Yoga is an introspective practice, one in which we learn to root into and discover an inner strength that already exists. From there, we are able to heal and face our health challenges from a much more potent place.
It is not outer information, but our inner vision, that guides us into what our next steps are. Sometimes the road of healing can be confusing, and it is often hard to know what to do in each moment. We can feel lost. But actually, how we begin to see is not by looking out into the future, but by finding inner stillness and calmness to connect with that inner vision which grounds us. That’s what this audio piece is about.
Use the player below to listen to this sequence so you can practice along.
This pose is a wonderful one to practice during the follicular phase of your cycle. During this time yin and blood are gathering and refilling. Ultimately, a peak will be reached and the ovulatory process is triggered.
Begin by laying flat on your belly. Bend your knees. Reach your arms back and grasp the outside of your ankles or feet. If this is tight or uncomfortable in any way, you can go into a modified pose: Provide support by moving your elbow and forearm under your chest, and then grasp a single leg at a time. I started to practice this way, holding just one leg, releasing, and then the other. Over time my body opened and I was able to take the full pose.
From here, inhale and lift your chest, exhale press your feet back against your hands, and on your next inhale lift your thighs. Big toes and knees hug the midline. Relax your glutes here; they often like to take over the whole pose. This is important as it lets qi and blood flush into your kidneys, creating a great internal massage of your own kidney system. Feel your womb press into the floor and allow your energy to concentrate there. Hold this for two more breaths. And slowly release, cheek to the floor. Come all the way down and take rest. Release.
Now do one more round. Grasp your ankles or feet. Remember, it’s okay to take one at a time. Inhale and lift your chest, exhale kick your feet back against your hands, inhale lift your thighs. Now let’s arch a little more deeply. The backbends get better the more you do them. This time let’s gently rock forward and back onto your womb and ovaries, bringing good circulation there. Bring your attention there, activating your pelvic energy. Our energy is moving toward the midline, so our knees and feet are moving together. Continue to rock and gently vitalize the womb, where the endometrium is thickening and follicles are maturing. Soften the glutes, concentrate on the womb, and bring your knees down. Lower your feet and release, resting your opposite cheek to the mat.
Feel the surrender, the nourishment of yin energy as you are held by the earth. Tune into the quiet power. Soak it in.
The backbends we just did can be very vitalizing so take this restful pose to deepen your breath and turn inward. It’s easy to see how back bending activates yang qi. It’s both heating and stimulating, which is so necessary when we’re gathering yin in the follicular phase. We do need to circulate the yin qi and that’s exactly what we are doing in this pose of Danurasana.
Sankalpa is similar to the idea of intention, but we hold it gently and in a sweeter way. The concept itself is paradoxical — there is a determination to achieve, yet with an ease about doing so. Fierce and Fluid.
As you sit down to begin your yoga, consider your Sankalpa and return to it throughout your practice.
You might choose something like one of the following:
“I will open my body and mind to bring life through me.”
“To stay in the present moment and with my breath.”
“To soften my body mind and release into the universal flow.”
Yoga is a beautiful technology. It is also an ancient technology. The wisdom of its teachings date back thousands of years, and they inform our practice to this day.
Yoga is more than just physical exercise. It’s a system that harmonizes the body, mind, and spirit. Understanding the reasons for performing certain postures can deepen your experience and accelerate your progress.
Yoga is a state of being. It’s something that you experience as your mind becomes still. Yoga isn’t so much something you do, but rather something that actually happens to you. It’s a state of being that becomes you when you’ve moved beyond the fluctuations of aversion and desire. The physical practice of yoga allows us to brush up against this state of being. And the bliss that accompanies that brushing keeps bringing us back to our mat. Finally feeling that “aahhhh” with our selves is like coming home in a very real way. How often do we get to feel that? The answer depends partly on how often we practice. There’s a moment on our mat where we settle into ourselves with a deep level of comfort. Contentment. Inner peace. Aahhh.
Human beings manage the deep disappointment of unfulfilled desires in numerous ways. One of them is to armor the body and mind. Not surprisingly, this has several negative side-effects, including making us less fertile.
Nourishing Life Yoga for Fertility is infused with the wisdom of Chinese medicine. It is structured around the western model of the menstrual cycle. Yoga means union, and this practice unites all three modalities in a beautiful way. Enjoy your yoga, and know that as you do it every day, you are gaining the full support of thousands of years of conscious knowledge and awakening it within your own being.
Email us and pre-order the New Nourishing Life Fertility Yoga 5 DVD Box Set Today.
We are responding to life perfectly, exquisitely perfectly. We are simply a reflection of all of the cues that we interact with in our environment, both in the outer world around us filled with potential stressors, and in the inner realm of thoughts and feelings. There is one continuous thread between the inner workings of the mind and emotions, and physical symptoms. The body shape, sensitivities and function are a mirror of the emotional, mental, and spiritual realms. They are mapped out on the body in the tissues and meridians.
On some level, perhaps we ‘like’ our imbalances. We perpetuate them each day by all of the choices we make. My friend tells the story that if a group of people were sitting together and able to take all of their problems and place them in the center of the room, and choose any other problem to have, most of the time they would pick back up their own. We have gotten used to our own issues and figured out ways to live with them. Another friend says, “It’s simple! Just change what you like and you will become healthier.”
Samael Kruetz
A definition of pain is to want things to be different than they are. In dealing with pain, one way to deal with the obstruction – the resistance inherent in not getting what we want – is the way of qi. Resistance, by definition, is compartmentalizing and segmenting. Qi is the strong transformational action to change one thing into another. Qi mode is the active, yang approach to pain resolution that asks “how can I change what’s going on for me, and how can I change it now?”
Adria Richards
The blood way is the passive, receptive energetic that assumes the absence of tension. Blood mode is to fill us up and to expand us enough to accept pain, and increase our ability to feel. The capacity to feel pain is directly related to our capacity to be benevolent. Healing and fertility occur when we allow life to be as it is; we become reassembled into a system of unity– a much stronger foundation from which to heal. This too leads to pain resolution.
Concentration is the place where we allow our blood to refill. It lets us slow down and spend time being with what is, rather than numbing out or getting lost in distraction. Inward focused yoga and contemplative practices help us to get in touch with a strong center and an inner reserve of emotional and mental strength. I try to encourage patients and students to stop paying so much attention to where they have pain or an injury and to increase freedom around it in other areas. This will ultimately lead to an opening in the tight or painful area.
Today I visited Dr. Robin Saraswati on the the set of the upcoming Nourishing Life Fertility Yoga dvd. On the surface it felt like you would expect any professional shoot to feel – wardrobe adjustments, precision adjustments to lighting, and constant discussion between the director and cameramen.
What struck me was that the whole experience resonated with the same grounded, beautiful, and inspiring energy that Saraswati brings to her Nourishing Life practice. Amidst the organized chaos everyone was welcoming, joyful, and either consciously or subconsciously setting an intention for creating a space that would allow a beautiful creation to unfold.
With what can undoubtedly be the most stressful part of the journey happening in such a lovely way, I can only imagine the strength and beauty of the finished product. I cannot wait for the DVD to come out.
Patterns of Infertility, Treatment Tips and Clinical Pearls
Learn the key features, pathological changes and pattern discrimination associated with female infertility. The lecture centers around the main factors of infertility (Ovulatory, Uterine, Fallopian Tube, Cervical, and Vaginal Factors) treatment tips and clinical pearls with Chinese medicinals, acupuncture points and other adjunctive methods and practices.
Moderated by Lorne Brown Dr.TCM, FABORM of Acubalance Wellness Centre
This talk is geared for health practitioners, but open to patients, students, and anyone else interested. Click here for the event page.
Dr. Robin Saraswati Markus (Tiberi) L.Ac.,DAOM founder of Nourishing Life, is a leading infertility expert, and lectures at medical colleges and at specialty conferences around the world. She brings her personal infertility journey, her decade-long teaching practice of yoga, and 17 years in clinical Chinese medicine gynecology to facilitate healing, educate and encourage women in all stages of fertility. She offers practitioner infertility trainings and fertility yoga workshops in the USA and abroad.
