing: Yoga is good for you.
Here’s the sequence:
Arms Up: Inhale your arms overhead and if it feels good, touch your fingertips together. Lean over to the right, even just a little way, and imagine filling the left lung up with air, stretching the muscles along your side. Try it again on the other side.
Cat & Cow: On all fours, push the mat away from you and push your spine up to the sky, much like a cat does. You can spend a whole breath or more in cat pose. Then, for cow pose, tip your pelvis forward and let your tummy sag like a hammock. Take your eyes to the sky and look up a bit with your chin. You can move in a fluid fashion from cat to cow and back again as many times as you like.
Child’s Pose: From all fours, sink down with either your knees together or wide apart. Extend your arms out, reaching actively with your fingers. After a few breaths here, walk your fingers over to the right, and then the left, and then back to center. This is the only pose that leaves you with your eyes to the ground rather than on the kids that may or may not be nearby, so don’t forget to peek up.
Three-legged Dog: From downward dog, take your right leg up to the sky. Bend the right knee and let your right heel come closer to your left hip. You should feel a great stretch all along your right side. Slowly bring your foot back down to the ground. Extend the left leg to the sky repeat. End in downward dog.
*Here is a good time for a rest, some water, or child’s pose to give your arms a break.
Downward Dog and transition to standing: From Cobra, you can either come to all fours and then into downward dog or push straight into the downward dog from a cobra. Spend as much time here as you’d like. Walk your feet toward your hands, bend the knees, extend arms out like an airplane, and slowly come to standing, bringing your ankles and big toes together.
*Here is a great place to stop if you need to, or you can just continue on to the next pose in my next post!
Share in the comments below if you think you can squeeze a little yoga into your busy day, Wildflowers! If so, which poses did you enjoy the most?
A big thank you to Circle Bar Photography for taking these photographs of me and my darling.
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