Feel Better This Winter with Autumn Yoga

Autumn Posture Focus:

• squats
• forward folds, balanced by…
• strong backbends (relative to your ability).
• Strong Inversions come back into our practice — headstand, handstand, and shoulder stand (please learn with a trusted teacher; significant contraindications exist).
• Practicing more vigorously than over the summer is also encouraged as the days shorten and temperatures drop.
• Sun Salutations (beginner version here and escalations here)

Breath and focus can be treated as Stress Management practices in the 4 Pillars, though they will change your appetite and your sleeping with practice and are fully incorporated in the full practice of any posture.

• Warming breaths such as Kapalabhati and Bhastrika re-enter our practice for core connection, warming, and energy
• Balance these after Savasana with Alternate Nostril Breath — increases autonomic tone (or the ability to easily switch from reactive to resting — resilience)
• Lions Breath — releases tension in the jaw and neck.

For focus and concentration practice (meditation), Tratak is recommended. Rest your gaze (do NOT stare) on a chosen point or object. This could be a flame, symbol or even a spot on your floor or mat. The key word is rest. Follow your gaze back into your own consciousness, turning your attention inward. Let the world come to you instead of grasping to make sense or stories. As stories arise (they will, this is what brains do), let them go, return resting your eye gaze and bringing your attention inward.

Regular practice of breath and focus will train you to rely on your breath and internal focus when you are in periods of stress, connecting to your internal resources of creativity and connection.

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Whether you’re already a yogi or looking for an adaptable, portable, body-weight movement practice, you can use the shifts of Autumn to inspire and fuel your health routines. While there is no one-size-fits-all health routine, all routines benefit from renewal, and there’s no better time than a seasonal change to check in with yourself and the habits of the 4 pillars of health: movement, nutrition, sleep, and stress management.

Nature models for us the renewal of harvest, drawing energy into roots and trunks and…